Shaking off the excesses of the festive season we set up the circuit where we had no set theme for the day. However, it quickly became apparent that the theme of the day was to be Great Western based. Fred ran a King, King George III, two Castles, Dartmouth Castle and Earl of Dartmouth and later a pannier tank with an auto-car.
Paul H then continued the Great Western theme with a goods train loaded with mainly agricultural machinery hauled by his GWR 2800 Class. Later the focus of the day changed from steam to diesel as Geoff ran his Class 15 and Martin ran a train of Mk 1 coaches headed by a Class 25 and then a Class 08 shunter.
Over on the big table Steve continued building his Class 2800 and Ross brought in his mock-up of a station shelter for Queen Charlotte Dock. That layout was exhibited at Maidstone last week and a full report of its reception and the show was given by those that attended. As agreed at the last AGM the meeting fee has now increased from £3 to £5.
Geoff reported that he had paid the hall fees up to the date of the AGM and would be finalising the account for 2023 shortly.
I reported on the works to the hall floor which will recommence tomorrow and should last for a week to ten days finishing before our next meeting. Finally, Geoff informed the meeting of a show at Lydden village hall on 3 February.
As usual David Ho kept us all supplied with teas and coffees and after packing everything away, we headed off home. Chris
Update on Badlesmere hall repairs from Ian Earl
The floor along the south wall (floorboards and joists) has been replaced, and the slope reduced (but not yet eliminated).
The next challenge is to replace the sole plate along the same wall. This will be done by removing the corrugated iron sheeting and tackling the job from the outside.
Firstly, by working as much as possible from the outside the disruption to users will be kept to a minimum. And secondly, we are doing it in-house (the Badlesmere way!) so are more likely to work round bookings than if we had employed a builder. This means that you should be unaffected by the works, but to be realistic we can’t guarantee it. We will warn you as soon as we can if any disruption is expected to happen.
I hope you appreciate our efforts to keep the hall open to you but appreciate there could be days it is unsuitable. It is possible we might cordon off an area, or that it will be particularly draughty on occasions!
