COTSWOLD MODEL RAILWAY SHOW

 23 & 24 OCTOBER 2010

Click on picture above for review of the 2009 show

It was also the first show to feature The Exhibitor's Cup, in memory of Bert Hawkins, the Gloucester Club President who sadly passed away late last year.  Bert was an active member of the Gloucester Club, joining in the mid 1960s.  His larger than life charisma rubbed off on the entire membership from day one.  He was the fulcrum of the GMRC, holding every committee position over the years.  When the GMRC President, the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, passed way, Bert was made President, a position he valued and held with great honour and distinction.

An excellent modeller, his layout - Kingsgate - was popular on the exhibition circuit and appeared at the 2009 Cotswold Show.

With the full support of Bert's son Nigel, The Exhibition Committee introduced The Exhibitor's Cup, to be voted for solely by the exhibitors, and awarded to the layout that they consider the best in show.  The first winner of The Exhibitor's Cup was Cheltenham South and Leckhampton, seen above.

Pat Arnold was a long standing stalwart of Gloucester MRC and the Cotswold Show and the winning layout is voted for by the visiting public to celebrate the very best of design, operation and presentation with particular attention to layouts which display the enthusiasm in modelling that Pat promoted for many years.

IN MEMORY OF DAVE ASHWORTH

It was with deep sadness that earlier this year we said goodbye to Dave who died age 58 after a short illness and a couple of weeks in hospital.  Dave moved to the Eastcombe area in the 1990s and soon became involved with Scouting and Guiding to become the Group Chairman in 1998.  Dave was fully committed to World Scouting and Guiding and of course to the Eastcombe Group and he was instrumental in progressing the fund raising and planning and progressing the erection of a new hall at the Eastcombe Scout and Guide headquarters and then going on to do the same again to facilitate the refurbishment of the original parts of the HQ to leave a lasting legacy of the youth of the area. Dave's boundless energy helped make previous railway shows at Eastcombe the success that we all enjoy today.

Syreford Station represented the upper terminus of the viable part of the line, had it been built and survived the Stone Pipe Company's failure.  The line was now a 2' 4" gauge edge railway and was depicted in the early 1950s when tourism became a significant portion of remunerative traffic.

Track was hand built and buildings were scribed styrene sheet or textured DAS PRONTO on ply shells.  Scenery was carved from polystyrene foam coated with Artex and covered with commercial scatter materials.  The trees were twisted wire frames with Woodland Scenics foliage.  The back scene was a view of Sandhurst Hill as seen from Sandhurst village, near Gloucester.

Locomotives and rolling stock were a mixture of scratch and kit built vehicles, some with modified proprietary components.  Pictured below, for example, is a model of the Kerr Stuart diesel mechanical locomotive which ran on the Welsh Highland Railway and was photographed at Dinas in 1928 by L.T.C. Rolt, who was then one of Kerr Stuart's Premium Apprentices following in the footsteps of Supermarine Spitfire aircraft designer Reginald Mitchell.

Founded in Glasgow in 1881, James Kerr and Company became Kerr, Stuart and Company in 1883 when John Stuart was taken on as a partner.  The business began as an agency ordering locomotives from established manufacturers such as Falcon of Loughborough, John Fowler of Leeds and Hartley, Arnoux and Fanning of Stoke on Trent.  In 1892 Kerr, Stuart and Company bought Hartley, Arnoux and Fanning and moved into Stoke on Trent's California Works to begin building their own locomotives.  The railway and tramway plant division of Hartley, Arnoux and Fanning was then sold to Dick, Kerr and Company in Preston.

As well as an illustrious output of steam locomotives and railcars for home and export use, Kerr Stuart introduced a range of roller chain driven diesel mechanical locomotives in the late 1920s.  Available in a range of track gauges, their McLaren Benz prime movers were also supplied in 2 cylinder (30 bhp) 4 cylinder (60 bhp) and 6 cylinder (90bhp) formats.

However, Kerr, Stuart and Company entered receivership in 1930 with goodwill (design and spare parts) going to Hunslet of Leeds although many staff - including the Chief Draughtsman - joined Stafford based W.G.Bagnall who continued to manufacture Kerr Stuart steam locomotive designs.

Cwm Hir - Welsh for Long Valley - was based on a slate quarry somewhere in Wales with some passenger traffic but most trains moving ancient compressed clay to the transfer sidings.  From Cwn Hir, the narrow gauge wagons will be mounted on standard gauge vehicles -  in an inversion of Leek & Manifold Light Railway practice - for onward transport and export.

The scene was set somewhere between the years 1960 and 1980 on the fringes of a major port.  The small exchange sidings just off Canada Road were visited by a variety of mixed traffic locomotives working to and from the local large marshalling yard.  Occasionally larger locomotives were rostered, looking a little out of place on only a short string of wagons.  The shunting engine then sorted out the arriving trains, often taking small trip workings out to the nearby wagon repair workshops and wharves.  Sometimes the loaded trucks would be checked on the weighbridge before onward movement.

