Club Update - January 2021

This month’s header, surely a perfect composition, is an outstanding photograph from the camera of the late John Wiltshire. Taken in October 1963, it features Hunslett Austerity-class 0-6-0 No 21 with a rake of ore hoppers against the back-drop of the now disappeared East Moors Steelworks, Cardiff.

I am extremely grateful to Peter Brabham for giving permission to use this photograph.

COMMENT

A damp and cold January sees the majority of us still isolated but, as this month’s newsletter shows, still modelling! I have been deluged with photographs of your exploits and have included as many as are practicable in the pages that follow. I’ll include more next month and, in advance, many apologies to any who contacted me but for whom I have forgotten to post. It’s good to have all of this as there is so little other club news currently. There’s an update, too, on the phenomenal pre-production sales success of our 2021 limited edition, ‘Copperpit Collieries’.

But first, some sad news. Mal Rowe advised very recently that long-time member John Williams has passed away. John was with us from the beginning at FOYD, although he had not been able to attend for a considerable time. John’s death followed a long illness which saw him bed-ridden for over a year and I know you’ll want to follow me in extending our sympathies to John’s family.

TICKETS PLEASE

This month, a Paddington to Neath General excursion return, issued in GWR days. Potentially an interesting journey too, if the train was routed via ‘Glo’ster’, travelling first up through The Cotswolds and the Sapperton Tunnel, and later following the route of the original broad-gauge South Wales Railway along the banks of The Severn and under the M48 Severn Bridge.

Note the use of ‘Neath General’ too, as the destination. It lost that name after the closure of the three other Neath railway stations [Neath Riverside, Neath Canalside and Neath Abbey] and its own redevelopment, becoming simply ‘Neath’.

The extract below, taken from an early 20th. Century Railway Clearing House Junction atlas, shows the railways around Neath at that time. The Great Western Low Level station later became Neath Riverside and the Rhondda and Swansea Bay branch terminus was Neath Canalside. At the bottom right on the plan, in blue, can be seen the line of the initially broad-gauge South Wales Mineral Railway, running its coal-carrying 12 miles from Briton Ferry to Glyncorrwg, the first part of which included a wire-hauled 1:10 incline to Incline Top, situated but not identified on the map.

THE INGELNOOK – PART TWO - RICHARD VAUGHAN-DAVIES

Well, Santa was very generous this year and I found 5, that’s right, 5 O-gauge wagons underneath the Christmas tree. This gave me the 8 wagons that I needed for the Inglenook layout.

Having already bought some 8-sided dice off eBay, and with the wagons photographed and pictures printed out (monochrome only on my laser printer), it was off to the shed for my first shunting puzzle.

The 8 wagons were randomly placed over the 3 sidings, the dice were rolled and I used the first 5 (different) dice to set the finished rake order. Great excitement abounded as I spent a couple of minutes looking at the problem. With a plan starting in my mind, I then set off shunting the wagons to my heart's content. By the way, the controller I use is the Gaugemaster Combi for OO/N gauge. As the Class 08 only draws far less than 100 mA, this is quite adequate.

The first 2 puzzles turned out to be fairly straight forward, but the third wasn't. It must have taken me a good 45 minutes to complete. More to follow…..

THE 2021 PRIVATE-OWNER WAGON COMMISSION

This commission is very much on-line although, unfortunately, the first samples have been delayed a little because of the Covid crisis. Noel Blows has advised me however that an extraordinary 50% of the commission has already been reserved, and this is even before adverts showing the final model have been placed in the modelling press.

This has been the fastest commission sale to date and there is every sign that this will continue. The N gauge version has been particularly popular with over 50% of the production already committed. Members [and others – the commission is open to all] who have yet to commit are advised to do so as press advertising is likely to accelerate interest. Full details for ordering may be found in the Products section of the club’s website – srmg.co.uk.

THE CLUB WEBSITE

Apart from posting the monthly newsletter in the website, traffic there has been a little slow over the past few months. In the Project section however there is an article describing progress with the conversion of two Triang Clerestory Brake coaches into a passable GWR diagram C10 Clerestory Third.

The website actually has quite a wide readership, so if you have any projects you’d like to showcase, just let me, or Gwion Davies, know. Similarly, if you’d like to photograph and review any new model releases, the offer remains….

MEMBERS’ MODELLING

Last month, Gwion Davies showed a small line-side hut that he had constructed from a Ratio kit. The photographs below show a Wills’ sleeper-built Platelayer’s hut that I built a little while back. An easy and cheap kit, with only 8 or nine components, it has been enhanced with items from the bits box. It will be place alongside a Camping Coach, to house the Elsan equipment.

Ian Stevenson has been at it again, this time constructing a highly detailed 009 diorama, ‘Jamaica Wharf’, part scratch-built and part constructed / adapted from a Scalescene’s low relief Canal Wharf kit. The model is set during WW2 and features munitions and their associated rolling stock and barges.

And from Peter Collis, some photographs of his HO German layout, Bergstadt, a fictional scene based in the Harz Mountains.

And from Steve Rodwell, some shots from his ongoing layout build.

And the last one, from Chris Zajac, a photograph of his re-liveried Class 73.

AND FINALLY…..

Well, no more news really, but I did find these two interesting photos to finish off with…..

Bob Masterman’s record of the railways of South Wales is absolutely breath taking, he captured so much of interest and so much that has now been swept away. I am hugely grateful to him for allowing me to regularly post his images.

Here, in August 1963, he captured D1047 ‘Western Lord’ arriving at Llanelly with the Swansea – Pembroke Dock portion of the Pembroke Coast Express. There is plenty of interest to see here, including Pannier 8474 on the immediate left, an ex-GWR autocoach on the far left [consigned to Engineer Dept. duties] and, on the right, the long-gone East Box.

G-AAGW, a Westland Wessex IV in the colours of the Great Western Air Services, prior to the company becoming part of Railway Air Services in 1934. The Great Western joined with the other big three and Imperial Airways to form this airline, which flew as an independent until 1947 when, nationalised, it became a constituent part of British European Airways.

You could have flown in one of these planes – and other interesting aircraft including, incredibly, a Junkers Ju-52 – around Great Britain. The Cardiff base was Splott Aerodrome [Cardiff Municipal Airport by 1936] until 1946 when the airport became redundant.

Best wishes all

Tony.