Hello again from me, plus the usual greetings from the NOGGies to all GOGGers. As the days get longer and the time remaining before our exhibition in late July ever shorter, we are still very busy planning for the event. We are hoping that the weather will be kind though we’ve decided we won’t be having a barbecue as part of the catering on the day. With four months less planning time after the show date moved from late November to late July, we’ve all been keeping an eye out for layouts to attend. This brings me to a point which has been irritating me for a few weeks now. When is an invite not an invite? After a verbal invite was given to a nearby club, I was asked to confirm it in an e-mail, which I did the next day. That contained all the important details, such as date, location, times, basic directions, etc. The e-mail was duly responded to soon after with the club’s ‘layout movement requirements’ and an overview of expenses details, and that it would be put to the layout operators for a vote. All this takes place around six and a half months before the show and before the layout is finished and makes its exhibition debut. Then in May, the ‘official invite’ which includes the form to be filled in for space needed, number of operators, etc follows from our exhibition manager. Shortly after that we find out from the club in question that most of the operators needed now have other commitments, and the club claims that not enough notice has been given. So obviously the members weren’t asked in the early stages and the vote didn’t happen as promised after the e-mail arrived. Does that sound right? Doesn’t everyone use word of mouth to book layouts in the early stages? If the hobby in general and exhibitions or events which require others to participate are to continue and thrive, surely we need to rely on people doing what they say they will and then getting back to the requester in good time.

April, May and June have been busy months. Two NOGGie’s member layouts, Eastbridge and Westbridge owned by Les and Chris respectively have been out on the exhibition circuit as far apart as Bushey in Hertfordshire and Tamworth in Staffs. There are further shows in the second half of this year and both already have some provisional bookings for next year too. I was lucky enough to go with both layouts when they were on show at Shepshed, near Loughborough in April. Although they were there for both days of the weekend show, I just attended on the Saturday. Roger, another NOGGie helped out on the Sunday when I was otherwise engaged. Operating layouts has always been something I’ve enjoyed but not done enough of over the years. That may be about to change with both ‘Bridges’ and two other O gauge layouts under construction at the club, plus a friend who is finishing his own O-9 narrow gauge layout which is due to make its exhibition debut at our show, I have plenty of chances to get out and about in the coming months and years, which I’m looking forward to.

There is also the opportunity of running my own garden railway, plus helping on others where I know the owners. Once again, I’m very grateful to Les and Roger for helping me sort out the electrical gremlins on the garden railway, which is now running, although there are some enhancements that we’ve decided to make after discovering some quirks in the factory wiring of Peco points. Actually, although I’ve mentioned quirks, I think it is a generational thing. Newer points have better wiring. We found that with a micro-switch helping to throw the current the way the point is set, some still have a dead bit on the switch rails. A solution has been found and will be carried out over time to improve reliability.

Another garden layout we get involved with as you’ll know if you follow these articles is the Lavendon set up. I’ve been to two of their monthly Sunday operating days so far, with the one on June 13th being the railway theme day and featuring additional layouts for that day, including one from the club. The shunting challenge had only its second outing since it first featured at our November exhibition last year. On both occasions at Lavendon I brought along several items of my loco collection to run around the circuits. One thing I should hold up my hand to is causing a couple of collisions whilst running two trains around the same circuit. Like an England football game, you don’t have to be distracted long before things deteriorate. I hope I have better luck next time. I also made an approach to the owner to discuss possible enhancements to the layout there. I thought it would be beneficial if we re-instated the loops around the platforms, so that some trains could be running whilst others are set up, then a smooth transition effected when the next trains are ready. He agreed to provide the points if we did the work. I put this to the committee about a week later, they agreed and Tony the owner at Lavendon has told us to buy the points and send in the bill. The work may be carried out on a Sunday in August, though at the time of writing we haven’t made any definite arrangements.

