Northampton O Gauge Group (NOGGies) May 2011

Hello again from me, plus the usual greetings from the NOGGies to all GOGGers. I’ll start with news of the spring show at Kettering.

As many of you will know we decided to take a 12 foot space at the Kettering show on 5th March to try to sell off the remainder of Neil’s things that were gifted to us some years ago. At the time of writing the last article, I said that for those of you who like a project, this may be very good news as we have lots of bits and some loco bodies that need some TLC. Evidently, there is a huge amount of compassion out there as the stall was busy from the first moments of setting up. The cost of the tables had been covered before the time that the public were admitted. And from then, things just rocketed. Unfortunately, owing to prior holiday commitments, I wasn’t able to attend, but I’m told it was so busy that the four NOGGies on the stand had to call on a friend to help out and they didn’t have time to wander around themselves during the day. It was mentioned that it could have been the busiest stall at the show, and nearly everything sold. We took an amazing £4,500, and considering most asking prices were under £50, you begin to see how frantic it became. So as a club, we must say a BIG THANK YOU to all who purchased items from us helping to boost club funds by almost 100%. We hope that you’re pleased with your bargains and are able to gain pleasure and satisfaction restoring them to running order.

The only downside is that we were after some items ourselves for our Kings Thorpe layout which is under construction, but no-one had a chance to get out and buy the point motors or trap points we had in mind to purchase on the day. However, that isn’t a major problem and those should have been acquired by the time you see this in print. At the time of writing in late March, we have just about completed the entire task of track laying, so next stages such as starting to wire it up will start to happen. We also have to refine a few of the levels on adjacent boards to make seamless crossings.

Preparations for our July exhibition continue apace and the number of layouts and traders is nearing the usual levels. I think I can promise you a splendid show again at a fine venue. Saturday 23rd July is the date to note in your diaries. There will be some excellent O gauge layouts as well as a variety of other scales and gauges. We normally have around 25 layouts and have 22 signed up so far. We hope to put on a day where we can all forget the harsh economic realities of this year and enjoy a day out in the heart of England.

As the weather warms up too, thoughts turn to running in the great outdoors, with my garden railway to bring up to operating status, Les is about to uncover his set-up after this recent harsh winter and continue with his project to extend it as planned. We also are about to embark on operating days with the O gauge circuits at Lavendon too. First one is on Sunday 3rd April.

Recent acquisitions for me include eight excellent BR Mark 1 coaches sold by fellow Guild member Mr K Cleghorn of Surrey. He is a real gentleman and my thanks go out to him for being patient with me as I raised the money. If you see items elsewhere in this Guild News that he’s selling, snap them up; they are of excellent quality and you won’t be disappointed with your purchases. I’m looking forward to seeing the coaches run in the great outdoors and perhaps on our test track. I’m having the screw couplings replaced by buckeyes to make them easier to couple up and that’s another thing that should be done by the time you read this article. I’ve also taken possession of a RJH brass class 31 locomotive kit which is being built and painted for me by another gentleman. He is also a too highly talented craftsman by the name of Johnnie Simmonds, who luckily for me lives only a short drive away. It is going to be finished in BR ‘Dutch livery’ as 31206 which currently resides at the Rushden station museum as a fully running locomotive.

I’ll make this a much shorter article than the last submission which had to be edited down for printing. So happy building, painting and running.

STEPHEN LLOYD (20155)

Hello again from me, plus the usual greetings from the NOGGies to all GOGGers. I’ll start with a review of recent events which have included the club annual Christmas meal. This year’s was a more modest affair than 2009 which saw us dining on the Great central Railway. This year we decided to support the pub which has sponsored the costs of our exhibition programme. So on Thursday 9th of December a good number of club members gathered in keen expectation at The Malt Shovel Tavern in Bridge Street. The Malt Shovel is almost unique in Northampton for its mixture of good food, real ale and atmosphere and is always busy. The Christmas menu was competitively priced and the quality of the food was up to the usual high standard, helped down by the fine ales and beers. In short a good time was had by all present.

Less than a week later there was a very good turnout for a film night on 15th December, which was suggested by the club Secretary Richard who’d taken ownership of several colour cine films depicting many long-gone or long changed railway scenes. Amongst these were trips from the former Northampton Bridge Street station to Bedford and Wellingborough, with some scenes shot from the footplate. We also had some film of the last day of operation of the former Great Central Railway from Woodford Halse to Rugby and back. All this was followed by some photos of various scenes mainly around Northampton, but also some from further away, including one of the former Tottenham Grammer School where Chairman Les was educated and which was across the road from where Secretary Richard lived some years later. All in all it was a very good evening which all present enjoyed, even if a lot of it was quite poignant as it’s been gone for so long.

There have been many recent website improvements to www.ndmrc.org, which have been driven by Les so thanks to him for the time and effort. It’s now much more accurate and up to date and now has a calendar with the club activities along with nearby exhibitions. Some photos of the Christmas dinner have also been posted.

Turning to garden railways now, Les has built a detachable station, signal box and a few other things for his. It is now hibernating for the winter. When spring arrives he will extend into the shed building a turntable so that trains can run from there and locos can be turned in shelter. On mine, the track was re-laid around the rockery once the retaining wall had been constructed properly. A few test runs proved that it needs levelling and fixing properly – a task which we were unable to complete last autumn due to holidays and the change in the weather. Once that’s done, then I’ll need to check for any switches that are faulty or have succumbed to the vagaries of winter and it’ll be ready to run.

