CALDER NORTHERN DIVISION
TRAIN ORDERS July 2016
Our colleague Derek Milby has been in hospital again, this time with low blood pressure but Derek is now back home and sounds in good spirits. He says that by late summer he and Doug Sayles will hopefully manage a train journey down to Crewe. Promises have been made that someone will pick them up / drop them back at Crewe Station on the day. Derek sends his regards to everyone and has sent us a video he has made of his days over the past year at the line-side which we can show on the big screen in the signal display room on meet days.
Terry has also spoken with Doug Sayles; he is still under treatment but feeling reasonably upbeat. He too sends regards to all and hopes to be able to get down to Crewe when he can.
Michael Coates funeral took place on 20th May at Chester Crematorium and a number of Calder Northern members, including Syd Michael and Brenda Porter, attended to pay their respects on behalf of the group. Wendy Coates and family thank members for their condolences and cards; these being much appreciated. Michael had a keen interest in British steam and had hoped to see Flying Scotsman once its rebuild was complete. Sadly that did not come to pass but his family decided a photograph of the loco taken recently at Crewe H.C. was to be put into his coffin before it was sealed. A copy of the funeral service sheet is on the club notice board.
Syd Michael wishes everyone at Crewe his very best regards.
Terry Wynne has collected a portion of the late Michael Coates collection of models. Michael had a very large collection, including locos (DC only) numerous passenger and freight cars, plus small numbers of road trucks and containers. Once all the items have been brought to Crewe and sorted into manageable groups we will arrange a viewing session for members so they can make their purchases. This will possibly be at either the August or September meetings. Included in the collection are Balboa SP/UP brass coaches, factory painted with glazing, (one of each) and 1Soho brass SP full dome coach plus 2 boxed sets of Bachmann Spectrum On30 logging cars – offers for these will be consider in advance of the viewing session. Contact Terry with your offer. There are also some Proto locomotives, one still sealed in the plastic wrappings and obviously not opened at all. We are conscious that DC items do not command high prices and we will therefore set prices initially at a level that we hope will attract buyers but will listen to offers from members wanting particular items. We wish to dispose of the collection reasonably soon and it has been suggested that whilst some models may not be the latest version or DCC fitted they could be used to bolster a scene on your layout. There is for instance an early manufactured NYC Hudson which could sit inside your loco facility without the need to move under power; same with some diesels (just remove the motor) or freight cars that could sit in a RIP track or disused siding.
Once Calder Northern members have had first choices from the collection we will probably take a couple of B&B tables at the Crewe M.E.S train show at the Heritage Centre in October and hold the balance over till our NMRA Spring Meet on 1st April next year. Anything not sold by then we will ask Anoraks Anonymous to make an offer for the remainder. Wendy Coates says she does not want us to be taking stuff around the country and putting members under pressure, but if anyone is perhaps going to Hampsthwaite and feels like taking a box or two, then that would be most helpful an appreciated. If members have other ideas to help raise as much as we can for Michael’s widow then please advise Terry as soon as you can.
July 16th/17th sees us attending the Manchester Aviation Society, Aviation & Transport Festival at the airport. We have magazines and CN handbills to give out to the public to promote our group. The Heritage Centre is also partnering us on this weekend and will be promoting the Centre in a similar way.
As part of our publicity we have purchased a roller banner poster (artwork – kindly and expertly produced by Len Ford) as well 1/3rd A4 size handbills showing our group facilities, plus A5 leaflets advertising April next year. The Heritage Centre has also produced 2 roller banner posters (again designed by Len & David Ford) and will have leaflets to give out in the hope of recruiting volunteers. We were initially quoted £90+vat for the banner poster from a local source but opted for the supplier that Mike Hughes suggested who charged £54 Inc vat and delivery! We see now this firm have further reduced costs to £33 each so if anyone has ideas for another banner poster, then we need to move quickly. Your committee is spending your group funds wisely.
When Len placed the order for the banner poster little did he think the finished article would be delivered to his home the following day!
You will no doubt realise that 16th July is also our group meet day and member numbers attending on that day are likely to be much lower than normal. Andy Wicks and Bob Bevan will be on hand as usual but if anyone would prefer to join the guys on the stand at Manchester Aviation Viewing Park on one of the two days then please contact Terry by Wednesday 13th July. This event attracted around 15,000 people last year when we were located with our stand under the wings of Concorde.
For more information on this year’s event covering, location, parking. directions, etc. bring up the TAS website at www.tasmanchester.com/TAS-Festival.html.
Transport Fair at Manchester Museum of Transport – Our participation at this event on 20th/21st May had to be cancelled due largely to lack of planning and support as key members were not available to provide a quality display.
Presentations/Clinics: Those of you who attended the May presentation on air brushing by Roy Harris will agree that it was highly informative and well put together session. More of these are needed but it is rather hard to get everyone to get their “light out from under the bushel” and share some modelling expertise At this time, there isn’t anyone scheduled to present and although it does take some preparation, it is more than worth doing for often the presenter gains more than those attending. Come on, give it some thought and make the effort to share your experience.
NMRA Spring Meet at Crewe Heritage Centre: Looking ahead, Calder Northern is playing host for this meet and although some things are underway, there is and will be quite a lot of detail to pull together and organize to ensure this is a good meet. Be ready to volunteer some help when called upon. The date is 1 April 2017 which seems ages away, however, reduced to months, that gives us less than 9 months to be ready.
Wednesday Gang: Consider joining Terry and staff on a Wednesday morning (10:00 or thereabouts) to lend a hand with some the layout projects that are ongoing.
Alan Wyatt has commenced planning for a new N scale layout which will be more portable and easily erected/taken down, than the current one built about 6 years ago. In fact we decided to offer that previous layout to the Heritage Centre in the past couple of weeks and they are very grateful to receive the layout as they can use it in the exhibition hall instead of their old layout which is now looking rather sad.
Work had started on the new board near the barge slip and the back shops board but that has been temporarily halted whilst we deal with Michael Coates models. We will restart efforts on these very soon so please bear with us on the delay to this work. Track design is complete and we still need a couple of code 100 Electrofrog switches to replace a faulty pair on the layout. We have purchased some auto uncoupler units from Rapido Trains as a discount and these will be incorporated in the new board initially and subsequently we can use others along the back wall boards where feel they are needed.
George Neyman & Terry Wynne
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