On the Saturday and Sunday of the same weekend that the most recent Lavendon running day was on, our club resources were quite stretched with five of us helping at Lavendon plus both East and Westbridge layouts were on show at the Canal Museum Gala weekend at Stoke Bruerne, close to Northampton. Chris wasn’t able to attend, so Ralph and his Grandson Josh operated Westbridge on his behalf, with Les running Eastbridge. As it was only a few weeks before our own exhibition, we took the opportunity to ask some club members out on both days to hand out A6 sized flyers advertising the event to the many local people attending.

Early May of course brings the ALSRM show in Reading. One I always keenly anticipate and try to attend whenever possible. This year NOGGie representation was a bit thin on the ground for several reasons, but I took with me an 0-6-0 black LNER tender 3 rail loco bought which had previously been part of Neil’s collection to sell on behalf of the club at the bring and buy stand. We also were on the lookout for Lima trucks, and seven were found for us that will eventually become part of our Windcutter train. On the way back from Reading, I went to the SW Herts club’s Bushey exhibition to see Les and Chris with their East and Westbridge layouts.

Les has started to build the kit for his Crosti-boilered 9F which was purchased at Kettering, but other demands on his time and expertise have meant it has for the time being gone to the back-burner. We still look forward to seeing the completed locomotive later this year, or early next.

By the time of the next article, we’ll know how the exhibition will have fared and we’ll have had the club AGM, which is due Wednesday 4th August.

Let me conclude by praising Roger. He has been doing some excellent work in several areas of model railways, from sourcing and replacing worn out motors in a model train, constructing a retaining wall for my garden railway single-handedly and building some splendid working colour light 7mm scale signals featuring searchlight, two and three aspects types. They do look the business!

STEPHEN LLOYD (20155)

Northampton O Gauge Group (NOGGies)

Hello again from me, plus the usual greetings from the NOGGies to all GOGGers. Let me start with a bit of good news. In the last article, I mentioned the rip-off catering bill we’d received half-way through our exhibition last year. As a result of lodging a formal complaint, we did receive some money off the bill after our chairman Ralph visited the catering company’s HQ on our behalf. We thank him for that intervention and apologise for the difficulties he experienced in the weeks after the show in November.

With the exhibition in late July this year, and publishing deadlines as they are, (around 1st July for the August Guild News), this will be the last update I have chance to write and you’ll see before the show happens, but as a club in general and a committee in particular, we are busy planning for the event. Those same deadlines mean that it’ll be the November issue of Guild News before you see a report of how the show went. We are hoping that the weather will be very kind and we can put on a barbecue as part of the catering on the day. Indeed only this week I’ve heard a long-range forecast from Positive Weather Solutions that from mid-June until the end of August, we are meant to be having a very hot summer, so fingers crossed that they’ve accurately forecast that; we’re certainly due a decent summer and that it happens in those weeks. Our exhibition date of 24th July sits right in the middle.

Because of exhibition date change, we have four months less than usual to make all the arrangements. With this time constraint in mind, we called an Extraordinary General Meeting for 10th February which was very well attended. On the day of the exhibition, the club members help out excellently; some undertaking several roles. But we wanted them to help undertake some of the tasks that need doing beforehand. During that meeting we asked the club membership to help with the advertising and various other tasks including keeping an eye out for layouts that may feature at the show. We created a new committee post to oversee the publicity we need to get better at. We have the next committee meeting on 12th April.

Whilst on an exhibition theme, I’ll mention the GOG Spring show. The 6th March was keenly anticipated by the NOGGies as it is our scale/gauge interest and it’s on our doorstep at the leisure village in Kettering.

The day may have been quite grey and cloudy, but it was dry and we were all grateful for that. For what is little more than a trade show, it’s always struck me as being on the expensive to gain admission, though Guild members pay £5 rather that £7 for non-members and that also includes partner too.

