Cheltenham GWR Modellers Exhibition October 2018 in aid of Pied Piper Appeal

Model railway enthusiasts from all over Gloucestershire travelled to the Cheltenham GWR Modellers October 2018 Exhibition  at St Margaret’s Hall, Coniston Road, Cheltenham, GL51 3NX on Saturday and Sunday 27 and 28 October 2018 to raise money in aid of the Pied Piper Appeal by enjoying the following attractions.

 

 

BWTHYN-Y-RHOSOD 

by Steve Neill

0 Gauge  7mm Scale

Rose Cottage, as it is known in English, is a shunting plank type layout and depicted a goods yard in a leafy corner of the railway network towards the end of steam. The track plan was configured to allow for future expansion and all the buildings were based on real examples. Rose Cottage also featured working access gates and a yard crane.Rose Cottage, as it is known in English, is a shunting plank type layout and depicted a goods yard in a leafy corner of the railway network towards the end of steam.  The track plan was configured to allow for future expansion and all the buildings were based on real examples.  Rose Cottage also featured working access gates and a yard crane.    This allowed a radio controlled lorry to be loaded from the wagons in the yard.  Another unusual facet was that the locomotives used in the layout were all battery powered and radio controlled.

Set roughly in the Eastern Region, it was as generic as possible so that Southern and Western Region stock would not look out of place.  Indeed, Rose Cottage might even feature some early diesels in the future.  The layout is named after Steve’s own cottage, modelled on the right hand side of the scene.  In this picture meanwhile, horned cattle wait in a pen next to a maroon liveried horse box marked “Return to Newmarket” – a centre of excellence for horse racing.

CASTLEDERG

by Andy Cundick

12mm Gauge  4mm Scale

The town of Castlederg was at the end of the Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway. The railway was built in 1884 as a three foot roadside tramway to connect the town with the Great Northern station seven miles away at Victoria Bridge. The tramway closed in 1933 following a railway strike. All locomotives with one exception were scratch built with the rolling stock built entirely from Worsley Works kits. The self supporting layout was 12' long by 2' wide and a crate of Guinness has been known to assist with the Irish ambiance on the model railway.The town of Castlederg was at the end of the Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway.  The railway was built in 1884 as a three foot roadside tramway to connect the town with the Great Northern station seven miles away at Victoria Bridge.  The tramway closed in 1933 following a railway strike.  All locomotives with one exception were scratch built with the rolling stock built entirely from Worsley Works kits including Andy’s superb model of the Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway’s All Irish paraffin fuelled Fordson railcar..  The self supporting layout was 12′ long by 2′ wide and a crate of Guinness has been known to assist with the Irish ambiance on the model railway.

Castlederg itself is in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and lies on the River Derg and is near the border with County Donegal.  It stands in the townlandsof Castlesessagh and Churchtown in the historic barony of Omagh West and the civil parish of Urney. The village has a ruined castle and two ancient tombs known as the Druid’s Altar and Todd’s Den. It had an estimated population of 2,935 people in 2008.  The village hosts some of the district’s key events each year, including the Derg Vintage Rally, Dergfest musical festival, Derg Soapbox Derby and the traditional Apple Fair which sees the apple growers of County Armagh visit to sell their wares. Traditionally, Castlederg was a traveller’s stop along the ancient pilgrimage route to Station Island on Lough Derg The town boasts ancient ruins and monastic settlements.

 

M SHED

by John England

EM Gauge  4mm Scale

The M Shed is the home of the industrial collections of the Bristol Museum, based in the last warehouse in use on the City's docks basin.The M Shed is the home of the industrial collections of the Bristol Museum, based in the last warehouse in use on the City’s docks basin.  it includes the Bristol Harbour Railway which runs from M shed to SS Great Britain along the dockside and to Ashton Bridge along the New Cut.  M shed today offers ” a train trip on Britain’s only dockside steam railway behind one of our Bristol built locomotives.”.  The layout showed these trips and other activities around the harbourside, including a working steam crane, dockside crane, wagon hauling capstan and other museum items.  John built M Shed as an entrant into the EM Gauge Society’s 60th Anniversary Challenge, although since then the layout has been doubled in length to accommodate two stations. Some liberties have been taken with the actual track plan to allow a working representation in the space allowed.  Locomotives include an example from each of thethe Bristol Manufacturers, Peckett and Avonside.  Together with the Ruston diesel these normally work passenger trains.  Other vehicles include the passenger train as operated today and a selection of others that could have visited the docks in the past.

