Month: June 2019

The Hockwold Country Fair – June 2019

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Well, what a weekend! Saturday setting up and Sunday from a very early start, the stalwarts provided a very varied show of all sorts of models. We had a helicopter; a working Mississippi paddle steamer; a trawler with very convincing sound; several stationary engines; a loco in the making; two sweet peas of very different design; a 7 1/4” gauge electric loco and driving truck; an old in the tooth 08 electric; three working traction engines; A scale land rover and horse box with pony and hay; a steam lorry and a Scale Model T Ford Van. All in all a very, very nice cross section of our modelling prowess. Well done and thank you to everyone who spent a very hot day showing what can be done in “Our sheds”. Great turn out.

First Family Running Day – May 18th 2019

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Saturday May 18th was our first Family running day. A very good attendance and again a very nice array of cakes. Thank you ladies, very well done again. The weather was not ‘May’ weather but this is England and we just get on with it. Thanks to Stuart F for his 7 1/4” electric loco; Ken W for his sweet pea; Rob W for his equally sweet, sweet pea and Geoff E for his American electric loco – also Geoff B with his award winning Traction Engine and kit – very, very nice; Chris H with his Fut Fut, and his flying items all very nice; Ralph R had his “ Marham Monster” out, big loco; Paul B his Simplex; Hugh S his very nice “Lion”. Well done to you all. Pete from Peterborough and his friend did a You Tube Video, they are very welcome. There were other locos and traction engines all wanting various tests, so it was a very interesting day.

Below are some pictures, I hope you like them.

 

Geoff B Traction Engine Kit.

Rob W “Sweet Pea”.

Norman H “Edward Thomas”.

Array of Electric Locos.

Paul B “Simplex”.

Ralph R “Marham Monster”.

Chris H “Engines”.

Array of Locos on the track.

Where would we be without these lovely ladies – really good turnout.

Taking for a ride?

Apprentice Day – April 2019

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Saturday 13th April 2019 was the Apprentice Day, A Weeting Farm occasion ran for the young people who want to learn how to drive and fire and look after a full size Traction engine. A coldish day but well attended. We also had some engines running and Len Cooks  Simplex  was at the track to have the once over before it has it statuary tests, unfortunately there was still a leak in the tanks and had to packed away and back to the workshop.

The ladies did not let us down again, cakes a plenty, the lemon drizzle to die for. Thank you very much, and well done.

pictures by John M, thanks

 

The Quarterly Mardle – June 2019

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7 1/4 inch Steaming Pit

The Chairman's Dribble.

Newsletter June 2019.

Hello everyone, what has happened to our summer? Last year at this time we were in a heat wave, but maybe it is getting ready for The Weeting Rally, which is only 5 weeks away. what! it will soon be Christmas. Well, the track is looking good. A great job has been done on the pond but we need  to find some water still. The new lift is in place and what a lift! The old rollers on the small traverser are about to be replaced. What can I say, except a great job has been done by all of our ground crew, also we must not forget our resident gardener, cast your eyes around the plants, wonderful. We have one more meeting before Weeting. Your tickets will be ready by then, so you need to arrange to pick them up, they will not be posted unless you have sent a SAE to Steve M. Well, I better get back to my workshop and try to finish my engine ,hopefully to be ready for Weeting, so goodbye for now. DM

The Secretary's Report.

Hi to you all. Here we are, well into June, half way through the year. We are on our way in having the track in tip top condition, looking forward to The Weeting Rally  July 19th 20th and 21st 2019. We have just had The Hockwold show, a small parking problem, but we could have secured a new member so, worth all the effort. We have had already our first family running day, done and dusted. All the jobs we have started are coming to completion. We had a grand day out at Doncaster with a mini bus taking the strain, and 10 members having a buying day as never before. Midlands next in October 17th 18th 19th 20th, we will probably go on the 19th, so please let me know places are limited on the mini-bus. Weeting Rally will be upon us in no time, we still have things to do, but we will be ready. It is technically 25years this year of the inauguration of the track at Weeting, are we up for “ a bit of a do” let me know your thoughts and I will see  what we could do. We have the technology, do we have the “hands”?

