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Monthly Newsletter from

Wealden Railway Group

http://wealden.weebly.com/ www.wrgrail.gp@btinternet.com

Diary:25/26 June 2011Gorleston Methodist ChurchKnight’s Yard (Bill Knight)

26 June 2011Castle Hedingham (Colne Valley Railway)Nürnberg Winkelhof (Tony Adams)

July 9 2011HoddesdonWest London Parcels (John Baggaley)

July 16 2011Alton LtdDecal Transfer(Andrew Knights)

13 August 2011Brandon Buckland Middle SchoolKnight’s Yard (Bill Knight)

August 21Chailey@ChaileyChailey Village Hall

October 1 2011AyleshamIceni Cement (Andrew Knights)

October 8 2011Farnham and AldershotKöln usw (Andrew Knights)

October 22 2011Hemel HempsteadSonne See und Schmalspur (Andrew Knights)

November 13 2011PooleIceni Cement (Andrew Knights)

If you have any bookings, do let Ed know ...Also if you notice any “discrepancies” of dates etc?

WRG Web site Password of the month:- “deacon”

Wealden RailwayGroup

A member of

Wealden Railway

Group

Towards the end of last month, David and I had an interesting evening out. We did a preparatoryexploration of Hayling Island. This, for a test visit, re Hayling Billy tour and to see what was left of theline for the model too.The latter took us to an unusual theatre. This uses the main part of the old goods shed. Additions to eachend house the entrance and, presumably, dressing rooms. The body of the goods shed is instantlyrecognisable from published pictures. The rest of the station site is very unlike said pictures, being eitherbuilt on or covered with trees. There is a Hayling Billy walk, which would take someone right upto the siteof the old bridge. the bridge piers and swing span pivot are visible. From the Landward end of the bridgea trail enables people to go right through to Havant station car park. This is on the site of the Hayling bayand old goods yard. The buildings to the rear of this are, for the most part, those seen in pictures.

Cover PicturesVintage Tal y llyn, Thanks to Both The TRSoc and GregDodsworth for this appetizer!(See Inside!)Seen in Essex, yes. It is meant to look like that!Below, a few changes at Lawnton Junc on the MaP. TheBorchester Branch nears reality!

Pictures by Tal y llynRailway Soc and Andrew Knights

From railways past, we tracked across the bottom of the island, heading Eastwards. The Hayling Seasiderailway looks suitably OO9-ish. From its headquarters, tucked away behind the island's theme park. Thisseems to have a proliferation of scenic railways or roller coasters. The rails waiver and totter across a greenrunning for about two miles to the station, opposite a bank of shops. For those wishing to take part, wehave a couple of options. A start at Havant station, trains to Waterloo or Victoria, or a start at eitherWorthing or Steyning, if car-bound. I have not fixed a date yet, as we can accommodate between 3 and sixdepending on cars and passengers. If you would lie to have a look at the Islands railways and then a strollaround the ancient City of Chichester, either drop me an e-mail or 'phone call giving possible dates. I willcontact willing participants shortly. I think that the early part of next month looks favourite...Summer is acomin’ in, apparently. This brings either …”just rains and never stops”or,I” July the sun ishot. Is it shining? No. It’s not!” Hopefully this years apparent following of Messrs Flanders and Swan willnot be too literal. But apart from the seasonal weather, Summer brings Chailey. For those of you thatwould like to come and chat, eat ice cream, and look at some interesting projects and ideas, SUNDAYAugust 21will be the date. Chailey Village Hall, will be the venue. Mr Ford has filled the hall,exhibit-wise, but there will be room for chatterers and lookers and possibly operators too. A variety of tableexhibits will be on show, a wide variety knowing of previous events. Nigel Hill has suggested a “Bring AlongYour Pug” event. As most of us have somewhere, a Dapol/Airfix/Kitmaster kit of this beast around. Icertainly have. Makes a change from teddy bear days at some railway events! 13:00 - onward, for theafternoon. Contributions to the catering, more than greatly appreciated. See you there. I hope!A experiment also took place in the latter stages of last month. Answering a request for “ a body”, Mr Fordkindly gave up an evening in the interests of miniature railroading. I stripped the old No1 loco, of the KLRto its chassis. I wanted to see if a two part loco was feasible, and, thanks to Mr Ford, I think that it is.More to the point, we had a chat about said beast and have come up with some ideas as to how long it needsto be and what should go where. All difficult to see when you stand next to the chassis bits and try top seeyourself sitting there. My Father used to tell a tale of a man from his village who having just bought a newbike was asked what he thought. Barzi's reply was along the lines of: ”I stood her again that ol' hedge andlook at my self. I thinks I look real good on 'er!” This might sound better with a Suffolk accent?Anyway, the chassis is now in the workshop, awaiting a rewire and then some welding.The line down the garden has been re-laid and has a better grade. When I have a working loco, one withdecent brakes and control gear, I will have a few test runs. There is also the small point of a set of buffersand about five feet of missing track at the bottom of the garden. A job for a quiet, dry and windless summerafternoon.Upstairs? On the MaP there have been a few advances. Also a couple of ideas regarding the final operationof the Borchester branch. It would be a pity to mention these in brief here, but the idea is to try and limitthe overall effect of the new branch on the running of the layout as a whole. A few changes at the Junction(Lawnton) will be made to accommodate this, a case of wait and read on. Otherwise loft space has beentaken up with modifying stock on Beutelmieze and the sub board sides of A Norfolk Yard. The coupleralterations, I wrote about last month. These have now taken place, all Beutelmieze stock has beenmodified. Both of these layout modifications will be subject of a more detailed write up here, or soon.I had an interesting afternoon/evening out a week or so ago. Trains and hares in deepest Essex… Read on.Note from the editor… More articles PLEASE, e-mail, snail mail or just shoved on a piece of paper andslipped under the layout at a show, we are running down in stock. Chessie may well have another outing!