Class USA 0 – 6-0 tank locomotives such as the one on the left of the picture were built for the US Army’s Corps of Transportation for use in France after D-Day but were purchased by the Southern Railway in 1946.  However, their steel fireboxes needed replacing by 1962 when they were replaced by British Railways Class 07 diesel electric 0-6-0 shunters.

Peckett and Sons was a locomotive manufacturer at the Atlas Locomotive Works on Deep Pit Road between Fishponds and St George, Bristol.

The company began trading in 1864 at the Atlas Engine Works, St. George, Bristol, as Fox Walker and Company building four and six-coupled saddle tank engines for industrial use. They also built stationary engines and pioneered steam tramcars, the first being tested in Bristol in 1877.

Much of their output was exported, mostly 0-6-0 with some 0-4-0, 2-4-0 and 0-4-2.  In 1878 they produced six 1’6″ gauge 2-4-2 trench engines for the Royal Engineers at Chatham using Henry Handyside’s steep gradient apparatus. They also produced nine 0-6-0 saddle tank engines for the Somerset and Dorset Railway.

 

SHED CODE 79A

by John Gooding

00 Gauge  4mm Scale

79A is a fictional locomotive depot situated in the North West of England, close to a mainline station, marshalling yard and wagon repair facility sometime in the 1950s.Shed Code 79A is a fictional locomotive depot situated in the North West of England, close to a mainline station, marshalling yard and wagon repair facility sometime in the 1950s.

The shed building and tracks were located on raised ground, below which were arches – some of which were occupied.  An access ramp up to the shed workshop gave road access to the site.  Trams were still in use and demolition was taking place on the opposite side of the arches access road as the developers have moved in.  Winter snow has fallen, giving a Breughelesque quality to the scene, and a rail mounted snow plough and breakdown crane are on standby to help the mainly ex LNER stud of steam locomotives.

This picture shows some visiting locomotives of both London Midland and Scottish and British Standard origin as well as one of the ubiquitous Ware-built petrol fuelled Wickham trollies still in use on British railways today.

Also note the life expired tank engine being used as a static boiler for the depot with a pipe attached to the safety valve.  Rather than using proprietary modelling powders to create the snowfall on Shed Code 79A, John told me that he used the Artex powder normally reserved for ceilings.

BICSLADE

by Gwynne Chivers

00 Gauge  4mm Scale

Situated somewhere in the Forest of Dean, Bicslade is a fictional place where one of the typical drift coal mines is operating in the 1950sSituated somewhere in the Forest of Dean, Bicslade is a fictional place where one of the typical  drift coal mines is operating in the 1950s. Originally built to serve a somewhat remote nearby small township, Bicslade has a connection with the Ross and Monmouth Railway and there is still plenty of passenger traffic to justify station facilities  There is also a timber merchant ‘s yard near at hand.

The extension into the yard through the bridge to the side of the tunnel entrance was formed when Bicslade Number One drift was found to be capable of producing sufficient coal to export via the railway. The now closed entrance to Bicslade Number One drift mine can be seen close to the coal drops. Later on the mining operation was transferred to Number Two drift and the tramway ran off scene towards that entrance which is still in use.

Regular passenger and freight services run from the Chepstow and Pontypool directions normally with ex GWR locomotives and from north of Ross with ex LMS stock, still maintaining the joint running of the pre Nationalisation days.  Pointwork was all hand built using C&L components matched to the same size company’s flexitrack. Operation was completely DCC including point control which was managed by JMRI and normally controlled using tablets and smart phones. All stock was fitted with Kadee couplings for ease of shunting.

CROMER

by Mike Kelly

00 Gauge  4mm Scale

 

Cromer is the Norfolk coastal town where trains travelling from Norwich to Sheringham nned to reverse to complete their journey.Cromer is the Norfolk coastal town where trains travelling from Norwich to Sheringham nned to reverse to complete their journey.Cromer is the Norfolk coastal town where trains travelling from Norwich to Sheringham nned to reverse to complete their journey.

