Ravenscar Pier & Funicular was exhibited at the very enjoyable Jarrow Model Railway Exhibition for the last time before it was collected by its new owner.

Ravenscar Pier & Funicular will be exhibited at the Jarrow Model Railway Exhibition on May 18/19th for its last exhibition before being collected by its new owner.

Ravenscar Pier & Funicular has replaced Electric Avenue at Model Rail 2024 which due to circumstances beyond our control will not be ready in time.

The next and final outing for Ravenscar Pier & Funicular, before it will be offered for sale, will be at Jarrow Model Railway Exhibition in May.

At Shildon the two lights above where we were located were not working, and hadn't been for some time, so it was not very light. We used our own lights, one at each end, which only get occasional use as most exhibitions are properly lit.

Its next and probably last outing, before it will be offered for sale, will be at Jarrow Model Railway Exhibition in May 2024. For more details see the 'Where to see Us' page.

The amplifier for the carousel music had stopped working and as it was easier to replace everything the 16v AC supply and rectifier has been replaced by the 9 volts DC supply which feeds the lights and the carousel.

A Brimal Components LR310 DC adjustable regulator has been fitted to reduce the supply to 5 volts for the replacement amplifier which has a volume control.

All the changes have had a positive result and everything is now working so Ravenscar Pier is now ready for its next exhibition.

The motor driving the carousel failed after 25 exhibitions when the plastic reduction gear teeth became worn so it has been replaced by an identical 28BYJ-48 5 volt geared stepper motor.

The Meccano coupling which was turned out to 5mm half way through has been replaced by a flexible coupling which should help extend the life of the motor.

The flexible coupling was an accidental find on eBay while looking for the replacement motor.

In order to access the wiring under the pier deck it has to be removed and turned over so two stands have been made to hold it upside down.

These stands prevent damage to the scenic items on the pier deck and were built from 'short ends' in the scrap wood box.

This stand fits on the 4 pin plug, which supplies power to the track and pier lights, at the seawall end and is held in place by one screw.

The other stand replaces the carousel, which has to be removed so that the deck can be slid out of its fixings, at the pier head and is held in place by a nut and washer.

With the stands fitted the deck was ready to be turned over so the wiring to the light which hasn't worked for some time could be repaired.

After being in storage for over 18 months and prior to the Beamish Exhibition Ravenscar Pier & Funicular was checked over with trams run to make sure everything was ready.

The lights on the carousel were flickering very badly so it was removed and the copper circles underneath where the power is collected were cleaned with a fibreglass brush to remove the corrosion which had occurred.

At Beamish one of the trams was stopping short at the pier head and when examined one of the pickups at the trailing end had failed so both Kato 11-103's have been replaced with Kato 11-109's.

Both will be run in for one day each at the next exhibition after that the shuttle time will be made longer as the slow running of the 11-109 is a great improvement on that of the 11-103.

Both Cliff Tramway cars have had their roofs repainted white as at Beamish where the light wasn't great white roofs would have made the cars much more visible.

Work will continue into next month with the carousel motor being replaced and repairs to the carousel audio both of which have stopped working.

A tram shelter kit was bought for Seaton at Christmas which included two telescopes. These have been painted black and added to the end of the pier.

One is bottom left on the photo and the other top left beyond the lamp standard with no-one using either of them.

After having minor problems at Jarrow MRC open day with one of the pier trams not running slowly enough along the pier both Kato 11-103 chassis have been removed from the trams for servicing and are now running as intended.

While checking everything was working before Perth Green Exhibition one of our Gaugemaster W controllers had stopped working.

Fortunately there is always a spare HH controller available and as there is a lifetime guarantee on all Gaugemaster controllers it has been posted back to them for repair.

This was the first exhibition where the tram ran without the battery trailer and front coupling and as no-one noticed it has become permanent.

When the Hudson trailer was built in 2013 from an 009 Society kit it was decided that the etched footboards were a bit too delicate for exhibition use so it ran without them until 2020.

At the Perth Green exhibition it became apparent that it should have footboards so after the exhibition some were made from 3.2mm x 3.2mm plastic angle solvent welded to the body.

The bogies were removed before the footboards were brush primed and painted green to match the rest of the trailer before being refitted.