Although we’d come from several directions, there were about a dozen current or past NOGGies in attendance. Amongst the names you might know are: Chris, Les, Ralph, Len, Roger, Michael T and Stephen along with several former club members. Most of us were spending money on kits or articles. The amounts ranged from just a few pounds for second-hand wagons (well spotted by Chris) that Adam will modify to match the others and they’ll become part of the Windcutter train for the test track and garden railways to several hundred for locomotives or loco kits. Ralph was smitten with an Invertrains station kit and Les was ‘chuffed’ to be able to collect a kit for a Crosti-boilered 9F. This was the culmination of a very long-held ambition to build this very different version of the popular design of what would be the last British Railways steam loco. He has already made a start on the kit and we look forward to seeing the completed locomotive later this year.

I had hoped to collect a Heljan BR class 20 loco that was ordered at the end of 2009 from Tower Models before the VAT rise. I had asked for it to be weathered and brought to Kettering. Alas, I found that it had not been completed in their paint shop, so it wasn’t with them. I’ve since received it and look forward to running it in on the next test track operational night.

Also, some specialist track in the form of a scissors crossover for the BR part of the layout was ordered for Kings Thorpe from Marcway in Sheffield and this too has since arrived. It looks very impressive and will probably be one of the first bits items positioned when we start track laying. It will save a lot of space over two conventional crossovers and it will be a talking point to the viewer at future shows.

As well as expenditure amongst the NOGGies, we also through Chris and Les’s efforts managed to sell some of Neil’s old collection and afterwards banked £100 for club funds. That was pure profit after purchasing the wagons and paying for the items onto the Bring and Buy stand.

There was also the other Northampton club show held in March, and although I didn’t go, several NOGGies did, and we had a club stand to sell some excess items. Upcoming treats for us to look forward to include the resumption of running sessions of the O gauge railway at the Lavendon Garden Railway, www.webhost.350.com/LNGR.htm (though at the time of writing, the 2010 dates aren’t yet shown) our own garden railways and the ALSRM show at Reading in May.

STEPHEN LLOYD (20155) _________________________________________________________________ http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

Hello (and at the time of writing, 1^st January, Happy New Year) along with the usual greetings from the NOGGies to all GOGGers. I’ll start by reviewing the exhibition we held in late November. The new venue was great – four halls on two different levels, and unlike the County Cricket club’s hall, not everything could be seen from any one place, which added to the appeal. Attendance was excellent with very heavy footfall in the morning which gradually then eased off during the day. But we had over 500 people attend and most that I spoke to were very pleased with what they’d seen. There are a couple of things we do have to address next year, to make it even better. One is signage; there’s no question, we didn’t get that right at all. And the other is catering. For a second year out of three, we hired someone in to do the catering. It seems that whenever we get someone else in, we get ripped off. We thought we had it all sorted out this time, with 300 baked potatoes, (and an option on 300 more), giant sausage rolls, various sandwiches, tea/coffee and soft drinks. We may had thought we it sorted out, but that feeling only lasted until at lunchtime when our Chairman was given the catering bill, which included 600 baked potatoes. We hadn’t even been open for three hours when the invoice was handed over. So how we could be billed for the optional 300 spuds? Two months on, not one of us has yet to fathom it. As a committee, it has led us to a lodge a formal complaint, which has been taken to the company’s head office. We wait events.

I signed off last time by saying that I might have some news about our exhibition next year. Well I can now tell you that for 2010, instead of November our next exhibition will be on Saturday 24^th July. When the idea was first raised at a committee meeting, we liked the sound of shifting the date, but we weren’t sure how it would be received by the traders, exhibitors and public. We did a survey at the exhibition and a large percentage of people were supportive of the idea; two traders even booked in there and then. We will use the same venue, but make our own catering arrangements.

Moving on, the club website is now back up and running with a new look, though there is still some updating to do. We have a new webmaster who has done an excellent job and we are very pleased at its appearance. It will take some time to fully populate again though.