This layout was inspired by a visit to Cromer in 2005 – and a further mission to measure and take photographs in August 2008 – and included Morrisons’ supermarket, part of the original station building which is now a pub, a very stylistic house opposite the signalbox and and the redundant signalbox itself: the last one to be built from concrete blocks cast at the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway works at Melton Constable and now preserved as a museum of signalling.

The trackage at the front of the layout came in from Norwich whilst that at the rear was from Sheringham.  Normally trains starting their journey at Norwich arrive at Cromer platform 1 and those from Sheringham at platform 2.  All tracks are bidirectional as far as the bridge so either platform can be used.

The platform length and width were reduced a little and although the cutting length was accurate as far as the crossovers, it was very much foreshortened to the bridge in order to keep the layout to a reasonable length.

The track was Peco 100 with minimum radius points (rather than large radius due to space constraints) and the plain track had sleeper spacing increased to improve appearance. DCC control with sound was used for the rolling stock which in the main were various Hornby and Bachmann diesel multiple units.

Also possible, now that the level crossing to the Poppy Line at Sheringham ( the town not the former Manchester United footballer,obviously)  has been reinstated, might be the appearance of the odd steam special.

The initial synergy of the Norfolk coastal town of Cromer and Britain’s national railway network owed much to Cancer Pagurus, commonly known as the Edible or Brown Crab.  Its oval carapace has a characteristic “pie crust” edge and black tips to the claws. A mature adult may havše a carapace width of up to 25 cm (10 in) and weigh up to 3 kg (6.6 lb).  Cancer Pagurus is a nocturnal predator, targeting a range of molluscs and crustaceans, and more than 60,000 tonnes of this invertebrate delicacy are caught annually.

 

EARL’S COURT

by Terence Tew

00 Gauge  4mm Scale

Until 3 October 1940, the LNWR and then the LMS had run an electric passenger service from Willesden Junction to Earl's Court underground station. Until 3 October 1940, the LNWR and then the LMS had run an electric passenger service from Willesden Junction to Earl’s Court underground station.  Many other railway companies had also, at various times, operated services over the West London Line, some of which continued via Earl’s Court.

This layout – set in the early 1960s –  assumed that the LMS and GWR had built their own joint station at Earl’s Court, enabling them to divert some of their commuter and local passenger trains away from Euston and Paddington.  Also at the joint station was a small parcels depot and sidings for a nearby dairy – sometimes being used by a train headed by Class 22 diesel hydraulic B-B D6356.  London Transport stock was also visible.

The buildings on Earl’s Court were kit bashed or scratch built and much use was made of Mr Tew’s own resin castings.  Locomotives included ready to run, scratch and kit built.  All were detailed and weathered and fitted with sound.  Earl’s Court has been featured in Model Rail, British Railway Modelling and Railway Modeller magazines.

At St Margaret’s Hall in October 2013, Terence Tew and I were able to co-operate with my Heljan Class 128 Diesel Parcels Unit W55992 appearing as guest motive power on one of the analogue tracks running into Earl’s Court and then being photographed as part of the Gloucester RCW diesel railcar line up above. In 2018 meanwhile attention focused on the superbly detailed shops with a fire hydrant as part of the street furniture  

 

FELTHAM ROAD MPD

by Roy Norwood

00 Gauge  4mm Scale

In his younger days Ray Norwood used to spot trains around Feltham Motive Power shed. Later in his working career he was employed as a fireman there until the end of British Railways steam in the 1960s In his younger days Ray Norwood used to spot trains around Feltham Motive Power shed.  Later  in his working career he was employed as a fireman there until the end of British Railways steam in the 1960s    Little wonder then that Feltham Road MPD was full of Bulleid Pacifics, Lord Nelsons, S15s and other classic Southern engines.

The track plan of Feltham Road MPD is not the same as the real Feltham MPD, the layout being 8′ by 2′. The scenic section was 6′ long with a twelve inch sector plate leading to the storage sidings.  I was personally very impressed by the track built obliquely over the running line into the depot and the way that the rear of the static freight train merged into the sky background.  This involved the ventilated van on the left hand side of the picture being very carefully cut at an oblique angle and mounted flush against the photographic backscene.  The brake van is of the two axle type with concrete weights at the outer ends of the verandahs rather than a bogie fitted “Queen Mary” type.

