Felixstowe Area “N” Gauge Group
JANUARY 2022 NEWSLETTER



NEWS FROM MEMBERS Events 2022 by Trevor
As mentioned in the last Newsletter we will be holding a summer event on Sat 11th June at the Welcome Hall. This will be a themed event featuring 'overseas railways'. So far confirmed are American layouts; Clintons Bend (IRMA), and our own Sutherland. Continental from Chris / Kevin Hart and John Coulston.
Therefore, if there are any other members with layouts they would like to show let me know. Also, if you know any non-group members who have suitable layouts again let me know. The only criteria to meet are; 'n' gauge and non UK.

I've also learnt that the Ipswich club have decided not to hold an exhibition in 2022. The main reason behind this being that the previous exhibition manager has moved away to another part of the country and no suitable replacement has been found.
It’s a pity, but I know many groups struggle with volunteers to fill posts.
IRMA does hope to hold some Open Days at Norfolk Road this year. The first one should be in April, but still to be confirmed.


THE MAGIC CONTINUES... by Chris
You will possibly remember my piece 'The Magic Trick' in the October edition of this newsletter which was all about the space cheating, curled up siding to get over the problem of the board not being long enough, on my colliery layout - well, progress on that has been made and the layout has gone way past worrying about what to do with hidden sidings!
Having some work down time over the festive period, I've pushed on with the layout & made good progress.


The electrics are all complete - 11 Peco electromagnetic, uncoupler units & 8 Seep point motors have all been wired up to the control panel. The track power is also fully operational with 9 switched, isolated, sections including one section (the exchange siding) which can be isolated or operated by either controller.


This photo shows the aluminium faced control panel - red push button switches are points, the black ones are the uncoupler units, and the toggle switches are isolated sections.
The electrics weren't particularly difficult, just time consuming with lots of concentration required!
I must admit that I do love small cable ties. I probably use far too many of them, but they keep everything tidy & where you want it. For me - cable ties, together with the sticky backed, cable tie holders are an absolute Godsend, I can't imagine building a layout without them now. As we all know, nothing worse than lots of wires all hanging down under a layout, just waiting to get caught on something.


So, onto the layout itself - This originated with a board 12" wide & about 5' long left over from demonstration purposes which ended up getting lengthened 3 or 4 times, eventually ending up 7' 5" long. It's the longest it can be to still fit in the van...
I'd been playing around with a Peco uncoupling unit so decided to add a few more & see if they actually work. Well, they certainly do and very well.
From this came the idea of the colliery layout, which may become a quarry, I'm undecided on that yet, but as long a shunting was possible.


The layout is full of gradients as this photo shows, I've found a Farish 3F will just about propel 11 Peco wagons up a 1 in 30 gradient.
There are a number of different gradients on the layout.
So, there we are - it all works, just got to get the stained, ply surround all the way round & I'll be on to the scenery.
This is coming along quite quickly at the moment so if it's ok with newsletter editor Mike, I'll continue with more on this next time.
No new toys for Christmas, but just before, another Farish WD 2-8-0 turned up, I just can't get enough of them, superb locos!!


MEMBER'S NEW TOYS




Union Mills D11 ‘Directors’ loco, The Lady of the Lake in LNER green



2 Graham Farish EWS boxcars (as new condition)



2 Graham Farish EWS low-side wagon (as new condition)



Kato bogied flat wagon with two gas tanker loads (second hand)