Dear member,
Just a few notes to keep you updated with Calder Northern happenings.
First I have managed to make contact with Derek Milby who tells me he is feeling much better although he is still having difficulty with his right hand. Derek has moved out of his Sun Street home and is currently in an apartment which he says is at the moment temporary but could be permanent in the future. I wished derek well on behalf of our group.
Derek has unfortunately had to put some of his railway items for auction but by the time I made contact with him the locos were going under the hammer and regrettably I was unable to advise members of British Region about the sale.
Now as part of our planned series of short clinics/presentations Tony Gath will be presenting his clinic at our next meeting on 10th March starting at 12 noon. Tony’s clinic is on constructing switches (points) using the ‘Fast Tracks’ jig. It promises to be one very interesting presentation and hopefully many of you can attend.
With regard to our Wednesday gang people working on the HO layout we are still looking for helpers to come along when they can. Oh, by the way I will not be able to be at the 7th March session due to having to be at hospital for a scan that day but will see you on Saturday 10th.
The calendar of events for the Crewe 175 events is being compiled and a copy will be available at our meeting on the 10th for perusal. We understand 3 or 4 steam locos will be based at Crewe Heritage Centre for the summer railtours so that should add some interest. There will be events of some sort on most weekends either at the Centre or in the town. If events on site are likely to create a parking problem we will advise you in advance of our meeting dates and suggest other options.
It is early days but we have been approached by the Cheshire East Council education liaison co-ordinator for maths & science to help on Wednesdays as part of proposed educational visits to the Heritage Centre. Thoughts being discussed and in due course proposals will emerge relating to small groups of children visiting the signal boxes, APT, Exhibition Hall and doing work associated with our model layout.
The guy said that perhaps children under supervision by teacher and our members could complete work associated with timetables, moving a train from (say) the Mornflake building to the Pilsbury bakery building. We would of course have to set speed limits on any DCC loco being used so that anyone could not do a “SantaPOD” start with a train!
Initial thoughts see this as a good way to get young children interested in model trains and who knows they may convince their parents that they should come along and see what we do.
Another issue has raised its head and this is about the requirement for more display space and activity area in the exhibition hall. The Trustees have decided that the layouts and Scalextrix will have to come down and what is done with them is to be debated in the next couple of weeks. The volunteers are no too pleased but are having to accept that with the occupancy of Waterman’s set up space is at a premium and with the big event this year this space is necessary for display or other purposes. The small N scale layout built by Trevor Austin will have to be considered at our next meeting whether we sell the layout to a member or break the layout up. The large N scale layout is also to be discussed but in conjunction with the CHC Volunteers. As you are aware the backscene which is continuous across the joints was changed some time ago and some tracklaying was done at the same time. This again could involve track crossing baseboard joints. I had suggested we could perhaps store this layout if the ends boards are still around but space again is the issue as you know the centre has very limited storage facilities. Unless of course members know of somewhere they can store such a large layout? Lets all discuss this next Saturday.
Look forward to seeing you next Saturday.
Terry Wynne
Chairman
p.s. Don’t forget to get your nominations to Les Herriot for Committee positions by 31 March
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