GARFIELD

by Alan Drewett

00 Gauge  4mm Scale

Garfield is my second layout purchased from the renowned George Lowell of Clevedon and the last that he will ever make in 00 gauge. Garfield is my second layout purchased from the renowned George Lowell of Clevedon and the last that he will ever make in 00 gauge.  It has been extensively styled – with my deep gratitude – by Robert and Roger Webb and is shown at St Margaret’s Hall for the first time.  It represents the very small terminus of a joint GWR/LMS branch line in the North Cotswolds, not far from the Great Central and Metropolitan railways.  Coal, stone, cloth and agricultural produce were the original freight flows although as time progressed from the 1930s to 1960s oil, cement and military traffic also appeared.  As one possible styling concept had been a Scottish branch line, I could not resist writing the layout up in the style of Victorian poet William Topaz McGonagall of Tay Bridge fame…

Ooh branch line now lying derelict
Closed in the year of Nineteen Sixty Six.
A victim of Doctor Richard Beeching
Despite so many passenger’s beseeching

Opened in Eighteen Ninety Six in fact
Following the passage of the Light Railways Act
To deliver passengers, goods and coal
To the town of Garfield in the north
Cotswolds.

Through Victoria’s reign and that of King Teddy
The small tank engines were always ready
To take away limestone and produce and cloth
When Kaiser Bill unleashed his Great War’s wrath.

But after Armistice in Nineteen Eighteen
England had changed from what it had been.
Lorries and buses competed with trains
And at the end of the Thirties war came again.

Instead of the idleness endured in The Slump
Workers were needed to build a fuel dump
For petrol for Hurricanes, Spitfires and tanks
And after Pearl Harbor, an army of Yanks.

When swords turned to ploughshares
The nation’s will bent,
To houses and hospitals
Made of limestone cement
From Garfield ‘s deep quarries all over the nation
Rolled the Presflo wagons of Modernisation.

Coming to Garfield, brought by jobs and marriage
New folk filled the bungalows, each with a garage
They took to the roads in their Austins and Fords,
And slow and infrequent, the trains they ignored.

Pairs of small wagons, time consuming to shunt
A single old carriage with steam at the front
Will no longer rattle to Garfield Junction
Part of our history with no current function.

This part of our heritage, now seen as such
Is modelled before you

BUT PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH!

 

MADE UPTON

by Jeff Pike

00 Gauge  4mm Scale

Made Upton was a fictional Worcestershire town. The layout depicted a terminus station set in the present day with a small but busy serving and fuelling depot plus a siding for loading and unloading goods to a distribution warehouse.Made Upton was a fictional Worcestershire town. The layout depicted a terminus station set in the present day with a small but busy serving and fuelling depot plus a siding for loading and unloading goods to a distribution warehouse.  Imagination was required since in reality none of these facilities would be likely to exist at the end of a branch line nowadays. The trains running were loosely based on the present day, although Central Trains ceased to operate in 2017 and Transrail in 1996. Similarly a blue Class 20 was retained for sonic entertainment value.

Regular train operators included First Great Western, Arriva Trains Wales and London Midland.  Diesel locomotives from many different franchises stopped by for a quick service and some fuel.  Goods wagons were regularly shunted in and out of the siding by the resident Class 08.  There was also a postal service, represented here by a Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Limited built Class 128 diesel parcels unit, which was probably the biggest  liberty on a modern era layout as they were largely withdrawn in the mid 1990s.

The trains on Made Upton were all DCC controlled. Some were sound fitted.  All of the other electrical equipment was direct current.  Points were manually operated with piano wire rods.

NORTH TEES STEEL

by Rob Mills

00 Gauge  4mm Scale

North Tees Steel was a double ended shunting plank layout, built in tribute to the heavy engineering and fabrication industries which used to exist on the north bank of the River Tees in Stockton, County Durham.North Tees Steel was a double ended shunting plank layout, built in tribute to the heavy engineering and fabrication industries which used to exist on the north bank of the River Tees in Stockton, County Durham.

Steel and other raw materials were tripped from North Tees Junction, arriving from the left hand side of the layout, and were dropped off at North Tees Steel or continued to other plants further up the branch.  Completed products, such as the iron castings seen here aboard a bogie open wagon under a red oxide painted gantry crane, were collected on the return working.

