Page 15 - November December 2013

Below, we see Koos and Pete S., supervising the first train into Wolter Springs:
Western Union: the modular fun continues
Brian Moore
The September meet of the Western Union division of the NMRA(BR) was a busy one, and we had Region President Keith Webb pay us a visit, as well as two of the eastern­Devon­based RS Tower boys, Mel Rogers and Martyn Read. Below are pictured Rob Mallett, Pete Saunders, Keith and Martyn:
Keith also paid a visit to my 1954­based Southern Pacific layout the night before, and hopefully enjoyed the combination of big steam power, long reefer trains and good beer:
Here’s a shot of Koos’s freelance North Eastern #1623, a detailed, re­sprayed and upgraded Athearn model he made some years ago and now with a Soundtraxx Tsunami installed, running light after depositing three cars at their respective destinations:
The WU September meet also saw the unveiling of yet another set of HO modules, with Koos Fockens bringing along his Wolter Springs boards for the first time, and they were placed after Pete Saunders’s Rocklin, at the end of the top left­hand spoke, one of four that emanated from the Lipson Junction crossover section built by Mike Ruby.
A YouTube video of the crossover boards in action featured in the weekly Model Railroader email newsletter sent to all MR subscribers worldwide on 19 September 2013, above the heading, “The Western Union’s HO scale modular layout at a meet in Plymouth, UK”, and it does our image no harm for our colonial cousins to be shown how we do things.
There are also plans to run a commuter service across the lay­ out, and Mike Ruby’s 11th Avenue module provides terminus passenger tracks for this capability. Below, we see Rob Mallett’s SP commute coaches leaving 11th Avenue behind his freight GP9:
A friend of mine, Californian ex­CalTrain engineer and railroad modeller Frank Caron, saw this picture and immediately likened it to an underpass near San Jose, and you can’t get a better compliment, as he would know if anyone would, having driven the route countless times himself. We can live with that.
Koos lives with his family in Devon, but works during the week in the Netherlands, where the module was built. Named after his late father, Wolter Springs made its way safely through the Channel Tunnel, and was a welcome addition to the set­up.
december 2013 15