Page 19 - May June 2007

South Shore Subdivision show
Saturday 8 December 2007 at Boundstone School, Lancing.
Claverton Modular Club
HO modular group running US outline. Meets at Claverton Community Hall, Bath.
All dates are third Sundays in month except September and December.
‘The Alton Limited’
All American Meet at Eggars School, London Road, Holybourne, Alton, Hants GU34 4EQ
15 July 2007, 10.30 am till 4.30 pm.
Light refreshments available.
The Spring Meet – Another Perspective
Michael Coates
A really wonderful day for CN’s first Spring Meet at their new home in the Railway Age Heritage Centre at Crewe.
Blue skies (for 12 hours), warm sunshine and a truly northern welcome for all NMRA attendees, and a host of visitors, with children from the locality, into the main exhibition hall.
HO and N scale Calder Northern layouts operated from 10 am till 4 pm. Other visiting modular layouts were well received, including Geoff Meek’s large G scale, which operated atop the new modular railway base in the large North Signal Box, CN’s new clubroom.
Traders and bring & buy were split between the two halls. Juniors Christopher and Jack directed pedestrian traffic. Sue Wynne, ably assisted by her all­girl team of Calder Northern wives, satisfied visitors’ needs with drinks and biscuits in the refreshment room of North Box.
The first­floor Signal Control Room and balcony were open for viewing of real 1:1 trains, Pendolinos, MUs and the odd class 66 mineral train, though unfortunately Crewe is rather quiet on a Sunday. Saturday, our last working day for volunteers and committee members, produced a plethora of rail entertainment including Pullman Northern Belle. – Back to the USA!
NMRA railroad modelling was displayed in a good light to members and visitors, who were mostly very impressed.
Trustees of Crewe R.A. enjoyed their visit and showed appreciation to our chairman, Terry Wynne, Mike Lenz and other committee members, and other volunteers manning the ticket sales, gate and generally stewarding.
Layouts: Moose Lake Canyon, N, Steve Fennel; St Marks Yard HO, Tim Neale; City Limits HO – John Tillyer’s new layout; PCaSO Halt, N, Jim Stansfeld; Roundhouse HO, Ian Lampkin.
DS & RP Railroad – thinking of G scale in the garden? Come and talk to Denis Stevens and Richard Pretious.
Traders: Model Junction HO and N scales (and others); Western Models – John Parker; Trains for Thought – Roger Rickman for all your DCC requirements; Tony’s Trains – Tony Rogers, N gauge and DCC specialist; Steam Powered Video – Stuart Andrews; Ray Morris – a good friend of the Ltd; CeePeear Models – Ken Needham.
Demonstrations: Weathering with ‘The Weatherman’, Tom Rayer; Phil Clark – who’ll chat to anybody about anything North American; Electronic Train Control – the MERG system – an alternative to DCC? Bryan Knight and Phil Hill; Scratchbuilding with good friend of the Ltd – David Cole (the wizard of the narrow gauge); Woodlands Scenics Scenery by Chris Churchus; Matthew Wildsmith – demonstrates painting plastic figures.
President Chris Hobbs and daughter Laura, Nobby Clarke and Rose, and other members of the BOD, were selling raffle tickets. Thanks go to all members of CN who assisted.
Many members travelled great distances to be with us. Our apologies are expressed for any inconvenience to visitors. Our new home had been neglected for some while and we had to move furniture, set up tables and so on. Thanks are due to all who helped, long hours of hard work over the previous six to eight weeks, including sweeping out the long drive.
The real locos on site were available for inspection and photography.
Manager Mike Lenz is to be complimented for his hard work for the CN group and for the Centre.
And from Terry Wynne . . .
The Trustees of The Railway Age are delighted with Calder Northern hosting such a meeting. Any success raises awareness of the site and especially when those who enjoyed their visit tell others about the attractions – great PR if people do that!
The Trustees tell us that to see so many people on site brought back memories of when the Heritage Centre first opened 20 years ago. They are keen for us to host more meets and see our group as valuable participants in the regeneration of the site.
With the old Calder Northern HO layout located in the Exhibition Hall it means all NMRA members can come along virtually any day and run trains (contact Mike Lenz if you wish to come). The Railway Age is open to the public at weekends and Bank Holidays (10 am to 4 pm) from Easter to the end of September.
If the public can see trains running on the layout then it must be an opportunity to promote NMRA and maybe recruitment of new members.
A NOTE FROM STEVE QUICK – Recently appointed by the BOD to coordinate and help advise the Region and its Members on Health and Safety issues
For those of you who do not know me, I am a practising Environmental Health Officer and have been professionally involved in Health and Safety enforcement for more years than I care to remember. Most recently, I was responsible for regulation of safety at all petrol stations in Leicester between 1997 and 2004. Fortunately, none of them blew up during this time.
My aims on behalf of the region are –
1. To protect the safety and welfare of our members and guests.
2. To avoid the NMRA (BR) and its members being exposed to risks of legal action arising from its activities.
3. To ensure that members and their layouts can effectively expose themselves to the public in order to promote the NMRA and model railroading.
4. To reduce the costs of the region’s insurance cover by demonstrating to our insurers that we have reduced the risk of claims.
In order to clarify 3, my intent here is that any members’ layouts or models will not be barred or restricted from shows because they are not compliant with relevant safety requirements, particularly electrical safety and fire safety.
Subject to the approval of the BoD, I would aim to meet these objectives by the following steps:
1. Research relevant legal and advisory standards.
2. Produce simple guidance notes for publication on the region website.
3. Produce easy­to­use risk assessment templates for use by members involved in show and exhibition organisation.
4. Provide facilities for members’ electrical equipment to be tested and certified, particularly prior to their attendance at shows where certification may be required.
5. Provide an advisory service for members who may be having difficulties with venue managers etc.
With regard particularly to item 4, I would be looking to find volunteers in various parts of the country who would be prepared to qualify as electrical testers (or who may already be qualified) in order to provide a local service.
As I still have a job and would like to have some time to play with trains, I am looking at around 12 to 18 months to complete these steps, although material would be made available as soon as it was complete.
I can be contacted as follows and look forward to hearing from you:
Telephone 0116 212 8186, or write to 15 King Edward Road, Leicester LE5 4DD
Email stephen.quick3@ntlworld.com