Wednesday 11 January 2023

After the usual post-Christmas enquiries, we settled down to focus running green liveried engines and coaches on the circuit. Among the locomotives on show were Fred’s recent purchase, a Lionheart GWR Mogul which he was running in, and Paul H’s GWR Class 2800 2-8-0. Paul’s DCC loco looked and sounded great until it got its valve gear tied in a knot when it was then retired back to its box to await some remedial action. David G ran the 3F that he had shown us when under construction during our loco kit building session back in September and which he had finished off over the holiday period, along with a recently acquired 4-COR emu (it was green!). Paul W tried running his majestic looking A3 around the circuit but unfortunately the very fine flanges on the tender wheels were unable to hold the curve on the circuit and it tended to derail.

Sarre was put up in order to freshen up the scenery ahead of its appearance at the Longfield show at the end of the month. Roger, Geoff, David B and Fred all had a hand in this and further work will take place next week to get the layout looking its best. For simplicity and ease of operation Roger proposes to run Sarre at Longfield using only 3 link couplings.
Earlier Roger had put out on a table various magazine articles and plans relating to small layouts which he invited people to have look at and have a think about before we have our discussion at the AGM of what is to follow Sarre and perhaps Edington.
Over lunch it was reported that some members had expressed an interest in acquiring Sarre from the club and it was agreed that we would conduct a sale by means of sealed bids to be opened at the AGM.
Earlier in the day we had taken the club’s trophies out of store and placed them on a table for people to see. These were originally intended to be presented to the winners each year of the clubs modelling competition but had not actually been presented for several years and had languished in store. After discussion it was agreed to dispense with awarding trophies in future and to continue awarding certificates instead. It was also agreed to pass the two wagon trophies back to Ross who had built them and to auction off the remainder at the AGM.
After lunch a few finishing touches were put to Sarre before it and the circuit were put away and we headed off back along the assault course that is the track from the hall back to the A251.