Other News : 03/07/08

Diary Page : 03/07/08

Exhibition Details : 15/04/08

Layout Details : 11/01/08

Layout Progress : 10/10/07

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PAST & PRESENT

It is with great regret that I have to post the sad news of the passing of another Club Member.

Pete Garrards untimely death is a loss to the Club, as even in the short time he had been with us his drive,
skills and enthusiasm were noticed, especially on the O gauge.

This follows so quickly on the heels of the sudden death of fellow member John Thurgood. John’s jovial
good nature will be sadly missed by all.

Our thoughts go out to the families and friends of both men, our lives were made richer by knowing them both.

The worst sort of news

We are very pleased to announce that the building work which prevented us from using our usual space
during the last exhibition has resulted in us having more floor space for future events held at the Village
Hall. This includes the forthcoming Open Day on Sun 26th Nov 06, where additional trade and layouts
have been organised.

More room at the Open Day

17/11/06

A large donation

The Club has recently had a layout donated to it. It is in the form of an ‘L’ shaped quayside in OO. The sections are not in the format that we have adopted over the years and the wiring is being checked out to find out if everything operates correctly.

One highlight of this addition, is the carefully crafted Train Ferry that sits at the dock.

More details :-

Keyhaven OUR RESTORATION PROJECT

We were very pleased to be offered "Keyhaven", a layout based on Dover Marine in steam days, fully
researched by Group Captain Keith Batt, who, until last year was a local resident of Brockenhurst .
We are hoping to have it fully "restored" by our Open Day in 2007.

To our knowledge, the layout is unique in having a fully operational Train Ferry with the capacity to load and unload a full "Night Ferry" or goods train. It is also different in the fact that it was initially designed to be transportable around the world as "duty called". The layout was featured in a model railway magazine many years ago, and was conceived in Australia back in 1962/64.

The track is hand made, as are many of the operating units. Four of the six baseboards display the quay and the other two boards form an "L" and are devoted to the engine shed with full facilities. The main lines
"off scene".

17/11/06

Building works and storage

The recent building works that have taken place at the Village Hall has curtailed progress on some of the layouts. Storage has been the issue and with the difficulties of moving the layout boards into the actual hall most layouts have stayed in their boxes for several months.

This situation has now ended; the only outstanding building work is that of a stage, whose construction does not impact on us except in the loss of 3 large windows on one wall.

Any of our work that was planned to be done can be executed more easily now as the layouts are located in an internal store. Having tried one store room out we are now moving back into the old one, although now smaller, it is at least exclusive.

Now if it’s a mess, it’s our fault!

09/10/06

For some time the number and type of pop-ups on the “Layout Details” pages of the web site have been
giving concern. To rectify this and to provide us with our own web address, space has been rented at
Mercia Tech Web Hosting together with the URL www.nfmrs.co.uk. Movement of the site will follow
shortly as time permits. This new address will allow us to more easily advertise our presence.

Virtually on the move

06/02/07

Shortly to be hitting the bookstands is a new publication by the name of “BR Blue ; Southampton and
the New Forest“. This may be of interest to you especially as you will be able to get your copy signed by
the author. We are proud to announce that one of our members, John Dedman, has accepted the invitation
of Noodle Books, aka Kevin Robertson to publish some of his collection of colour photographs. It is due
out in September 2007 and has a cover price of £9.95. Each plate is of previously unpublished material.

It’s in the fine print

23/03/07

After months of planning, fettling and anticipation our modern image modellers have returned from a
successful weekend at Alexandra Palace. They were exhibiting at the invitation of The MRC in the
London Festival of Railway Modeling. With 44 layouts and over 150 other stands the halls were packed
with all conceivable model railway related items. Stand number 15 comprised Hollybank Depot,
Westcliffe CCE Yard and Mossbank Yard, a combination that had not been seen in public for some years.
‘The Full 52 Foot’ kept the visitors well entertained, many of whom offered favourable comments which
made all the previous effort worth while.

A trip to the Palace

26/02/07

Mossbank Yard

Mossbank has mostly been exhibited with either Hollybank or Westcliffe attached at the non fiddle yard end. This has meant that the fiddle yard for that end has never had scenery put on it.

A scenic break featuring a canal viaduct is being constructed with brick arches to provide interest if not authenticity. Hopefully the small flight of locks will be undergoing maintenance so additional activity can be shown.

The major landscape shaping has been done, lock construction is complete and additional details including the water are being added.... Some of the ‘water’ has leaked out and additional supplies are being sort. Unfortunately the ‘water’ has reacted with the polystyrene making some interesting effects including a boiling lock basin.

