South Hams Area Group Report November 2024

Over a period of time the South Hams group has lost a number of members due to illness, moving away from the area and the decision to move from S7 to other scales. This made the rental of the hall where we met at Bittaford untenable. As a member of the Plymouth 0 Gauge Group I suggested to the 3 remaining members, Peter Plume, Martyn Welch and Keith Hurd that we join them as they had a number of advantages, including a rental agreement and a storage facility at the William Sutton Hall.

At the time the Plymouth group were planning on replacing their time expired test track. I made a request for a circuit of S7 track to be included which after some negotiation was agreed. Following the lifting of the Covid restrictions plans were drawn up and the ply boards laser cut. Individual members built the boards, I built the supporting trestles and soldered up the 32 electrical connectors with 8 cables to each one, it took a while. We were allocated the large radius outer circuit of 7' 6". The test track measures approximately 20' x 16' comprising of 16 boards, 4 straight and 12 curved.

I contacted the S7 committee to enquire whether there was any assistance that could be provided to help cover the cost of building the track. This was agreed, provided we purchased the chairs from the stores with the group providing the steel rail to the value of the chairs. This we immediately agreed to and we are delighted with the response and help we received from the committee, including the work of Paul Stokes in posting it all to me. I had the required number of plastic sleepers bought for a project which didn’t progress.

A Templot plan was drawn up by Bill Eaton for which we are grateful, to include the 4 transition curves needed. The 16 track sections were divided equally between the 4 of us and built. Once the track sections were complete Keith and I took 4 individual boards at a time to his garage and laid and pinned the track until all 16 sections were completed. Thanks are also due to Martin Prince for wiring in the track sections along with the finescale track

There were of course the usual number of gremlins to overcome but we now have a working circuit of S7 track. If you are in the South Hams area of Devon on the 3rd Sunday of the month please contact me to arrange a visit, the S7 test track can accommodate DC or DCC locomotives, We look forward to seeing you.

The enclosed photos show the test track with Peter Plumes scratch built S & D locomotive and Dapol Jinty conversion which are radio controlled and my Lee Marsh 517.