A small addition from fellow pier tramway modeller Dave Carson who has donated a buffer stop for use at the Pierhead end of the tramway.

It is there to protect the carousel so is clear of the end of the track and as usual was painted by Margaret and fitted by Gordon.

Dave Carson built and exhibits New Walmington Pier another model of an Edwardian seaside pier.

To work as intended the waxed cotton haulage cable needs to run one and a half times round the drive pulley to move the trams up and down the slope.

At RAILEX NE the waxing on the cable appeared to be wearing off as on Saturday it occasionally got tangled and wrapped round the pulley. It was replaced on the Sunday morning and gave no further trouble.

After the exhibition the cable attachment loops on the trams were replaced with new shorter ones fitted at 90° to the originals to stop the front of the trams lifting on the idler pulleys at the top of the slope.

When setting up at Totally Models in Blackpool, the rear part of one of the houses on the sea wall was found with a damaged roof and a missing chimney.

The damage to the roof was camouflaged using a pencil to make it less obvious during the exhibition and no-one noticed it.

The roof was replaced and two new chimneys added with a new roof fitted to the front of the house to close the gap between front and rear parts when the Pier is exhibited.

The magnets which stop the trams at the bottom station have been glued in place following the rather warm Cleveland Exhibition where the blu-tack which has held them since March 2016 softened so much they kept moving towards the steel lower axles of the trams.

When this happened the drive motor stopped when the magnet passed over the reed switch but then re-started and continued to run when the tram reached the bottom station. This made the haulage cable go slack so that it wrapped round the bush on top of the drive pulley.

To help stop this happening the depth of the Meccano drive pulley vee has been increased by bolting a second disc on top to match the one previously fitted underneath.

As the pier has always had lights and the top station has not, some have been added to it, one on each end and one inside.

They are powered by wires from the pier board to a socket at the bottom of the slope. From there two wires run under the slope to a second socket at the top.

The wires to the station lights plug into this upper socket and this allows the station to be removed for fitting of the haulage cable and for storage between exhibitions.

One 12v LED light from Layouts4u was fitted on each end above the doors and a grain of wheat bulb used inside.

The lights were tested and working before they were posted by Layouts4u but one failed during fitting which was replaced by them free of charge.

A ceiling was made for the station and two strips of self-adhesive copper tape attached on the top to which the power and lights wires were soldered.

The power wires were run down a corner and round the base under the floor to the opposite corner where they leave the station, protected by a length of shrink tube, to the jack plug.

A hole was drilled in the baseboard, under thr the top station, big enough for the plug to go through to access the socket under the top of the slope.

The addition of the extra timber to the front enclosure panel did not stop it from warping but when it was stored next to a radiator it became straight again.

The warping has finally been stopped by giving both sides and edges of the plywood three coats of varnish to seal it and stop any further ingress of moisture.

Perth Green Exhibition gave the opportunity for some photos to illustrate two articles which should appear in the Tramway & Light Railway Society magazine 'Tramfare' No.303 (July / August) and No.304 (September / October).

Despite the addition of some 12 mm square timber on the inside of the funicular enclosure panels the triangular front panel has warped again when it was stored.

Three lengths of 20 mm by 12 mm timber have been glued inside the 12 mm square which should be enough to prevent the panel warping in future.

The end enclosure panel has not warped so has not received any extra bracing.

Both of the boards which enclose the space under the funicular had warped in storage so have had 12mm square timber stiffening glued on to the inside.

The wiring was originally routed through small staples and was rather vulnerable to damage so where possible it has been enclosed in plastic trunking.

While adding RPT (Ravenscar Pier Tramway) decals to the dash panels of the second cross bench tram some were added to both ends of the Hudson trailer.

Both of the enclosed trams, which were converted Liliput Waldenburg coaches, have now been sold.

Rebecca Flynn, who is one of Railway Modeller's photographers, took a lot of photos for an article in the magazine which should appear in the September issue.

One new figure, a Preiser 'Man Selling Balloons', has been added near to the letter box on the sea wall.

The finished tram with the Hudson and battery trailers on the Pier at Model Rail in South Shields earlier this month.

It ran without any problems on both days of the exhibition so a second one will be obtained to replace the other enclosed tram as soon as possible.

The tram body was sprayed Ford Meadow Green with Ivory dash panels and a White roof, the same colour scheme as the trailer.

