First I must tell you that one of the past members of Calder Northern has unfortunately died. Rex Martin known to our more senior members will remember Rex ceased to be a NMRA member around the time we moved from Broadheath. Rex died, aged 90, about 3 months ago but regrettably nobody advised us until Mike Lenz received a phone call from his widow about a week ago. His widow has asked Mike for assistance in how to dispose of his collection of N scale models and Mike and Terry will go over to Bowdon as soon as possible to see what the best options are and advise her of their thoughts. It may be there could be some items suitable for the new Group N scale layout under construction by Alan Wyatt. We will advise further on this matter once a visit has been made.
A Calder Northern member recently asked if I would contact Jason at Rapido Trains to ask if he would give our members a special price for a bulk supply of 33” metal Wheelsets in either 50 or 100 axle box sets. I therefore, asked the question and Jason says he would be happy to supply us but he could not offer any discount due to his production costs but did say however, he would pay shipping costs and any VAT raised by HMRC when the package arrived here in the UK. This deal would only be for those supplied to Calder Northern members for their own use.
Based on the rate of exchange (30/8/17 at 1.29 US$ to 1GBP) a box of 50 axles would cost a member £34.84 and £65.85 for 100 axles. For comparison the price offered by Model Junction at Slough is for Walthers Wheelsets at £10.99 for 12 axles and the Kadee price of £9.99 for 12 axles. Of course you would need to add postage to these prices as well, unless you travel to Slough to go and collect.
A suggestion from another member was that the Group should perhaps consider buying one of the new Rapido Trains RDC’s for operation on the layout when the public in attendance. Terry is holding a RDC which has the Rapido Trains logo on the side. The proceeds of the sale of this particular RDC model will go towards the #6133 restoration fund and future operation of the actual RDC in Canada owned by Rapido Trains. A vote will be put to members at the next meet for them to express their views on this proposal. The asking cost by Rapido Trains is roundly £200 but this may hopefully be negotiated down.
Terry will have some freight cars for sale at reasonable prices and these will be set out on Saturday for members to view.
We mentioned some time ago that the late Michael Coates collection of bound copies of Model Railroader (circa 1974 to 2004) are now occupying a large amount of shelf space in the store room off Mike’s Office. This space is now needed for our own use and by the Heritage Centre. Therefore, following the next meet when members can take away copies for their own use we will arrange for the remainder to be moved to the scrap skip for disposal. Some might find the binders (which have wires to secure the magazines) suitable for other copies of magazines at home and therefore are welcome to help themselves to these. If you are looking for articles or a particular year’s issues from the past or wish to take away a number of issues just to read, assuming they have not already been removed please speak with Terry at our next meeting.
I can report the loco fitted with the miniature camera is working but as yet we need to have some form of screen in the clubroom for the public to be able to enjoy the pictures from the front of the loco. Thanks to Len & Dave Ford and Roy Harris on this project.
Len Ford is busy updating the information on our web pages to include more history of the Group/Division and if anyone has any photos, stories or information can you please let Len have this as soon as possible. Our site can be updated to form a sort of archive and reference to all things Calder Northern.
Now to a problem that has arisen with Terry’s Athearn Genesis CN GP40-2L loco which has been sitting on the layout for some time. This has been available for members to run at meets or when operating the layout at weekends. After last weekend it was reported the loco was making funny noises and running erratically. The loco was taken home and after much checking of connections, cleaning of the trucks and drive system the loco was stripped down and trucks removed from the chassis. When checking that the trucks were running OK it was found that on all four wheel sets there were wheel flats and this was causing most of the problems. On speaking with a friend, he suggested a layout short might be the problem especially if the short was one that was hard to locate or if the loco has been parked across a switch and the switch thrown without the person realising the loco was astride the switch blades. This loco now needs a complete set of new wheels. Here it must be stressed to members that they should pay attention to where locos are parked up and ensure they are not fouling areas where they can cause possible short outs. Such situations could also result in vehicles getting very hot and even setting on fire. Please be aware at all times.
Important –
I learnt a few days ago that Les Herriot has been in hospital with a suspected slight heart attack. Les is home again but still not feeling too good so I am sure he would welcome contact with members to cheer him up. He suspects he won’t be down at Crewe for a while but hopefully he will manage to come along when he feels more able to make the journey. In the meantime we all hope you feel much better soon Les.
Terry Wynne
Secretary
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