We have had an invitation to visit “The East Coast Casting company in Watton on Wednesday 11th September 2019 at 3.30, for a one hour visit, if you are interested then please “ EMAIL ME” soon as please. No fee.

Also a running day has been suggested on 29th June 2019, I will email you all in due course.

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Steve HW for the donation of a small workshop band saw to BDSME.  Thanks Steve. MW

The Track Report

Several projects to report on this time. Completion of the second 7 1/4 steaming pit; Update on the refurb of the pond; our very substantial new engine lift; the finished new digital signal light system and last but not least the Chairman’s Office.

Second 7 1/4” steaming  pit

Built next to the engine lift bay, we have had to make a new set of points to be able to insert this new steaming pit. This will enable the larger engines to be fired and closed down in a more comfortable place than having to kneel down to oil and drop the fire, you can do these things in relative comfort.  See the pictures.

Update on the Pond

We have finished the building of the frame work of the pond and have re- positioned the liner, you can see from the pictures, where the liner used to be, we are continuing to fill in round the outside of the pond, we cannot beat the soil down until we get  it filled with water, so we have been doing a bit and waiting for it to settle, but it is all in hand. We have built some steps down to the waters edge at the bottom of the pond so you will not have to bend down to put you boat in the water. We aim to grass round the sides and then erect a wire netting fence round the pond to help stop the leaves and rubbish being blown in the pond, especially when the leaves begin to fall in autumn. You can see the progress from the pictures.

The New Lift

Mike S , Mike H, and Geoff E have spent an enormous time on the very, very substantial project. Mike S and Mike H have produced this piece of kit from their own drawings and ( WHOW) if you have not seen it in the flesh then you will be gob smacked, it will lift the “Titanic”. It was built to fit in the existing pit, so there were some constraints but this will be the envy of many a model engineering club. We have had it professionally welded and painted and Geoff E and Mike H with Mike S supervising have installed it, and it looks fantastic. So please bring on your engines and you will be on the track in a flash.

We continue to work on the Summer house, Work  force A has to become work force C from time to time, most of the painting has been done, the window “glass” has been cut and all the beadings painted prior to them being installed, we have had to provide a new lock, following the previous locks key being stolen when the miscreants had an afternoon seeing what was worth taking, the key was gone, so we now have a new lock to be fitted. All is very much under control for time and this will be ready for Weeting. Below are the pictures to show our progress. 

Strumpshaw 2018 & 2019

Strumpshaw Steam Rally is a very good show. We have members who go as themselves and win, yes, win prizes. In 2018 Norman S won “THE BEST STEAM EXHIBIT” with his super traction engine. Below is his picture, well done Norman, well done indeed.

This year another member with his traction engine won.

Geoff B for “THE MOST OUTSTANDING EXHIBIT”. Well done Geoff, very well done following your 2017 ‘Dick Brown Cup’ award, very well done indeed!

Geoff B “wagon train” well done. Geoff.

Back to 1994

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I would like to take you all back to May 21st 1994, which was the date Mr R Parrott, our Club President, officially opened the track at Weeting. 

Family Running Day 29th December 2018

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A rather hastily running day was organised (In the bit between Christmas and New year). The weather was dry but cold, but all in all we had a very good turn out.

Mike and Beth H had their daughter Jacqueline, son-in-law Nick and 2 boys, Lockie and Harry over from Brisbane, Australia. Going by the pictures, they look like they had a good time.

We had 3 steam Loco’s 1 Battery Loco, and Ralph R ‘Marham Monster’ which I believe ran out of petrol, probably lost from the clacks? There was also a drone flying and a boat on the pond, so all in all a very good representation of what we are all about.

The Traction Engines were still tucked up warm in the sheds and too cold to bring them out.

Every one who wanted a drive did on most of the locos and all in all a good day was had be all.