by Giles Barnabe

Perhaps not such a silly question, as a recent conversation in which I mentioned Fn3 scale caused somehead-scratching from our Editor. To those who model in the larger scales there are several optionscontained in the general appellation G scale. Usually the scale is given as a ratio, though British modellersmay feel more at home with mm per foot designations.

Originally G scale was established by Lehmann Bros with their LGB range (literally Lehmann’s BigTrains) – with a scale sufficiently big to use on the floor or in the garden, where you could have elephantswalking on the track without damaging it, according to the publicity. As the prototypes being modelledwere German metre gauge trains (mostly) and the rails were set 45mm apart, this gave a scale ratio of

1;22.5 or 13.8mm/ft. So far so good, butto complicate matters LGB also producemodels of Feldbahn equipment, which inreality runs on 600mm gauge but which wasbeefed up to run on the 45mm “metre gauge”model tracks. To make maters worse, LGBproduce models of American 3ft gauge proto-types, and immediately there was ascale/gauge discrepancy. Bachmann also en-tered the fray with its Big Hauler G scalenarrow gauge trains, also to 1:22.5 propor-tions, and thus also out of scale with thetrack. Eventually they introduced theirSpectrum range in G with the models scaledat 1:20.3 which gives a true 3ft gauge on45mm track. This became known as Fn3(possibly meaning Fine Scale Narrow 3ft).This can also be expressed as 15mm/ft

(though it rarely is). In bulk these models are about 10% larger than LGB.

Other American makers use 45mm gauge to run standard gauge models, which gives a scale ratio of 1:29.Accessories in this scale are thus too small to work with LGB models. In the UK standard gauge models on45mm gauge track are referred to as gauge 1 which is just about 1:30, though some models are producedat 1:32 or 9.5 mm/ft which is a more accurate scale to gauge ratio, and this ratio is used by Märklin andPiko for standard gauge European models in gauge 1.

Life gets even more complicated with the small scale G gauge spin-ff: Gn15. This uses 16.5mm (00)track to represent 15 inch gauge lines, which gives a true scale of 13,2mm/ft, so pretty close to the originalLGB 1:22.5. However some modellers use half inch scale or12mm per foot which is a little smaller, so asto make use of dolls’ house accessories.

In practice, many garden modellers do not unduly worry about the minor scale variations and happilyrun anything together, mixing prototype gauges and equipment from different countries with gay abandon.The phrase “Rule 8” is used, which is basically shorthand for “It’s my layout and I’ll run whatever Iplease”. For these modellers a rubber ruler is an essential tool. Other modellers keep like with like, andarguably produce a better overall picture.

Finally, on a personal note, I have to own up to being a rubber ruler user on the Catwater & SouthernRR whose trains may be to 1;22.5, but where the buildings are nearer half-inch scale to fit the limitedspace. Meanwhile the only suitable road vehicles I’ve found are well over-scale at 1:18.

