Wagons have been much in evidence on the test track.
Chris B was unable to resist the temptation of Rapido’s D88 LNWR covered wagon and brought in three different versions in LNWR, LMS and BR livery all destined for EM conversion.
Joe, our “King of Wagon Brake Gear”, has been applying himself to Iron Minks. He brought in an EM example with a veritable birds-nest of levers and linkages accurately modelled.
We agreed that our next rolling stock evening would be for stock wagons, but this hasn’t yet happened. Finally, Lawrie could stand it no longer and brought his EM livestock train in anyway! This magnificent assembly consisted of three horse boxes from Parkside and Triang, no less than five other cattle wagons from Bachman and a variety of kits suppliers with a Beetle prize cattle wagon as the cherry on the cake. A Toad brought up the rear with the train pulled by a Collet built from a Replica body and Highlevel chassis. Once again Lawrie has put the efforts of other members to shame!
Members continue to be tempted by new RTR engines suitable for EM conversion and Joe showed us his recently acquired Dapol Streamlined Railcar No 8.
Work continues slowly on our layouts. Chris H is building the new turntable EM fiddle yard for Chitterne. Armed with a full size template printed from Richard S’s mathematical model, Chris is laying six tracks terminating perpendicular with the circumference.
With a great deal of effort, one end of our group room has been re-organised to more efficiently store our layouts. The increase in space is quite astonishing, but will come in handy with the arrival of Parkstone and our plans to extend both Navigation Road and Chitterne.
This report – written by Richard Simpson – appears (minus the last paragraph) in issue 243 of the EM Gauge Society newsletter.
Author’s Note: In the EMGS Newsletter, this is labelled as a “Late Group Report”. This is not true as the report was emailed to the editor two days before the advertised deadline after being shortened as requested.