Model and Miniature TRACKWORKER (incorporating the Signal) This is the one that nearly got away - Now finally available via the Web! MRC eld from the members of Uck Articles and Features News, The journal of Uckeld Model Railway Club. Published on an occasional2008 basis / 2009 Winter 2001 / 2002 Dec2008TWCover.indd 1 10/01/2009, 07:03 Model and Miniature TrackWorker Winter 2008/2009 Editor: John Pollington. e-mail: [email protected] CONTENTS Next Issue: Summer 2009 CLUB DIARY Deadline for the next issue will be determined by the Meetings and other events: 2 amount of material submitted to the Editor. FEATURE Submission of any item which may be of interest Adventures of K.C. the Engineer: 3 to our readers would be welcome, including good quality colour or monochrome photos or diagrams for inclusion on the front and rear cover, or to EXHIBITION REPORTS complement written articles. Publication cannot be Club Show 2001 - First Impressions: 7 guaranteed and material may have to be edited, split or held over for future issues. Bentley Miniature Railway since 2000: 8 Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those LAYOUT REPORTS of the Editor, the Management Council or the Board Leysdown (P4): 10 of Directors. Buckham Hill (0): 10 Test Track “Polo Mint” (N, TT, 00, EM &P4: 10 Netherhall and Fletching (00): 10 Cover photograph Oak Valley (N): 10 Cranbrook (P4): 10 Laurie’s Wren “Bill Powell” arriving at Glyndebourne Wood station back in 2005, during BMR’s 10th Anniversary cavalcade weekend. Editorial Time flies yet again, and it’s more than a few years since the last issue, so here I go burning the midnight oil again. Although I’m “retired” now, I still don’t seem to have nearly enough free time on my hands to do everything I want to; strange, isn’t it? This issue features the last episode in the series “Adventures of K.C. the Engineer”, which had been held over from the last TrackWorker (Winter 2000). Certainly worth waiting for. Hopefully (now, where have I said that before?) the next issue will not bee too long in gestation. From this issue onwards the TrackWorker will be available online via the club website members area. A very limited number of copies will be available at both of our club locations on a first-come-first-served basis for those who still do not have access to the World Wide Web. The next issue publication date will depend on material supplied by YOU, so please send your submissions to me at the email address above as soon as you can. Happy modelling. John Pollington Uckfield Model Railway Club Limited is a Company Limited by Guarantee, incorporated on 13 August 1999. Registered Company No.3824818. Registered Office: c/o Richard Place Dobson, 5 High Street, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 5AB Company Officers and Board of Directors - 2008/9 Company Secretary: Company Treasurer: Directors: Alex Tombling David Clifford Barry Miller, Geoff Billington, Alex Tombling, Keith Nock, Martin Marrison Management Council - 2008/9 President: Chairman: Secretary: Treasurer: Management Council Members: Keith Nock Martin Marrison Alan Morris David Clifford Barry Miller, David Kiernan, Derek Barlow, John Pollington, Geoff Billington - 1 - Dec2008TWContents.indd 1 11/01/2009, 09:03 Winter 2008/2009 Model and Miniature TrackWorker CLUB DIARY 2009 CLUB MEETINGS are held in our rented HQ building north of Uckfield, every Monday evening. Open from 7:30pm. Details of Club model railway activities and layouts are also available on Adrian Colenutt’s web site: www.uckfieldmrc.co.uk. Members also meet at weekends for the maintenance of our miniature railway in the grounds of Bentley Wildfowl & Motor Museum, on Thursday evenings during the summer months, and every Saturday outside the main operating season. During the operating season, from mid-March to October, members operate the Bentley Miniature Railway on Saturday afternoons, Sundays and Bank Holidays, plus daily during local school holiday times. Details of Bentley Miniature Railway, its operating days and features on the locomotives are also available on the club’s web site: www.bentleyrailway.co.uk (there are links from our web site to Adrian’s, but be aware that there may not be any to bring you back, so you may need to use the ‘back’ button) Club Diary items are normally detailed in the Club Newsletter which is published separately. However, a short list of some of the key events are listed here for your information. February 13-15 Brighton ModelWorld at the Brighton Centre - setting-up day is Thursday 12th. Extra hands needed on Thursday and Sunday (particularly the evening pack-up and transport back to HQ) - Contact Alex Tombling if you are able to assist. February 16-20 Half-Term: Daily operations at Bentley Miniature Railway April 10-13 Easter weekend at Bentley Miniature Railway May June July 20 - September 4 School Holidays: Daily operations at Bentley Miniature Railway September 18-20 Woodfair at Bentley - 3-days of intensive operations at BMR October 17-18 Club Annual Exhibition at Uckfield Civic Centre October 26-30 Half-Term: Daily operations at Bentley Miniature Railway - 2 - Dec2008TWContents.indd 2-3 11/01/2009, 09:03 Model and Miniature TrackWorker Winter 2008/2009 The Adventures of K.C. the Engineer .........