Meeting 23rd October 2025

[JulienW]

The meeting was attended by Alan G., Brian, David H., Henry, Mark H., Mark R., and Paul.

Apologies were received from Alan O'R., David M., and Martin.

Alan described the construction of the body for his latest project the Beyer Peacock Ballymena and Larne 0-6-0 tank locomotive No 6.
He first constructed a brass base plate to fit on the chassis. Then illustrated how the various body components such as the cab sides, water tanks and boiler were made from brass sheet and soldered onto the base plate. 
He mentioned the difficulties he had encountered with the fly wheel and the boiler fittings having to be modified to take into account the relatively small diameter boiler of the locomotive.
The techniques used to air brush the locomotive were then described.



Henry gave two demonstrations of in progress work done on an Isle of Man loco.
Firstly he showed us how to tone down the finish of the Oxford diecast model of a Beyer Peacock loco by using a light burnish with a glass fibre brush.



The photo shows the model straight from the box (left) and after burnishing (right).

[JulienW]

Secondly Henry showed how he had installed a slimliner high level gear-box into an IoM 2-4-0T chassis.


There could be an issue as the slimliner gearbox just fouls the bogie pivot bar between the frames. More on how this is overcome at a future meeting.


Mark R is constructing another Reseau Breton loco, this time a 0-6-2T (Fr 0-3-1T) built by Societe Alsacienne (SACM) in 1892.
They were built with Allan straight link valve gear which is complex. Mark has constructed this and now has a smooth running chassis. He has started on the loco's footplate and body. We look forward to seeing more of this project.

[JulienW]

Paul had completed two coach building projects.
The first was the Clogher Valley Railway 1st class coach by Branchlines. The chairs in the saloon area await modelling inspiration, there were two designs, one square backed and the other round backed.



The second was another Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway 1st Class coach from Worsley Works. It had been hoped that the design would help those modelling the 3' to use a brass coach kit that could be constructed without the need to solder – however this idea remains untested to date
Three are now completed and the final kit will be given a guards compartment with panelled over window.


He also outlined 3 future projects.

The next meeting of the group will be held on Wednesday 19th November, commencing at 8.00pm.
This meeting will be different from normal and will consist of presentations of "3' inspiration".
Railways/stock with gauges between the Swedish 3' (2'11") and say 3'6" will qualify for inclusion.
We agreed at the October meeting that presentations should last no longer than 10 to 12 minutes (and obviously could be shorter/much shorter!).

Ideals include:
Holiday photos of a line visited;
A particular station on a railway;
An item of rolling stock: loco, coach or wagon.

Presentations can based on old photographs, artefacts still remaining or currently working railways and heritage lines.
E.G. I'll will give a presentation on the Swedish 3' light rail system that serves Stockholm using photos taken in 2016 and 2025.

If you are able to attend and have a presentation could you please notify Paul in advance so that topics can be intermingled though the meeting – I will put together some sort of timetable ...

The following meeting will be held on Wednesday 21st January (t.b.c.) when we will discuss models and their progress/challenges/success and 00n3 news as normal.

s.p.t. 24-10-25

(Posted by Julien Webb)