On the two Wednesday’s either side of Christmas day, I’ve been to visit the St Neots club which Gazette Editor John Kneeshaw attends. I was contacted by a former member of the NOGGies, Bruce who lives mid-way between the two clubs so finds it easy to attend either, but he is concentrating on the St Neots club as they have their new 28ft two-level Helmthwaite layout nearing completion. In fact by the time you read this it will have been to its first exhibition at St Albans on 16^th/17^th January. I must say it is very impressive, and has excellent attention to detail.

In the last update, I mentioned that we had our Christmas do – a dining trip on the Great Central Railway on Saturday 12^th December to look forward to. Well the day duly arrived and 22 of us went and were allocated seats inside a beautifully restored BR Mk 1 FO. Mike, a NOGGie who is also a member of the Railway Vehicle Preservation Trust (RVP) at Loughborough had arranged the seats for us. We were all impressed with the coach and the train as a whole. The RVP do excellent work in restoring such vehicles. I asked Mike what state the coach had been in when it was acquired, a wreck, was the reply. It was worth the time (years) taken to restore it to ‘as new’ condition.

A week before that was the Reading trade show, again, very well organised with many impressive stands. Several of us attended, enjoyed it and spent some of the Christmas budget on items seen within the hall, or ordered for later delivery.

I hope that our Kings Thorpe 35ft layout will make significant progress in 2010, and I’ll keep you posted. I look forward to seeing if Santa has been kind to the other NOGGies at the next club meeting.

The closing thought must go to Les, a stalwart of the NOGGies and the club as a whole, who we all wish a speedy recovery after he sustained a broken leg after a slip and fall at home on the Monday after Reading. He missed the Christmas trip on the Great Central, but his wife Kathy has promised him they’ll go when he’s fully recovered and mobile again.

STEPHEN LLOYD (20155)

Hello and greetings from the NOGGies to all GOGGers. I must start by righting my big wrong from the last newsletter article. I stated that our upcoming exhibition was due to be held on Saturday 21^st November. I was a whole week too early. It is Saturday 28^th November, having been moved several months ago and I forgot. What kind of a secretary am I? Not a very good one would be my answer. Luckily, it was correctly listed in the events of O gauge interest, but seeing two different dates could itself have caused confusion. I bet I have inconvenienced some people, so apologies for that gaffe.

Moving on, I should also state that our club website is not up and running at the moment. Though it may be working again by the time you read this, or soon after. We are in the process of changing hosting servers and the contract agreement we had finished at the end of August. We hope to have it back up as soon as we can, but I cannot give you a firm date at the moment.

As my diary says summer is officially over, (though the weather at the time of writing (late September) has been excellent, if cooler overnight), now seems to be a good time to reflect on the garden railway activities. We’ve been using outdoor model railways at Les’s in Northampton, my own in Rushden has had some use, though a busted set of points causing a permanent short-circuit has curtailed my activities of late and Lavendon. The most used for the majority of us has been the simple twin loops of the Lavendon garden railway. I think all the NOGGies and even some of non – O gauge persuasion have visited at least once. And after the wiring upgrades and a few tweaks to the track levels earlier in the year, it has performed well. At the last running day on 13^th September, I even took my digital controller and my Tower Brass class 24 which sounded excellent; working hard as it hauled a freight train around the outer loop whilst climbing the gradient back towards the station area. On that day too, Les and Chris brought along their Westbridge and Eastbridge end to end layouts with them to add to the visitor attractions there. The weather was dry and kind(ish), though we’d all been lulled into a false sense of security by the previous day’s scorching sunshine.

Sadly, and perhaps surprisingly, none of the NOGGies were able to visit the Telford show this year. All of us had commitments which kept us away, but I’m sure we’ll manage to go next year, and we also have Kettering next March to look forward to.

Another thing we have to look forward to is our Christmas do, when we’ll be having a dining trip on the Great Central Railway on Saturday 12^th December. And a week before that of course is the Reading trade show, which many of us enjoy and so make an effort to attend.

