Having recovered sufficiently from the recent festivities we assembled at Badlesmere to parade and consider our recent presents and purchases and with the circuit set up Fred’s pannier was soon running round with an auto-coach and Bill ran his Prairie and brake van.
The Prairie was bought by Bill at the recent Guildford show and apparently runs on air as there was no coal in the bunker. Steve ran his Hudswell Clarke D2509 pulling two bogie wagons and had also brought in a selection of other Hudswell Clarke locos. Dave B brought in a very impressive LNER A1 Class 4-6-2 “Flying Fox” in traditional black and grunge livery while Tim brought in the body of the GER J69 Class 0-6-0T he is building in a very lively blue with orange lining. Geoff had also brought in a couple of favourites including a Peckett 0-6-0T “Ramillies”.
On the big table Peter was busy painting the line side hut he has been working on, and Paul H was working on a GWR Riding Van that he is building. The Riding Van will be accompanied in due course by a Tool Van and together they form part of a breakdown train. Over by the windows Queen Charlotte Dock complete with refurbished layout lighting was being prepared in readiness for its coming exhibition appearances.
Over lunch I read out the forthcoming meetings and spoke about the exhibitions at Canterbury, Erith and Alexandra Palace which Queen Charlotte Dock will be attending.
Geoff reported on the exhibition at Maidstone between Christmas and New Year which was not very interesting and not very well attended.
John D advised the meeting that the Gravesend club are likely to lose the longstanding venue for their exhibitions as the Erith club did recently. This seems to be becoming a common problem with schools outsourcing their facilities management to service companies who do not want the hassle of catering for model railway exhibitions.
Our Saturday meeting in March is scheduled to be a talk by members about “my layout/stock at home” and I asked how many members would be willing to speak on the subject. The idea was that members would volunteer for this but we may have to resort to bribery and coercion.
David Ho gave a status report on the proposed micro layout and later laid out the proposed track plan for member’s information and will now push ahead with this project with members help.
As usual David Ho kept us all provided with teas and coffees until we packed everything away and headed off home. Chris
