Modules and FreeMO

Author’s SD45 coming in with the local, dropping off some cars for the 44 Tonner to later switch. March ’25 Physical Meet.

With much excitement throughout the last 5/6 months comes much apologies! I seem to have not updated you on our physical meets since the Berkshire Special in 2024. Let’s correct this right now…

After the Berkshire Special, there was a general high from the Thamesiders in attendance, and we spent most of November’s physical meet just taking it easy. There wasn’t much photographic or video evidence of our enjoyment, so you’ll just have to take our word for it. What became apparent however fairly quickly was our desire to perhaps help host another convention like it again. As of writing this, that possibility is about to start being planned, potentially with the same partnership, but watch this space.

We confirmed this fact during the AGM and Christmas Lunch held in December. We were slightly light on attendees, mostly because of the storms causing trouble for the travellers needing to take the Dartford Crossing, for example, but for the most part, the usual attendance of the physical meets were present. Notable decisions from the AGM included holding our annual Open House (now the NMRA BR Summer Meet) on 21 June, aiming for another Quiz night, as well as the general agreement of hosting another NMRA BR Convention in 2026.

The same committee were elected, and at the time, the intentions were to hopefully catch up with these updates back then. Well… we all know how that went! With the meal done, we closed off another successful year for the Thamesiders. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to at least one member, because understandably the commute to and from St. Osyth was taking its’ toll for this person based at least 2 hours away.

This seemed to be our only concern for the moment moving into 2025; we noted a similar issue with one visitor early in 2024, whom couldn’t join us because the trip to and from the location was too much for them. For the moment we are doing okay enough for it to not be at the top of our list of issues, but it shall become a point to contend with if we lose other members in future.

Dennis’ Grand Canyon departing the yard on the N Scale in February ’25.

Our return in January saw us rearranging and sorting our storage at St Osyth. Myself aka publicity officer was unable to attend due to still recovering from a particularly nasty migraine which lasted most of the week before, but the other regulars seemed happy with the outcome and from what I have seen of both the stage and garage, everything seems to be in a more logical location. I know it was tough in November ’24 trying to get everything we needed for the meet out, and the general comparison to our experience in February ’25 confirms a difference was indeed made.

Dennis’ Grand Canyon train from the rear – drumhead noted and appreciated.

Moving on to February, and our first proper running session of the year. I took this opportunity to finish up with any outstanding work on the “recovering” Peach Meadows board, mainly aligning the track properly to the Clark Junction board in situ. I was pleased with the outcome; we had effectively removed one pain point for several members, but as it was one of several, the work continues. I was pleased to hear Chris C was satisfied with the join; before we did anything about it, his coal drag was a regular patient, but afterwards, it glided effortlessly across without decoupling, promising an almost a trouble-free run until it hit another problematic location down the line.

It must be said however, if I had the space, I would probably take the boards home with me and completely replace the foam foundations in favour of plywood. There may be hope in possibly achieving that in future, but that relates to my personal update which I’ll stick at the very end. The foam unfortunately serves as a very poor base for modules which get thrown about practically every month, and I can see it causing an issue later on during its life if something more permanent isn’t done about it. I know the top scenic covering is still loose; however with the track secured it isn’t as much of a disaster for the moment. It unfortunately doesn’t look very good!

Author’s BN Commuter Cab-Car running on the HO in Feb ’25.

Some noteworthy moments from February included Dennis K’s Grand Canyon, trying to run on the N scale layout. Unfortunately, one of David’s modules developed a power problem, and through pressured troubleshooting, the rest of the layout kept shutting off frustrating the other members. David acknowledged this, and relented during the meet to allow the others a chance to run their trains in some capacity. He may also be relenting on the relay/Arduino solution in favour of frog juicers. Time will tell; after all this is a hobby and it’s one thing to be pressured by the needs of a group, but it’s completely something different to personally face the horrors of ripping out and replacing components. March seemed to be better; there didn’t seem to be as much frustration or sudden silence-restarts going on.

I, having recently (and finally) received my Gallery Commuter Cars from Rapido, was very pleased to run them on the HO. They performed very well, surprisingly resisting the issues which tended to frustrate other modeller’s trains. I was expecting difficulties because the truck mechanisms seemed very tight, or at least, more fine compared to the many Walthers cars I have operated on to improve reliability. Perhaps asking us to fork out roughly £100 a car means something to Rapido, and they proved themselves very well. Keep an eye out for a video in the near future; they rival my El Capitan in terms of visuals, but because they aren’t the Santa Fe, they’ll never be that close to my heart! I only got them because of my sheer joy of seeing them in person in Chicago once upon a time, plus I could potentially get away with the BNs in particular running in the background of my (hopeful) future Chicago-based terminus layout.