Our new 35ft O gauge layout, Kings Thorpe, has made slow progress with the distractions of summer, but a track plan has been decided and scale plans drawn up. We hope to have started track-laying by the time you read this, but it is extremely unlikely to feature at our November show. Instead, I’ll stick my neck out and say look for it next year.

I may also have some news about our exhibition next year, but for now, I’ll leave you on tenterhooks. I’ll write it up for the next newsletter if our scheme comes about.

STEPHEN LLOYD (20155)

Hello all and greetings from the NOGGies to all GOGGers. Apologies that I haven’t submitted a full report for a couple of issues, I hope that this one goes some way to make up for that. So what has been happening in the meantime? Well to start, we had the spring show at Kettering which we all enjoy as it is on our doorstep. We’ve also got some big news regarding our November show. Due to the success of our previous two exhibitions, we are going to move to larger exhibition venue for the show on Saturday 21^st November. See the next Guild News for details.

There’s also some news to report about the club’s long awaited new scenic O gauge layout. Since I last wrote, the baseboards have been completed along with the legs. And thanks must go to all who’ve helped, though Graham, Peter, Len and Bruce have been the most prolific in this regard. You may remember that we were going to make a two – tier layout (called Kings Thorpe) featuring an interchange between a BR/national rail station, and one on a preserved line and had planned to include a high – level loco shed which would have been reached by a long straight climb situated right at the front of the layout for ease of viewing. Sadly however, storage space considerations have meant that we’ve had to drop the high level aspect. We’ll still have the interchange station, but it’ll now be on the flat. It’ll still also be 35 ft long, consisting of eight boards. A job that may should have been completed by the time you read this will be deciding upon the track plan. All those interested will get to have a say. It is hoped that (hall space permitting) the part – complete Kings Thorpe will be a feature of our exhibition, thus attracting anyone who wishes to get involved in the club in general and layout building in particular. Depending on the work done to it over the coming months, and people availability, we don’t yet know if will be a static work in progress, or whether anything will be running on some of the laid track. I may be able to update you for the November issue.

The NOGGies are also on the lookout for old Lima 16 ton open mineral wagons to upgrade (wheels, load and weathering) and convert so that we hope to end up with into a 40 wagon freight train called The Windcutter. The conversion element consists mainly of fixed bar coupling on one wagon to an under floor hole on the next that enables them all to be very quickly set up. So far we are over half-way with 21 done and some more awaiting Adam’s attention. At the time of writing, we haven’t completed the weathering on all yet, but we did put them together for a run on the test track on the first Wednesday of June. When done, I’m sure they’ll get much use on the garden railways that I refer to in the next couple of paragraphs, as they’ll be quick to couple up and the length and look will be right for a garden railway.

With the arrival of the warmer weather, thoughts have turned to garden railways. My own is now up and running, as it just needed a few tweaks to the electrics to repair winter ravages. Thanks to Les and Chris who helped immensely. There’s also another one being built by a Les who is constructing a simple but aesthetically pleasing out and back two stage layout in his back garden. The first stage is a mainly two-track 40ft run from the shed in the far corner to the house end of the garden at almost eye level. It is already running and features a station with a small yard. The whole thing is being sympathetically planted with miniature conifers and other small plants. Stage two will be built later (probably next year) with a loop leading into and back out from the front garden around the central tree there.

In January, we were contacted by the Lavendon Miniature Garden Railway in Bedfordshire as they were planning an open day on Sunday April 19^th to ask if we would supply four people to run their O gauge garden railway. We agreed and as there were more than four volunteers a draw for the four places was held. However, most of us visited at some point through the day, as it turned out that several of us could only spare half a day. So as the morning crew left, those who could do the ‘afternoon shift’ arrived.