The Ivory dash panels are transfers made from some scrap transfer material painted with two coats of Humbrol No.41 Ivory before being cut to size and fitted.

The RPT transfers have been added on top of the Ivory ones and varnished. Bulkhead glazing, fixed with PVA, hand-brakes and couplings have been fitted so it can tow the trailers.

The recesses under both platforms were filled with 80 thou plastic card to make the underside of the body flat then 1/16th inch holes were drilled into the plastic card at both ends.

Straight Bemo couplings have been fitted and as the track has no curves both have been fixed in the straight position with a single screw.

The tram, before controllers, passengers and crew were fitted, with its Hudson and battery trailers on a proving run on the Pier to check that the couplers were the right height for easy coupling and staying coupled when running.

A Christmas gift from the family contained a cross bench tram body and roof. It is a 3-D print produced by Shapeways in the Netherlands from a computer file prepared by Derek Smith under his Westgate Models brand.

It is modelled on one of the first Southend Pier trams which was sold in 1950 to the Volk's Electric Railway in Brighton where it ran until it was retired in the 1990's.

The body was designed to be fitted with an N gauge Kato 11-103 four wheeled chassis the same as those under the two existing enclosed trams.

Assembly started on Boxing Day with the body and roof degreased before a Plastic card box was made, fitted and glued in place to hide the Kato chassis.

The next job will be to spray both body & roof with three coats of white primer well rubbed down between coats.

The open design of this tram will be more suitable for sunny days on the pier.

To complete the scene the cliff tramway has had a Peco SK-36 Town scene, with the sky removed, added behind the top tram station.

After the Middlesbrough exhibition it was felt that the cliff tramway needed back and end scenes to make it complete.

The usual structure of 3.6 mm plywood supported by 20 mm by 12 mm timber was built and faced with Townscene cloudy sky paper from Freestone Model Accessories.

A 4 mm thick polycarbonate enclosure was fitted on the front so it matches the pier board.

This has changed the setting up procedure as now the trams and cable are much easier to set up while the tramway is horizontal before it is raised into its operating position.

The space under the cliffs on the front and the end has been filled with two pieces of 3.6mm plywood.

At its first Model Railway Exhibition with the funicular tramway attached, Ravenscar Pier won the 'Best in Show' award at Middlesbrough Model Railway Club Exhibition.

The five goats bought recently have been placed on the cliffs and the 72 Edwardian figures bought last year have been added to the pier so it is now looking really busy.

The amplifier board has been removed and the Master Blaster has been fitted under the seawall end of the pier.

The latest improvement was made, after the Beamish exhibition, and involved changing the carousel banner to a more traditional style.

Circus Ornate font in gold, highlighted with a gold pen and some glitter, was used to display 'RAVENSCAR'S GALLOPING HORSES ADMIRED ALL OVER ENGLAND' round the top of the carousel.

The cliffs and buildings, including the scratch built top station, were completed ready the exhibition at Beamish.

There is still a pack of goats from Springside Models to be painted and added.

A set of bolt-on boards were made to protect the folded down tramway when being transported and stored

A new page entitled Building the Cliff Tramway has been added to the Pier menu.

The Managers house has been converted into the front of the lower tram station, the rear half of the station, tram depot and Metcalfe Terrace House Backs kit have all been built.

The cliffs were made from a large (36" by 18") vivarium (home for snakes & lizards) back board which is yellowish in colour so will be re-painted green.

The electrics have been completed with power from the transformer on the Pier board via a 4 pin plug & socket giving two 16v AC power feeds required for the controller and shuttle.

The joins between pieces of the vivarium back board were filled with interior filler lightly coloured with charcoal acrylic paint.

The filler was squeezed out of the corner of a plastic bag not unlike a piping bag, as used by Margaret when she used to do cake decorating, and then levelled off with a finger.

When the filler had set it was painted charcoal which was a good match to the back board base colour and became almost invisible.

The second improvement was to the carousel lighting. The strip of white LED's round the top had started to fail so has been replaced by a ring of individual 12 volt LED's.

Four each of amber, blue, green and red, with resistors already wired in, were supplied by Layouts4U and were wired to two rings of copper tape stuck round the carousel top.