(continued from Dec. 2000 issue) Ukraine part 3 Prikliochenie roman sochineniya K.C. mashinistii - chasti tre. Thiss iss mi sekonnd eneleesh leson, I thingk I r getinng qwite god. - Allo it is Kyril Clavootich, K.C. the Ingineer, from Kiev. Privetstvie, Welcome. As the plane taxied towards the terminal, past rows of As we lifted the blinds during the night yet another train Tupolov tri motors, (like a 727 only no motors, they had rolled through and freights clumped by on both sides all been removed for repair), the level of excitement was of the sleeper. At day break we found that we had rising. I know you can get pills for that but I have been been parked all night next to the Moscow up line on a interested in the railways of the Soviet Union for many house track probably used to stable officer’s inspection years. Now my first visit was beginning. saloons. The station was a long way away in the distance and we didn’t go anywhere near it all the time Not much sign of the railway on the drive to Kiev, which we were there. The station access road crossed the line is 20km from Borispol airport. The roadside direction just by our sleeper and there seemed to be a public signs measured the distance to any where in hundreds path across the Moscow line as well. Those crossing the of kilometers! The bus pulled up outside Kiev Passenger line just hitched up their skirts (if they were women!), put Voxsal, the main town railway station. (Yes, you’ve their bikes on their shoulders and crossed the four main guessed it, the name for a station in Russian is taken tracks only waiting when the trains were in the way!. from the south London terminus of the old London and We had about an hour to wait whist the light improved Southampton. Apparently the Russians were on a fact and breakfast was made before our steam loco arrived. finding visit and were taken there. Seeing the station Today a class TE 2-10-0 ex DR Kriegslok. Whilst waiting name on big boards everywhere they thought it was the three freight trains headed for Kiev arrived and pulled English word for station. We know it isn’t, but it’s a good up for inspection, and two passed through the station story and all true!) The station, like a huge Scandinavian headed for Moscow, with at least one light engine on barn rose up in front of us. The square in front of the the branch line. station was packed with people, but very few cars. Our train was at platform one, next to the main building. At Kiev there are twenty six platforms, 19 through roads, 5 stub end tracks at the west end for suburban terminating trains as well as platforms on a double track avoiding line that runs below the station square. It’s very big and very busy. Behind a ChS4 25,000 volt AC electric our train trundeled along to Bakmatch, our first overnight stop on this trip. The distance from Kiev to Bakmatch is about 195km and three hours later we arrived and were trying to sleep. The train was stabled next to the Kiev to Moscow main line. This was big time railroading right outside the window and it gives me the opportunity to tell you about the train services found in the Ukraine, (and the ex Soviet Union). The freight trains, hauled by class VL80 electrics, Bakmatch is a junction between the Kiev to Moscow contained loads of all descriptions, mixed general main line and a secondary single track line running freight, bulk freight, Red Army tanks converted for use between Riga, Minsk, Kaliningrad, Vilnius and Gomel as fire fighters, forklift trucks, tank cars including that in the north west and Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk and the Soviet specialty, the eight axle tank car, as well as Caucasus to the south east. The main line to the north obvious empties and covered vans. One of the trains passes through Briansk on the way to Moscow. Trains was the Ukrainian equivalent of a merry go round to the south from Moscow go to Odessa, Kishiniv, and train, called a “carousel” train, all bogie hoppers. As for most areas of South East Europe such as Budapest, passenger trains Bakmatch is a twenty four hour a day Sofia and Prague.