Cumbrian Region Area Group (CRAG) Meetings
Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 10:05 am
Having survived* Scaleforum, and even winning a voucher for £50 at Eileen's Emporium for the best use of scratch building materials (for Clecklewyke's viaduct), attention turned to the October meeting of CRAG. This was held at David's house which is in the beautiful, largely unknown country "behind" Skiddaw and Blencathra. It is a beautiful spot, an ancient, stone-built ex-farm house with lovely cobbled yard. David does his modelling in a study which he shares with his wife, Susan, apparently harmoniously. I cannot imagine my wife enjoying my Radio 3, which is a mandatory accompaniment to my modelling, nor the dirt and mess which it always generates. But David is very tidy and his modelling is immaculate, very finely built and finished. We enjoyed watching a London Road Models Coal Tank purring slowly around his small mineral line yard. This started as a simple test-bed but is developing into an interesting shunting puzzle on several levels. He has tried several different types of track before settling on a preferred variety.
Six of us turned up - Bob, Chris, Phil, Ron, David and myself and had an excellent afternoon, which started with a pub lunch at the Mill in Mungrisdale. Many thanks to David and Susan for their hospitality.
The next meeting will be on Thursday November 12th and we welcome members in the Cumbrian area (which, for our purposes stretches to include Wensleydale and Swaledale as well as Cumbria) at my house in Wensleydale (details on the Blue Sheet). I am hoping by then to have a new fiddle yard and to have at least some of my locos running on DCC with sound. The conversions are being done by my cousin Stuart de Boer, who trades under the name Modelyard with his son and partner Robert - see http://www.modelyard.co.uk/ . Any other P4 DCC locos will be welcome to stretch their legs.
Clecklewyke is now in its final position and the intention is to phase the layout development as follows:
1) new fiddle yard,
2) a continuous run,
3) the passenger terminus, Bradford North Western (of "Minories" scope),
4) the goods sorting sidings (no room for a full goods yard with loading/unloading facilities). Its headshunt will form the connection to the fiddle yard,thus making a continuous run.
And finally
5) the townscape around the terminus, which will include a canal, terraced houses, mills etc.
So I am hoping that by Christmas we will be able to operate a full timetable through Clecklewyke again and that next year there will be a reasonably complete terminus - fiddle yard (with continuous run for when I just want to play trains). This might seem ambitious but I will re-use the old Belle View baseboards and most of the Belle View pointwork'
Ian
* Phil, Steve and I had a great time at Scaleforum but we have reluctantly decided that Clecklewyke will not go on the road again. After unloading on Sunday evening, Phil and Steve had to go back to Carlisle, which they reached in the early hours of Monday. We really needed more in the team and getting Clecklewyke ready to show was a major distraction from my main priority of getting the Bradford North Western branch set up in its new home - and at 68 I am terribly aware that time is running out and my eye sight is failing!
Six of us turned up - Bob, Chris, Phil, Ron, David and myself and had an excellent afternoon, which started with a pub lunch at the Mill in Mungrisdale. Many thanks to David and Susan for their hospitality.
The next meeting will be on Thursday November 12th and we welcome members in the Cumbrian area (which, for our purposes stretches to include Wensleydale and Swaledale as well as Cumbria) at my house in Wensleydale (details on the Blue Sheet). I am hoping by then to have a new fiddle yard and to have at least some of my locos running on DCC with sound. The conversions are being done by my cousin Stuart de Boer, who trades under the name Modelyard with his son and partner Robert - see http://www.modelyard.co.uk/ . Any other P4 DCC locos will be welcome to stretch their legs.
Clecklewyke is now in its final position and the intention is to phase the layout development as follows:
1) new fiddle yard,
2) a continuous run,
3) the passenger terminus, Bradford North Western (of "Minories" scope),
4) the goods sorting sidings (no room for a full goods yard with loading/unloading facilities). Its headshunt will form the connection to the fiddle yard,thus making a continuous run.
And finally
5) the townscape around the terminus, which will include a canal, terraced houses, mills etc.
So I am hoping that by Christmas we will be able to operate a full timetable through Clecklewyke again and that next year there will be a reasonably complete terminus - fiddle yard (with continuous run for when I just want to play trains). This might seem ambitious but I will re-use the old Belle View baseboards and most of the Belle View pointwork'
Ian
* Phil, Steve and I had a great time at Scaleforum but we have reluctantly decided that Clecklewyke will not go on the road again. After unloading on Sunday evening, Phil and Steve had to go back to Carlisle, which they reached in the early hours of Monday. We really needed more in the team and getting Clecklewyke ready to show was a major distraction from my main priority of getting the Bradford North Western branch set up in its new home - and at 68 I am terribly aware that time is running out and my eye sight is failing!