The Club builds and operates layouts in a variety of scales.
New control panel for Empire Mills, and two chances to see us
Here’s a preview of the new control panel. Wiring work to support this is now in hand with the two main boards done and the two subsidiary modules depicting the clay dries on course. Come and see us this weekend at the MRC open day — we are hoping to have the basics completed! We …read more.
Apr 4, 2017Empire Mills March 2017 update
Although Ally Pally preparations are at the front of everyone’s minds at the moment, we’ve started in earnest on wiring work. We might make a tweak or two to the sections and uncouplers as we go, but the real object is to ensure everything is documented and cabling is standardised so that if and when …read more.
Mar 20, 2017
Empire Mills – Feb 17
We’ve had a couple of good operating evenings at Keen House already this year, and the picture above shows my Class 08 on shunting duty this week. Members will have read in our last Bulletin that Empire Mills has new trackwork and a colourful new turntable fiddleyard. Over the next month or two we will be …read more.
Feb 4, 2017
Sticking point
There are six points on Minories, all operated with Tortoise slow action point motors with Exactoscale baseplates transferring the movement of the motor through a tie-bar under the baseboard to wires soldered to the underside of the switch rails. There are stretcher bars between the switch rails, and although these do provide some mechanical joints between the two switch …read more.
Nov 7, 2016
Converting Heljan Class 23 to EM
The Heljan Class 23 is one of the simpler conversions to EM gauge. I don’t think there are any revolutionary ideas here, but hope this may be of use to anyone else contemplating the conversion or looking for an easy one to start with. The model as supplied picks up electricity from the …read more.
Sep 24, 2016
Empire Mills Summer 2016
As we indicated in May, we have an exhibition in Peterborough in October, and so the summer has been focussed on getting ready for that. As we started to fiix some problems with the track with (including some damaged track ends at board joints, the fiddle yard and some unevenness in the track itself) we …read more.
Aug 28, 2016
Empire Mills gets a turntable
Following our last blog in May, we have unpacked the layout from its hibernation and a group of members gathered to go through the list of stuff that we thought needed doing. Now as we know, there is no ‘right way’ to build a model railway. There are certainly some wrong ways but most of us have a …read more.
Jun 26, 2016
May 2016 Update
It’s all been a bit quiet since the layout visited Portsmouth last Autumn. As is the nature of Club layouts, unfortunately some of the key team behind the layout have had to step back from the project for a while, and as the layout had been up and being worked on for most of 2015, we …read more.
May 6, 2016
Minories at 60th Anniversary Exhibition in Romford
We were delighted to be invited back to the Ilford and West Essex Model Railway Club’s exhibition “West Essex Modelrail” on 23/4 April, their 60th annual show. It took place at the St Edward’s School in Romford, We were in a small pocket of EM layouts, opposite Mike Bell’s “Prospect Wharf …read more.
Apr 23, 2016
3 Red Panniers Project – Blog 2: It’s ‘EM’ Easy
Progress on L96 continues as I make preparations for detailing on the tank body. Meanwhile, I have started work on the second Pannier ‘L90’ which will be converted to EM (18.2 mm) gauge. For this, I have bought a Gibson conversion package which includes the following: OO/EM Wheel set + Axles Crankpins Coupling Rod Bushes …read more.
Jan 23, 2016
3 Red Panniers Project – Blog 1: Farewell GWR
Red Pannier Tanks became a standard feature on the London Transport Network until the 70’s. Their small size was ideal for transporting goods across the Sub-surface network, many were seen trundling across the Metropolitan Line in the final years of Steam on the Underground. There has always been something about Panniers that I have found …read more.
Jan 9, 2016
Track building – Part 1
One of the more frequent questions I get asked at exhibitions is how the track is built. Modelling in EM there isn’t much choice for anything other than plain track, but my track building goes back to my teenage OO days. Despite living only a couple of miles away at the time, I originally stumbled …read more.
Dec 27, 2015