Two weeks until the Sussex Downs 009 Group Members' Day

Just two weeks to go until the Sussex Downs 009 Group Members' Day!

The venue is close to the A23 just north of Brighton, so should be easily accessible by road from across Sussex and the South East. There are also bus links to Brighton, Haywards Heath, and Hassocks station with trains from London and the South coast. 

There will be 9 layouts, mostly in 009 and several haven't been exhibited before. 

Much Ditheryn Sussex Downs 009 Group 009

The Old Quarry Tim Sanderson         009

Hexworthy         Michael Campbell                 009

Ferness         Ian Roberts                 1:32, 16.5

Killington Lane Phillip Pilcher                 009

Ghum         Phil Savage                 009

Asham Cement Works Chris O'Donoghue                 009

Consolidated Oil Ventures Incorporated (Dorset) Ltd

                Stephen Fulljames                 009

Wickhambreux Road David Marshall         009

Plus, of course, the 009 Society sales stand. 

Wealden Railway Group Exhibition Steyning

The Wealden Railway Group show is a small, friendly show of mostly small layouts, into which my layouts seem to fit well as I've exhibited there several times. I actually showed Loctern Quay there in March 2020 - a week before lockdown - so it was nice to return with it. 

It behaved well all day and entertained both visitors and operators. Thanks to Edward Mallory for helping me out. 

Next to me was Giles Barnabe with his San Telmo, imaginatively set on a Spanish-speaking island in the Caribbean. 

I love the arrangement of these buildings with the arches and outside stairs.

Ian Roberts brought a new layout in his favoured 1:32 scale on 16.5mm track. Strontian is an oval layout, as usual set in Scotland, with a variety of trains.

Another Narrow Gauge layout was Westhay, clearly Welsh-inspired and making good use of ready-to-run. 

Chris Ford brought Drovers Brook, a classic branch line terminus in OO. Chris never intended to exhibit this layout...

Dounreay is a Scottish terminus in the BR-blue era modelled in the unusual (for UK outline) scale of HO. It's always surprising how much less space HO takes up compared to OO, considering the relatively small difference in scale.

John Bruce, well known for modelling in 009, brought this small but beautifully finished industrial layout/cameo/diorama in OO. The kit-built Hudswell-Clarke diesel makes a change from the usual BR shunters. 

I missed the name of this HO scale French harbourside layout, but I did like the fishing boats and the diminutive diesel shunter moving wagons on the quayside. 

The Uckfield club brought the small cameo layout built by their school-kids group. Here a tiny Ruston Hornsby diesel arrives with an equally tiny inspection coach. 

This American layout Broken Creek was nicely modelled and displayed. 

Now less than 3 weeks to my own group's show!

Loctern Quay to be at Wealden Show

Just over a week to go until the next show, the Wealden Group show in Steyning. This time it is Loctern Quay that will be out. The Wealden show was actually the first outing for Loctern Quay in March 2020 - and it's last for a couple of years! 

I've not had much time for my modelling recently but I'd better spend the next week checking over the layout and making sure everything works. It's a complete layout and has done several exhibitions now, but I don't take smooth running and (mostly) reliable couplings for granted. 

The Wealden show focuses on smaller layouts and usually has a good number of narrow gauge layouts, it also has a relaxed and friendly feel. If you make it, do say hello. 

The Wealden Model Railway Group Exhibition

Sunday 9th March 2025, 10:00-16:30

Steyning Centre, Fletchers Croft, Steyning BN44 3XZ.

https://www.thewealdenrailway.club/steyning-2025-exhibition.html

A small warehouse

Not much activity on my own modelling projects recently, but I have completed a building for our club 009 layout. It's a small warehouse, store, or industry that will sit alongside a siding. A cardboard mock-up had been used to determine the size and shape that both looked right, and disguised another track exiting behind it. 

The basic shell is made from Wills brick sheets with chamfered corners, Wills windows, and plasticard used for an internal floor and loading platform. Sills, lintels, doors and a sliding door rail cover are made from thinner plastic, and a lifting beam projecting from a first floor door has been added from Plastruct and scrap plastic. 

Painting used artists acrylics. After an overall coat of brick orange/brown, random individual bricks were picked out in varying shades of red, orange, brown, and dark brown/black. A beige/sand mortar colour was mixed a little thinner and flooded onto the brickwork (see right), then wiped off using kitchen towel in a diagonal motion (see left), leaving the mortar colour in the courses while removing most from the face of the bricks. 

For variety and to emphasise the building's utilitarian nature, a corrugated iron roof was decided upon. This was also made from Wills sheets, with a foil ridge, plasticard barge boards and gutters (the outer lower corner of a 1mm strip is rounded off to look half-round). I've had this set of rust effect paints in a while and this seemed a good chance to use them. 

I primed the plastic with automotive red primer, then worked through the colours in the airbrush as per the instructions - with random patches and density. The process was quick, I just flushed some water through the airbrush and moved on to the next colour. 

I applied the chipping medium by brush, allowing me to create patches and streaks that align to the edges of the panels. I expect spraying would allow more random outbreak of rust. Once dry, the top coat of off-black (with a little grey) was airbrushed on.

The chipping was done with a wet brush, and the end of a wooden coffee stirrer which proved very effective. As the end blunted, it shaped to the corrugations. 