Shunting within the complex was carried out by a typical mixture of privately owned industrial locomotives.   Tees side was also the home of Dorman Long.  Locomotives and rolling stock were typical of what could be seen in the early 1960s in the North East.  They were a mixture of scratch built, kits and ready to run items.  A feature of the layout, still experimental, was that the fiddle yard cassette was part of the scenic section.

Founded in 1975 when Arthur Dorman and Albert de Laude Long acquired the West Marsh Iron Works in Middlesborough, the company took over the concerns of Bell Brothers and Bolckow and Vaughan in 1929 and diversified into the construction of bridges, most notably the bowstring girder structures over the Tyne at Newcastle and Sydney Harbour.  Other projects included the 1966 Severn Bridge and the Earth Receiving Station at Goonhilly Down, Cornwall.

In 1967 Dorman Long became part of British Steel and in 1982 the engineering part of the business, Redpath Dorman Long, was acquired by Trafalgar House who in 1990 merged it with the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company of Darlington.

 

SNUG END

by Phil Bird

00 Gauge  4mm Scale

Snug End was inspired by a competition in the Homby Magazine to build a diorama in 3 square feet (432 Square inches). The baseboard is 45.4 in x 9.5 in (3 square feet) and is used at home like that, but for exhibitions two small extensions are added to each side to for a transient loco at the upper level and a third at the rear to simulate the mainline and to allow trains to be changed.Snug End was inspired by a competition in the Homby Magazine to build a diorama in 3 square feet (432 Square inches). The baseboard is 45.4 in x 9.5 in (3 square feet) and is used at home like that, but for exhibitions two small extensions are added to each side to for a transient loco at the upper level and a third at the rear to simulate the mainline and to allow trains to be changed.

The design is based on the Inglenook Shunting Puzzle and was redrawn many times to get it to fit within the area whilst enabling shunting with a diesel up to the size of a Class 20 or 25. The track was hand built using SMP parts directly onto the plan and all the points are wyes of different radii (e.g. 2lin / 24in).

Stock is mostly Bachmann with modified couplings to enable hands free uncoupling.  Operation is normally DCC with sound but it can also be analogue DC.  The layout was constructed by Graham Gatehouse who is a master at small and micro.

 

 

THOMAS

by Cheltenham GWR Modellers Group

00 Gauge  4mm Scale

With Garfield being my most traditional layout to date, Thomas became the most air minded. Harold the helicopter first appeared in the book Percy the Small Engine.With Garfield being my most traditional layout to date, Thomas became the most air minded. Harold the helicopter first appeared in the book Percy the Small Engine. Martin Clutterbuck suggests that the inspiration for the story in which Harold races Percy came from the British Department of Transport’s claims that the helicopter would soon render railways obsolete.

Harold is based on a Sikorsky S-55 helicopter built in the UK as the Westland Whirlwind.  This was one of the most successful early helicopters, with examples being used all over the world. The character’s name may arise from the fact that variants of the Whirlwind in UK military service were designated HAR 1, HAR 3, HAR 10 etc.

The first S-55s received by the Royal Navy in 1950 were built by Sikorsky, but Westland acquired a license in 1950 and the first British-made S-55 flew at Yeovil in November 1952. Like the American models, the first Whirlwinds had Pratt & Whitney engines and were delivered to No.705 Squadron based at Gosport.

The RAF also ordered this helicopter for transport and rescue missions: the Whirlwind HAR Mk.2 (the same as the naval version except for some differences in equipment) joined the Transport and Coastal Command Units from 1955. With Wright R.1300 engines, the Whirlwind Mk.3 went into production for the Royal Navy in 1953 and operated for many years from both ship and shore bases. The subsequent RAF HAR Mk.4 version was modified for use in the tropics and fitted with a new variant of the Pratt & Whitney R-1340. It was used in Malaysia.

OLD TIME BRICKWORKS

by Nick Wheatley

009 Gauge  4mm Scale

Old Time Brickworks featured a narrow gauge railway serving a fictional brick manufacturing plant somewhere in England. It was inspired by several real life brickworks with narrow gauge railways including Bursleden in Hampshire and the Old Kiln Light Railway in Surrey. The setting was almost timeless but the vehicles dated the layout to the 1960s and 70s.Appearing on Sunday only, Old Time Brickworks featured a narrow gauge railway serving a fictional brick manufacturing plant somewhere in England.  It was inspired by several real life brickworks with narrow gauge railways including Bursleden in Hampshire and the Old Kiln Light Railway in Surrey.  The setting was almost timeless but the vehicles dated the layout to the 1960s and 70s.

