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http://www.merionethrailwaysociety.com
This document is provided on the understanding that all rights remain with the Merioneth Railway Society and the respective contributors and no redistribution is permitted without the written consent of the Merioneth Railway Society. A contact form can be found under the About Us tab.
In order to publish the Mercurys in a format for the web site some changes have had to be made to the magazine. Phone numbers and addresses have been removed and pictures and drawings may not reflect their original published size.
THE MERIOMETH MERCURY
Issue No. 2.
Edited by Dan Boreham
Issue No. 2.
Edited by Dan Boreham
The Editor, having run out of excuses for not publishing a second issue of this famous, or at least, notorious, news-sheet, reluctantly takes his quill pen in hand, adjusts his perruque, inhales a pinch of snuff from his exquisitely-chased 13th century snuff-box, adjusts his fine Mechlin lace cuffs, and proceeds to spill the beans. Said beans consist largely of an account of the Merioneth Railway Society's participation in the Greenwich and District Narrow Gauge Railway Society's Exhibition, held at Greenwich Community Centre (Greenwich old Town hall - so that's what happens to Old Town halls, is it? I always wondered what possible use they could be, once discarded, or even before) at which the Merioneth Railway Company was well represented.
We exhibited our celebrated layout, now somewhat altered from what it was the last time we showed it, at the Central Hall in August 1973. One difference was that the quarry end was not there, its place being taken by a small fiddle yard - easier to work with a restricted number of operators that would the quarry yard have been, although a number of visitors expressed disappointment at its absence. It’s surprising how well some people remember these things!
In the second place, the main fiddle yard at the end of the layout was under extensive reconstruction by John Kimber who had provided new and firm baseboards, three siding roads and a turntable. Unfortunately he had been unable to complete the associated pointwork in time so that only one road was fully operational. This entailed a good deal of crane shunting which could not really have been to the liking of the models involved although they were very patient about it and did not seem to show any signs of damage. There is no doubt that when the pointwork at the throat of the fiddle yard is complete we will be in possession of really fine layout.
A third, and final, alteration was the provision of a crossover between the main platform road and the main line to the quarry. This was in a facing direction for any train leaving the quarry end, and likewise for any train entering the station. Built thus, it serves two purposes: firstly, the rain purpose for which it was designed, that of an engine release loop; and secondly, assuming no passenger train to be in the station, the platform road can now be used as part of a passing loop.
From the point of view of public performance, this worked perfectly but little did the public know, however, of the panic it had caused us for there had been a dead short whenever the road was set for the crossover. It took what seemed to me to be hours to trace this fault which all knew to have been caused by an incorrect connection somewhere'. The question was: Where? Its location was finally discovered by Dave Bradwell – Northern Dave - and thanks to him we were able to cure it and to put the crossover to the use for which it had been designed.
Rolling stock was provided, as always, by members of the Society, and we were specially pleased to see Frank Norrington's locomotive "Kate" which practically ran itself into the ground the last time it was on show, back in action, none the worse, and coupled to a rake of three Sandy River coaches and a caboose, all labelled Merioneth Railway Company", which he had built in the intervening period.
There were many other interesting things to be seen at this Exhibition, the Greenwich Society's fourth; but I am unable to do more than just mention their existence since, like all operators of layouts, I was chained, albeit invisibly, to our awn stand and found it difficult to get around the Exhibition; but it was undoubtedly a very good show and thoroughly deserved its success. Our thanks to our Greenwich friends for their' invitation to exhibit.
This Exhibition was held on the weekend of March 22-23, and, the following weekend being Easter, the Model Railway Club's Exhibition was held as usual at the Central Hall, Westminster. This year we were not represented there, simply because, with one or two exceptions, there were no narrow-gauge models there. This was not because of any desire to exclude either us or narrow-gauge models generally, but simply because the Club's 50th Exhibition happened to coincide with the 150th anniversary year of British railways (not British Railways, of course - they are a mere 28 years old) and the Exhibition committee decided that instead of the usual Group stands there would be two stands or models (excluding visiting provincial clubs), one showing scratch-built models of prototypes from the earliest times onward, the other a similar progression of commercial models.
On second thoughts I aim somewhat wrong about our non-participation. Before he left for South Africa last year, Tony Jenkins, whom a few of you may possibly remember, left a kit-built model of the Penydarren Tramroad locomotive of 1804 with me, with a drawing of its tender and instructions to complete the model and offer it for exhibition on this particular occasion. Fortunately the Powers-that-Be accepted it as a model of the first railway engine - otherwise there would have been a lot of wasted work and effort.
The present writer also had an exhibit accepted; but as this was a model of a standard-gauge Mawddwy Valley train, it can scarcely be claimed as a Merioneth exhibit! Still, it was Welsh.
Finally, Adrian Garner, also a Merioneth member, showed his Tothill Fields monorail - forerunner of the Listowel & Ballybunion - so perhaps the Merioneth Railway Society was represented after all, even if indirectly.
Personal points.
Colin Binnie has left the Rank Organization and is at the moment working in partnership with certain friends of his who are in the same line of business as he. he has also decided to manufacture a standard 0-4-0 chassis which will be offered for sale to 16mm scale modelers and which should take a lot of the hard work out of making locomotive chassis (chasses? chassises? - you know what I mean, anyway).
Colin's wife Marjorie recently underwent an internal operation at the new Charing Cross Hospital, a palatial medical establishment which has everything except a Palm Court Orchestra in its spacious carpet-covered entrance hall, itself an ideal spot for nocturnal nurse-chasing. We are happy to report that .Marjorie is well on the way to recovery, although, as is to be expected, this is not complete yet. Hence, until further notice, meetings will be held on Fridays at the usual time (i.e., as soon as you can get there) at Northolt. Don't just sit and natter - bring some modelling and get on with it.
You will find, on visiting, that the space between it and Jo. next door has been roofed over with a corrugated polystyrene covering. This provides a covered way 25 feet long down the side of each house. How amazing, isn't it that this has been done just when the occupant of No. 135 has decided to construct an outdoor 16mm scale line!
Merioneth Mercury. Issue No. 2. MAY 1975.