8th January 2020.

Whats on your bench and displays.

The evening started with a short demonstration of some techniques which might be useful for anyone taking part in the Plastikard Challenge. 

As usual there was an interesting and varied selection of work members brought along for us to look at.

Howard is building an LMS 3F ‘Jinty’ from a Connoisseur kit in 0 gauge.  He commented on how good and clear were the instructions provided with the kit.  

Gordon brought a short coal train with a 00 Q6 and some BR hopper wagons from a variety of sources and a brake van.  He also had a J27. Along with the Q6 they were in use in the NE up to the end of steam in that region. They were also the last pre-grouping designed steam locos working on BR. 

Gerry had some very interesting building components he had moulded himself from commercial moulds made by Scale Cast.  The parts fitted together at the corners and were glued with super glue.  He showed us some very useful-looking magnetic corner clamps from Scale Cast.  https://www.scalecast.co.uk  

Phill Yeend had two London Transport trolley buses he had built; one from a good whitemetal kit, the other was resin and needed much modification to make an acceptable model.  There was some interesting discussion about low melt soldering of whitemetal kits.

Andrew had a painted and an unpainted version of his new kit; a 16mm scale WDLR ration wagon with working hinges! 

Another 16mm item was Phil Rowe’s Hunslet 0-4-0 Penrhyn quarry tank engine.  This is live steam and was built as a pair with Phil and a friend sharing the manufacturing. 

Going up a gauge and still live steam, Scott had a nearly finished Gauge 1 LNER 0-6-0 tender loco made from a Barrett kit. 

Ian had converted a bogie coach he had bought second hand into a petrol railcar reminiscent of a Colonel Stephens product.  This was radio controlled as he demonstrated, running it up and down the table! 

Staying with garden railways, Mike Wakefield had rebuilt a horribly butchered live steam 0-4-0 loco from Accucraft and made a very nice job. 

Tim demonstrated a P4 NER 0-4-4 tank loco running on a short length of track.  It has been a few years (25?) in the making but now with an operational layout, he is keen to complete it. 

Graham Betts had an impressive array of super 00 locos he had acquired in varying  states of decay and incompleteness.  He had brought them all back to life including some very nice painting.

I had a part-built body for a GE van which I am building in plastikard.

As ever, a super evening; many thanks to those members who brought their work along. 

Nick Coppin