In a change to the advertised programme, we set up the circuit around a bucket to catch the water from a leak in the roof. Today’s focus was principally on Dapol stock but many other locos and other stock were also in evidence. Again, Bill and Fred ran some GWR locos with Fred having also […]

EKOGG was again invited, and our members gave a good turnout to man the stand with Dave B, Chris M and John J on Saturday, and Paul W on Sunday. Fred and Roger attended on both days. We had the pleasure of Geoff and his diorama alongside and he kindly covered when the rest of

Today we set up the circuit in order to run Heljan locos. GWR locos prevailed with Bill running two prairies and a 2-6-0. Bill had also brought in two very smart looking GWR corridor coaches and a passenger brake van. Other locos seen running round the circuit were Fred’s Crab, Steve’s WD Austerity loco and

The main event of the day was our Annual Modelling Competition where the four categories were evenly represented with some excellent models in each and nearly 30 entries overall. After inspecting all the models presented voting commenced and after the count, David G, our Chef de Course for the day announced the winning entries with

The focus today was on Sarre and industrial locos. Bill, Fred, Ross, Steve and others all brought in locos to run. Geoff brought in fourteen (!) industrial locos but that was just showing off. Ross also brought in a large number of wagons for sale which were soon snapped up. John P put the kettle

We had the circuit up and running today. John P ran his R1 and some wagons and Rob had his red saddle tank “Elizabeth” hauling some POW wagons from where he used to live. Jackie and Ross also ran stock and Jack gave his recently acquired prairie tank a run out. Jack had previously run

Today’s subject was the building of loco kits where David G gave a very extensive and informative talk.David’s first tip was to read the instructions carefully before doing anything else. The standard of kit instructions varies enormously from the almost worthless to the superb sets of instructions such as those provided by Connoisseur Models and

In a change to the advertised programme, work continued on Lenham while Sarre was put up in place of Edington in order to enable those who had brought in BR and SR stock to run it on the smaller layout instead. As people arrived the number of workers on the Lenham track gang quickly rose

Sarre had a successful outing. John B, Jackie, Tim and I operated the layout on the Saturday and John B, John P, Tim and I operated it on the Sunday. As the Faversham club had confirmed the day before that the show would go ahead notwithstanding the week’s sad events, we collected the layout from

This was a busy day with 18 happy souls and only just enough tables to accommodate everything and everyone. After the circuit was set up numerous locos appeared including David B’s B4, Fred’s small Prairie and Paul H’s GWR Class 2800 2-8-0 tender loco. Also in evidence were Fred’s D3 and small tank running round

Today’s Skills session was on the subject of DCC. Barry explained the concept of DCC and how he had used it on his own layout at home. While the locomotives were controlled through the hand held throttle the points and signals were controlled via a mimic panel which enabled him to operate them by the touch of

Chris M, John B and Roger H drove down, each bringing bits of the layout in what has become the usual way to avoid van hire. The set up went smoothly including a test run by one of John’s locos. We then loaded the cassettes and did a test shunt. Immediately the point furthest from the fiddle yard

Having been exhibited at Bexhill on the previous Saturday in near tropical temperatures Sarre was set up to examine the issues that had arisen there. David Ho worked through them one by one while John P took control of the tea run. After inspecting them all David declared most of the issues had occurred as

A very successful and enjoyable Open Day due to the hard work of all who took part

John kicked off today’s Skills session by talking about the different materials and tools he had employed in constructing model buildings over the years. Card, plasticard, balsa wood and plywood in different thicknesses had all been used at various times. In the case of card John had often laminated different sheets (at right angles to each other to

Yet another busy day at Badlesmere. After setting up the big table Sarre, Lenham and the micro layout were all brought out to be worked on. Roger, Jackie and John B set about  installing magnets on Sarre to enable Dingham automatic couplings to be used thus  avoiding, in theory at least, having to lean over

Fifteen of us boarded the luxury bus organised by Geoff and left the lowering skies of Kent for the sunnier climes of Essex where sheep were safely grazing and headed off to Mangapps Railway.  Greeted on arrival by John Jolly we were given free access to roam the carriage and engine sheds and inspect John’s

Another full house with twenty of us getting together at Badlesmere. The circuit was  quickly set up and running commenced with a wide range of stock including, in honour of  the Jubilee, Ross’s K&ESR “Royal Train” consisting of a Terrier, a GER brake third and a  royal saloon. In support of the bona fides of

Today’s Saturday Skills session was led by Richard explaining the dark arts of soldering as we all gathered around the big table. Firstly, Richard stressed the importance of cleanliness when soldering and how it is vital to achieving a good strong bond to ensure that the surfaces you are going to solder are “squeaky” clean. Richard talked

Work has commenced on removing the redundant wiring for the electrically operated uncoupling magnets on Edington. These were replaced by permanent magnets a few years ago and removal of the redundant wiring is hoped will aid clearer fault finding and easier access, particularly to the control panel. Three of the four sections of the layout have been completed, with