Arriving early on Saturday at Northfleet School for Girls for the Gravesend club annual show we quickly unloaded and set up our stand and Queen Charlotte Dock and had the layout running well in time for the show opening time. This was just as well as with a queue of visitors lining up outside in the unexpected rain the show organisers took pity on them and let them in early thus catching some exhibitors out.
So, Saturday got off to a flying start with Roger and Fred manning the EKOGG stand with Roger working on building his LCDR van on Saturday and his line side cabin on Sunday (easy for them, they got to sit down all day).
Meanwhile the rest of us operated the layout running the upper level in the usual way with passenger trains constantly arriving and departing the station and switching platforms with the aid of the station pilot. On the dockside itself we broke new ground with two or three locos in action and the constant shunting of wagons and vans. We are going to have to
work out a schedule of movements for this as making it up as you go along tends to result in stock and/or locos getting log jammed in awkward positions. We are also going to have to refine our standards on stock with regard to couplings, wheel back to back measurements and weight etc in order to ensure reliable reversing of wagons and vans on curves and over points.
The numbers attending the show were down on previous years unfortunately although there was a steady stream on Saturday morning while both afternoons were pretty quiet. Nonetheless we had plenty of young volunteer operators from the visitors with Martin doing his usual work with his tablet and Bluetooth fitted loco on the low level with one or two other youngsters operating the high level under Tim’s tutelage. Indeed, one lad spent about an hour and a half operating the high level and came back the next day with his dad for another session.
So, despite the lack of numbers, it was a useful workout for Queen Charlotte Dock and a couple of days flying the flag for EKOGG. Chris
