MarchMonthly Newsletter from

Wealden Railway Group

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First, a reminder that we have around a week or less until our first Personal Layout Show in Steyning.Saturday March 21st, we have the whole of the Saxon Room to play with.  Therein lies a note of caution,space is at somewhat of a premium this year.  We have all the usual attractions, over ten layouts, mostnever seen this far South before.We will have to see how the day pans out and then draw on the results for another year.We will need some willing hands to help with the show and there is also the Group Sales Stand to consider.Forms for items for this stand may be downloaded from the Member’s Page of the website.There are a couple of entries for the competition, that I know of.  Mine is coming along but a few previousattempts have had to be forgotten about.  They would not work within the strictures of the competitionrules.  Time and envelopes not wasted, they will make workable plans just slightly larger than Eurostarwould strictly allow. They are not large plans and may have helped a couple of stalled projects along.  More,possibly, anon.Mention of Saturday 21st March, prompts me to remind you that this is the last date at whichmembership/subscription renewal will assure you uninterrupted access to the  Web Site’s Member’s areaand Newsletter updates.  Cheques, for £3.50 can be handed to David, our Treasurer , on the day.  Theyshould be made out to Wealden Railway Group for the above amount.  The winner of the competition maywell have his cheque returned too!  For a year’s free subscription is the prize.Sad news about the forthcoming discontinuance of Model Trains International, and a chance for me towhish Chris all the best in his partial retirement.  I trust we will still here of the Railways of KrystalCounty for some time to come.  At least bimonthly publication and press dates will no longer be onerous.Work on the timely, oh how so timely, “completion” of Catford has kept progress on MaP back a bit.  Thenew buildings at Lornton Junction are progressing and using a mixture of techniques from old and new.When there is more to show and discuss, I’ll do you a tour of Lawnton in a future edition.  Good news isthat I have a simplified Pinetree plan.  One that should give the benefits of fewer points, less track work,

Cover PicturesNew “Old”, above. Hornby J15 heavi-ly “chalked” crosses the upper ThorpeBridge on Summer SpringsOld “New” our latest stock in South-ern livery. A Seaford Shuttle 313awaits departure from Seaford station.Pictures Andrew Knights

a loco depot, three road station and a couple, or so of decent sidings along with a couple of car spots. Againmore once the lifting crew has arrived.Garden work progresses intermittently, but once the lighter evenings roll in, both garden and the Kitland’sLight should  see progress.  At present I am looking for replacement throttles for the two main locomotives.Regenerative braking ones for ease of use and safety.  I wish to utilise the mechanical brakes purely forparking and emergency and not for downhill speed control. Tree and bush relocation/removal brings theuse of cabs closer to fruition. That should make it more of a “real” railway and make it more useful too. Atpresent we have some way to go to restore operations.  As soon as house and workshop are free of boat bitsthe chassis of loco 1 can take up workshop space.  Expect to see more 7 ¼” notes soon.David and I enjoyed our visit to Eastleigh at the  end of last month. Summer Springs drew a fair bit ofcomment, mostly favourable.  Due to purchase, a day or so earlier, of a few J15’s we had steam for much ofthe Saturday morning.  I managed a quick chalk weathering job on all three locomotives, this too elicitingsome comment.  In shades of grey the Hornby J15 looks very fine and runs so too. With the help of FalconFigures we found that with the loss of a leg, an ex A4 cab crew could drop a few links and sit proudly inthe very exposed cab of the J15.  Doing this i=on the Saturday morning, hopefully the glue had time to drybefore packing up.  No drunken inhabitants of cabs at Southwold! Before the layout ventures to Southwoldand Southend, I hope to have my J67/9’s running. Below is a follow on note from Stuart Robinson, whose Tadworth exhibition is on the same day as oursthis year. Hopefully no date clash next year, although Tadworth is not THAT far from Steyning- or vicaversa!

Goosewithiel, my LSWR 1909 Working Timetable shows the GWR running passenger, mixed and goodstrains between Bodmin, G. W. (later General) and Wadebridge. The line to Ruthernbridge is not mentionedso I assume this was ‘timetabled’ as a siding. Oddly LSWR trains were down to Bodmin where as GWRtrains were up. I have three Bradshaw’s Railway Guides April 1910, September 1920, and June 1938 andall show GWR passenger services between Bodmin Road and Wadebridge. The Bodmin Road to Wadebridgelater became the main passenger service and there was a railcar service between Boscarne Junction andBodmin North 1964-67. The Wenford Bridge line was operated by a diesel shunter usually a Gronk andthe LSWR had two terriers. These suggest the Goosewithiel branch could be Southern Railway, GreatWestern Railway, or joint. Post dieselisation the passenger service could be run by a railcar and a shuntercould haul the goods service. I’m looking at a similar approach for an Eastern Region layout I have a 03shunter, bought a railcar for Asheldham and have a ‘story’ for the fictitious Dengie Hundred Branch. I’dlike a third train, two coaches and a J15 or class 15 would be nice.

