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7 May 2018

May 2018 Meeting

By Richard Benn

Gosh, it's been a long time since we did an update.  To remedy this, I brought my camera along to the latest meeting in order to snap what people were up to. Apologies for the picture quality - I spent some time getting the settings right for deep depth of field and the first picture came out fine but for subsequent ones I somehow managed to change the settings. Ho hum....

Alan brought along the Agricultural warehouse that he had been working on for the previous few months. The interior is detailed but alas can't easily be seen. Alan was also working on an experimental piece of flint walling and is seen hard at work with Gareth and Nigel in the background discussing something (probably why all GWR locos look the same).

Gareth brought along his latest locos, two SECR H Class 0-4-4Ts (one in wartime grey) plus a SECR J Class 0-6-4T.  The bodies are scratch built in plastic and painted and lined exquisitely. Gareth was also working on the lining of his SECR coaches, ongoing now for what feels like the 12 years it took Hercules to complete his labours. Perhaps this is the penance the Delphic Oracle give to people who put N Gauge mechanisms below their scratch built locos?

Nigel brought along his scratch built model of Epsom, which you may have seen mentioned on RMWeb, so we could see progress "in the metal", so to speak. This is being built for the Epsom & Ewell Club's model of Lewes in 1886. Nigel was also lettering a Hawksworth BG that he had resprayed in Maroon. He also showed us plans of the probable successor to his layout Llangerisech, but I will leave Nigel to share details with you when he is ready.

Off-camera, David was doing some proof reading for the Association and Dave brought along some useful plastic storage/stock boxes which he had saved from being burnt and was generously sharing amongst us.

I was assembling some more DG couplings, but I also brought along a 3D printed Ferry Van, bought from Shapeways (Rail 3D), with which I was having difficulty removing the print lines on the end despite much filing and sanding. The advice was that where fine print lines remain, a thin coat of Klear brushed on is sufficient to fill the gaps. I will be trying this and will report back. In the meantime I took a quick snap of the Ferry Van sitting on the part built underframe I have had etched for it.  Due to the width of the body the underframe uses custom wheelsets on 13.7mm axles kindly ordered for me by the Chief Shopkeeper (thanks David).

That's all for this month. Let's not leave it so long next time.

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