Because of the amount of wire now on top of the carousel, a new higher roof has been made, painted and fitted.

The third improvement was to replace the amplifier board fitted almost 18 months ago which has never worked and there has not been time to find out why.

When the same type of board was fitted to Beamish and it didn't work either, replacements were obtained, from 'Bo4co' in the UK, and fitted.

In addition to fairground music from the CD player, the Model Sounds Master Blaster will play beach sounds when Ravenscar Pier is being exhibited.

This month work started building an additional board which will have a funicular tramway as its focal point.

The board was built at an angle of 45° using recycled timber with an MDF top to carry the tramway with the rest of the board left open frame for the cliffs.

The funicular board is attached to its open frame baseboard by a pair of paste table type hinges so it can be folded flat, to save space, for transport and storage.

The main frame was fitted with one pair of legs as it will be attached to the seawall end of Ravenscar Pier.

Two lengths of Peco 00 code 75 Streamline flexi-track were pinned on to the slope, using brass panel pins, with the inner ends of the sleepers touching.

The rear street level extension has been fitted and is ready for some buildings. The slope has been coloured as concrete using acrylic paint but will be toned down.

The geared motor and drive pulley were mounted, at the top, on a sliding frame which allows for different cable lengths so that both trams stop at the top loading platform.

The motor is controlled by a Gaugemaster W Controller and a SS1 Super Shuttle and is stopped by magnets mounted under the trams operating reed switches between the sleepers at the lower end of each track.

Each reed switch has a Gaugemaster by-pass diode fitted so the motor can re-start when the polarity is reversed and the reed switch is held open by the presence of a tram.

The trams were built by Alan Kirkman who used Halling 'Roundhay Park' Tram bodies, with shortened canopies, fitted on to scratch built 45° chassis which include dummy water tanks.

The chassis were built from Plastikard™ and each incorporates two BEC white metal chassis without motors, soldered end-to-end with only the outer axles fitted.

The tampo printed 'ROUNDHAY PARK' was removed with Superdrug Acetone Free Nail Polish Remover and replaced with 'CLIFF TRAMWAY' transfers.

Finally the windows were masked and the bodies varnished to protect the transfers. The trams were finished by painting the roofs in grey primer.

As Ravenscar Pier will be appearing at the 2016 Beamish Exhibition work has started on some additions and small improvements.

The first, a Metcalfe Arcade Fronts kit, has been added to the front of the shops. Other improvements will follow between now and March.

Over the last few weeks, as time has allowed, a new yellow roof for the Carousel has been made with alternate segments painted in red, looks great.

Each segment was individually masked and painted with two coats of red acrylic paint so it took a few days to finish.

The masking was removed as soon as the paint was dry and applied to the next segment just before it was painted.

Ravenscar Pier will benefit from having more people present so six sets of ten Edwardian figures have been bought from Andrew C Stadden. Both photos courtesy of his website.

In addition Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were bought from Model Railway Developments. All of these figures are currently being painted and will be added to the Pier before its next exhibition.

In order to improve the driver's vision, the Hudson trailer has been fitted with end windows.

At the same time both it and the battery trailer have been repainted in Ford Meadow Green which is much closer to the colour of the tram.

The amplifier and speakers have been fitted under the board and are working, but the real test will come next time out at the Birtley Model Railway Exhibition in March.

The second H0e (009) Liliput Coach has been dismantled into its three parts, roof, body and baseplate to enable the Kato 11-103 chassis to be fitted.

The two modified parts showing the mounting holes needed in the baseplate and the body for the Kato chassis (left) which will be held in place with double sided sticky tape.

The Liliput coach in its new livery as Ravenscar Pier No.2 with both the ivory painted transfers and the printed transfers ready for the addition of couplings, controllers, handbrakes, passengers and crew.

Next month will see a new page added to both the 'Ravenscar Pier' and the 'Build Your Own' menus with a full description of how the coach was converted into a tram.

The three petrol locomotives bought to haul the Hudson trailer on the pier tramway have now been sold.

A single speaker was fitted under the base board connected to the Master Blaster to make the seaside sounds appear to come from under the pier.

Unfortunately it wasn't loud enough so a tiny (21 x 18 mm) 3 Watt amplifier board (see photo) has been ordered from 'zybing2010' in China and an additional speaker has been purchased.

