Felixstowe Area “N” Gauge Group
May 2019 NEWSLETTER


MEMBER’S ROUNDUP

John Coulston - Preparations for the WWG convention/exhibition are going well. I have eight layouts, would like to have more but cannot gain access to the main church hall. Therefore, I must settle for three rooms. Two dealers will be in attendance; Scograil and Plus Daughters selling American and European stock with some British second hand. I hope also to have a club stall which may sell your unwanted stock.
After our exhibition in June I shall be chasing all of you for help at the convention on 20th. July. I hope that I can count on most of you for help. The main jobs will be serving refreshments and taking money on the door plus a bit of relief on a few layouts.


GROUP WEBSITE – Trevor Buck
www.felixstowengauge.org.uk
The first version of the newsletter was launched in April as planned. A big thankyou to Mike for building / uploading the page / content.
The plan is that we will continue with this each month with previous versions being made available in an archive.
One advantage of this is that we have space for additional / better quality images.

EXHIBITION UPDATE – Trevor Buck
Since my last report there have been some late changes.
New layouts (I believe making their first appearance at any show).
Clay Hill - American rural layout – John Coulston
Keeling Heath – North Norfolk pre Beeching – Chris Moody (Loco boxes)
Longframlington - NE branch terminus station – Richard Hall
Padnal - New layout from Eddie Flowers
Greasy End – Steve Hughes
?? - door layout from Sam & George (TBC)

Other layouts;
Group modules in 3x3 format with new modules - Felixstowe Group
Wilvey - GWR / BR Western region branchline – Trevor Buck
Ipswich South Bank – IRMA
Barrow Fells - Modern image mainline & quarry – Brian Fretwell
Anywhere - modern image DC & DCC with automatic operation – Kelvin Fellingham
Stowley Loop – now on standby

Club stand – In addition to club info it would be good to show some modelling examples made by members.
I am able to borrow a couple of tiered display stands from IRMA and will sort out sort form of screen to go in front of them. Therefore these can be used to show members models whilst offering protection.

Trade;
Orwell Model Railways
Scograil
RCS secondhand
Mid Suffolk Light Railway
Blue Railways – demo ‘n’ gauge layout / trade stand for DC controllers using wireless handheld controllers (or smart phone / tablet)

We do of course need the help of members to run the show. In the next couple of weeks we will contact members sort out who is available / tasks they can help with. In particular we need help with Friday setup and Saturday pack up as well as layout running (+relief over lunch), door, club stand, catering etc. Please try to help even if only for part of the time.
Remember this is an exhibition for all club members and a chance to run your own stock on club layouts.

This is the last newsletter before the exhibition, but I’ll be in contact with more details nearer the time.

SHOW REPORT by Mike Woolnough
I paid my money and went to see the Stowmarket show last month – first time I’ve paid to get in a show for a long time! It was the usual well-organised event with a nice mix of scales for the layouts, and the dealers we expect to see. There was very little second hand N gauge on offer, so I came home without spending anything. There were a few N gauge layouts that I personally hadn’t seen before, so I took a few photos.



IRMA were there with Ipswich South Bank





Roseland Bay, a rather nice DCC sound layout by Ron Holland with one “busy” board and one countryside one.



Hunter’s Drove by Colchester & district MRC



St Saviour Street by Tim Chandler of Colchester MRC

CLUBROOM UPDATE by Chris Hart

Broadlands



Leaving the last of the wiring until later, Richard has forged ahead with forming some of the scenery out of polystyrene and arranging the location for the road bridge over the lines. Further construction of the final background boards is needed before finalising the last of the scenery forming, but there is only so much that can be done in the few spares hours a week.

Old Depot Module



Dave is getting into the fun part of the module with the scenery as we get close to the show date. The grass has gone down and has totally changed the look of the layout, bringing it to life and adding a smile to all that have watched and worked on it. Also, the top line station is coming together with the fences added, the plant pots and benches, and the station building itself. There is still much to do, but it’s going well and it is all still on course for attending at the June show.

Avro Halt
George and Sam have been tweaking and fiddling the details on their layout as time gets ever closer to our big June exhibition, and they feel that it will be virtually completed ready for the show. So that will be a good one to see running on the day.

Stony Gorge Module



The name has been finalised now to “Stony “Gorge” rather than “Gulch”, as this is a British-set module and not an American one. However, this has not slowed the build in any way and we are moving into the final stages of adding the undergrowth, plants, grasses and animals. I have found some white metal Rabbits, foxes, Badgers and Squirrels for a very reasonable price (Langley Models A64: wild animals), they will need fettling a bit and some detailed painting, but that’s nothing much, and they should add some life to the module as there are no people or buildings.

Module Fiddle yard
Chris Shum has nearly finished the middle extension to our module fiddle yard; he has completed the baseboard, laid all the track and added in all the many cut-off’s so that once its finished we will have the option to store up to three trains per lane. This will help mostly the branch line, as small trains suit it well on most modules, however having the option on the main lines is good too. Plus, with a triple length fiddle line we can now have full length freight and passenger trains should they be wanted.

WHERE TO SEE US NEXT
Saturday 8th June –Felixstowe Group Exhibition
Group Modules + selection of member own modules

Sunday 16th June – Leiston Long Shop Museum IP16 4ES
Group Modules and Great Street Junction

Saturday 2nd June – Ipswich Transport Festival, 35 Cauldwell hall venue IP4 4QG
Group Modules