You are at an exhibition with your personal layout and an admiring visitor stops for a chat about how youdid this that and the other - and the action on the layout stops whilst you have a conversation. But theaction need not stop if you have a Heathcote Electronics Shuttle fitted.When I built my Fawcett Street shunting layout a shuttle was part of the design brief. The track along thefront, all 4 feet of it, can be switched between normal operation, off or shuttle mode via a DPDT centre-offswitch. Also remembering to set the point correctly.The shuttle kit comprises two printed circuit boards containing all the electronics required, including thenecessary Infra-Red (IR) emitter and detectors. These emitters/detectors are shrouded in tubular heat-shrink material. The boards are installed at either end of the shuttle track in such a way that each IRemitter/detector pokes through a suitable sized hole in the baseboard and between two sleepers in the'four-foot'. The two boards are wired together and to a controller, which can be independent or, as in thecase of Fawcett Street, the layout controller via the DPDT switch. Using an independent controller would

enable separate movements on the layout whilst something else shuttles to and fro. It depends upon thelayout and how you wish to operate it.It works by a train reflecting the IR beam back to the detector and triggering the electronics. The train willthen reverse until it reaches the other detector and stops. The 'dwell time' before it reverses and returns tothe other end can be adjusted with miniature potentiometers.The unit has been in use for 6 years and has been reliable. It is also handy if you want to get a cuppa or usethe facilities!Further details of the shuttle unit and the other goodies that Heathcote produce can be found at:www.heathcote-electronics.co.uk

Doodlingaway, withthoughts ofthe excitingoperation of-fered by thefreight sideof Cross

Ness.  I was thinking of “Piano” plans for the competition.  Plans looked good on the meeting agenda.However, adding some numbers, for space allowances along the sides, the results were always too long for2015 Competition.  Not by much.The main board in either scale- I’ll come to that in a moment, is just over four feet.  A short fiddle yard orstick sits at the end of the layout, but is not part of the main board.Piano plans suffer a common problem.  Great for freight yards, with their central entry point, but apassenger train either has to back up, I believe there was one such in reality in Ireland.  Or it sits at theplatform and paralyses the layout until departure. Not great operation.In both of the plans below the passenger train runs into its own spur. In the “N” gauge version Kirrin vt.The passenger trains are various RDC cars.  In Kirinhof- German HOe, the passenger train mar be a railcaror a steam hauled train of cars.  In which case it arrives, unloads and then backs into the loop to run roundand then returns to its platform, awaiting departure. The short spur off of the platform road is thus anindustrial spur in “N” and a small car barn/loco shed in HOe.  Another possibility is a relief loco takes the

train out of the way.  A move which is more at home with a tourist line perhaps.Structure of the “N” gauge plan is styled after Tom Lloyd’s Belle Vue, a layout plan suited to this format,although I have a personal dislike of sector plates elsewhere of the fiddle yard.  Scenically the line couldresemble bucolic US picture created by Tom.Kirinhof is the port town on an Inselbahn, one I envisage being lake bound rather than Nord See style.Although that is not important.  It is really a feldbahn supporting a grand country residence Kirinburg akinto the estate railways of yore.  Several buildings clutter the quay side and the passenger trains are mainlyfor lodgers at the hall, or even paying guests, assuming a more up to date presentation.  I wonder if Wikingdo a Mini Moke?

The buildings all done and some of the roadvehicles replaced. I found some excellentbargains at Eastleigh.  The track wascleaned and powered up not too long afterEurotrack and it worked, mostly. A fiddleyard was constructed, nothing too excitingthere, just more staples and glue plus sec-tions of laminated hardboard.  No my fa-vourite choice of boarding, but for variousreasons I have quite a lot of it for free.  It

did take a while to work out how the fourfiddle yard feed wires connected to theyard.  I had labelled the socket on the mainboard but then painted wood stain (darkOak) over the writing.The double slip (thank’s Derek) works atreat, if in confusing fashion.  Everythingwas fine, with the moving of one smallmagnet in the freight “on” track.  Howeverthe main head shunt un-coupler just would

not behave reliably. It was vital that this un-coupler, not only uncoupled the locomotive, but forced thecouplers into delay every time.  Un coupling fine.  Delay 50-50 at best.  I tried a few things but just endedup with a largish hole in the road.  The problem was I have no Kadee magnets in stock and needed to knowit this could be  made to work.  In the stores I found a series of small bar magnets around 12x3x3mm.They were polarized correctly across and not end to end.  They were, of course much to narrow to be of usein HO. Not if I used four of them.Delving around in the recycling bin, I found a thin steel can.  The four magnets were stacked side by sideand a small section of tin was cut to wrap around them.  It works, I hope as a keeper and spreads the poledistance better.  It is also something smooth for the Kadees to work over.  The hole was enlarged and thenew magnet lowered into place.  IT worked, very efficiently.  Slightly tricky to remove, its base was coveredand it was cemented into place.  Shunting/switching works just fine now.  Well it does from a point ofcouplers. All we have to determine now is HOW the layout will work. The first run through with SylvesterRoad took over two hours, it is down to a more liveable ¾ now.  Although very similar it is obvious thatthe two layouts will differ operationally, due to the use of the three way point and forty foot cars, each twicethe length of their OO counterparts.  We do still have seven to play with, somewhat more interesting thanBagpuss’ five.  If all goes well at Steyning, you may see a whole series of car switching.Talking of cars.  One car was a ready built Accurail model, the Airslide is a Kadee car and the other fiveare Branchlines Yardmasters.  The same series I used on Decal Transfer.  They did not take too long toconstruct, but while do-ing so, I changed out thecouplers from the delrinones supplied to Kadee148’s. These are thewhiskered version of thestandard No5 obviatingthat interesting littlespring of old.  If you havenot come across thesesprings they are a miracleof ingenuity and there is