Progress photo

The New O Gauge Layout

As mentioned above our new purchase of Darenth Junction from Ivan Maxted has given the O Gaugers a home for their stock. An extension to the fiddle yard is planned and an exhibition invite has been received from Salisbury and District Club.

Knightwood Junction

A project has virtually finished in the shape of a 5 foot scenic board for the front, adding more shunting facilities at the new pottery kilns. The main line tracks and high level branch line have been extended across the board, additional track work into the industrial area has been laid and interesting buildings have been erected .

Progress photo

The n Gauge Layout

Following construction of the new boards, track laying is complete and wiring has taking place, running on the complete layout has taken place and scenery has started to be added.

Progress photo

More sad news

Long standing members will have known Mike Vick for some time and known also that he had been
battling with severe illness for several years. Unfortunately he lost his stubborn fight last week and
although his visits to club became few of late, he had in spite of his illness, taken his customary place on
the door at our exhibitions. Our condolences go to his family.

06/05/07

Keyhaven

Some refurbishment of the scenery and track is underway. One section of handbuilt track has been installed and the recovery of a number of small damaged pieces has taken place The electrical wiring has been altered to bring it in line with our current, no pun intended, club practices and 2 new control boxes were necessary as we operate our layouts from the rear, the original being for private use was operated from the front. The passenger loading ramp for the ferry had a rusted mechanism and this now runs freely and looks superb, a credit to its constructor. Photos to follow.

Lymwood

Progress photo

To provide additional interest for both operators and viewers a new board has been constructed to lie beyond the station, it holds a turntable and is nearing completion.

Unforeseen circumstances

01/05/07

We had hoped that the layout ‘Barnham’ would be visiting our exhibition at the end of the month. This will
not be the case and we are seeking a suitable substitute at short notice.
Our next choice late replacement also will not be able to attend, these issues have delayed the website and
printed programme production

Hollybank Depot

For a number of reasons Hollybank’s baseboards were not 2 foot wide, this meant storage and transport was a little more difficult. A storage box for 2 foot wide boards had been constructed and it was time to make Hollybank fit.

The resultant change of shape would allow more scenery on the middle board and a single line of fiddle yard to stay on the main depot board. The latter means no extra fiddle yard is required if the layout is being put up on club nights, as it is not usual to fill the layout with stock then.

An additional 4 road fiddle yard has now been made and this clips to the side of the depot board for exhibition purposes although a larger one will probably be required when Hollbank is exhibited with Mossbank and Westcliffe so allowing small freight, parcels and passenger stock to be terminated there.

As the fiddle yard used to accommodate the control panel a separate plug in panel box has been made this also clips to the side of the layout.

This downtime was also an opportunity to alter the track fixings at the board joins to a brass screw and solder method, rather than the slide across rail joiner method which was a little tricky for the inexperienced and fraught with danger for most.

Progress photo

Progress photo

CONTACT

GUESTBOOK

O what a layout

Visitors to the 2007 exhibition will have viewed the excellent Darenth Junction and its visit to us gave us
the opportunity to purchase it on the condition we change the name. We are pleased to once again offer
O Gauge modellers some running space.
Update: The layout is likely to be called Elm Grove and is undergoing an extension to the fiddle yard.

10/07/07

Com’on you Blues

Following on from the success of his earlier book (BR Blue No 1 Southampton and the New Forest), Club
member, John Dedman now turns his attention to the former Western Region and in particular the area from
Paddington through to Bristol, South Wales and the West Country.
The period covered is mainly from 1976 through to 1990 and may realistically be described as the second
era of ‘modern’ motive power, the hydraulics having disappeared whilst locomotive hauled trains still
operated alongside the new and swish HST sets.

08/02/08

Magazines loaded

There were two entries in recent Model Rail editions which would particularly interest us. One, the article
in April’s about Invergeachy, the O gauge layout that is visiting our exhibition this year. The other, in May’s
is a feature about Mark II Pullman Cars in which John Dedman provided some of the prototype photographs.

17/04/08

Sounds good

Val and Martin from Wimborne MRS gave us a very enlightening demonstration of loco sound for both steam
and diesel. With a hastily constructed oval of OO track and short length of O gauge we were able to sample a
wide range of loco sounds from a number of suppliers. Martin was also able to explain the process of sound
recording and generation, so giving us a better understanding of why certain suppliers were better than others.

03/07/08