Felixstowe Area “N” Gauge Group
AUGUST 2023 NEWSLETTER


NEWS FROM MEMBERS
Chris - Exhibition 15th July 2023
Layouts in attendance: Woodbridge, Dave’s Junior, Dave Landin, Stowley Loop, Sutherland, 009 Layout, Aurora Yard, Assington Branch and the Colliery.
Other Stalls: Mid-Suffolk Light Railway, Club Second hand, Orwell Model Railways, Refreshments and Donation Jar by door.
We estimated about 220 people came through the door, no charge as it was a donation event.
With members paying subs for this year, we are in a good position with moneys for this year, having had several donations of model railway pieces which helped with second hand stall.
I wish to thank all helpers and operators for a successful day.


Trevor - Exhibition Report
First, I'd like to thank all of you for your help, either bringing your own layouts or helping with the setup, running and breakdown of club layouts. In particular, Chris and Victoria for organising our second-hand stall. I was particularly pleased we had Woodbridge up and running for the first time. I understand the layout ran very well. Ted’s daughter was at the show and much appreciated seeing it.
Overall, I thought the day went very well. There were a couple of niggles with layout space, but to be expected in a new venue. We had a good selection of layouts on display, which appear to have been well received and I've had some positive feedback. We looked to have a good turnout of visitors, although difficult to judge numbers with just the one hall. The venue works well with more space than the Welcome Hall, cheaper (at least this year) and parking for visitors.
Based on this I think we can build on this and look to have an exhibition next year at this venue with charged entry.
If you have any feedback on things we can improve on or offers of exhibits for next year let me know. It would be good to use this to showcase new layouts.


EXHIBITION DIARY by Trevor
The Ipswich club (IRMA) have their next Open Day Sat 16th September 10-4, 40a Norfolk Road, Ipswich, IP4 2HB
Colin DeAth has an exhibition Sat 30th September, Memorial Hall, Trimley St Martin, IP11 0RJ (I'm taking my Army modules to this event).
Felixstowe Lions club exhibition Sun 16th October, Leisure Centre (our group will be supporting this - layout(s) TBC).


MY TEST/RUNNING IN TRACK by Mike
You may all recall that I used an old redundant board, with an oval of Kato track as a running-in loop, and commented that at some point I would scenic it a bit. Well, that point has come.
I wanted to try out some techniques that I’m thinking of using on the new layout, ways to create contours and also to give the effect of a deep forest. First job was a backscene board, made from an offcut of plywood. I slapped a coat of sky-blue emulsion on it, and when dry painted some hills in with light green acrylic, with much darker green towards the bottom to give an effect of dark murky woods. I then used sheets of expended polystyrene to build contours, chamfering the edges with a scalpel. Next job was to cover it all with grass paper, liberally dowsed with PVA in a patchwork pattern. Then it was time to use scatter and bushes to create realistic greenery, plus a load of trees that I had knocking around, with dark green evergreens at the back to again give an impression of depth.




The results are in, and I’m pretty pleased with it! It makes a much nicer background for photographing new toys and looks quite effective, I think.
Overall, I spent about eight hours on it over three days, so built in a day really.


SCENIC DEMONSTRATION by another Chris
After discussions with James at Smiths Model Railways in Sheringham, I'll be 'appearing' at his shop on Saturday 19th August presenting a demonstration of simple scenic techniques.
This will involve the basics of ballasting track, making hills, getting grass down etc 
Now let's get one thing straight here - I'm no expert or 'rockstar' when it comes to scenic bits and pieces, there are many people way better to talk about this than me, but there do seem to be a lot of people who are hesitant to take the first step in getting 'grass to board' as it seems they aren't capable and have a fear of completely messing the task up!
Well, we all know that's just not possible, you just have to get on with it and see what you can produce, you learn from the mistakes as you go along.
So, if this gives folk a little confidence in advancing their baseboards from bare wood to something a bit more landscaped, then it has to be a step forward.
I aim to get them involved, have a go, see how easy it is to get rid of that bare board, we'll see how it goes and if any of you are in the area that day, please do pop in and tell me where I'm going wrong!!


MODULES by Trevor
The exhibition was the first outing for the lifting flap I'd built. At home I'd tested it between two standard modules and it worked well. In the rectangular configuration it did expose a couple of issues. First the modules / layout was not square. Normally tight clamping would overcome this, but with the opening joint was a bit of an issue. Secondly the corners tend to rely on the boards either side for additional support, this again meant there were some movement problems with these pulling on the flap. From this we need to have a look at the corners and either rebuild or add addition leg support that can be rigidly fitted. It may help if the layout is built up around the lifting flap rather than fitting this at the end.