In the last article I had my fingers crossed for good weather Sunday 10th October so I could have a day’s running on the O gauge circuits at Lavendon after the improvements we made during August. My luck was in and the weather was indeed kind that day which allowed for a very good operating day. One thing I did notice was that one of my locos was side-swiped on the inside and the cab handrails were either bent or pulled out of their fixing holes which must mean that the tracks are too close to each other. The damage was remedied easily enough, but it does give me pause to consider whether I take more expensive items of rolling stock there for a run. Do we go for yet another upgrade of the tracks there? I don’t know; it may be something we talk about in the coming months. The next thing will be to see how the points we installed for the twin loops have coped with the awful weather we’ve had through the winter when we are due to run again in April.

Our club layout Kings Thorpe continues to make steady progress. Now we’ve changed to layout work in two weeks out of three, the difference is telling. We’ve also had Les join the track laying team and have laid more than half the track now. There have been a few minor adjustments to the track plan as we’ve gone on, but this is to be expected. Two examples include using a three-way point for the entrance to the shed on the preserved line part and the likely inclusion of a head-shunt at the other end of the station on the BR half of the layout after it was found that the ‘severed line’ towards the blocked off tunnel would struggle to accommodate a main line loco as originally envisaged without shortening the fiddle yard at that end unduly. One problem we’ve still to solve at the time of writing is how to get trains into and then out again of the right hand fiddle yard. NOGGie Tim has started work to upgrade his Stagsden layout, which will soon be available in three formats to suit exhibition managers’ requirements. Up to now it has been a straight run through the station/yard area with small fiddle yard at either end. One of the other set ups will include a full circular run. He has added details of it to UK model shops directory website. NOGGie Ralph also mentioned that after his grandson dismantled his OO layout in Ralph’s garage, he is now in the process of rebuilding his O gauge layout from an L shape to a U shape.

One final thought is that we hope to have a 12 foot space at the Kettering spring show on 5th March to sell of the remainder of Neil’s things that were gifted to us some years ago. For those who like a project, this may be very good news as we have lots of bits and some loco bodies that need some TLC.

STEPHEN LLOYD (20155)

Hello again from me, plus the usual greetings from the NOGGies to all GOGGers. Well, I suppose the number one item is the July exhibition result. I’m very pleased to report that we did fantastically well. We made a profit for the first time in recent years, clearing over £900, though that may be reduced a little as there are some bills still to come in. Nevertheless, we are all delighted and have planned the 2011 exhibition for the same weekend, which will be Saturday 23rd July at the Weston Favell School venue again. Some of the other numbers were: over 500 people attended. There were 25 layouts with one making its exhibition debut and a dozen traders; one of them took more than £1,600 and all want to attend next year too. The planning process has now started rolling forward.

At our AGM in August, there were several committee changes. Ralph decided not to stand again as Chairman and this position was taken by Les. The club thanked Ralph for his five years as chair and he continues to be a valuable club member and NOGGie. Chris decided that two jobs was one too many and chose to remain as Treasurer whilst relinquishing his role as Exhibition Manager, which I’ve taken over after there were no other volunteers. So my Secretary position is now in the hands of Richard who isn’t a NOGGie, but a double O-er. There were a couple of other non executive positions that swapped post holders.

During August, several members went over to Lavendon to install the two new loops and the opportunity was taken to replace one of the controllers which was found to have exposed asbestos behind the control knob. The work which included continuity testing of both circuits went well, and several poor bonds were found and rectified, though one of the R/H points I’d donated was unable to be used because it was found to be made of flat-bottomed rail which was incompatible with the rest of the track which was all bull head profile. After the first work day Roger went home and examined his second-hand collection and found a pair which we then installed the following Saturday. We now have two loops upon which we can set up stock while trains continue to run which makes operating it a lot less frantic. O gauge with screw coupling isn’t something most of us can set up quickly; thankfully now we don’t have to. Sunday 12th of September was the first open day when visitors to the centre would have been able to experience a more seamless train running experience. I’m still waiting for my chance to test it all out as I was on holiday and said date. However, fingers crossed for Sunday 10th October which is the last operating open day of the year apart from some Santa specials with the sit and ride section. During the improvements, we had to remove the ends of the makeshift platforms to get the track around them. This wasn’t a big issue, as they were made from chipboard which had been out in the weather and had seen better days. We will get around to replacing them in the near future with something more durable.

After all the NOGGies missed last year’s Telford show, we were all looking forward to getting there this year. Sadly, Chris had to pull out at very short notice in order to help fit out a shop, he and his girlfriend would be opening the following Saturday, but the rest of us went on one or other of the two days. I attended on the first day and attended Martyn Welch’s weathering talk which I found of great interest as I’m doing a few light touches with Modelmates weathering dye, to some of my stock. I like those dyes as they can be applied in different ways for varying effects and are quite forgiving if you don’t get it right. Just returning to Telford, we thought it was well organised and of a very good standard. We hope that one of the layouts on show there may well be at our exhibition next July.

Our club layout Kings Thorpe continues to make steady progress, though finding we were laying track two inches away from the correct back line the other week meant we had to lift and replace what we’d done. We have put the scissors crossover in and it looks rather splendid. Let’s hope that when it comes to wiring it in the instructions supplied are accurate and comprehensive. STEPHEN LLOYD (20155)

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).