Today we were looking at Guards Vans. First on the circuit was John B with a Hudswell Clarke pulling four Guards Vans. Ross then ran his Hudswell Clarke with two Guards Vans and Rob ran his B4 with some Private Owner wagons and an SR guards van. Roger had brought along two LMS Guards Vans in different liveries; David G brought along six wheel S&DJR Guards Vanss and Bill brought along a LSWR Guards Van. Later Bill also ran his M7 0-6-0T pulling some Parcels vans and a GWR Guards Van. In between all this John P gave his refurbished ex GWR Prairie in green BR livery a good run out.
Paul having settled himself in a corner by a window and some wall sockets was busy cleaning the wheels on a number of his GWR locos. This was being carried out on his ingenious homemade wheel cleaner formed from two wire brushes and a piece of wood. On the big table Peter was busy adding intricate detail to his line side hut while others were leafing through magazines and putting the world to rights. After Queen Charlotte Dock’s successful outing at the Bexhill show ten days ago attention now turned to surfacing the dockside area on the lower level. Steve had brought along some sieved barbecue ash which he then mixed up with PVA and applied to a test area. First impressions were very good and we’ll see what it looks like when it has dried out before committing Steve to barbecues for the rest of the summer.
Following the usual lunchtime notices Roger reported that he would be attending this year’s Gravesend show on 1 and 2 November on behalf of the club with a small sales table and his own plank layout. Geoff had visited Kerry Bayliss and brought back a number of items for sale which he displayed before him on the big table. Bill said that he had visited the Hornby exhibition in Thanet and found it well worth going to. Page 3 of 5 Geoff told us that there will be an exhibition in the Ramsgate Tunnels over the week end of 6 and 7 September where trains will once again be running although only in model form. David Ho kept us all provided with teas and coffees until we packed everything up and headed off into the sunshine. Chris
