Today at Badlesmere we had a very full running session with some very interesting locos and stock taking a turn or two on the circuit. Fred kicked it all off running his Castle followed by a J94 and then an experimental LMS diesel shunter. Rob ran a short train of a milk tanker and panelled Gresley coach hauled by a LSWR 02 tank. I brought along my SECR birdcage trio and Grande Vitesse luggage van but unfortunately didn’t have anything to pull it until Bill attached his GWR prairie. They actually made quite an attractive if unorthodox train and trundled round together quite happily.
Several other locos came and went and then Roger set up his train of cement tankers. These had quite some weight to them (obviously as they were full of cement) and a number of locos had difficulty in pulling them until Graham attached his LNER Robinson 02.
Not to be confused with Rob’s LSWR 02 this excellent model made short work of the task of hauling the cement train around the circuit. Later on, Bill had his prairie running round pulling some GWR clerestory coaches and Andy set up his Ellis Clark Black Five in front of several West Highland coaches. Curiously the Black Five had both a working front light and rear light on at the same time. One or the other depending on the direction of travel seemed logical but both together seemed odd. Having said that it did run very well and made a handsome train. Over on the big table the usual chat and model making went on with John B working on some card coach kits, Tim re-jigging the roof on the warehouse at Queen Charlotte Dock and David Gr working on a kit of a rather large diesel goods loco.
As usual I read out the notices over lunch reporting on the recent exhibition at Longfield where we had exhibited Queen Charlotte Dock. We picked up invitations for this layout to shows at Maidstone and Chatham and will have to consider carefully which ones to accept in order to avoid over exposure and operator burn-out. We welcomed our new Gauge O
Guild rep, Andy Sparkes and his driver Peter and as noted above they made full use of the circuit as well as talking to EKOGG members. We must have been doing something right because they were almost the last to leave staying to the end and helping to put everything away.
Refreshments today, as they will be until the return of David Ho from his Antipodean travels were kindly provided by Messrs Bill and Tim. Chris