The region and period of the scene changed throughout the two days of the show with varying types of diesel shunter, including some that would have been found in Gloucestershire in the 1960s - thereby recalling the branch line freight of the Forest of Dean and Stroud Valleys.

Pictured above however is D2954 which, in June 1974, became 01 001 - the lowest numbered British Rail locomotive under the newly introduced Total Operations Processing System.  The four wheeled diesel mechanical locomotive had in fact started life as Andrew Barclays of Kilmarnock works number 396 and was introduced as 11504 to Stratford Depot (30A) in January 1956.  While the rest of the four strong class were withdrawn by 1967, 01 001 and 01 002 survived by being used on the isolated Holyhead breakwater tramway with 01 001 being cannibalised from 1979 to keep its sister operational until March 1981.  Both 153 bhp Gardner-engined locomotives were cut up on site in February 1982, ending a seven year combination of TOPS numbering with black livery and the original BR "lion on a bike" emblem.

25 242 meanwhile began life as D7592, outshopped from BR Darlington Works in May 1964 and first allocated to Toton Depot ( 16A). Renumbered in February 1974, it was withdrawn from Crewe Diesel depot in May 1984 and cut up at Swindon in November of that year.                 

The locomotives were mainly modified ready-to-run examples using Ultrascale EM wheels and A1 detailing kits. The 2BIL ( 2 cars, Both Including Lavatories ) EMU was an Ian Kirk kit with Branch Lines motor/gearbox and extra detailing. Wagons were mostly super-detailed kits and EM Society wheels. Spratt & Winkle couplings are used with strategically placed electromagnets for uncoupling. Hookwood also featured working semaphore signals and a decidedly non-working workman!

Kentside originated as an extended test track to gain experience of the many aspects of layout design, construction and presentation over a modest timespan. An important factor was the relatively small size of the baseboards, which allow easy transport of the whole model by private car.

Track was constructed from C&L parts and includes a section with concrete sleepers as laid on the Lakeside Branch in the 1960s. Although standard turnouts were employed, much thought had been given to creating an interesting track geometry. The siting of one of the points across a baseboard join did not created any problems due to the use of EMGS alignment dowels.

The period modelled was set in the 1960s, thereby allowing a mixture of steam and diesel motive power to be used. Indeed, Cumbria in the 1960s offered a unique mixture of early diesels with Metropolitan Vickers Co-Bos such as D5706 - seen below - on local trains encountering larger West Coast Main Line locomotives and even Class 17 Claytons - like D8567 above - tripping freight down from Scotland.

Structures employed variety of techniques and were based upon the standard Furness Railway buildings from Greenodd and Haverthwaite on the Lakeside Branch. However, the geographical setting was firmly on the eastern side of the Kent Estuary, with the backscene being inspired by the view from Sandside and painted using acrylics.

A major source of traffic on the branch was a limestone quarry and limeworks adjacent to the station. Although the quarry was "off stage", Kentside station formed the run-round facility for stone and lime workings.

The appearance at Eastcombe in 2010 marked Kentside's 35th and final exhibition in its current form.  An enlarged mark 2 version is in the arly stages of construction and will include, amongst other things, a rail entrance to the quarry, loading screns and a lime kiln, taking inspiration from the Northern Quarries at Sandside and the Trowbarrow Limeworks at Silverdale.

Kentside has featured in issue 103 of Model Railway Journal and the December 2001 issue of British Railway Modelling.

Pictured above in sage green livery is L11 Class 4-4-0 Number 174 with a headcode disc at the top of the smokebox and a headcode diamond next to the vacuum pipe on the buffer beam: signifying a passenger train from Exeter to Barnstaple and Torrington in the London & South Western Railway display system.

Introduced in 1903 and nicknamed "Large Hoppers", L11 Class two-inside cylinder mixed traffic locomotives were designed by Dugald Drummond and were fitted with Stephenson link valve gear.

Just like its rival the Great Western Railway, the LSWR incorporated a large proportion of standard parts in its locomotives and the L11 boiler was interchangeable with that of  the T9 "Greyhound" 4-4-0 class, being likewise equipped with water tubes fitted across the firebox combustion space with the aim of incresing heating surface while facilitating water circulation.  However, these water tubes also increased maintenance costs and were removed by Dugald Drummond's successor Robert Urie.  

Class L11 were, unlike other Drummond LSWR locomotives, never fitted with superheaters although their normal six wheeled tenders were sometimes substituted for a Drummond eight wheeled "water cart".  Eight of the 4-4-0s were also converted to oil firing as part of government trials in 1947 - 1948, 40 Class L11s passed into British Railways ownership although 13 of these had been withdrawn by the end of 1948.  No Class L11 locomotives have been preserved.
 

