Felixstowe Area “N” Gauge Group
MAY 2023 NEWSLETTER


EXHIBITION UPDATE by Trevor

I can share with you the current plan for the exhibition on 15th July. The plan does very much depend on us having sufficient numbers of members committed to help to setup, man and pack up the various club layouts and stands. We also plan to sell teas etc to the public, so also need to man this. We need ~15 members, plus some members to help John Coulston with his layout. I do have a plan which allows us to drop a club / John layout, and substitute with a smaller members layout.


I'm pleased to report we have made good progress in getting the second layout we were donated from Ted’s family (Woodbridge) up and running. Having sorted out erecting and attaching the shared fiddle yard, we were pleased to find the electrics all working first time. Some fairly minor work is required to replace a couple of missing backscene sections. There is also some scenic work to cover holes left where some fairground rides were removed and we have a building missing. The layout is Ted's interpretation of the location with Woodbridge station modelled with straight through lines (as per today), but with the tramway now a preserved line. As per other Ted layouts a number of key features are modelled making the location instantly recognisable, the distinctive footbridge is particularly impressive.
As mentioned before, Chris has offered to sort a second-hand sales desk, so if you have any items to sell, this is available (10% goes to the group). This will be located in the 'small room' on the plan.
The group module setup will be a simple 2x1, but in an island position in the hall. It will therefore need to be operated from the centre, and to help with this I'm constructing a lifting flap to allow easy access. This is based on a design I'd used for an Ipswich club layout, which has been very successful. The basic mechanism is complete / working and needs track laid, electrics and painting to have it ready for the show. Another intention is to later make this a scenic module, most likely a viaduct.




COLLIERY LAYOUT UPDATE by Chris
I'm back to making progress on this layout, though after spending more time leafing through the colliery and coalmines book that I reviewed in a previous edition of this newsletter - I've decided to change course a little.
You have to remember that this whole layout only started as I wanted to try out one of the Peco electromagnetic uncouplers on a bit of board, which progressed into a layout with not much direction.
It could have become a quarry or a coalmine sidings, the main idea was that there were wagons to shunt, obviously using the Peco uncouplers.
However, one glaring error has come to light - and that is that if it's a colliery sidings, the loaded coal wagons will all be going out with empties coming in.
Unfortunately, the track plan isn't sophisticated enough to allow for this and also empty wagons placed under the loading screens or chutes need to come out full which isn't possible in the space with the track configuration.
So - it's going to change into a coal yard. The coal yard was normally operated by a coal merchant or the railway company and coal was brought in from the collieries, some of it being tipped out here for bagging and loading onto lorries etc, but some was then dispatched further by rail and this means that full and empty wagons would travel both ways to and from the yard.
This gives more scope for road vehicles to be used and also to use my half decent stock of locos from BR or the Big Four to shunt the yard.
Mines and collieries had more chance of owning their own locos, coal yards didn't so much as the main railway company would supply a loco to see to the yard.
Doing it this way also means that more private owner wagons can be used rather than say just the LNER etc...


A TALE OF TWO BUSES by Mike
No doubt you’ve all heard that old joke along the lines of…you wait an hour for a bus, then two come along together?
Well, having taken the plunge into Western Region modern image, I was pleased to see that Gaugemaster are bringing a boxed HST set out in the green GWR livery consisting of two power cars and two coaches, forecast for September release, so I pre-ordered one from Hattons. I then spotted somebody on Evilbay selling five GWR green coaches, all with different running numbers. At this point I understood HST trains to run in consists of nine units, and I figured that when the GM set comes out prices will rocket, so I snapped them up.
So far so good.
Then a seller listed the original Dapol HST box set on Facebook, with four extra coaches. I figured that the GM set would probably be later than September, as it had already been put back several times, and I was keen to have an HST to run on the layout for the Open Day in October, so I bit the bullet and bought it.
Less than two hours later, I received an email from Hattons that the GM set was coming into stock the next day, and telling me to make sure that my bank details are up to date! The FB set duly arrived, with duplicate coach numbers of those I had already bought, in fact three of one number! I’m a bit pedantic about duplicated running numbers, everything I own has different numbers. Yeah, I know.
No despatch notification arrived from Hattons, so after a few days I emailed them and asked why. Back came the reply that they had received the first of two batches from GM, and sold out. So, I am back to waiting until September or later - but will I actually get one? Hattons are not taking any more orders, so their allocation must be sold out. Several places have them for sale. Do I cancel the Hattons order and pay a bit more elsewhere? I really don’t know.
*Just checked their site and they are taking pre-orders again, with an August date.
In the meantime, chatting to a chap in a model shop, he told me that the green GWR HST’s were only ever run as a six unit “Castle” set, this is why GM are bringing out a new pair of coaches separately to go with the power cars, and that there has never been a green buffet produced. If this is the case, why is it that I have five coaches, all with different running numbers, in addition to the two in the set? Surely Dapol would not have produced so many different coaches if they only ran in sets of four with two power cars?
Just to confuse me even more, somebody is selling a set consisting of two power cars and eight coaches on eBay!
I have also bought six HST coaches in the blue First GW dynamic line livery, which include a buffet, in anticipation of managing to find the Dapol set with power cars. Talking to somebody online, he thought these were run as a nine unit set consisting of power car, first, first, restaurant, buffet, second, second, second, power car. As there are no restaurant models, he substitutes it with another second. Apparently there were all sorts of different combinations running at one time!
I have also seen HST GWR sets advertised in “fag packet” livery, whatever that means, but I have no idea what period they cover.
So, I now have a hotchpotch of duplicated coaches and no clear idea of what to do. If anybody fully understands Western Region HST makeups and time scales, I would really appreciate a chat!


BOOK REVIEW by Chris
Oh no!! Not another loco shed book!!
Well, yes, I'm afraid so my friends, from the LNER region this time.


LNER Sheds in Camera, by John Hooper & published by the Oxford Publishing Co in 1989.
A very informative book, well worth the £5 I paid for it!
There are photos galore and they are packed with visual fascination!!



LAYOUT PROGRESS by Mike
I’ve taken enormous strides with the layout rebuild this month, with the new huge 5’6” long viaduct finished and installed in less than four weeks! I’ve also finished tracklaying for the second fiddle yard spanning the two new boards. There is now the small matter of miles of wiring and point motors to install






The viaduct is secured in place, and electrical connectivity achieved (I hope) by soldering brass tubes to the sides of the tracks, with brass rod locking levers, so that the viaduct can be removed for transportation. This work was well outside my competency comfort zone, so I am pleased that it worked out ok.
I’ve started work on wiring the first of the new boards…

Sadly, there is a postscript to this story. A neighbour came to see me yesterday, and I carried the viaduct into the house to show it off. I didn’t support it properly with both hands and it snapped it half! I think it can be repaired, but will need some track relaying, which broke, and I’m turning ideas over in my head as to how to strengthen it…


THE SONIC J50 by Chris
These locos that we've been waiting for, at last seem to be coming - Rails (the dealer say they will be here by the third quarter of the year.)
Photos of the sample loco are up On Rails of Sheffield website.


I'm hoping to use some of these on the coal yard layout, let's just see what turns up and when...


NEW TOYS
A selection of some of our member's new models acquired in the last month....


This month, I've picked up a couple of Graham Farish class 66's, one runs beautifully and the other has had its motor, drive and other inside bits removed, so runs very nicely as a dummy.


I've also acquired a rake of Dapol IOA wagons, just four of them are shown in the photo - maybe I need a bigger layout just to photograph longer rakes on...




The original Dapol boxed set HST in GWR green
I absolutely love this livery!
It will look great running with my Hitachi 800