The result seems quite effective, although perhaps the rust could have more texture. Thanks to the mock-ups the building has pleasing, squat, proportions, and the mix of brick and corrugated iron along with details such as the sliding doors and lifting beam give an industrial feel. 

It may be a little while until it is permanently fixed to the under-construction layout...

Martin Collins

A few weeks ago, the Sussex Downs 009 group lost one of our longest serving and most active members, Martin Collins. 

Martin, second from left, with other members of the Sussex Downs group at the 009 Society 50th celebration at Statfold Barn in 2023. I'm the one in the centre.

Martin had contributed his skills to many club projects over the years, including the expansive Evaleight. His carpentry skills and ingenuity were put to use on the latest club layout baseboards, supports, and lighting, and he recently painted the backscene and scratch built some low-relief cottages. Perhaps most significantly, he was instrumental in getting the clubroom that we were able to use for some 20 years. 

Martin (centre) with the latest club layout project in our clubrooms, which we sadly had to vacate last year. 

His own layout, Llandecwyn, was the result of many years work and clearly took most of its inspiration from the Ffestiniog Railway. The Ffestiniog was Martin's favourite railway, he'd worked on the deviation back in the 1970s, and it was discovering the Ffestiniog that inspired him to model in 009.

The model was not only superbly composed and detailed, but was interesting to operate with trains up and down the line to the station, and from the station down to the harbour. 

Martin had plotted the route of the imaginary line on the map, and walked it, taking photos of where the railway "might" have been. This display was convincing enough to cause several people to comment that they were surprised they'd not heard of the line, or wonder when the book might come out...

At one show Martin forgot the roof of the chapel, which sits at the front of the layout. As can be seen, the interior is fully detailed, so everyone assumed the roof had been left off on purpose! 

He loved to share his hobby, being happy to share techniques and help others. He often manned the 009 demonstration stand and showcase which the group take to exhibitions in the South East, as well as exhibiting the group’s layouts, his own Llandecwyn, and helping other group members exhibit their own layouts. He's helped me exhibit my own layouts, most recently at Newhaven. 

Llandecwyn was last shown at Alexandra Palace last spring. It has also been at Narrow Gauge South and the 009 Society 50th anniversary show at Statfold Barn in 2023. 

As a friend, helper, and enthusiastic and skilled modeller, Martin will be missed by me and all in the Sussex Downs group and I’m sure many others in the 009 Society. Our condolences go to his wife, Anna. 

The narrowest gauge!

Last week my son and I went on a road-trip. We crossed 5 countries in a day and reached Germany, staying in the town of Wuppertal near Dusseldorf. Outside our hotel in the middle of town a series of girders span the river, supporting this...

This may look like something from a sci-fi movie, but this is a public transport system, the 8-mile long Schwebebahn (or suspension railway) links a series of towns along the river Wupper valley that now form the modern city. It is built mostly over the river itself and opened in 1900, and with a 10-minute service frequency it still carries millions of people a year, having been refurbished a few years ago. 

This is a true monorail. The carriages hang from bogies with two double-flanged wheels in line, running on a single rail on top of the massive longitudinal girders. The electric drive motors are seen on the sides of the bogies, which seem to pick up power from conductor rail(s), but there are no lateral stabilising wheels/rails. The carriages sway slightly as people board but are remarkably stable. Yes, it was trying to snow...

The trains are very modern and I think quite stylish. The carriages are quite narrow and compact, rather like a narrow-gauge train. Two carriages are connected via a short double-hinged centre section, like a bendy-bus, and have a driver's cab at one end only. Doors are only on one side, with two seats across and an aisle/standing room along the side with the doors, except at the rear of the rear coach where a pair of benches face each other with a full-width end window. 

Stations are of course raised up. The central station is a grand stone-built enclosed affair, and some have been rebuilt in modern glass and steel, while some are wood, possibly original. Platforms are usually wood, with a lower level under the hanging trains - presumably to prevent passengers accidentally falling to their deaths. 

We rode to one end of the line where there is a shed (raised up of course) for storing the trains, this also contains a reversing loop. Our train can just be seen with the rear just inside the entrance (right) door, while the front peeks into view in the exit (left) door. Having only one rail, tight curves are clearly no problem, with the train able to turn 180 degrees pretty much in its own length!

Inside the shed other trains could be seen on straight lines, I couldn't quite work out how the "sidings" were accessed but I presume the straight girder (visible on the right of the entrance or left of the exit) slides in place of a curve. It may even act as a traverser? Anyway, after a few minutes our train returned to the station. 

Riding in the rear gives a fabulous view out of the big window of the massive structures that hold up the trains, and how the line follows the river while passing over roads. One of the wooden stations can be seen here, with a footbridge built under it integrated with the access steps to the platforms. It seems such a lot of infrastructure for such small trains, but I guess the same is true of the underground. 

This is a fascinating line and it is great to see it still running after almost 125 years, used by people going about their daily lives. You can even buy a HO scale model apparently - it's probably just as well I didn't come across that while I was there! 

Toilets!

In the business of the exhibitions over the last couple of months I'd forgotten to highlight an article of mine in the November BRM.

The article covers the build of the least glamorous of station facilities - the toilet! In this case, it's a Dapol 7mm scale laser-cut kit based on the gent's at Chelfham on the Lynton and Barnstaple railway, so has a narrow-gauge connection. 

The laser cut card is a relatively recent medium for model railway kits. The article shows how I assembled and painted it, and added some extra details to bring it to life.