They have a good size twin circuit of track with conventional 12v dc feeds and the layout twice crosses the pond it is built around by means of metal bridges. The day went well and the weather was friendly too. After the success of that day, we received excellent feedback and have since been asked if we would do this regularly, as they don’t always have the personnel to man this feature. We’ve agreed and have suggested an upgrade to the power supply which they’ve consented to. They mainly work on Sunday mornings and have an open day about one Sunday a month. The organisation has also recently acquired a piece of adjoining land to expand their sit on and ride train operation into, and they’ve already started to extend into it.

Returning to the earlier theme of exhibitions, most of us have been to several exhibitions. The most notable two were the ALSRM show at Reading, which I was unable to go to myself due to other commitments, and the Guild summer show at Halifax which I did attend.

We have our AGM on submission deadline day of Wednesday 1^st July, so I will update you with the main points from that in the next issue.

Anyone can visit our club website at www.ndmrc.org or call (01933) 413500 in the evening except Wednesday which is club meeting night from 7:30 to 10:30 at Kingsthorpe Community Centre, Mill Lane, Kingsthorpe, Northampton NN4 9RR.

STEPHEN LLOYD (20155).

Hello all and greetings from the NOGGies to all GOGgers. Since the last report, the NOGGies have visited the excellent show at Telford and to a man were very pleased with the reduction in admission charge, though concerned at the fewer number of stands; I guess the hobby industry isn’t immune from the effects of the credit crunch, and we just have to hope that things improve rather than deteriorate further. Despite fewer attractions, there was plenty of interest at Guildex and most of us happily came away with a project or two, or something in ready to run form.

 The master classes are still on-going and the one for the first Wednesday in October is another brass wagon/soldering event. I think this is mainly for my benefit, as I have a bogie bolster wagon which is looking good so far, but that is due to Les’s expert guidance.

The big news is that the club’s long awaited new scenic O gauge layout is finally up and underway. The new baseboards have been created by Ralph and there has been further discussion about track layout. This has resulted in a decision to make a two – tier layout which will feature a high – level loco shed which will be reached by a long straight climb situated right at the front of the layout for ease of viewing and will include (if we can find one to fit) a turntable. Does anyone have any ideas?

The test track is very nearly finished with the wiring done and most of the levelling also completed. A few jobs remain and these will hopefully be tackled before our exhibition on Saturday 29^th November. A discount is available for anyone who wishes to attend. All you need to do is visit the website (see below) and follow the link labelled £1 discount voucher. We’d like to see as many people as possible, so do please come along and say hello.

Anyone can visit our club website at www.ndmrc.org or call (01933) 413500 in the evening except Wednesday which is club night meeting from 7:30 to 10:30 at Kingsthorpe Community Centre, Mill Lane, Kingsthorpe, Northampton NN4 9RR.

STEPHEN LLOYD (20155).

Hello all and greetings from the NOGGies to all GOGgers. This will be a short report because although the recent months have seen a flurry of activities they can all be typed up in a few sentences. We’ve been involved with master classes in plastic wagon kit building, brass soldering, plus re-wiring work on the test track. That has proved to be a highly effective project and by the time you read this the work should be complete.

We do have further master classes still to run including layout design, painting and weathering and wiring. Two members Les and Chris have been working on two complimentary end to end shunting layouts (Eastbridge and Westbridge) which can be used separately or joined together.

We’ve also attracted a few new members to our satisfaction and laid on a club trip to the Great Central’s war weekend on 14^th June; which featured a very intensive train service and was great fun apart from being questioned by a German sentry on Rothley station. “Papiren Bitte” was okay, we understood that and proffered our newly issued double sided Identity cards, but when further questions were asked in fluent German we were at a complete loss. There are more summer trips coming up which will give us something to look forward to each month. I also hope to have the garden railway up and running too.

