Page 23 - November December 2009

Annual Report – Ireland Division 12b Des Browne
Membership has been fairly stable, with six members near Belfast and now five modellers have joined from Southern Ireland, made much easier by the efforts by the BOD to bring Irish members within the British Region. Brendan Curran has been instrumental in starting a mixed club in Abbeyleix, County Laois, with members Michael Allen from Galway and Gordon Martin from Carlow. This is quite central within Ireland, only an hour from Dublin where we have two new members but about 4 hours from Belfast. There is a good US section in one of the Dublin clubs, with a number of supporting modellers, but few have joined the NMRA yet.
We have had an interesting but much quieter year. We held our usual ten meetings, well attended by local members. Some guests usually attended. Mostly held in my home, with my “Victorville” layout slowly developing, but also twice at member Laurence Bindley’s Eastern-based layout and once at Derek Manson’s BN layout now almost ready for scenery. Derek was a member in Scotland and recently returned here. Peter McVicar’s UP layout “Eagle Rock” continues to get high praise at local exhibitions and is now being operated using DCC and also expanded with extra sections.
We did not hold a full exhibition ourselves this year but instead we increased our visibility at other exhibitions; most of these efforts have been attached to my commercial stand but at one we
Tomalco S Scale Track
Raymond Hall and I have now received our first Code 100 Tomalco Track, so a layout has now broken ground! The turnouts are to NMRA S-scale standards and look very well beside the American Models American Flyer-compatible Code 148 track. The flexible track is mounted on US-style ties made from urethane, moulded with plates, spike heads and wood grain. They are slightly shiny, but this can be toned down. We chose ‘weathered’ colour for the rails.
Tomalco make the turnouts by gluing rail to laser-cut wood ties, virtually hand-built. All the bits are available as separate parts, including sleeper kits and super-detailed plastic castings for the frog and points in case anyone is interested in building their own. Ground throws or point motors need to be added. If anyone would like a sample of the flexible track, an SAE to me will get them a 2" piece and some descriptive literature.
Des Browne
20 Priory Manor, HOLYWOOD, Belfast BT18 0LD
The loco shown is a Baldwin S12. The Tomalco switch is a #6. The AM switch is nearly a #5. Note on the AM switch, Raymond glued an extra flange guide and made tighter flange clearances by gluing plastic shims about 0.08" to help scale wheels through the frog
area. AM also recommend shaving the nose of the frog slightly. NMRA standards are much better!
had a separate NMRA display. With On30, S, HO and N scale prominent, the idea was to show how much variety was available in American modelling. The On30 section was an outstanding diorama by Jane and Norman Adamson of an On30 pile driver built from a Precision Scale Models kit. This was placed in the centre of an oval of HO track demonstrating DCC using a 2-8-0 with sound and a small DC 0-4-0 to show the various features possible. Within this, an N scale oval also operated with a Kato EMD AC loco and Micro Trains rolling stock. An S Scale display with rolling stock owned by member Raymond Hall operated on a short length of track. Static HO brass and some Z scale items completed the display. I have attached some photos for your interest. We were very pleased with the result.
I have confidence that there will be continued growth of members in Ireland. Roundhouse is a vital element in the value for our members. Not everyone takes “Scale Rails”, and I believe that this separation has allowed stability in membership, though I personally do not begrudge the extra £5 a month for an excellent magazine. The website is a vital communication facility, while being able to pay by credit card, as well as being very convenient for us all, gets over the exchange rate problem for our friends in Southern Ireland and is thus much appreciated. I would like to thank all the Officers for their work; sometimes it may seem thankless, but we all know it is vital in keeping the British Region healthy and lively.
Des Browne
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