The invite to Colins' event is specifically for my Army modules. The plan is to use these with turn around boards (simple setup). The issue with this is that there is no facility to bring in / take out trains from the inner line and very limited trains on the two main lines. Therefore, I'm working on building a new return loop board, which incorporates a loop fiddle yard for the main lines and a link between the front and inner line (plus controller connection point). The board will be 4' x 3' to give sufficient space for loops. Points will be motorised and a shuttle fitted to the inner track for auto running (may be manual for September). In conjunction with this I'm making a modification to the existing return loop to provide a connection between the inner and outer loops. Track modifications to the return loop have been completed. These will have point motors and some automated switching of inner roads, but again may be manual for September.


Both of these will give us options for simpler module displays either at our events or to take to other exhibitions. Along with our other selection of club layouts; Sutherland, Woodbridge, Clifton Creek and Stowley Loop (plus members layouts), we have a pool of very good layouts to offer.


NEW RELEASES by Chris
We've just seen the new autumn releases from Graham Farish and what a surprise it was! They do seem to have upped the rate at which the goodies are coming out now, which is great news.
The exciting releases for me personally are the Thompson coaches in LNER, blood and custard, but also maroon liveries.


On top of that, Black Fives!! I was told by one of the Farish guys at the N Gauge show at Leamington last year to look out for a mainline stem loco at the end of this year and and he wasn't lying! I'm very pleased with that - 6 different variations too, what a scoop!


On top of that, a new J94 from EFE, 6 different variations there too!! Sadly, not the LNER variant, but I'm sure that will come in the next batch so fingers crossed.
Obviously, prices have increased a little but that's a sign of the times we live in, I'll just have to work a bit harder to pay for it all!!


THE FELIXSTOWE NGS EXHIBITION by yet another Chris
Despite the odd and changeable weather we had our annual exhibition in mid-July, in a new a pretty great location in the village of Trimley St Martin.
There was good parking and easy access for all, which is better - some shows I’ve been to that were in some old barns or churches.
We were able to setup the night before, which was a great help as some of the layouts require hours to make ready for showing.
The show started off slowly as some people had not noticed the change of location and went to the Welcome Hall in Trimley St Mary, but by midday the crowds were in and all the windows had to be opened to keep fresh air flowing. The Sun remained out which helped with drawing people in, and the layouts ran very well from what I saw, with only a few hiccups from older or unreliable rolling stock.
Overall, it was a great and successful day, and I for one would be happy to have our exhibition held in the new location again.
Trevor had done well getting new and unseen layouts in the show, and they were a pleasure to see alongside familiar layouts in the show.
I took a ton of pics of the layouts at the show and here is a small selection, enjoy ??





























FELIXSTOWE N GAUGE SHOW by Chris


I was fortunate to be part of this wonderful show by taking 'The Coalyard' layout along.
Arriving bright and early on the Saturday, I was greeted by Trevor and George, who were the first folk there. Trevor showed me to my allocated space and George very kindly gave me a lift in with the layout (and a lift out again at the end of the day - thanks George, much appreciated). Set up was fairly swift, giving me plenty of time to study and admire all the other splendid layouts there.
There was a steady flow of people looking at the layouts and what I did find with mine was that once people realised that the locos and wagons uncoupled without using the big pink crane, they tended to stay and watch a lot longer than people normally do with a shunting layout.
The layout itself performed well, and having not really having a chance for a long 'play' before the exhibition, I realised that more shunting moves were possible than first imagined - in fact, finishing time came round all too soon!


The new Sonic J50's which I bought with the layout in mind performed well, as did the other locos, A Farish 2-8-0 WD, a J39 and an 8F.
The layout is far from finished, but at least all the ground has cover and there were no bare patches - it's also way too clean for a coal area, but that is now being worked on so that the next time the layout is seen out in public which will be the Sheringham model railway show on Saturday 2nd September, the layout should be a lot more grubby.
It's last planned outing this year will be at this group’s open day on Saturday 28th October.
All in all, what a brilliant show this one was, well organised and well run - hats off to all those involved!!
Just finally, some of the layouts, and my layout, were caught on film by the film maker 'SP Rail' and this can be seen on YouTube under the heading of "Felixstowe 'N' Gauge show 2023".