The back story to the layout was that a group of enthusiasts had taken over a derelict brickworks and were resuming production for the specialist heritage market.  They had also restored the narrow gauge railway and operated it with a variety of small diesel locomotives.  The main manufacturing building needed some more repairs and, realistically, the site still looked a little unkempt.

In fact the main buildings were from Playcraft kit B805 – Old Time Brickworks – which was purchased in the 1960s and found in an attic nearly 40 years later.  The Round and Beehive Kilns were from the American supplier Model Rail Stuff and bought about 15 years ago, or as I like to think of it, the pioneering age of Girls Aloud.

The track on Old Time Brickworks was relaid in 2018 with a simple continuous loop for bidirectional running.  It has two sidings inside the circuit and one siding with a reverse headshunt outside.  The track was mostly PECO Setrack, hidden beneath much ballasting, on which ran Minitrains diesels and Roco wagons with a Lilliput bogie van usually stabled next to a small goods shed.  Occasionally coal wagons arrived to provide fuel for the brick works, along with special passenger excursion trains.  The stacks of bricks and pallets – and road vehicles – came from various sources.  Old Time Brickworks was first exhibited at the M5-M50 Narrow Gauge Modellers Open Day at Corse in October 2012 as a work in progress.  Since then the scenery has been upgraded with the assistance of fellow group member Harvey Faulkner-Aston.

 

GRUNOW

by Richard Self

TT Gauge  3mm Scale

Grunow was a halt on the Prenzlauer Kreisbahnen, an 84 kilometre long minor railway network in Brandesburg, approximately 100 kilometres from Berlin.Grunow was a halt on the Prenzlauer Kreisbahnen, an 84 kilometre long minor railway network in Brandesburg,  approximately 100 kilometres from Berlin. The line opened in 1902 operating as a private railway until 1943 when control passed to the Brandenburg state transport authority.  In 1946 the line was taken over by Deutsche Reichsbahn, the state railway of East Germany.  The DDR operated through Grunow until the formation of Deutsche Bahn AG in 1994. Although some sections  closed in the 1970s the Prenzlau – Grunow – Locknitz route remained open until 1995. Services were cut back to Damme in 1991.  The layout represented the last few years of the line

Trains were DCC controlled with automation by RocRail software.  The hardware was a combination of MERG, Gilling Computer Associates and home brew devices.  Movement of road vehicles was achieved with Magnorail

 

MATLEY

by Swindon MRC

N Gauge  2mm Scale

Matley depicted an English rural railway line. The total length in a straight line format was 7' long by 1' wide, allowing layout and operators to travel in one carMatley depicted an English rural railway line. The total length in a straight line format was 7′ long by 1′ wide, allowing layout and operators to travel in one carMatley depicted an English rural railway line.  The total length in a straight line format was 7′ long by 1′ wide, allowing layout and operators to travel in one car.  Operation was from behind the layout  At one end trains were brought into the station and at the other end terminated in a shed and fiddle yard area.  Matley currently uses electro magnets for hands free coupling and the points were operated using wires in tubes.  The layout has a generic theme to allow a range of club member’s stock to be run.

The rolling stock pictured reminds us of the pre eminent days of the railways as freight carriers. The vaults of St Pancras station were specifically built by the Midland Railway to store barrels of beer from Burton on Trent although as soon as the 1920s motor vans were beginning to refresh the  parts that the iron road could not economically reach.

 

1960s STREET FAIR  by Martin Nash

4mm Scale

In late 1890, Daniel Burnham, the eminent architect charged with turning a boggy square mile of Chicago into a world-dazzling showpiece, assembled an all-star team of designers and gave them one directive: “Make no little plans.”In late 1890, Daniel Burnham, the eminent architect charged with turning a boggy square mile of Chicago into a world-dazzling showpiece, assembled an all-star team of designers and gave them one directive: “Make no little plans.” Burnham was laboring in the shadow of a landmark erected the year before in Paris, an elegant wrought iron structure rising a thousand feet into the air.

