Page 8 - November December 2013

Electronic Newsletters
Both the NMRA and British
Region are now sending out
electronic news­ letters to those
members for whom we have email addresses.
If you have an email
address and you have not been receiving one or both of the electronic newsletters, please let John Firth know at renewals@ nmrabr.org.uk.
He maintains the list of email addresses for the Region. Each month he checks the email addresses held by the NMRA against his records and corrects the NMRA data if it is different. For this reason, it is important that you do not advise the NMRA directly of an incorrect email address but that you advise John.
From Allan Dobson, a Meriden Convention Report
This is the first NMRA Convention that the Gosport group has attended in numbers, and I do believe that we made our mark. It was quite professional the way the team of seven erected a good proportion of our large modular N scale layout “Solent Summit” – it must have been a minimum of at least 60 feet. It was up and running very quickly for the size of it, on the Friday afternoon, especially with this being the first time that it had been transported any distance, and the first time this size had been shown at the convention and to the public.
As President I would like to congratulate all the team, Ted Humber, John Webb, Morgan Hughes­Owen, Bob and James Norris, Chris Hatt and last but not least Chris Churchus. All worked very well and very hard together, to put on a good show.
All in all a very good convention and a good show – congratu­ lations to all.
(all items by the Editor unless otherwise credited)
MY FIRST CONVENTION – from Nick Prior
I have been a member of British Region for some time but have always been reluctant to attend Convention in case I might feel an outsider. This year my High Wycombe group was exhibiting so the decision was taken out of my hands. In spite of my fears I had an amazing time. There were a lot of great layouts as well as the traders (I succumbed and bought two engines) and the clinics and Bring & Buy alone made the trip worthwhile. Even better, I found new friends and a great sense of inclusiveness that made me feel much more involved in the British Region. I was particularly delighted to find that the association officers were very friendly and accessible. Finally, I had the chance to attend the AGM and learn more about the workings of the association. I will go again.
Sources for obscure decals
The Editor
Especially with the demise of Champ Decals, it is often not easy to get hold of the lesser­used roads at a reasonable price. You can be lucky and find them in stock at a UK retailer, but often as not they are unavailable.
Lately, via the internet, I have stumbled across a couple of good sources in Canada. Aberdeen Car Shops make decals for Canada Southern cars, and for Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo cars and locos.
Black Cat make many Canadian­outline decals. The trick is to work out how to obtain these items. Aberdeen Car Shops takes PayPal, but Black Cat only accepts Canadian cheques or cash. But by locating suitable retailers such as George’s Trains, and TMR, you can often see their stock on line and order simply by using a credit card. For decals, the handling and postage is often relatively economical. TMR, for example, list a huge range of Microscale as well as much less well­known decals and dry print.
Another website called “Great Decals” lists umpteen specialist makers and stockists of decals, often including which scales and roads they specialise in.
UNCOUPLED CARS
BEANERY
For Sale
• HO Layout for sale: “Avery”. Built originally by Derek Frow and others in the 1970s and refurbished and wired for DCC in 2005–2010 by members of Colchester MRC American Group. The layout is a 20' by 10' double­track HO exhibition that we need to sadly move on as there is insufficient space in the Colchester MRC clubrooms to continue storing the layout. The treasurer would like to recover the £250 that the club spent on refurbishment; if we were to sell it outside the NMRA we would charge more and pass the excess to the region/club. The buyer will need to collect the layout from the Colchester area and will need some sort of trolley to make moving the layout easier when they get it home (the layout is “coffined” in four stacks). Patrick Grace, pgrace@aspects.net 01206 827368.
• DCC Specialities.com PSX2 solid state circuit breaker (2 sections): various programmable facilities such as block detection and control, power on/off using DCC throttle etc etc. See
website for full details, instruction manual included. Ron Gager 01424 224797.
• HO Scale. Two Proto 2000 SD60Ms Union Pacific livery, two front cab windows. Not done much running. £50 ono each. Contact leslieherriot@ talktalk.net. Tel. 01204 305457.
• N scale layout California Coast Line, originally built by Ian Lampkin. £400 or nearest offer, to include all hand controllers and one transformer (more will be needed by buyer). 7.5 feet by 10.5 feet, scenic all round, staging around inside of layout. Details at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ ian.lampkin/page14.html. Modern SP and UP stock to be sold separately. Mike Arnold, 01892 459967
• Broadway Limited AC6000, CP 9801. DCC, sound, working ditchlights. Test run only (too big for my tight radii). £100. Jock Graham, 07831 827293.
Wanted
• HO Scale. Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs) Athearn or similar. Contact John Lockwood 01983 522002.
8 rOUNdHOUSe