LAYOUT NEWS by Mike
I initially used my old tried and trusted method for board crossing joins – brass screws right at the edges, with the rails soldered to them. This has always served me well. I used a Dremel to cut the rails, but due to the fat body of the tool, I couldn’t get the cutting disc at ninety degrees to the rail and this resulted in diagonal cuts. Unfortunately, this meant that it was getting damaged too often when a moved the boards around, as the sharp rails kept getting caught in my carpet. Chris eventually persuaded me to try his method, which is using strips of PCB with the rails soldered to it. I tried it first where I have just two rails crossing. It went okay, but was quite tricky, I had a lot of trouble getting the solder to take.
Eventually the day came to have a go at the eight track first fiddle yard crossing! I cut the rail away, stripping it back a little way as I had also glued the end sections. Then I removed the screws, cut the cork back, and then rubbed it all down and filled all the screw holes.


Then it was glue down new cork, and cut the eight pieces of track to the right size to be inserted. Then I had to drill the pieces of PCB strip with tiny holes in the right places for the track nails, then coat the undersides with UHU glue, before sliding them into place and then carefully nailing them with track pins.


I had to buy more solder as I was getting low, and whilst in the store I decided to buy some new flux as well – I have been using my late father’s 75 year old tin, which was black and full of muck, and no doubt countless toxic elements, cyanide for one I believe!


It proved to be a master stroke, applied with a cotton bud to the PCB and the sides of the rails, soldering was a doddle!


Then I had to cut through all eight rails, using one of the new Expo razor saws – a nerve-wracking job. A couple of the solder points gave way, but I was able to resolder them ok. Last, but not least, and very important, I cut through the PCB between all rails to ensure that there are no shorts! Then I had to cut through all eight rails, using one of the new Expo razor saws – a nerve-wracking job. A couple of the solder points gave way, but I was able to resolder them ok. Last, but not least, and very important, I cut through the PCB between all rails to ensure that there are no shorts!


I haven’t test run it yet, but it all looks okay. All in all, it took about five hours over two days, and was without a doubt the most stressful modelling job I have ever done – and I have a second fiddle yard crossing to do yet! It can wait…..


I have also built a couple more sets of fishermen’s cottages for the quay. They are not in their final positions.




NEW TOYS
A selection of our member's latest acquisitions.....



Dapol class 66 GBRF Children Graphics

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Another Farish 66 has joined the Colas fleet here, 66843 is a previously enjoyed model and runs like it was just out of the box from new, very pleased with it indeed.


I've just received a rake of Dapol Gresley carriages from Hatton’s, here's a couple of them - those white roofs will need to be weathered down!


Two more Norstand wagons to complete the rake of five were acquired from James at Smiths Model Railways in Sheringham, these will be weathered, fitted with coal loads and then used on The Coalyard layout.


While I was at Smiths, I noticed that James had a Spitfire and Hurricane in the previously enjoyed section, both at a scale of 1/144. So not being a million miles away from 1/148 or 1/160 (depending in which scale you choose to model), they came home with me for suitable use on a layout somewhere.
After doing a little research on the internet, I found that there's a whole range of 1/144 aircraft kits available from WW1 right up to Concorde etc.
So, thanks to my itchy eBay key finger, I now have a Sopwith Camel from WW1 too! Well, the box actually comes with two in, which is a bonus.
The kits themselves only have around ten or so bits to put together so are very easy to make.
After a quick trip to the model shop in Ely, I now have a collection of 6 main colours for WW1 & WW2 aircraft so it appears that I've stumbled into aircraft kit building for the first time in about 40 years!!



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Will somebody please find Chris, take him out and shoot him!
I’ve been asking you all to keep me away from eBay, but he has been bombarding me with videos of Network Rail trains passing his house…
I originally bought a few NR Falcon ballast wagons as a stopgap for one of my train configurations as I couldn’t find any Freightliner MJA’s at the right price, plus I had previously bought a Revolution PFA container flat, not understanding what it was used for. Trevor kindly explained that this is a NR wagon. Recently I have picked up a couple of NR IOA ballast wagons, more to see how they differ from the Falcons than anything! As you can see, they are much shorter, but also much taller….


But then, thanks to all those promptings from Chris, I couldn’t resist one lot on eBay: a class 31, BG generator van and another Falcon, all of course in NR livery. My snipe bid duly won it, for much less than my maximum bid, so that was a result.


I have painted up a spare container into NR yellow, or as close as I could get it, and weathered it. Putting everything together, it makes a rather nice NR train. Rather annoyingly, I tried to run the container flat behind the generator and it constantly derailed with locked buffers, but it’s okay at the rear. I may add an auto-ballaster, if I can find one for less than the sixty quid that Rails want for one!


UPDATE: I finished the upgrades and ballasting for the big layout, ran these wagons, and they were an absolute pig! Whilst they ran nicely on my oval test track, they were derailing and uncoupling left, right and centre on the big layout. Turns out that they are the perfect wagons to find track imperfections!
After a whole afternoon of track fettling I finally got them to run reasonably well – with a lot of tacky wax!