Oxfordshire / West Berks Group Meeting, Pendon, Tues 11th July

[ianpenberth]

Our monthly group meeting at The Pendon Museum, High Street, Long Wittenham, OX14 4QD, on Tuesday 11th July from 19:30 onwards.

We ask for a contribution of £4 per head to cover the cost of the room, including teas and coffees. Other light refreshments are available to purchase.

A slight variation this time, as we'll be sharing the Museum with a party from the village (the WI and their partners) for a private showing. This could mean that our usual meeting format may be disrupted by a desire to watch some trains or engage with the other visitors, though the committee room will be available for our use.

Feel free to bring along something you have built or are working on.

Regards,

[ianpenberth]

A well attended meeting, considering the time of year, with Gareth, Andy, Mike, Rob, Martin, Ian and Peter, and apologies for absence from Steve. We started with the distraction of a private showing for the local WI, so got to watch some trains passing through Dartmoor and The Vale.

The meeting itself kicked off with a general discussion about paints and backscenes.

Gareth bought along the beginnings of a Malcolm Mitchell 44xx, with the running plate and valences shaped and assembled on a basswood former to guide shape and squareness and maintain it during the body assembly yet to come. This was a tip he brought home (courtesy of Jerry Clifford) from a Missenden Abbey weekend, along with the idea of a nice big lump of wood fixed to the basswood so that the whole thing can be clamped in a vice to give a stable working platform.

Andy had a Bachmann 57xx with Gibson P4 wheels which he was using as a test bed for some experiments with radio control, based on the Deltang Rx and Tx. He'd fitted the loco with a (big) capacitor, voltage regulator and diodes and – pickups! His idea being that some parts of the track were powered, though not tricky bits like the crossing vees, with the capacitor holding enough energy to see the loco over the dead bits. His demo on his test track (and then across the table top), had us queueing up for a play.

Andy also had done further work on his Cornish might-have-been project, inviting comments on his 'Fal Mineral Railway' back story and his proposed track plan for its terminus.

Rob showed some old brass GW clerestory coaches, one of which I think we decided was a G37, built many years ago by David Simmonite from IKB or Mallard kits.

Martin had been fitting his Burford Coupling components that were etched for him by Justin Newitt, and bought along a couple of wagons to demonstrate the results.

Ian brought along his Bachmann single-unit DMU, minus body to show what's inside, but is still not quite there with repurposing those very tempting looking cantilever sprung pickups into a secondary suspension.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 8th August.