CHELTENHAM GWR MODELLERS GROUP

MODEL RAILWAY EXHIBITION

IN AID OF

ST MICHAEL'S CHURCH (WHADDON) ROOF FUND

SAINT MARGARET'S HALL, CONISTON ROAD, OFF WINDERMERE ROAD HATHERLEY, CHELTENHAM, GL51 3NX

Windermere Road is served by Stagecoach Cheltenham service D from Cheltenham railway station via Queens Road, Christ Church Road, Lansdown Road, Shelburne Road and Alma Road. For full details visit www.stagecoachbus.com

For more practical information on this and similar Cheltenham exhibitions visit www.cheltmodrail.org.uk

UNITED CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL'S ROOF FUND

CHELTENHAM GWR MODELLERS GROUP MODEL RAILWAY EXHIBITION

SATURDAY 5 JANUARY 2008

LAYOUT AND ATTRACTION REVIEW

The track is hand built using PECO nickel silver rail on copper clad sleeper strip from the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association. The old track uses Code 83 rail and the new passenger carrying line Code 100. each sleeper has been drilled to take Roy C Link track spikes. Ballast comes from the excellent Greenscene range while points and signals are operated by Lemaco motors.

Framed by the water crane and brazier of the platform end at Rossmore station is 5 plank 8 ton coal wagon 341 of the R. Webster & Sons fleet. This was built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company in September 1907 when R. Webster & Sons were based in the Berkshire towns of Maidenhead, Cookham and Wargrave. The paintwork as outshopped from Bristol Road was chocolate with white letters shaded black although wagon 107 - also built by Gloucester RCW in February 1904 - was originally painted dark red with white letters shaded black. The livery with the red band seen in the picture was first recorded as applied to new Gloucester built wagons for R Webster & Sons in June 1911 with fleet number 129, which was also lettered for "Maidenhead, Bourne End and other depots." Click on picture for more on Gloucester RCW.

Rossmore's track was Peco Streamline fine scale and the rolling stock a mixture of kit built and detailed ready-to-run. The houses and goods shed were all scratchbuilt from cardboard and plastic sheet while the station was a Ratio kit.

The picture above shows 0-6-0PT 3659 running into the Down platform at Thorverton with the 3.20pm Bampton to Exeter St Davids train on 8 June 1963. The branch from Exeter St Davids opened in May 1885 and after Stoke Cannon and Brampton Speke, Thorverton - 61/2 miles distant - was the next station en route to Tiverton and Morebath Junction. After official closure of the line in October 1963 grain traffic along the gated siding visible behind the station continued until 1966.

In addition to the station infrastructure pictured, N gauge Thorberton also features an army camp in the area occupied by the black shed. This includes 2mm scale tanks scratchbuilt by Mr Teague, a skilled carpenter.

The layout was of standard timber and plywood construction, easy enough to transport but resilient enough to withstand the rigours of exhibiting. Track was ordinary Peco Code 100 Setrack buried up to the rail heads in graded sand ballast. Additional scenic details included Anita Decor's "cacti" and other unusual desert plants as well as two real cacti.

The majority of locomotives, passenger and freight cars were from the Bachman 0n30 range, most either heavily weathered or kit bashed. Some of the freight stock had been re-wheeled and also fitted with scale Kadee couplings. The electrics were the usual - simple - 12v dc and the switches ( gringos say "points" ) were all manually operated.

The most unusual feature of the layout - created by Harvey "Ramirez" Faulkner-Aston and Steve "Blondie" Adcock - were the figures and resin cast buildings: both being derived from the wargaming genre.

Buildings on previous layouts had been scratch built but in order to save time modified kits were used - the goods shed and footbridge being Heljan and the locomotive shed by Airfix. Both the station building and platform mounted signal box were Ratio models built from the kits without modification, althouth the latter did boast a fully fitted interior in keeping with the layouts working Ratio semaphore signals.

Most of the road vehicles were customised in some way and a mixture of steam and diesel trains - such as the Anbrico version of Gloucester RCW built Great Western railcar W8W - evoked the British Railways scene of the 1960s.

SNCF 3 cylinder compound 4-8-4 242 A1 has been called "the finest steam locomotive ever built" and was certainly the finest ever built by French locomotive genius Andre Chapelon ( 1892 - 1978 ) Chapelon graduated as an engineer in Paris in 1921 and by 1925 was in the research and development section of the Paris-Orleans Railway (POR). He was recruited to find out why the Pacifics (4-6-2s) of the POR could not better the performance of their Atlantic 4-6-0s. In 1926 he worked with the Finn Kylala to jointly invent the Kylchap double blast pipe and chimney that significantly improved draft but minimised back-pressure.

However, it was Chapelon's work on thermodynamics that revolutionised steam locomotive design. He did not, however, start from scratch. George Churchward (1857- 1933) who became Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway in 1902 aged 45, did a lot of pioneering work on steam flow and had three DeGlehn compound Atlantics delivered and put them through their paces for comparative purposes with simple expansion locos before the GWR abandoned compounds. He also combined the tapered boiler with the Belpaire firebox to great effect and also used large diameter long-travel piston valves and superheating to great effect.

Chapelon revised some of Churchward's theories of steam flow and then expanded them. For example, he refined and enlarged the steam passages in a cylinder and by modifying valves he achieved a massive 50% increase in output from a 1929 design POR Pacific.

Even though his 'mentor' Churchward abandoned compounding, Chapelon stayed with it and 242 A1 was to rival the latest diesel and electric locomotives until unfortunately being scrapped in 1960.

By then however, French National Railways had already taken the high ground of electric traction with its six axled overhead catenary machines. In 1954, a stretch of fairly straightand level line between Dijon and Beaune on the Paris-Marseilles line was the scene of three speed records in three days with CC 7121 accelerating a three coach train to 138, 143 and then 151 mph - an absolute record at the time.

In 1955, in the flat region of Landes between Bordeaux and the Spanish border, CC 7107 and CC 7113 were coupled together to take a 17 coach train of 714 tons up to 115 and 121 mph on two trips between the stations at Lamothe and Morcenx. On a third trip, 15 carriages weighting 617 tons averaged 118 mph for over 10 miles and peaked at 123 mph behind the electric pair.

On 28 March 1955 however, CC 7107 was coupled to a three carriage train which had been streamlined by removing all exterior projections. Thirteen miles from a standing start, the train reached 186 mph and peaked at 205 mph, the same maximum speed being reached by BB 9004 the next day.

This cameo scene from the 1960s is somewhere in rural East Sussex. The 1956 Leyland PD2 with a double deck Beadle body is on the cross country route 119 from Brighton to Tunbridge Wells. The new Harrington Cavalier bodied Leyland, having left Eastbourne earlier in the day, is on an excursion showing its passengers the delights of the local countryside. The driver waits at the halt sign for the passing of a Lambretta LD150 before he can enter the main road. Although it is the days of Mods and Rockers, the scooter driver is not looking for trouble with his motorcycle counterparts, just a pleasant tun to the coast to enjoy the seaside on his day off. Opposite, the postman has just emptied the post box and will proceed to the next collection as soon as the bus has passed his Royal Mail liveried Mini van.