Page 29 - November December 2007

Crewe Canadian Themed Meet, 7 Oct 2007
This meet at Crewe really started for me over a year or so ago when as President, Terry Wynne and Co contacted me about holding a themed meet on Canadian roads at their new meeting place, the Crewe Heritage Centre. As this was a direction I was keen for the Region to take, I was pleased to see the lads suggesting a themed meet on Canadian roads, especially as this type of meet is now becoming a bigger part of our calendar.
On Friday afternoon, sitting at my PC, I put a request on the chat group asking if anyone staying over at Crewe on the Saturday night would like to meet up and have dinner at the Crewe Arms hotel (I would recommend this hotel as it only cost £55 B&B per room, so if two shared a room it would only cost £27.50 each. But more importantly, the service and the food are very good, and it is right next to Crewe Station) – but I am jumping ahead of myself here. I arrived around mid-afternoon Saturday to find the Heritage Centre a hive of activity. I found Terry Wynne and Les Herriot along with Mike Lenz running around the site (it’s a large place) putting the finishing touches to the displays ready for Sunday, with the Penguin in one corner setting up his stand and the lads from the Sussex group who had left home at 6.30 am that morning, hard at work putting up their new layout ‘Romulus AB’. Something that I found out about this layout that was amazing was the fact that the layout did not even exist six weeks ago; talk about dedication to duty!
After helping to set up, as Crewe was at one time a big railway centre and we had a few hours before dinner, Terry (Penguin) took me trainspotting, something I had not done for years and years, and as the main line was shut we saw some interesting moves. Also when getting back to the hotel and (me being me) I had forgotten any clean shirts for the following day, we went hunting along the shops near the station for a shirt. To say Crewe is full of takeaway joints is an understatement, and there was only one shop that we could find that sold shirts of any kind, but at their prices (£40 a shirt) I decided to wear what I had (just don’t stand too close) – I mean, I could have brought a loco for that!
So by 7.30 pm that evening I was surprised to see there were 12 of us who had made it to the hotel for dinner (see, the web does work). Even Steve Park and Derek Milby had joined us, along with Terry Wynne who was taking a few minutes off organising! I think we took the hotel by surprise asking for a table for 12; I don’t think they get too busy on most Saturday nights in October. Over the past few weeks on the web group many have being asking the question I have heard time and time again: ‘What do I get for my membership?’ Well if you had of seen us sitting down for dinner that evening you would have seen just what I think the membership is all about and its true value! Among the 12 of us were new members along with old hands like Steve and Derek, all there for one reason – to share a common bond of model railroads; and thanks to us all being members of the NMRA we were all pulled together to do just that and to meet friends old and new! So after an enjoyable evening I was really looking forward to Sunday and the meet.
Nobby Clarke, Atlantic Director
When I arrived at the centre the place was full of activity. Parked just outside the main hall was one of these mobile food vans, which was doing a good business supplying the Worcester N gauge lads with breakfast. As you walked through the main entrance of the centre you were met by a big display of Canadian leaflets, flags, maps etc. These had been kindly sent over by all of the 13 provinces’ tourist boards, along with some really nice prizes for the raffle. The Heritage Centre itself was full of layouts, traders and Bring & Buy tables, and there were a couple of tables which were full of some great Canadian prototype modelling. Outside, everywhere you looked were locos and rolling stock in different states of repair, as Pete Waterman keeps a lot of his stock here.
For those of you who have not been to the Heritage Centre before (why not?), it’s full of LNWR and LMS and BR railroad items, from a beautiful restored LNWR TPO owned by Pete Waterman (as is most of the stuff ) to the APT, which sits beside the west coast main line; and I was pleased to see the latter was open so you could walk through it and see what, due to the lack of money, could have been the future of BR. There was one of these sit-on trains which takes you from just outside the main building down alongside the main line and alongside the APT down to just outside the signal box which is the new home of the Calder Northern. This small train was running for most of the day and did a good business in keep the kids happy (some not so young).
You even had the chance, for a fiver, to drive one of the small diesel switchers that Waterman Rail use to move the rolling stock around. You could take controls under instruction of this 1 to 1 scale loco for a short run along the track that runs behind the centre. A lot of the bigger kids did this.
Down in the signal box the ladies were kindly making hot cups of tea; on the ground floor of the box were a few more traders and the new CN layout that is just getting to the stage of being ready to lay the trackwork (which I noticed was all marked out). Walk through to the back of the box and there were railroad videos running for most of the day, so you could put your feet up and take a break. Upstairs is the signal frame of a small section of Crewe which you can play with and get the feel for the real thing; walking outside there is a nice area to stand and watch train pass you by – a great spot to take photos.
There was a good crowd all day. Even the Mayor of Crewe made it along, and with him being an old railwayman he was very interested in what the CN boys are achieving at the Centre; he stayed for a good hour or so and even won a couple of prizes in the raffle! At about 15.30 John Hey took charge of the raffle (it wouldn’t be the same without him) and ran through the large number of prizes, from locos to real Canadian maple syrup! So to the end of yet another great day out at Crewe; the team have done us and themselves proud yet again and deserve all of our support for the future. So watch out for the next themed meet planned at Crewe; or don’t even wait until then – go along, you’ll be made more than welcome.
december 2007