There’s also been a buying spree amongst some of the NOGGies with items acquired including a Bachmann Brassworks class 03 shunter from Tower Models, a class 207 ‘Oxted Thumper’ three-car set and a class 37/4 loco which I bought after seeing it advertised in these pages last time around. I’m hoping this will shortly be a candidate for DCC and sound conversion. I also know someone is seriously considering the purchase of a Heljan Hymek too and Les has decided that his winter project will be a DJH kit of Evening Star. All this is in addition to a rake of Parkside Dundas wagon kits which we’ve started to build, and will no doubt keep us going through the darker months. Once the test track is finished we’ll probably make a start on our scenic layout called Kingsthorpe that I mentioned last time around.

By the time you get to read this, the club AGM will have happened on 9^th July, which will see my tenure as club secretary come to an end. When asked to do the job last year, I said I would do so for 12 months and that time is now up, though I will continue to write these reports for Guild News on behalf of the NOGGies.

Anyone can visit our club website at www.ndmrc.org or call (01933) 413500 in the evening except Wednesday which is club night meeting from 7:30 to 10:30 at Kingsthorpe Community Centre, Mill Lane, Kingsthorpe, Northampton NN4 9RR.

STEPHEN LLOYD Secretary (20155)

Greetings once again and to follow on from the last article, my guess that after inspecting the potential new premises, we’d decide it wasn’t suitable was correct. However, what I hadn’t foreseen (just when I’d typed up the club’s members newsletter with the news that the former shop premises wasn’t large enough and that with the council about to advertise for a new caretaker, it would be a good while before we’d have the chance to get back to the Kingsthorpe clubhouse) was that by the following week we’d have changed club night to accommodate our move back there almost a year to the day since we’d had to vacate it after just one meeting.

By the time I’d finished printing off enough copies that item made it look as though I’d been holidaying on Mars for a month; who’d be a Secretary in this age of fast moving communications?

Now we’re back and settled with a permanent HQ, attention has turned to the new club O gauge scenic layout. I could claim green credentials for the club because we’ve decided to include three re-worked (recycled) sections of a former layout called Stanford Vale that haven’t seen the light of day for over ten years.

After much discussion amongst the NOGGies we’ve decided to set the new layout (to be called ‘Kingsthorpe’) as a fictional location where there is an interchange between BR/National rail and a station on a preserved line. That gives us absolute manna to run anything and everything loco and stock-wise. It will be an end-to-end layout. We will be able to vary the period from 1960s up to today. So it would be possible to see an A4 pacific and big-four company coaches – even perhaps coaches from all the big four in one rake alongside a Virgin (or should that be CrossCountry) Voyager, or at least it would be if any of us had a Voyager set.

The front section will have the preserved railway featuring a shunting yard and goods demonstration line with the BR/National rail section behind. As may be expected, the stored sections have suffered a bit in storage and moving and will need some attention to restore the excellent level of detail they previously enjoyed. There will also be some subtle changes to the alignment of the track in some places, to achieve the intended new look.

Another club feature will be the resumption of master-classes in nearly all the modelling disciplines. The senior members of the club will be taking turns to provide tutorials.

As well as the work on Kingsthorpe, the test-track is benefiting from a wiring upgrade which will ensure continuity of supply – as well as being easier to fit as they will be positioned on the inside rather than underneath. The best of it is that these will be a completely new supply, with better quality wire. As it will be an additional supply it will not interfere with the movement of trains on running nights whilst work is carried out.

Reading through the last Guild News, we were delighted to see the mention for the club from Bob of the SOGGies about their trip to our exhibition last November. Bob, I’d have to agree that we couldn’t ask for a better plug for less than a pint – THANKS!

On Saturday 8^th March the NOGGies to a man made the short trip over to the GOG Spring show at Kettering. It’s lovely to have a good quality show (that we don’t have to organise ourselves, but thanks to those that do!) on our doorstep. It was a very satisfying trip for all, but an expensive one for a NOGGY who shall remain nameless. Some of us have also been further afield with the March Nottingham show perhaps the biggest amongst those visited recently.