Leckhampton station was opened in 1881 as part of the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway with a single track.  In 1891 the Midland and South Western Junction Railway obtained running rights from Andoversford to Cheltenham while the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway was absorbed by the Great Western Railway on 1 July 1897.

 The track through Leckhampton was doubled in 1900and in 1906 the platforms were extended and the name was changed to Cheltenham South and Leckhampton.  It is in this period of pre and post Grouping GWR and post 1948 BR ownership that the Gloucester Model Railway Club layout was set, the name of the station contracting to Cheltenham Leckhampton in 1952 although the buildings changed little before closure in 1962.

The Midland and South Western Junction Railway was absorbed by the Great Western in 1923 and its locomotives were renumbered into GWR stock.  Although looking very "Swindonized" with its William Dean type steam dome, Belpaire firebox and brass safety valve cover, 4-4-0 number 1122 was formerly Midland and South Western Junction Railway locomotive 4, built in June 1914 by the North British Railway as their works number 20539 to Lot L576.  It was first allocated to Cheltenham High Street depot and was withdrawn from there in March 1936.

The choice of name was particularly poignant with the death on 4 October 2010 of Sir Norman Wisdom, whose tight-suited Norman Pitkin character was constantly calling for his boss - Mr Grimsdale, played by Edward Chapman - to get him out of the tight spot that he inevitably found himself in after his hapless but well meaning cinematic adventures.  Born on 4 February 1915, Norman Wisdom had a tough upbringing but rose to become an Army bandsman in the 1930s and then Prime Minister Winston Churchill's wartime telephone operator. On being demobbed in 1946, he appeared in a charity concert in Cheltenham where actor Rex Harrison urged him to become a professional comedian.  Another hard journey through the ranks of Windmill Theatre comics followed before his own brand of physical humour was discovered by both television and the Rank organisation. 

Starting with "Trouble in Store" in 1952, Norman Wisdom's Rank films moved from monochrome to colour and included, in 1965, "The Early Bird" in which Pitkin's milk cart is "run over" by stock footage of a Blue Pullman DMU.  I would also recommend to transport enthusiasts Norman's 1966 film "Press For Time" which features a bus chase around Teignmouth and a green DMU leaving from a station newly equipped with rail alphabet signage.
                                                                                                                                                                                                

A by product of attaining a realistic representation of 4' 81/2" track in 4mm scale is that the 18mm gauge track can also represent the 5' 3" standard of Ireland, Argentina and Australia in 3.5mm to the foot scale.  An impressive example of the genre was this display of locomotives and rolling stock from the State of Victoria in Australia.

24 X Class diesel electric Co-Cos were built for Victoria Railways by Clyde Engineering between 1966 and 1976 in three batches numbered X31-X36, X37-X44 and X45-X54.

Fitted with General Motors EMD 16-567C / 16-645E V16 diesels coupled to the same company's generators and traction motors, each first-batch X Class was, at 1350 kW, slightly more powerful that a British Railways Class 37 of the same wheel arrangement.

Required for use on the Albury-Melbourne line, these locomotives- built at Granville, New South Wales, were mechanically similar to the earlier S Class although with an all-new hood type body although the provision of just one set of controls  - optimised for driving long-end first - made driving short end first uncomfortable for the crew.

The second series of eight locomotives however were powered by a new GM-EMD 16-645 engine and could be distinguished from the first batch by larger radiators. Similarly, the third batch - built at Clyde's Rosewater plant in South Australia - were known as "new X" and featured an alternator rather than a generator, revised nose and cab layout which allowed them only to run with the short end leading.  As a result of this lack of versatility, X45-54 were generally used on interstate workings.

After the split of V line into passenger and freight duties, all of the X Class went to freight work for Freight Victoria and Freight Australia.

Below meanwhile is Great Western Railway 0-6-0T 633, the first of twelve similar tank engines outshopped from Stafford Road, Wolverhampton to Lot M.  Among the 633 Class, 633-636 ( works numbers 167-170) and  638-644 ( works numbers 172-178 ) were new build with 637 being converted from a former Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway 0-6-0T and given the works number 171.

633 was introduced to Paddington depot in November 1871 and withdrawn from there in October 1933.  Half the class was similarly to spend most of its life in the London area although other examples served as far away as Frome and Swansea.  Several engines - including 633, 634, 641, 642 and 643 - had their 980 gallon tanks fitted with condensing apparatus for working over the Metropolitan Line.

When first built the 633 Class had round topped fireboxes, Wolverhampton designed W3 boilers and bell mouthed chimneys but were rebuilt between 1887 and 1899 with either S2 or S4 boilers before the B4 version with a Belpaire firebox - as depicted in Ken's model - became standard.  This final version conformed to GWR Diagram A62 with tank capacity reduced to 920 gallons.  Although none of the condensing 633 Class ever received cabs, a number of non-condensing locomotives were so equipped..