Another Liliput Waldenburg Coach and Kato 11-103 chassis have been purchased to produce a second pier tram. It will be motorised and liveried as No.2 before our next exhibition.

Our new Model Sounds Master Blaster, purchased in April after the Perth Green Exhibition, was used at the Shildon Exhibition in early June to play beach sounds.

As the only place to play it was from behind the back scene it was not heard at its best by exhibition visitors, so there is a plan to add another speaker under the base board and play the sound through that.

The new Black Cat Technology carousel motor had its first big test at Shildon where it ran for both days without any problems.

Here is the new carousel motor and its control board, sourced after having recurring problems getting a reliable drive from the Faller motor to the carousel.

This motor is a joint project with Black Cat Technology to produce a carousel drive motor for general sale.

It uses a 5 volt 4 phase DC geared stepper motor and control board to give adjustable running speed, running time, stopped time, acceleration and deceleration and direction of rotation.

The motor is attached by a flat metal bracket to a wooden block under the baseboard directly below the carousel main shaft.

As this motor has a larger diameter drive shaft than the Faller motor, the Meccano coupling used previously was drilled out to 5 mm half way through and, as the motor drive shaft has two flats, has been fitted with two locking screws.

The control board was fitted on a hinged drop down panel to enable adjustments to its settings to be made while watching the carousel running.

The front coupling has been reinstated on the tram, so here it is propelling the battery trailer and towing the Hudson cross bench coach on the very busy pier at Perth Green Railway Exhibition in Jarrow, South Tyneside.

The combination ran perfectly for the whole two days of the exhibition with the Kato 11-103 motor still being cold at the end of each day.

As many different ladies in Edwardian costume were needed and there were only a limited number of Langley Edwardian ladies, some Dapol men and women were converted into Edwardian ladies.

The skirts are made with pieces of Tamiya 6 mm masking tape running from the waist to the base and four or more were used for each, depending on the waist size of the figure.

The hats were made from card perforated with a hole-punch with a small hole in the centre of the punched out circle, glued if a slack fit, on the head of the figure.

All figures were painted as you would get dressed, so skin first, then hair, blouse (or shirt), skirt (or trousers), jacket and finally shoes, bags, umbrellas etc. last.

At a recent exhibition the tram was run with the Hudson cross bench trailer for the first time. They looked very well together, so will become the normal running pattern in future.

Here are two of the completed bathing machines on the beach near the pier, the third is beyond the pier. All three are owned by the Pier Company so are painted in their livery.

Part of the photo from our local paper with an Edwardian family on the beach at Saltburn with some bathing machines in 1902.

Three bathing machines are being built from computer drawn and printed card folded round a base of 1 mm card with wheels from Langley Miniature Models spare parts and Plastruct™ steps from stock.

At last, here is the Hudson cross bench trailer and one of the three petrol locomotives acquired from the estate of the late David Haynes. David was an excellent modeller who worked in many scales from 009 through 00 and 0 up to 10 mm / ft.

These locomotives are of unknown origin, but appear to have been scratch built, in the event of a tram failure, will give an alternative way to transport passengers to the end of the pier.

The tram livery has now been completed as the roof is now white and the battery trailer green to match the tram.

Some very early petrol locomotives have been received, from the estate of one of our members, the late David Haynes.

A Hudson cross bench trailer has also been acquired to give an additional means of getting passengers to the end of the pier.

At Gateshead Stadium last month, there was plenty of space so while Gordon talked to visitors Margaret spent most of the two days in the space behind Ravenscar Pier painting figures and other scenic items.

Many of these were added while the exhibition was open for visitors. These will be shown in the photo gallery which will be added to the Pier menu next month.

The music now comes from a CD player as the MP3 player battery only lasted 3 hours and needed to be recharged before it could be used again.

The carousel, the ice cream seller, some slot machines, more people, a wedding party outside the Managers' house and two dolphins near the 'Isabelle'.

The MP3 player has arrived and has been tried out, however it can hardly be heard so will need connecting to an amplifier.

A 3 watt amplifier board has been purchased on eBay from Hong Kong which will be fitted, along with an extra speaker, before the next exhibition in October.

