Naggers' monthly meet

[Mike Garwood]

This was NAGNAG's twelfth meeting so to celebrate we had a birthday cake, thanks to Dave and his wife. This was also the first time that we had been invaded by a landing party from the Bristol area group, who braved the bridge and found their way to the NMRS club rooms. Tim Venton organised the visiting raiders, thank you Tim.
It was a good occasion to visit, as we had the unveiling of two new fledgling layouts being unveiled. P4 of course! The first was from Mike Edmunds, based on the Abadare valleys and their traffic, called "Cwm Du". Mike gave an excellent presentation and showed how and what research had been done to bring the model as close to prototype as possible.

The crowd.JPG

Cwm Du has one board 4ft by 2 ft and Mike is going to make this more like miniature theatre, incorporating the ability to change the atmosphere from bright sunny days in July to dark overcast days of October. Some very interesting and novel ideas came out of Mike's presentation, even more ideas were kicked around in the Q&A session that followed. A huge thank you to Mike for taking the time to put a marvellously entertaining presentation together.
The second layout getting its first public airing was from Steffan Lewis. The idea is based upon an exchange sidings with the ability to run passenger services through on the mainline. I belive that this board is actually from one of Steffan's earlier layouts - Aberhafren - much modified since and much more to do.

Steffan introduces.JPG

There were some interesting toys floating around to help detect DCC problems in chipped locos, brought over by Tim the 'sprog', yes that really is the name, helps you to identify how your chip operates and through the software interface - on a laptop - and allows you to alter the various settings on the chip to allow your engine to run even more smoothly! Brilliant!

A good evening had by all. Next month Mr Rod Hall will be demonstrating and showing how AJ couplings are formed and used. 24/06.

[Rod Cameron]

Cwm Du has one board 4ft by 2 ft and Mike is going to make this more like miniature theatre, incorporating the ability to change the atmosphere from bright sunny days in July to dark overcast days of October.

Any more details on this Mike?

[Mike Garwood]

Rod

Sorry for being so slow to respond...no, no more details as yet. This really is a fledgling and whilst Mike is an Astral Physicist (a proper Professor), he has only come up with ideas and not solutions. But and its a big but, he will, knowing the man he probably has solutions melding away. Soon as I know something concrete, I'll post it up. Sorry I can't be more specific than that.

Mike