We had a very productive meeting today with work being carried out on three layouts and another new member joining us. Keith Meredith, having seen our web site came up from Dymchurch and must have liked what he saw because he has now joined our happy band.
Today’s focus was on Edington which was quickly set up for testing and for operator training. Unfortunately some of the wiring had come adrift in store necessitating the emergency response team of Paul W and Barry K breaking out the wiring diagrams and soldering wires back into their allotted places. A full check and repair of wiring joints will be necessary next time.
Once normal service resumed Fred’s GWR railcar and David G’s 7 F appeared alongside other locos and David G’ s SDJR stock. On one of the traversers Johns B and D ran some narrow gauge garden railway stock (if that’s the right term). Keith had brought along t wo excellent ex SECR coaches that he had built and painted in 1930’s SR livery. One of these was a Roxey kit and the other was a birdcage coach that he had built from an etch which he had had commissioned.
In between doling out the teas and coffees David Ho and Tim set about progressing the micro layout. The “box” with proscenium arch is now almost complete and will now possibly have a top with lighting fitted and retractable legs to bring it up to eye level for easy viewing when being operated or exhibited.
Having sorted out Edington ’s electrics Paul W and Barry K then set to work on wiring up the track work on one of the Lenham boards. Its retractable legs enabled the board to be safely placed on its side allowing them to work on it standing up without having to scramble about underneath it.
Over lunch I gave out the usual notices and introduced Keith for those who hadn’t already met him. I also referred to the Gauge O Guild show at Kempton Park on 20 May for which Fred had brought in a flier.
I then went on to outline the latest thinking on the proposed replacement layout for Sarre.
The suggestion is for a layout based on a section of the East London line to incorporate a high level passenger station and a dockside goods yard with associated warehousing and trades. This will allow us to run a great variety of stock from the 1930s through to the late sixties and early seventies. The track plan is not yet fully finalised but we hope it will be
shortly , so stay tuned.
With so much going on we didn’t finally pack up until 2.30pm after carefully stacking up all the tables and chairs.