The carousel is finished and includes lights round inside the top. LED strips were used, with copper rings fitted on the pier deck, connected to the power sockets which fed the pier head cafe lights, and phosphor-bronze pickup strips on the underside of the carousel. A full description can be found on the Building the Carousel page.

Finally the speaker for the MP3 player has been mounted under the baseboard and connected to a socket on the back of the board ready for when the player arrives. A short connecting cable between the player and the socket has already been purchased.

The construction of a carousel has begun which will replace the cafe at the pier head when it is finished It will be driven from below the baseboard by a shaft through the hollow central pillar of the pier head. Meccano wheels and coupling will be used to support and drive the carousel. The upper and lower bearings, Meccano coupling and the Faller 180629 motor have been fitted.

The first exhibition was at the Perth Green MRC exhibition at Jarrow where everything worked as expected.

Howeever after watching it run for two days, it needs to have something else moving in addition to the tram so the intention is to replace the pier head cafe with a working carousel. There are still some rowing boats, slot machines, two dolphins and many more people, standing and seated, to be added when they are painted.

The pleasure steamer 'Isabelle' has been completed with a number of passengers and crew.

It has been glued in position tied up at the pontoon having just arrived back from a trip round Robin Hood's Bay and passengers have begun to disembark.

The sea has been completed with two coats of gloss varnish and a number of people, seats and the Punch & Judy man have been added. A delivery of painted, seated figures to go on to the seats along the pier should arrive soon. The staircase from the pontoon to the pier has been re-attached after it came off some time ago.

The tram, now No.1, has been finished with addition of some extra decals, controllers, crew and passengers. The battery trailer now needs to be finished.

The pleasure steamer 'Isabelle' is almost finished, but needs some more passengers adding, and is nearly ready to be glued next to the pontoon.

The tram livery has been changed by the use of some waste transfer material which was painted with three coats of Humbrol No.41 ivory enamel before being cut to the correct sizes and applied to the body. It now runs on a Kato 11-103 tram chassis.

The Artitec™ pleasure steamer 'Isabelle' in its part built and part painted condition.

This was supplied as a kit by Langley Models and is being built and painted with acrylics by Margaret.

The visible board edges (front and end) have been painted 'Wedgwood Blue' to match the sea colour, and the 'Ravenscar Pier' signs have been fitted before test fitting the 4mm polycarbonate screens.

The steam ship Isabelle is being painted prior to being assembled and placed at the landing stage ready to unload passengers. A variable output 3 amp power supply for the lights has been purchased from our local Maplin store while on special offer.

Mark Bliss has completed building and installing the pier and sea wall handrails.

The small beach was built using interior filler mixed with a good dose of PVA glue and topped off with fine sand paper.

Some very small gravel from our local beach was added as stones thrown against the sea wall by heavy seas. It was mixed with diluted PVA and moulded into shape; the beach was done by painting PVA where gravel was required before it was sprinkled on and allowed to dry. The surplus was removed when the glue had set.

The sea was painted with acrylic 'Wedgwood Blue' paint with green and white added later to give a more 3D look. Unfortunately the photograph does not do it justice. When finished it will be protected by a number of coats of gloss varnish.

The pier deck and the pontoon have received their weathered timber look with charcoal brushed into the joints. The pontoon has also received two bollards, from Anglia Model Centre, a model boat supplier on eBay, and is ready for the steam ship 'Isabelle' to tie up. The pier and sea wall lights have been fitted, wired up and tested.

After talking to the right people, brass stanchions for the pier handrails have been located locally at Blyth.

James Lane (Display Models), a supplier of model boat fittings, can be contacted on 01670-352-051 or by post from 30 Broadway, Blyth, NE24 2PP. 150 stanchions and two rolls of 22g wire have been ordered and have been fitted to one side of the pier, the rails on the other side and the sea wall will be fitted as soon as possible.

The backscene was produced by Malcolm Fraser from a photograph provided by Gordon and was printed by Supersize Print Products, who were found on the Internet, at a very reasonable cost and exceptional service.

As with Foxwood Park the backscene was built up in layers. The sky paper was attached to the back board using permanent spraymount, then the new Photo scene with the sky removed was mounted, using PVA glue, on to 1mm card which was fitted in front of the sky paper with a 1mm card spacer between to enhance the perspective.