Anyone can visit our club website at www.ndmrc.org or call (01933) 413500 evenings except Wednesday which is club night meeting 7:30 to 10:30 at Kingsthorpe Community Centre, Mill Lane, Kingsthorpe, Northampton NN4 9RR.

STEPHEN LLOYD Secretary (20155)

Greetings to one and all; at the time of composition it is 30^th December, I’m therefore thinking ‘Happy New Year’, but by the time you read this it is likely to be around 1^st February, so we’ll be a long way past that. I was going to start with news of our exhibition, but yesterday most of the committee met at the front of an empty former estate supermarket on the eastern side of town hoping we were about to find a new permanent home for the club. The owner duly met us at 11:00 and let us in to inspect, measure and photograph. However, it soon became apparent that the building wasn’t as large as we’d hoped and I don’t think will be suitable to move into. We have a committee meeting on Thursday 3^rd January to make a formal decision, but I’ll stick my neck out now and guess it’ll be rejected.

That’d be a shame because we were told about this by Chairman Ralph on the last club night of the year and so we were all keen to see the place. Whilst there we learned that it’d been a butcher’s shop before conversion to a small supermarket and that it had been empty for nine years, so we were confident of a good deal on the rent.

So assuming that we won’t be pursuing the old shop, we’ll have to get in touch with the borough council to see when the Kingsthorpe Community Centre will be ready for re-opening. As you may know we had one meeting there the first week in January 2007 only to be told a few days later that it wasn’t fit for purpose, and that we and all the other users had to vacate until further notice. So one year on we’ve got our fingers crossed for a better result.

Now to the topic which dominated most of our time and the content of these updates – our 2007 Exhibition. As a club the committee and members were all busy right up to the day of the show. The day was cold but dry thank goodness; there’s nothing worse for exhibitors and traders than unloading in the wet, so we felt we were off to a good start. Everything went smoothly in the hours before opening and then we experienced a good and steady flow of visitors through the door. Lunch and tea coffee was provided for the exhibitors which included the Radway layout by Brian Stayt from the Sheffield O Gauge Group. We thank him and Bob his helper of the day for travelling south down the M1. Also we’d like to thank Chris Thorn our area Guild representative who journeyed in the other direction to be with us and brought the Guild stand and a splendid model of a class 76 1,500v dc Manchester-Sheffield-Wath loco with him. Another first for us was a ‘just completed’ model of a class 37 diesel loco on the Skytrex stand. This had been only a figment of the owner’s imagination ten weeks beforehand and looked good and more importantly ran well. I was told they are doing both split and centre headcode versions (unlike Heljan) and will also offer an un-powered version to allow the cost-effective running of pairs on the head of coal trains. Because the Skytrex versions don’t have working lights and roof-fans they are going to be cheaper than the Heljan versions when they appear.

There was ‘good footfall’ through the venue doors all day and the Tombola proved popular as did the ride-on 5” scale ride. We carried out exit polls amongst the public and traders/exhibitors and found that everyone loved the venue and the overall ambiance of the exhibition – a definite plus as we’ll be back there at the end of November again. We also managed to pull in several new members from those visiting and lots of people brought their own stock to run on the Test Track; quite a few of these were making their very first outing. When the money coming in had been counted and set against outgoings, it was found that we’d fallen short by about £85. This was a slight disappointment, but set against Treasurer Chris’s three-year plan that was to lose no more than a £1,000 in the first year, break even in the second and make a grand in the third, we think we’re off to a blinding start.

Our Christmas dinner took place on Tuesday 11^th December when 19 of us including the WAGs went to a country pub on the Rugby Road and had a lovely meal. There were some grumbles about the service, but overall everything went well and we had a good time.

The weekend after our show six of us Noggies went along to the Reading Trade Show, where most of us bought something and the club sold a couple of items in the Bring and Buy.

STEPHEN LLOYD Secretary (20155)