The last meeting of 2024 was held on 14th December at our usual venue of the Edinburgh Society of Model Engineers. 10 members attended - Simon, Stephen, Andy, Stuart, Alistair, Alastair, Alisdair, James, Jim and Tony; a welcome guest from the Grampian Area Group.
(Both Press Officers had the temerity to not be in attendance, hence this terse and much belated posting by a grudging stand-in. The late posting along with a lack of notes and photos contribute to the brevity of this report.)
There was the usual rash of individual projects going, but Mearns Shed made an appearance at last and was having some paving laid inside the shed along with the mock up of inspection pits between the rails. Nae piccies so just imagine it.
Tony was working on his conversion of a Farish Ivatt 2-6-0 using Nigel Hunt's upgrade etch for the valve gear and tender chassis. He was busily beavering away on the valve gear, in grave danger of a carelessly directed sneeze scattering his work far and wide...
Stuart was putting together a rather pleasant set of terraced houses for his Norther English mill layout. On a curve and rising gradient, the geometry of the roof was a bit of a challenge.
Alistair was pottering away sketching up a plan for a quick and simple layout.
Stephen brought along his latest batch of N gauge goodies. Lovely stuff, but I'm not sure where the nuclear flask carrier would fit in on Mearns Shed...
After a recent lull in production Simon had been very busy churning out rolling stock for his Glenfinnan layout. Some nice weathering there.
Jim's latest magnum opus is a 3-car London Underground set for Caledonian Road. (They must have fooled him into thinking the Caledonian Road had something to do with the Caledonian Railway.) Mostly etched, he has been assisted Graham 3D-printing the roofs and seating.
James was showing a neat little TOU made using a model aeroplane aileron servo (which moves to and fro, rather than round and round).
Alastair was continuing his work on a wee diesel shunter, the most of which is his own 3D-printed work. (including coupling rods - interesting to see if that works.)
Alisdair brought along his recently finished converted EFE Austerity to show off. However, he had failed to close the cap properly on the bottle of Easitrac glue in his bag and some of it found it's way into the mechanism of the loco. Many sweary words and tears ensued from one individual, but the rest of us had a good giggle. (Luckily, the glue was still wet and some swift dismantling and washing under the tap(!) seemed to have saved the day.)
Next meeting Saturday January 11th 2025.