As it has not been possible to stop the embossed stone Plastikard™ from separating from the curved extension of the sea wall, both have been removed. The straight sea wall is now faced with a printed 7mm 'Old Stone Walls' sheet from B R Lines in Guisborough.

The narrow gauge tram was to be repainted into a more traditional British style tram livery but the glazing is well and truly glued in. As removing it would have probably destroyed the body the original lettering has been removed, and will to be replaced with some suitable transfers.

The Pier deck has now been covered on the top and edges with Plastikard™ 4mm spaced planking fixed with double sided sticky tape.

The sea wall has had the Plastikard™ embossed stone sheet fixed, again with double sided sticky tape. There does not seem to be any other way of attaching Plastikard™ to MDF or card without the solvent in the glue attacking the Plastikard™ at some time in the future.

Some of the plastic strips on the edge of the pier deck have peeled off and have been successfully re-attached using PVA adhesive between the sticky tape and MDF. The floating dock, for pleasure cruises, has been covered with the same spaced planking as the pier and has been positioned to allow the fitting of the Plastruct™ access steps and handrails from the pier.

The back and one end scene boards have been made from lightly braced 4 mm ply and have been trial fitted. A curved corner and a continuous end and backscene is planned with the front and other end enclosed with clear polycarbonate sheet.

When built the cafe and kiosks were fitted with brass rods up through two of the corner timber sections wired to lights in the ceilings. The brass sockets for these lights have been fitted to the deck and wired to the copper tapes on the underside. As the supply to the cafe and kiosk lights is 12 volt and the lights on the pier are 6 volt, those on one side of the pier will be wired in parallel but in series with the lights on the other side of the pier which will also be wired in parallel.

The Gaugemaster 2 x 16v AC transformer and SS1 Super Shuttle have been mounted under the sea wall.

The track has been fitted using track pins and has been wired up ready for use including the diodes at the end sections which make the automatic running work.

The mains socket has been fitted and wiring to the transformer completed. The 12 volt socket, for the pier lighting, and wiring to the control panel position are also now done. The pier head cafe and entrance kiosks have been trial fitted with holes drilled for the brass sockets which provide the lighting connections. Copper tapes have been used along the underside of the deck for lighting and track feeds and have been connected to the brass 4 pin plug (see below).

The narrow gauge tram was built from a motorised Liliput Waldenburg HOe coach fitted with a Kato 11-103 tram chassis by Mark Bliss. It will be repainted into a more traditional British style tram livery and will run with a trailer carrying batteries on Peco 009 track. Photographs will follow later.

The track (inner pins) and lighting (outer pins) circuits are supplied by a 4 pin plug and socket at the seawall end of the pier. This was made from two pieces of wood, one is the plug and is attached to the pier deck which has been drilled and fitted with brass pins and the socket, is attached to the sea wall which has been fitted with brass tubes.

The pins connect when the deck is fitted and a single retaining screw (through the middle hole) prevents movement of the deck. The Pier head end of the deck is held in place by the same method but has no power connections.

The baseboard is 48 inches long and 18 inches deep with a 2" x 1" softwood frame and a 9mm MDF top.

The pier is made of a T shaped frame with holes drilled for the 8mm support pillars.

It was clamped on to the MDF baseboard so that the lower set of holes were correctly positioned. The MDF pier deck has been made removable so that access can be gained to do the track and lighting wiring.

In December, because of the heavy snow, the opportunity was taken to design and build the Pier Head Cafe based on a building seen on television. The roof was drawn out the old fashioned way using a pencil, ruler and a set of compasses but the outside and inside wall coverings were drawn out on computer. They were printed onto paper and glued on to the 1mm card walls after cutting out the doors and windows.

This was followed by the complete design of the walls, including all the signs required, and the roof, for the two Entrance Kiosks using the computer. Doors and windows came from our stock of unused Metcalfe parts.

While on holiday in Devon an opportunity was taken, on a wet day, to build a set of low relief Metcalfe Shops to be placed across the seawall road opposite the pier.

The Depot was built from the remains of one of the Metcalfe brewery kits bought in 2000 for the Sunderland Corporation Tramway. The Managers house which completes the sea wall buildings was built from half of a Metcalfe low relief terrace house kit bought in 2003 for the Sunderland District Tramway. The moral here being, never throw anything away!