December Meeting Reminder Members are reminded that items for the Christmas Festivities are very welcome if brought to the November Meet. With the cornucopia of models that have been available through the Michael Coates collection, we should see a wonderful selection of gift items on the table at the Christmas event. Ladies are also invited to join with us for seasonal mince pies and refreshments so be certain to inform your lady that she is invited.
Election Nominations Members are advised to begin thinking about the forthcoming elections which will take place at the AGM in March. This is an essential element in administration of our Group and the offices of Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer will require nominations prior to the AGM. Our collective performance in the past has not been exemplary and a change for the greater involvement of our members is desired and essential. Our Treasurer, Tony Hayseldon has indicated that he intends to step down and will not be available for re-election as in the past. Therefore, a nomination for the office of Treasurer will definitely be required. Please remember that you should advise your nominees that you intend to put their names forward and they must be willing to serve at least two years in office. It does not matter which political party you support. We are a unity Group that offers a completely democratic selection process.
From the Useless News Item Department Have you ever heard of a steam locomotive type known as the MacArthur? During World War II some western US railroads were very anxious that there should be no references promoting an enemy nation, in this case, Japan. This concern resulted in the renaming of the Mikado 2-8-2’s as MacArthur’s due largely to the popularity of the General of the same name among the US public at that time. History says that the General did not really deserve this kind of accolade, but nevertheless, it came his way. The name however, did not catch on.
Tasks Ahead At our October Meet and in the October Train Orders, it was pointed out that there were quite a few tasks remaining to be completed prior to being fully ready for the Spring Meet on 1 April. Members were invited to spend several hours during our regular meet days, or make an effort to be present for support activities with the Wednesday Gang, from 1000 to 1600 each Wednesday. Here is how to do it. Terry Wynne and the Wednesday Gang are working on the Ferry slip addition and the shop and transfer table complex If lending a hand in either of these projects is your interest, speak to Terry about getting involved. Alan Wyatt has two projects which can also use some assist. He is undertaking benchwork for the turn-around loop for Devil’s Creek and has an N scale layout underway requiring benchwork assembly. Please give Alan a helping hand at the November meeting as he plans to bring in some materials for assembly. Effort will be organized for the January and February Meets with the AGM taking place in March. The end of March will no doubt be heavily involved in Spring Meet preparation.
Andrew Wicks Hospitalized Andrew Wicks has been released to home to recover from a chest infection which was considered sufficiently serious to warrant a hospital stay. He is under care with a supply of antibiotics and is not expected to be fully recovered for about six weeks. A get well wish has been sent to Andy on behalf of the Group.
2017 Meet Dates The 2017 Heritage Centre calendar has been worked out by Mike Lenz. The Calder Northern Meet dates are as follows: January 14th, Saturday; February 12th, Sunday (Valentine’s Meet , Ladies invited); March 18th, Saturday (AGM, elections); April 1st, Saturday (NMRA Spring Meet/CN Train Show); May 13th, Saturday; June 11th,Sunday; July 15th,Saturday; August13th, Sunday; September 16th, Saturday; October 8th, Sunday; November 11th, Saturday; December 10th, Sunday (Christmas Festivities/Raffle). Be certain to annotate your calendar for the year.
Headboard to be Displayed In 1952, the NMRA held the First International Model Railroad Meet in the city of York. A special train ( The “Dreamliner”) was operated between York and Doncaster pulled by a LNER A4 “Mallard”. The headboard for this locomotive used for that event will be installed in the CN Clubroom. At that time, Terry Wynne will tell the story behind this train and what happened at this event.
British Region Convention Report Les Herriot writes: The Convention was held over the weekend of 28th to 30th October at the Best Western Hotel at Meriden, Solihull near Birmingham. There were a lot of people already there when your scribe arrived at about 3 pm Friday. Some of the people were from overseas including Cyprus, Holland and the USA. The Calder Northern was well represented with a goodly number, especially the members who were there on the Saturday as day visitors and looked after the Michael Coates collection and special thanks to them for their efforts. There were many items left at the end of the day and Sophie of Anoraks Anonymous paid £1200 for what remained.
Saturday was spent in the layout room where on show was the Freemo layout and several N Scale layouts and one Z Scale layout. There was also a delightful switching layout called Burlington Junction in HO Scale with DCC and a great variety of locos. Also in the layout room was a desk selling raffle tickets with a lot of raffle prizes on show. The raffle was held in the layout room just before the AGM in the main dining hall. There were a number of retirements from the BOD, Robin Swan was elected as President of the Region for just twelve months. The changes to the BOD will be shown in the next issue of ROUNDHOUSE. It was agreed by the meeting to increase the subscription from £24 to £25 as from April 2017. This was mainly due to the poor exchange rate with the dollar at the present time.
Terry Wynne had to depart during the AGM due to illness. After the dinner on Saturday, Steve Park presented a number of certificates to members and also merit award certificates of which I received one for my 4mm Scale Furness Railway 4-6-4 Baltic tank engine. Following on from that, I read out a letter which had been received from Dave Gunn in Canada thanking Steve for all the help he had received in attaining MMR which was the first in the British Region. Steve was then presented with a painting of a GM&O box car alongside a warehouse which had Steve Park painted on the front of the building. His wife Noleen was presented with a large bouquet of flowers and thanked by Robin Swan for her support of Steve. This presentation to Steve was a thank you for all the hard work he has done as AP Chairman British Region over the years and he is now standing down from that position. The new AP Chairman will be Keith Webb who I am sure will continue the good work that Steve had begun. During the AGM it was announced that the Convention for next year will again be at Derby. Kathy Millatt also gave a report on progress for the 2022 National Convention to be held in the Birmingham.
Sunday morning after breakfast it was a case of viewing the layouts once more and I am pleased to say that I came away from the Convention with a new friend whose layout was the Burlington Junction. After that, it was a case of checking out and making my way to Birmingham International Railway Station (courtesy of Mike Ingham who took me there) and so ended a very nice weekend.
The trip home by rail through Manchester was quite another story!
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