It was a very pleasant evening and we had the doors open for a welcome breeze. The evening was devoted to trains, mainly home built but also commercial. The room had been rearranged so that there were six tables end to end, dividing the room in two. There were several tracks for demonstration and we sat facing them on both sides. On separate tables there was a group of made up Kitmaster locos on free offer and at the other end of the room a large collection of N gauge rolling stock and associated equipment for sale.
Our Chairman started the evening off with some club news and information then handed over to myself to introduce the evening. We had had several offers of train related talks and with a chat to all beforehand it seemed like a good idea to bring them all together.
The evening was put together by Brian with appropriate slides and talking to the other participants. Jim was anchor man and Master of Ceremonies.
By the way all camera display and photography is curtesy of our resident digital image expert, Rob.
We started off with Brian who had gone out of his comfort zone to build a DMU and a Jubilee Line Underground train. First, he showed us the simple and well thought out electric motive power bogies for the coaches. Then Brian showed us how he made the bogie set using an existing scale bogie side with springs and suspension.
He made a rubber mould of the side bogie panel within a strong frame and then sprayed with a release agent. He then mixed up a quantity of Isopon P38 type body filler and pressed it into the mould. After ten minutes the P38 had hardened and could be removed, after a little cleaning up it was sprayed and painted black. A bogie needs two sides and these are mounted on an aluminium frame then ptfe bearings were cut and inserted into the two moulds with one of these being the power axle.
They look just right on the carriages and the Re 360 motor is concealed within and easily powered the carriage which we later saw demonstrated. Brian went over the construction of a DMU set which had seating as well, also running very smoothly under radio control. Batteries are carried in the carriage for power. So independent of picking up power from the rails.
Next Brian had his Underground train based on the prototype Jubilee coach set. Again, loads of power, even wheel slip. Brian had re-rolled the laser cut aluminium carriage shell to suit the underground train profile. Also under construction was ‘The flying banana’ in shell form awaiting chassis and drive bogies and she will be painted in brown and cream as per the GWR livery.
Placed on the table behind Brian’s TfL train there was another coach set this time much older. It was a 1923 set last used on Bakerloo and Central lines. Peter picked up the microphone and told us the history of the prototype and then how he came to model it.
It was during Covid lockdown time and Peter, like many others, made use of this uninterrupted time to devote it to researching and then drawing up plans for the coaches. Not an easy task as research showed that there were only schematics and London Underground expected the experience of the builders would do the detail of planning and building and supplying. In the end various shapes could be worked out and the shapes could be used to create moulds and these using glass fibre and resin, castings for the coaches. The end result is excellent but awaiting motors to power the set on a rail line. Peter was a little unsure of the power required as they were rather heavy. Brian has promised a solution! Watch this space.
We then had a tea break and members had a closer look at the many exhibits. Back we came, ushered in by our MC, and this time we had Bob talk to us on the good old wind up "O" gauge Hornby railways of our youth, well some of us anyway. Bob had brought in a rather special recent acquisition of a LMS 2-4-2 loco of the superior type. Bob went onto explain the 4 standards of model / toy quality that Hornby were making. Making the point that even the lowest quality toys were the equal to or better than Continental imports at the time.
The next part was to unravel the mystery initials of the garden railway, Jim ‘threatened’ us with 60 slides but actually dashed through them pausing to show that covid even had an impact on the garden railway with a small diorama of masked characters. The garden had been carefully planned to accommodate the railway. Now unfortunately taken up as the area is needed for another project, but the photos have made good memories of it.
With tongue in cheek Jim then unveiled his ‘piece de resistance’ (sorry no accents on my keyboard). This was Jim’s answer to current technology using Bluetooth. Jim’s aspirations were high but his practical expectations from experience were low. Initially, failure looked to be an expected outcome with Jim taking this setback as a normal part of life’s rich tapestry. Then his experience took over and used the old engineer’s trick of switching it off and then on again and ‘Voila’ she moved!
We ended with Jim doing a summary of the evening’s subjects, (no homework was set this time). Our chairman thanked them all for a good evening and all the presenters received a good round of applause.
The presenting team were Jim supported by his brother Chris and Brian Looker who was the instigator and started the evening off. We also had an unexpected chat from Peter Gooch with Bob Brookes telling us about his Hornby wind up train collection.
I think we had a good club night with a bit of a difference, the clearing up and collection of tables and chairs was done by the usual team. Jack and Neil were thanked for giving us tea and biscuits.
We closed up and left at the normal time.
Roy Verden
15th Aug 2024