Author’s local freight pulling the new Roka Model’s tank cars. February ’25 meet.

Lastly for the meet in February, I took along my newly-acquired Roka Models tank cars. Like the Gallery Cars, they ran wonderfully, and were only hampered by a coupler height problem occurring on the 2nd hand baggage-combine car I also brought for testing. It seemed the ScaleTrains couplers on the SD45 are a tad too thin for the relatively small height change between the board joins, so the car itself may have been innocent. As mandated by me, they have since been replaced with Kadees, which was the original plan for the March meet but I never got around to it until afterwards.

Lastly, but not at all the least, brings us nicely into the March physical meet. This was generally a positive one again with running on both layouts, and this time I took my El Capitan. What stood out for me during this meet was working out how to command the points with my tablet, which I was doing for the latter half of the meet with shunting operations. The videos I captured may not see YouTube for a little while yet as I pad out the queue of livestreams and videos from February, however the session did remind me of the few meets I had just after I joined the Thamesiders, and the eventual inspiration behind “the Essex Belt adventures”. With experience and use of the tripod (and now understanding how to easily level it), I was able to get some decent footage, rivalling some of that accidental high quality footage of years gone. This post’s first photo and thumbnail come from that very footage.

The SD45 and the local serving as a test subject for the track magnets and remote switching capability.

That generally wraps up our catchup. If I remember correctly, our escape times for the physical meets has always been earlier than on the kick out hours of years past. That again is thanks to those of us whom are able to attend, as well as the trollies as provided by Chris C. Albeit it being important to have a decent level of attendance if we wish to run trains, at the end of the day, this is a hobby we are paying to enjoy. My own experience of being pressured into attending, and then being mocked and/or being the centre of expelled “hot air” in relation to not being able to attend, left a sour taste in my mouth. With this in mind, I say to you, if you find the time, and ability to do so, please consider coming to St Osyth and run some trains.

Driving up and down the A12 for an hour each way once a month, spending hours setting up and breaking down, is all worth it for the few hours we get running trains, progressing little projects, and dare I say, even fixing small problems. Provided my health and finances keep up, I don’t think I’ll ever stop, because those few hours have made me a model railroader. They also have put the Thamesiders near the front of my planner each month, and if there ever was a clash with other clubs’ events, the Thamesiders will win out because I really do enjoy those few precious hours. I hope you are able to experience a similar satisfaction some day, even if it isn’t with the Thamesiders, but we sure would love it to be.

My final recommendation before dedicating a paragraph for my personal update is this; if you would like to come down but find yourself limited to one visit, please consider 21 June. This is our main event this year, and is probably where you’ll get to see the layouts in top form. All are welcome.

Neal K
Santa Fe all the way

(My personal update below)

Author’s El Capitan departing Peach Meadows after the 44 Tonner shunted some box cars into the head end.

A personal update

Part of the reason of failing to post the regular physical meet posts is because of mine and Kat’s house hunting situation was in serious flux during this period. To surmise, we lost our original buyer and the house we were going for. However, we did manage to secure another buyer and find another house. This took a lot of time, effort and as you could imagine, emotion. We’re now almost where we were before the previous’ chain collapse, and are hoping for a move date soon, albeit will be remaining cautious of the fact the deed isn’t done until the contracts are set and exchanged.

We are looking forward to moving and settling in to our future house, wherever it may be. I am personally excited for being able to properly setup a train space which I will know will be mine, and not contested as is the case for my flat’s loft at the minute. It may take some time to get a space situated, but when it is, I have no doubt it will be full speed ahead with my own layout/modules. Kat has also been… open… to letting me run a line around the future garden, so that may happen before the train space is up and ready.

If I can catch up with the Ditchlights as well, we’ll be back to good health for the website overall. In future I may also try to encourage members to submit posts, but getting articles in the Ditchlight will suffice.

Neal K

Tom F’s coal drag passing the box cars readied for the later arrival of the El Capitan.

Our first physical meet of 2023 was, in my opinion, a well-organised one. Set out to setup quickly, the HO was up in record time thanks to another decent amount of helpers. The N Scale was not far behind and both layouts were running something by at least 11:00. With this quick win, the livestreams were able to return with some reasonable successes on the day, with an hour on the N Scale, overlooking the bridges at Taggart, and then another at Essex Ethanol on the HO Essex Belt Lines.

