West Country Area Group

Co-ordinated by John Day T 01392 270692

Meetings are usually held every month at the Crediton Station Tea Rooms, Crediton, Devon.

On Saturday 19 January the West Country Area Group met at the Crediton Station Tea Rooms for our monthly luncheon bash. Because of sickness, holidays and other family commitments there were only thirteen of us on parade at this time but nevertheless there was still plenty to interest us.

Alan Benson brought along his latest locomotive project, a Finney GWR straight-framed 28xx 2-8-0 with, of course, full working valve gear, fire in the firebox and ash pan, and sound from the chimney. The engine was beautifully finished although still waiting a visit to the paint shop.

Frank Phipps brought along a locomotive still under construction, a MR Johnson 1698 Class 0-6-0 goods by Shedmaster, which will be a very nice model by the time it is finished. Frank also brought along some wagons which had been weathering for Chris Makepeace.

However, David Gosling stole the show this month. In conjunction with Robert Wigley he showed us a beautifully etched brass sheet for an LSWR Fox coach bogie. To accompany this he had built a completed bogie for us to prod, poke and push. Not only are the wheel sets, as you would expect, fully sprung but the coach bolster itself is fully sprung. These bogies seem superb and are like the original but in brass. I shall try to twist David’s arm for an article for a future newsletter.

So all in all, we had a very interesting and good meet up which was finished off with a very nice lunch in good company. For those who like statistics: in spite of only managing to muster seven of us at our meeting in March of last year, the average attendance over the whole of last year has been in excess of fifteen per gathering—not a bad figure considering we come from an area spread from Bristol to Plymouth, and Cornwall to Wiltshire and Hampshire.

Please feel free to contact me for dates of our forthcoming programme of meetings.