‘The Vision’ – 3rd Anniversary February 2019

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We had our third anniversary running day at the track on Saturday 16th February, during the week the weather was really good, one working day we had to start taking clothes off as it was getting to hot, but alas, Saturday turned out to be a pretty cold day. Never the less we had a wonderful turn out, I did not take a head count but there must have been nearly thirty members, absolutely great for such a cold day. We had a traction engine, steam engines, boats and planes. We even had a couple of stationary engines, last but not least, the ‘Marham Monster’. This really did make one of our junior members, Sam H, a very happy boy. We still found some time to do some work, but we had tea and then some fun until it was lunch time. Our ladies sure can make a pretty grand lunch from some super sausage rolls and cheese straws, we had cheese and ham rolls and well ‘cake’ Not just any old cake but a 74th Birthday cake for one of our workforce, Victoria sponge, Lemon Sponge, what a spread. Thank you all, for making it all so welcoming. John C was kept busy with tea and coffee all day, Thanks to you all. The picture of the ladies below, showed that the new shed will be an attribute . As we were packing up who should turn up but two full size traction engines. Mr Parrott had heard we was having cake, but unfortunately he and his friends were too late, so they steamed off. This is what doing the track is all about, making days memorable.

Newsletter March 2019

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The Chairman's Report.

Welcome to the March 2019 Newsletter. 

Hello everyone! well, we are truly into 2019. It is the beginning of March, with some lovely sunny weather, but I think we are in for a change.

Well the track is looking good and the lights have been tested with the results needed. The two 7 1/4” gauge pits are nearly finished and the track with the new points looks good. So shortly we will be starting on the pond. This should then complete what is needed to make the site look good.

My thanks to the team that works up there in all weathers, which has allowed these trans- formations to take place. So on this note I will say goodbye for now and hope to see you all on Wednesday night at the auction and hope it brings in plenty of money.

Dave M.

The Secretary's Report.

Where has the time gone, as I write this piece, next week will be March, 2019 it only seems last week it was Christmas, but time and tide waits for no man, has someone said that be- fore? We already have had one running day, our third year anniversary of “The vision” apart from being a cold day we had an absolute excellent turn out – Thank you all very much. 

This year is the 25th Anniversary of the “Inauguration of the Weeting track opened by Mr Parrott on 21st May 1994. So could we have a celebration on this theme?

There will be a couple of extra dates on the calendar, so please make a note, also anyone wanting to go to The Hockwold show you need to get the form available from me in by 19th April. If you want to show or take part in the Weeting Rally this form is available from Steve Mahoney, and this also needs to be in with Steve by 19th April 2019.

We still have a working party at the track, Monday’s Wednesdays and Saturday’s, Saturday’s can also be a play day, so watch out for announcements, on the email. We will be working on the pond soon so many hands made light work, if you can help, you will be most welcome.

Have a good summer and I will see you soon.

The Track Report

We are still doing the second 7 1/4” pit, the points are cut and welded in the track, the rails are fin- ished inside the pit and are currently being painted and welded in position, the track from the points to the pit are being laid and certainly by the time you get this, it should be all up and running.

We have done some preliminary work on how we can tidy up the pond and get rid of all the “Health and Safety issues “the blocks”, we have asked and been told we can spend up to £500 on posts and boards to make it all neat and tidy. We have the necessary permission to let the water out, so all should be a carpentry job . Our next major project.

We have been donated an old “ Summer type House/Shed” and have installed this, after getting per- mission to redirect the fence along the right hand side as you enter the small gate, work is nearly fin- ished and it is looking very nice. To become an office and quite place to sit and view the trains going by during any running day, It already has the seal of approval of the ladies, see picture, below, taken during a rather cold running day in February.

Mike H and Paul B have just about finished the soldering and there been lots of “green” “red” Amber so all is working as it should. So we will be able to control the engines with the new signals.

The new engine lift is at the welders and is being welded ready for installation when complete, watch this space.