Dennis’ Chicago Great Western F3A hauling a unit train over the bridge

Dennis’ CB&Q E9 crossing the bridge with a passenger consist

Our first spot on the livestream was a SF Alligator hauling a track-cleaning box car, and there was a big push to get some equipment moving in the early stages. I spotted a personal favourite from Dennis’ collection, the CB&Q E9, as well as that familiar logging order now being what I believed to be David’s two truck shay. There were some issues unfortunately, and a decision was made to move the stream over to the HO to support some much needed maintenance on the N Scale. It seems there was a short happening somewhere down the line near the reverse loop, and after the lunch break the MOW crew had both return loops down and were working on them, so hopefully they got it sorted…

David’s two truck shay, taking its turn with the logs this time around

In terms of the HO, I set about fixing some pulled up rail at Ethanol, Paul P & Paul H looked at replacing some of Laxton’s points, as well as fitting some end boards to the standing fans, making all of the EBL modules now arranged in pairs for easier transport and handling. This month’s stock rosters included the usual express passenger trains and coal drags, but this time around the EBL had a brief dabble into the RDC locals, bringing about one of my personal highlights of this meet.

My (Neal K’s) pair of ATSF RDCs passing the Ethanol Plant

Both myself and Michael T had brought RDC pairs to run; Michael, from memory, had a pair of Reading & Pennsylvania RDCs, with one of them being an older model manufactured in the UK (It happened!), and I bought my newly acquired Rapido ATSF RDCs. We both had them out on the road for at least a lap back to back following one of the express passengers. This event unfortunately happened off screen when the N Scale had control, so there is no footage or pictures capturing both pairs. Maybe in future…?

Michael’s *Centipede*s hauling a long express passenger, with the engineer himself in the background

Taking some author privileges I’d like to take a small tangent and talk briefly about my RDCs (I’ll carry on about the meet after the next picture).

The purchase of these represent my final decision to stop investing in at least two separate eras and instead focus on a single era, including to my past self’s horror, offloading some equipment which no longer matched my chosen era. One of these “successful offloads” you’ll see later, but in line with that final decision came my first proper look into my models and their histories. To my delight I found not only Rapido’s description, but also another on the internet here:

ATSF RDC-1 DC-191

That’s it; I just wanted to share. What this means for my modelling plans is still unknown, but what I do know (a little) now brings me some satisfaction.

Back to the meet…

My Southern Pacific Dash-9, doing her best to get her unit train past the Ethanol Plant

Another highlight for me came in the form of newly-delivered pre-order which suffered a small fall the night before the meet. Thinking nothing of this little accident, I packed my new Scaletrains Dash-9 to run on the EBL. Little did I know the engine obviously had some internal mechanism damage as the front axles were refusing to spin, forcing all of the engine’s work onto the rear axles.

Since this was on the livestream, there were many notable instances of the hand of god. Eventually I managed to get her parked at Peach Meadows station awaiting rescue. The rescuer was none other than our younger modeller’s Conrail Dash-8, passed on to him from my collection as a Christmas Present.

A meet between old and (kind of) modern; Kian’s Conrail Dash-8, and Michael T’s mallet. The former is pulling into the siding at Essex Ethanol.

It was here the next highlight came, in the form of a meet between the Dash-8, and Michael T’s mallet; something I imagine never did happen and may never happen outside of possibly an excursion gone badly wrong…?

After the mallet’s train pulled out, the Dash-8 reversed back onto the main to proceed to rescue the Dash-9, and back to staging. I hope to have the Dash-9 repaired in time for the next meet, provided my lack of care hasn’t caused something too serious. There was one final highlight of the day…

My ATSF express passenger behind a E6 AB consist

Not as well researched for ATSF express consists as I am with the RDCs, I decided to bring what I believed to be a common express passenger consist of the ATSF. Whether this would be the Super Chief is up for debate, but until I can paint and light all cars (and especially a drumhead), it serves just as well as another freelanced express passenger such as the Essex Belt ~~Limited~~ Chief.

The highlight around this was in the face of some troubling derailments for the other modellers, this train ran every lap without a single issue. I believe I managed to score 5 laps in before it was time to pack up. It’s nice having at least one of my trains run very smoothly for once. We agreed to start packing at 15:00, and much to our surprise (and frustration) we were almost done by the time it was 16:00. You know what they say about it being better to be early than late…

Overall a good day I would say, and an okay start to 2023. My thoughts are with my parents and nephew on this the 16th anniversary of my sister’s passing, and my thoughts are with the group and the individual close to them whom recently was diagnosed with a serious illness.

Please keep them all in your thoughts and hearts for us. Stay safe, happy modelling and hold your loved ones close.

Neal K

Thamesiders MRG

A group of model railroad enthusiasts based in the East of England.

Thamesiders Physical Meet – November ’24 to March ’25 Catchup Special

Thamesiders Physical Meet – Saturday, 14 January 2023