Having focussed at our last meeting on open wagons we set our sights today on closed wagons. Well to be more accurate vans and unusual closed wagons. First on the circuit was John B who ran his Hudswell Clarke No.68017 0-6-0ST with some vans and a brake van and then John D ran his Dapol Terrier with some of his Basset Lowke vans.
Fred had brought in a range of GWR vans including a four-wheel Fish Van, a bogie Syphon Van and a couple of Engineering Dept Vans. John B had an ex-LCDR Hearse Van, but Geoff won the prize for the most unusual closed wagon with a Sligo Railway (unusual enough in itself!) combined brake and fish van.
Later on, Roger and I flew the flag for the SECR; he with a train of vans being pulled by ex SECR R1 Class No. 31337 and then by SECR Terrier No. 751. I ran a train of SECR vans pulled firstly by my Whitstable R Class tank and then by an H Class No. 31543. The H Class is a new acquisition making its maiden appearance on the circuit. Fitted with compensation on the leading wheels it ran extremely smoothly and introduced a new train formation when the brake van became detached from the end of the train before attaching itself to the front of the engine as it moved around the circuit. Difficult to imagine such a manoeuvre taking place in real life but I’m sure somebody will come up with an example.
Martin Jenkins came along to see who we were and what we do and was given our customary warm welcome. Stuart appeared, post operation without walking aids, together with his wife Fiona.
The usual crowd were assembled around the big table with Steve performing surgery on some RAF servicemen in order to change them onto loco crew. Paul W had brought in a newly acquired loco, LNER No. 7216, to work on and give it a run. Unfortunately, it didn’t want to play today but I’m sure Paul will soon have it running sweetly around the circuit. John P had been given an un-built kit to finish off and was busy trying to identify all the parts in the box and see if there was anything missing.
David Ho set up a table with his proposed track plan for the micro layout and together with Ross, Roger and others made the adjustments to allow for the necessary clearances etc.
On another table David L and Barry carried on systems testing the wiring on Queen Charlotte Dock with particular emphasis on the wiring for the isolating switches to facilitate DC operation.
The new Hall storeroom is now in operation so we now have more space in the layout store and can start to rearrange the shelving to allow for the Lenham fiddle yard and Queen Charlotte Dock.
With twenty people attending again today our chaiwallah David Ho was again doing sterling work providing us all with teas and coffees. Chris