a real art to the adjusting of the same. Whiskers overcome all of this fettling and fiddling.  The only thingI had to do was place a small strip or shim across the bottom of the coupler pocket, to make up for thatmissing spring.Last step was a quick weathering job on the cars.  Nothing too excessive, but more of a overall begrimementcourtesy of various hues of Citadel Colours, lots of tissue and water too.

It may have been possible to miss the competition beingrun at this year’s Steyning version of Arundel! Howev-er, I have had several attempts and false starts en routeto what I think is a practical layout fitting the compe-tition rules. Itself coming from a Pizza Box Challengeof a few years back Joshka Gemuse und Spargel GMBHwas a minimum gauge railway operating on a marketgarden. A mini feldbahn? Essentially it was an Ingle-nook shunting puzzle folded tightly into a standardpizza box. As the photograph shows the geometry was a little tight and apart from a very few occasions ithas never really seen the light of day. That despite the rather sweet running character of the thinlydisguised Bachmann PDT acting as its motive power. The Dundas trucks do not look too bad either andcouplers work quite well- all things considered.I found the odd baseboard left from a false start in US “N” under the MaP boards. It is too narrow for thecompetition but would fit within the 30 x 6 x 9 inches of the Eurostar bag. If the O scale plan works onthis board the extra width can be used to make it scenically more attractive and work better at all levels.The result is a JS&G in more straightened presentation. The loop is really a double ended siding and thistime the train can run out of sight, behind the larger packing shed. At the opposite end of the line is the

house of the market gardener and his small locoshed, room for a car or similar on scene too.I hope I have time to make a mock up, but if not,this shows what I was intending!The figures on the plan show the wagon capacities ofhead shunt etc. Those within circles are the num-bers of wagons used to be placed in those locationsas part of the card shunting puzzle to be used withthe model.

This particular bridge may not exactly be toouseful on a model railway. It is after all alight road bridge, crossing a river and noteither carrying nor crossing a railway. How-ever it is a swing bridge of some quaintness,and possibly in a rather unexpected location,deepest rural Sussex.Southease Bridge, just a short walk fromstation of that name and a slightly longerwalk from YHA tea room, carries a road tothe same over the river Ouse in East Sussex.

It was required as barge traffic to Lewes had to pass this point and the tide range is quite large at this point.Large and not to mention fast.The steel and iron structure is not without railway lineage, being quite similar to the one used by theSouthwold Railway in Suffolk, on the quay branch.

The picture seen here, was taken during the sunny part of an otherwise dull and windy early Spring Sunday.The 313 class electric on the front of this issue was seen passing its mate here, but caught on camera in arather grey and diminished Seaford station.

For efficient and easy operation of Borchester Junction there is theneed for simple turning of steam locomotives.  I know- in theorythat Forneys don’t need turning-but the Bachmann variety isanother matter.  On top of which it will save the driver getting acrick in his/her neck!We need to easily turn locomotives at Borchester.  Pinetree hasand will have a turntable, and Mertonford has a wye.  Borchesterhas no room on scene for either and the shed roads are in themiddle of the staging yard, behind the back/end scene and under

the boardleadinginto Mer-tonford.  Not the ideal place to have to try and rerail locomotives or fiddle with locating a loco turn-ing device.Thus was born the Borchester Wye, actually thethought came to me while I was having a showerthis morning, thinking how to fill ¾ of a page!The theory is that the wye itself is swung from theBedford Falls branch, conveniently the front edgeof the aforementioned staging track, thus withineasy reach of any operator.The Bedford Falls track was lifted from the stagingyard and the new “WYE” constructed.  It consistsof two strips of aluminium angle bolted-and gluedto a section of 1mm PlastiCard.  The bolts drop

into holes in the staging yard as an aid to location, small pins on top of the board doing the actual location.The sides are bolted onto the angle in similar fashion.The bolts sticking outside- this is important.  The endsof the bolts make contact with three sets of spring wires.The middle two carry the power for the “wye”, the twoouter pairs carry power from there to the  Bedford Fallsend of the  staging yard and to a short length of theBorchester Junction trackage.  This will, hopefully,prevent trains and locomotives being run into space!Operation is simple.  The train arrives from west ofBorchester.  The loco is detached, run around the“wye”.  The train may then be removed or sent backfrom whence it came, depending on schedule.  No locohauled services are run to Bedford Falls, so rail dieselcars/doodlebugs are the order of the day there.  A switchpreventing unwanted movements further down the line,when only the  “wye” is needed.