Very recently, David and I took a couple of micro layouts up to Barton House in Wroxham. This wasthe Father’s Day running session of the Barton House Railway. The “summery” weather took its toll ofpunters, but, for those attending, it was a dry and none too windy afternoon. Trains of all sorts running7 1/4” gauge , 5” gauge plus under cover, various model railways. This is where we came in. We alsomet up with a member from not so far away. Bill Knight was there with his battery operated Knight’sYard layout. On the following page is an article by Bill himself. I was rather taken by the yard office.Pictures on the next page show the detail which he has built into the scene. The safe, desk and books.Books? All with their separate pages and filed away on office shelves ready to gather dust mahap?I like the method of construction for these. Basically they are sections of the spine from freeby papersand journals pushed through the letterbox. Just colour the spine a suitable book or ledger colour andonce dry, cut out with a sharp knife. There is a book ready , almost, for the shelves..Now over to Bill…

Pictures of Bill’s Yard Office, as seenat Wroxham 2011

In my youth I volunteered to spend a summer working on the Talyllyn Railway. It was the summer of 1954but not for me was the anticipated excitement of working on the locos or at least waving flags and blowingwhistles. My summer break from studies was to be spent as second assistant in the railway’s Tea Van. AfterA few weeks I knew the precise details of the inside of the vehicle and the meticulous placing of every cupsaucer and spoon having been taught by a redoubtable welsh lady called Miss Zena Thomas. What bettervehicle then on which to base my entry for this years WRG competition at Arundel.

The prototype vehicle was used at Abergynolwyn station and was brought up the line each day at the frontof the first train. It was parked in a specially constructed siding at the east end of the platform where itstayed until it’s return to Wharf station attached to the end of the last train. It was inadequate and crampedbut served its purpose from 1964 until 1968 when a permanent building was completed.

Although officially not allowed the staff frequently rode back in the van in order to clean and put everythingaway. I remember one day I got left behind. It had usually been my last job to “maintain” the toilet facilities(the bucket) and whilst out of sight doing so the train left without me. Those in the Tea Van said theythought I was in the Guards Van and vice versa.

The Van had been built on the underframe of one of the ex penrhyn opencarriages which ran as a coach on theTR until 1961. The Tea Van body wasthen built at Pendre works. It was asimple box like structure with two flapsat the front which when open gave somesmall protection from the weather tocustomers.

The Tea Van was used for about fouryears and it then became a generatorvan and in 1986 a wheel chair saloon.

The model is in 16mm/ft scale. Con-struction of the body is of ply and therunning gear and couplings were pur-chased. The serving hatches open being

hinged along the top edge. They are operated by armssoldered to a longitudinal rod supported by bushes inthe ends of the van. The rod protrudes slightly at oneend where there is an operating lever. This both opensthe hatches and holds them shut during running. Thiscan just be seen in the photograph. There is also on thesame end a switch for the interior lighting, one threevolt bulb run by two AA rechargeable batteries.

This has been forme a very brief di-version into theworld of 16mm/ftmodelling andapart from bring-

ing memories of the past flooding back has enabled me to at least takean item of rolling stock with me when visiting certain outdoor layouts.

I am indebted to Ian Roberts for making some of the interior fittingsand to TR archives for the use of the photo.

Re visited, should be the sub title to this little piece. Having had awet and windy day sailing around parts of Norfolk, I decided topotter up to Roy’s village store for the afternoon. Ready for a foodraid next morning. Under the swan filled road bridge and round thecorner. The next bridge, as one heads up river, is Wroxham Viaduct.Those of you keen on my meanderings, or that have seen doodlepages in the past will probably recognize some of this plan. It is amodel based on the viaduct of that name.If you compare the two, you may see that the other was longer andhad the feature of some interesting automation. Interesting toconstruct, but the result would be a layout of little interest tooperate. I think this plan would be better.The idea of this layout is to display trains of various ages pootlingover the scenic viaduct. Now this line has had a tanker traintrundling through the early hours for many years. The two longloops allow for a 66 and 100 ton tank cars to represent modern day,or 31/37 and HTP tanks on the smaller of the two roads to do a turnfor the 1980’s/90’s.The six sidings are for DMU’s and Sprinters of sorts various. Thereis a holding road and a through road. The purpose of the holdingroad is to allow for the interchange of the DMUs, it provides the oneextra space required for this. The through road is a means ofallowing a train to orbit for breaks , lunch, loo or just a rest!Whilst the operation afforded by this is not great, it is much greaterthan the previous incarnation. The operator could even have a setof cards and have to put the right unit into the right road. Of littleimport to those watching, but a discussion point and something tokeep the operator alert. At least this plan would allow for variouslevels of operator activity.Will it appear? Wait and see, it would make a change from knittingtrestles in N.

The Essex adventure is held over to next month.