Sunday 28 January 2018

Club Meeting, 28th January 2018

Hi All

Eight hardy souls battled their way to the Club, plus one visitor who was in Cowes anyway.  What a day for traffic!  Australia day weekend, Classic Motorbikes at the circuit, last weekend of the school holidays.  40°c in the shade.  The poor old tourist road was not in the shade, and melted.  Great lumps are presumably stuck to somebody's wheels - they're certainly not on the road base any more.  Traffic at a standstill from the koala reserve to somewhere past Grantville.  So the story goes - I did not check it out personally.

That's a great airconditioner in our layout room.  Two turntables arrived under Greg's arm and are now in place.  The one at Mousehole is well advanced, thanks to Rod, while the one at Sayer is less advanced, thanks to me.  Geoff and Geoff did stuff with the coal loader thing near the soon to be renamed Gingin.  Dale found things that no one else could find, Judy chatted and organised us for tea, Jack flew a drone - fortunately in the main hall, so the layout was safe.  Our visitor (lives in Sunshine, so not a prospective member) thought the layout was great, particularly impressed by ease of access, and ability to run long trains.  Then went off to collect his family and enjoy the drive home.


                                                                 In memory of two legends

Geoff the Sec wants to discuss a few things next week to find out in which direction we wish to head - he will be sending out some hints about the topics this week.  Usual story - if you can't be with us, then send him an email.

See you on the 4th

Peter

Thursday 25 January 2018

Club Meeting, 21st January 2018

Hi All,

I have to start on a sad note.  We learned today that Bob Steward died just before Christmas.  Geoff the Pres will organise a card for anyone who is with us on the 28th to sign.  Bob has been getting less and less well for a few years, and we have seen little of him since he and Colette sold their house on Stradbroke Ave.  He has, however left his mark on our new layout even though he never got to see it.  He built the station building that is now at John's Falls.  The 3 unit DBB EMU, and the single car DB diesel railcar were both donated by Bob.  And it is now time to come up with a new name for Gingin.

We were also short two Geoffs today.  The Pres had to leave early (before I arrived late) to attend a sister who had fallen off a horse.  I have sat on horses twice that I can recall, and the ground looks to be a long way down.  The Sec has back trouble that goes beyond it not wanting to leave the bed.  Best wishes for a speedy recovery to all.

What did we actually do?  Derek made a lot of noise and mess, but the outcome is that we now have places to plug in throttles around the outside of the layout.  And the mess got tidied away.  David unpacked a host of cars that we got at mate's rates from Christine at the show.  Finding somewhere to park at John's Falls is now a problem.  And he is still looking for some tray trucks and a fire truck.  Dale and I unpacked an host of Scaledale buildings that also came at mate's rates, and planted these here and there.  Some have relevance to as yet unlaid tracks in the Sayer yard.  Jack came late, and played trains.  So did Dale, later, although he pretended that he was checking out the new loconet panels that Derek installed.  George, Martin and Rod did something on the other side of the divider,  Judy tidied up various loose ends with Dale, and Helen supplied us with coconut macaroons.  One should have been enough for anyone, but I had to have two.

Over tea we talked about our show.  The Show itself made a reasonable profit and should cover our expenses over the next 12 months.  We walked away with less than that, because Dale could not resist mate's rates, but we would have spent that money anyway out of our bank account, so the swings took care of the roundabouts in overall terms.  Attendance was down a bit, and George suggested that we missed out on the wives and kids who escape from Dad at the Kustom Nationals.  Last year, same weekend, this year not.  We are trying to dig back through history to see if there is a correlation before we lock in our dates for 2019.

We have had an invitation to the Grampians Club show, on 7th & 8th July.  They always support us very well, so, can anyone go?  Either to take Bald Mountain, or a layout of their own.  Last year Judy F and I took Bald Mountain, and a couple of years ago I took Zillerbahn on my own, but this year I expect to be away.  And if anyone is building a portable layout, please tell Martin about it.  George is, but it won't be ready, and he is otherwise engaged so that's no help this year.  By next year, we hope to have the "This is how you step up from Thomas" layout ready to go - but that is next year.  Let me know, we need to give Colin an indication within the next couple of weeks.

'Til the 28th
Peter

Wednesday 10 January 2018

Club Meeting, 7th January 2018
Hi All,

Good to see so many of you looking fresh and frisky in this new year.  As predicted, a few of the workaholics did some work.  Most of us did not do anything too serious either before or after the tea break..

A friend of Paul (another David) from Kilmore called in for the afternoon.  An enthusiast of the LNER persuasion, he must have one of the best equipped workshops outside of a factory - looking through his photos of projects I could see a decent lathe, a hydraulic press, pieces that must have been milled and items that demonstrated competence with a welder.  How many all steel turntables do you know of in 4mm?  Drool, drool.

Serious business of the day was confined to finalising show arrangements and jobs.  On Friday (12th) it would be good to have a couple of able bodied blokes at the Seniors shortly after 9am to load up Bald Mountain, the U-Drive, and all their associated bits and bobs.   If it is raining we will move everything in my van, if it is fine then utes are useful.  Dale will be at the Cultural Centre by 10am (unless he tells some one else to be) to collect keys and open up the Hall.  Most of you can go straight there.  I don't expect any of the visiting exhibitors to show up until the afternoon so the morning should be clear for us to concentrate on setting up our own stands.

So, until Friday, or Saturday, or Sunday,

See you
Peter