Page 9 - March April 2009

BENSON WINTER MEET
Once again the Benson Parish Hall hosted our winter meet and once again our dealers and layout providers helped us to put on a very enjoyable day's railroading. The weather wasn't very helpful at daybreak, with small snow flurries, frost and mist but it settled into just a dull overcast day as time went on. At least the hall was well heated when the dealers and layouts arrived, so what the weather was doing outside was not really noticed by those inside.
The weather certainly was no problem for the super enthusiasts from distant parts; Terry Wynne came down from Crewe, Steve Park travelled from Leeds, Les Herriot came from Bolton and Len Firth from Tadcaster via Knebworth. But they were all eclipsed by Tony Hayselden who had travelled down from Clitheroe. At least he did win a raffle prize, so his journey was not without reward. Thanks to you all, local or distant, for coming along and supporting us, thus helping to make the meet a success.
We had our usual bright and breezy dealers, all very happy to be of service, but slightly overshadowed by unavoidable absences this year. Stuart of SPV did in fact arrive in the local hotel fully intending to be with us. However, early on Saturday morning we learned that he would not be able to attend as he had a sciatic nerve problem that had totally immobilised him. Wilf Parkington's books were also missing as Wilf died in November. He will be sadly missed at future NMRA meets. And, finally, Brian White was unable to attend due to weather and associated car problems.
On a more cheerful note, many of our regular and supportive traders attended and it is rumoured, had a good day; Ted Smale had Sunningwell Command Control well set up near the door; Terry Page had his usual extensive stock and was helped by Nobby Clarke; John Bloom was up from Horsham with his 'Railroad Trading' and Richard Maxwell, looking a bit lonely amongst all his lovely brass locos, had the stage all to himself. Sorry, Richard! Neil Bailey's American Trains' was with us for his second year. Geoff Methven with his great selection of tools and components was with us again and Brian Pantling with 'Brian Trains' was busy in the main hall. This was Brian's first time with us and we hope to see him at future Winter Meets. So a big 'Thank you' to the dealers and remember Confucius who says 'No dealers, no hobby'.
Additionally, we had a good selection of layouts to look at and envy. Ian Lampkin had his 'Roundhouse' this year and this is a good contrast to the usual mainline displays with spurs and sidings that we are all used to. Richard Insley was there running trains on 'Overkill' and Denyse was there with him with her superb allotment and the tree production line. These trees get better each year, Denyse. We also had the Seaboard Southern men showing Chris James's 'West Street Yard' layout which
always seems to run flawlessly. They had also brought their signal bridge, which is both unusual and practical — unusual because we think that it is the only one there is, and practical because it solves the problem of safely getting power cables across the aisles and clear of shuffling feet. Dave Dawes was running his `Lincoln' in N gauge. Dave's workmanship is excellent and results in a very scenic and interesting layout. Dave has a 'Z' gauge layout under construction that we had hoped to see but we hear that we will all have to wait until Kathy invites us all to Ardenrair in June to see it. Peter Borcherds"Rochelle' clearly showed the benefits of computer control — smoothly running all those intermodal trains. The Worcester 'N' Gaugers turned out in force and gave us their usual immaculate presentation which, like Topsy, seems to grow and grow (let's see what they can do next year).
When we see these smoothly and continuously running trains on these seemingly derailment-free tracks and then think of the chaos that descends on our own layouts whenever a visitor appears, ducks in a pond come to mind — very smooth and serene on the surface, but wild activity underneath, just to keep moving forwards!!
Our catering team, Sue Collins, Marie Ingham, Sarah Byrne and Marietta Menzies again did us proud with a good selection of home-cooked food at very reasonable prices. All that they ask for next year is that you bring your appetites with you and support their culinary efforts. The catering team particularly appreciated the positive comments that many of you made. They never had any doubt about what constituted a cottage pie!
Rachel Lawson and her daughter, Sophie, managed to sell 300 x 5-ticket strips of raffle tickets, which again brought pleasure to some and grief to others. However, we thank you all for participating, whether you were lucky or not.
The Bring and Buy tables were in the upstairs room, but fewer than in previous years. If you are reading this and have any surplus items, do bring them along to next year's Winter Meet. You will certainly meet fellow members who, like you, are looking for that out-of-production but much sought-after item. Remember, a table costs just £5.00.
It was good to see you all once again and the comments we have had indicated that it was a very successful meet. It was good to talk to old friends, see the layouts and spend a bit with the dealers. We look forward to seeing you all again next year, January 9th. Same place, same times.
Dedicating the meet to Dave Collins as we did, we are sure that he would have been very happy with the success it proved to be. We really missed his help and cheerful, chatty presence.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE MODULARS GONE?
On the NMRA BR Yahoo discussion group recently (see http:/ / groups.yahoo.com/group/NMRABR/), there has been much very positive discussion about the future of modular layouts. This was sparked largely by a very successful Black Diamonds meet at Kegworth and the upcoming Spring Meet at Weston-on-Trent when N scale modules from at least two groups will be connected to form one large system. There is also a very good article on European FreeMo in HO in the March 2009 Continental Modeller.
One thing that emerged from that discussion was a desire to see whether the NMRA standards on modules can be improved, given advances in products and technology. For example, none of the standards appear to provide for DCC. Whilst some would prefer the standards to remain as they are for all to use universally (that's why they are called `standards'), others would like to see
Mike Arnold
improvements in looks and certainly changes to permit dual DC/DCC running (though not at the same time!). The current NMRA standards can be found at http: / /www.nmra.org/ standards/modules/ms_intro.html.
In order to consider what we in NMRA BR might want going forwards, it was suggested that a small working group be formed to consider all the various standards available now, for example NMRA, FreeMo, N-Trak, oNe-Trak etc for each of the main scales / gauges (N, HO, 01130, 0) and make some recommendations. N scale is particularly well served and HO appears to be lagging behind. Therefore could any members with experience of module construction and operation who wish to participate in an active review please contact me on 01702 206760 or e-mail at tunnelmotor@tiscali.co.uk in the first instance.
APRIL 2009 9
Robin Swan & Michael Ingham