Our theme of the day was bogie wagons and vans and after the circuit was set up the action began and first out of the blocks was Fred who ran among other things a GWR siphon G van, a Southern bogie luggage van and a nicely weathered bogie well wagon carrying a diesel engine. Martin and/or Angela then ran a Southern Terrier with some bogie wagons followed by a Class 73 diesel which proved troublesome and had to be taken over to the big table to be spoken to. As well as this John D ran his GWR 14xx and Steve had an LMS bogie bolster wagon with a load of steel girders.
David L and Barry were fine tuning Queen Charlotte Dock while Bill was fitting some dummy chairs to the track. Unfortunately, this was not easy to do without compromising the existing track work and the decision was taken to dispense with them. On the big table I had brought in some old magazines (mainly Railway Modellers) from the eighties that somebody had given me. It was interesting to note the huge number of traders advertisements in each magazine compared to the magazines of today. Tim was busy painting some PLA vans for use on Queen Charlotte Dock and John B was working on his terraced houses and also on a garden railway open wagon. Geoff had brought in a GWR Castle Class 4-6-0 “Pendennis Castle” that he had acquired for a song at Pett.
Although very badly painted it should scrub up very well after a proper strip and repaint job.
Over lunch I reported on the latest response that Paul W had received from the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway concerning our suggested visit to their engine shed and workshops. Sadly, as they couldn’t commit to being able to show us anything interesting we decided not to pursue this matter any further. However, it was suggested that the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway might be more accommodating and Geoff undertook to contact them to see what they could offer us.
Fred had drafted a new flyer for the group and a copy of it was circulated for comment. The new flyer follows the pattern of the previous flyer but with photos not only of Queen Charlotte Dock but also of our previous layouts Sarre and Lenham. The new flyer was approved and Fred was thanked for his efforts and asked to get quotes for printing.
Roger reported on the recent show at Pett where he had taken a sales stand and unfortunately had brought most of the stock back. We may give this show a miss next year as we have not sold much there in recent years.
Comme d’habitude, David Ho kept us all well supplied with the necessary teas and coffees until we shunted off home.
Chris
