Felixstowe Area “N” Gauge Group
AUGUST 2019 NEWSLETTER


MEMBER’S ROUNDUP

Mike W – Many thanks to those of you that sent me condolences following my mum’s passing. As a result, there was no newsletter last month, and as a consequence we are inundated with show reports/photos this month. I’m only going to put a selection of newly-pictured layouts in the newsletter, but all of them will be uploaded onto the club website in due course.

John C - World Wide Group convention 20th. July. Despite a number of club members having made alternative arrangements for the Saturday, with help from three people from outside our club, we managed well. We even held a members second hand stand and raffle. The exhibition was smaller than I had planned owing to the main church hall not being available to me. Nevertheless, we displayed seven layouts, (an additional one had to cancel at the last minute leaving no time to replace it,) two traders and the WWG publicity stand. A few new members were enrolled, lunches were adequate and people seemed to enjoy the day. Our three club member layouts ran well and attracted a lot of interest. I would like to thank all those from our club who gave their time, help and advice to make the convention a success.

Kelvin F - After not being able to sell " Anywhere " as a complete layout, I have removed the shuttle units, and controls leaving the diorama. Therefore, I am selling the diorama either for someone to extend the layout or to revamp it. If not, cannibalise it for its furnishings i.e.: 16 Oxford vehicles, 40 Farish figures, 3 Farish buildings, 3 Farish half relief buildings , 12 lights, welding unit, double track footbridge, 4 double aspect Berko signals , 4 Gaugemaster pm2 seep point motors, 4 electrofrog points. If someone would like to make me an offer, for whatever scenario.

WHERE TO SEE US NEXT;
Sunday 1st September, Bressingham Model Railway show, Bressingham Steam & Gardens, Low Road, Bressingham, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 2AA. Hadderton & Group Modules.
Saturday 28th September, BSE Exhibition, Thurston Sixth, Beyton Campus, Drinkstone Rd, Beyton, Bury St Edmunds , Suffolk IP30 9AQ. Sutherland & Hartenburg.

EXHIBITION NEWS
As many of you know the Methodist church where we have held our June exhibition for many years have decided that we can no longer use the main church as part of our show. The remaining rooms (as used by John for the WW group convention) are insufficient for us to put on a show to our recent size. This is a great shame as the church offered a good combination of space, facilities, cost, passing trade and nearby parking (the only slight downside was loading / unloading). We are therefore seeking a suitable alternative venue for next year. Chris has made some enquiries and we are looking for the best option.


EXHIBITION REPORTS & PHOTOS by Chris H
Long Shop Exhibition
With fine weather, the club set up our Module layout and Dave's Great Street layout, though the very uneven floor proved tricky for the modules and it took us far longer to set up than we planned for. Even after fiddling with the adjustable feet we still suffered from a lot of traction grip loss and decoupling with the rise and falls. But by about halfway through the show we had found trains that dealt with the issue and after that running went quite well. It was also the first outing for Trevor's newly scenic narrow module (used as our underpass to get in and out). The urban scene and cloudy sky made quite a change. One of the members got to run his brand new SE&CR stock; a Terrier and the brown Birdcage coaches, which travelled around with no problems. Great Street performed well too and drew as much interest as the modules gained. Some other N scale was there too: a new one I've not seen called Ambleton Vale, a delightful BR DCC layout set at the Races - and a cute little mini N narrow gauge (Nn3) layout called The Heronry.

Club Modules



Great Street Junction






Ambleton Vale










The Heronry




Ipswich Transport day
With the weather staying nice and hot we set up in the Cauldwell Hall Road Baptist Church, as we did last year. A great venue, with lots of space and a flat level floor. We took 3x1 module arrangement and had it set up perfectly level, and that paid off as we didn't have a single derailment or decoupling all day. We were even able to run a twelve car bullet train at full speed (with the power car pushing most of the train), so you can say we had a great day. There were also three other N gauge layouts there among the displays: Ed's Padnal Town, an Urban American I didn't get the name of and Scograil's layout. The show had a steady stream of people all day, and we had to keep trains running an extra half hour longer as so many people turned up at the end of the day.

Club Modules







Padnal Town




Urban American




Scograil Demonstration Layout




World Wide Group This was a great little show for those of us that like the foreign trains. Although the public were allowed in, the show was in fact for the members of the world wide group to come together and show off their layouts and projects. As someone who exhibits continental a lot of the time, it gets a bit annoying when some folks at a show completely ignore your display because it is not British. From my point of view it was great to have some nice long chats with people that are more open minded to the fact that there are other countries and trains stock out there.


Hartenberg







Hindenbach






Sutherland






SBB Hupac




Scheibourg






Urban American