But nobody in the States had an answer for the Eiffel Tower. Oh, there were proposals: a tower garlanded with rails to distant cities, enabling visitors to toboggan home; another tower from whose top guests would be pushed off in cars attached to thick rubber bands, a forerunner of bungee jumping. Eiffel himself proposed an idea: a bigger tower. Merci, mais non. As plans for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago took shape, there was a void where its exclamation point was meant to stand.Burnham spoke before a group of engineers employed on the project and chided them for their failure of imagination. To avoid humiliation, he said, they needed to come up with “something novel, original, daring and unique.” One of their number, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., a 33-year-old engineer from Pittsburgh whose company was charged with inspecting the steel used by the fair, was struck by a brainstorm and quickly sketched a huge revolving steel wheel. After adding specifications, he shared the idea with Burnham, who balked at the slender rods that would carry people to a height taller than the recently opened Statue of Liberty. “Too fragile,” he said.

Ferris was hardly the first to imagine such a wheel. In fact, a carpenter named William Somers was building 50-foot wooden wheels at Asbury Park, Atlantic City and Coney Island; a roundabout, he called it, and he’d even patented his design. But Ferris had not only been challenged to think big; the huge attendance expected at the fair inspired him to bet big. He spent $25,000 of his own money on safety studies, hired more engineers, recruited investors. On December 16, 1892, his wheel was chosen to answer Eiffel. It measured 250 feet in diameter, and carried 36 cars, each capable of holding 60 people.

More than 100,000 parts went into Ferris’ wheel, notably an 89,320-pound axle that had to be hoisted onto two towers 140 feet in the air. Launched on June 21, 1893, it was a glorious success. Over the next 19 weeks, more than 1.4 million people paid 50 cents for a 20-minute ride and access to an aerial panorama few had ever beheld. “It is an indescribable sensation,” wrote a reporter named Robert Graves, “that of revolving through such a vast orbit in a bird cage.”
But when the fair gates closed, Ferris became immersed in a tangle of wheel-related lawsuits about debts he owed suppliers and that the fair owed him. In 1896, bankrupt and suffering from typhoid fever, he died at age 37. A wrecking company bought the wheel and sold it to the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. Two years later, it was dynamited into scrap.

So died the one and only official Ferris wheel. But the invention lives on in the ubiquitous imitators inspired by the pleasure Ferris made possible. Eiffel’s immortal icon is undoubtedly une pièce unique. But at boardwalks, county fairs and parish festivals around the globe millions whirl through the sky in neon-lit wheels and know the sensation that, years later, Joni Mitchell put into words. “Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels,” she sang, “the dizzy dancing way you feel.” Summertime riders know just what she means.

 

MODEL BUS FEDERATION AND NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ROAD TRANSPORT MODELLERS  Represented by Paul and David Mellor

TRAVEL 2000  by Andy Peckham

4mm Scale

There is always something new and interesting to see in the room at St Margaret’s Hall that has become a home away from home for The Mellor Brothers and Andy Peckham. In this picture taken on the Mellor Brothers Windrush Cafe diorama is an ex East Midlands Leyland Tiger Cub single decker with a Saro bus body. It is in the markings of Bevan Brothers trading as Soudley Valley. It carries the registration ORE 330.There is always something new and interesting to see in the room at St Margaret’s Hall that has become a home away from home for The Mellor Brothers and Andy Peckham.  In this picture taken on the Mellor Brothers Windrush Cafe diorama is an ex East Midlands Leyland Tiger Cub single decker with a SARO bus body.  It is in the markings of Bevan Brothers trading as Soudley Valley.  It carries the registration ORE 330.

During World War II, Saunders-Roe opened a factory at Fryars in Llanfaes, Anglesey, converting and maintaining Catalina flying boats. In the late 1940s and 1950s the  Beaumaris factory began making bus bodies under the names Saunders, SEAS (Saunders Engineering & Shipbuilding) and SARO. When AEC took over Crossley Motors many of the design staff left and joined SARO. In pre-Atlantean days when Leyland began looking at low floor vehicles, the “Low Loader” (STF 90) bodied by SARO was similar in certain respects to the Crossley chassisless bus designs. Bodies were manufactured at Beaumaris for installing on Leyland Royal Tiger and Leyland Tiger Cub ” SARO also bodied 250 RTs for London Transport between 1948 and 1950 (RT 1152–1401), which were almost indistinguishable from the standard Weymann/Park Royal products; and some double-deck buses for Liverpool Corporation.  620 prefabricated Rivalloy (the brand name comes from rivetted (aluminium) alloy) single deck buses components for local assembly were sold to Autobuses Modernos SA, Cuba which later became Omnibus Metropolitanos, S.A

Travel 2000’s depot meanwhile featured an unusual Oriental resident. The pictured 1/76 scale model is Club Busrama/ Creative Master 1/76th and represents a Hino S'elega. This is Japanese and thus right hand drive. Travel 2000’s depot meanwhile featured an unusual Oriental resident.  The pictured 1/76 scale model is Club Busrama/ Creative Master 1/76th and represents a Hino S’elega produced by Japanese manufacturer J-Bus, itself a joint venture between Isuzu and Hino.  As such it is  right hand drive.  The first generation of Hino S’elega  were produced from 1990 until 2005.  Hence the registration plate of 55 HNO.  Andy explains:

“The Harris Group dealership in Dublin, Eire are Hino and Isuzu agents so my story is that while on holiday I called in, as you do, and discovered they still had this ex demonstrator in store and didn’t really know what to do with it.
So Travel 2000 purchased the coach and it is now used as a sort of heritage vehicle of interest although not being particularly old.   As such is used on normal coaching duties with the proviso that staff make sure they look after it.
Of course, in reality Harris’ only sold trucks at that time so would not have had a PCV demonstrator but perhaps there’s no reason why they shouldn’t have had one”
Japanese cars, motorcycles and other vehicles have of course played a huge part in that country’s post-War Economic Miracle although the new player in the Far Eastern automotive field is the People’s Republic of China.  At least the Hino S’elega is not a King Long coach. It has a relatively modest wheelbase.

DREWITT HALL

by Vincent Tweed

N Gauge  2mm Scale

A static display of a busy summer’s day at a Southdown bus depot in a Sussex seaside town modelled in 4mm to the foot scale was accompanied by Vincent's first foray into 1/148 and N Gauge. Drewitt's Hall was a National Trust property with a railway line (now just for freight) running nearby. Lord Alan Drewitt is seen driving his Vauxhall Cresta estate along a private drive to his own wing of the ancestral pile as Southdown coaches and other vehicles congregate on the Visitor CentreDrewitt Hall was Vincent’s first foray into 1/148 and N Gauge and depicted a National Trust property located in the heart of the Sussex countryside.  It was constructed towards the end of the 18th Cebtury by Lord William Drewitt on the site of an earlier mansion destroyed in a major fire.  Passed down through the generations, this ancestral home was donated to the Trust by the last in the family line, Lord Alan, in 1957.  He lives in a private wing of the ancestral pile and is seen driving his Vauxhall Cresta estate along his private drive

The remainder of the property features rooms depicting life over the past centuries.  Many of the family heirlooms are on display for visitors to appreciate and enjoy.  The house is open each year from March to November, with the winter months spent on maintenance and cleaning.  Regarded as an important property to visit, people travel from far and wide arriving by car and coach.  Coach companies arrange special day trips or include a visit in their holiday itineraries.  The nearby single track railway is now freight only as, sadly, all the stations along the line, including the one serving the estate, were closed some years ago.  The locomotive is a British Railways Class 26 Bo-Bo diesel electric locomotive built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company.

 

 

 

Also helping to make the show a success will be modelling demonstrations by Steve Harrod, Mark Begley, Trevor Hale and Andi Dell. Traders will include Cheltenham Model Centre(Saturday) and Martin Lewis Model Railways (Sunday), Clive Reid (RCSW Pre owned models), Penduke Models, Stewart Blencowe, and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.Also helping to make the show a success were Abbots wood The Backroom Story,   modelling demonstrations by Steve Harrod, Mark Begley, Trevor Hale and Andi Dell.  Traders will include Cheltenham Model Centre(Saturday) and Martin Lewis Model Railways (Sunday), Clive Reid (RCSW Pre owned models), Penduke Models, Stewart Blencowe, and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.