The Chairman's Report.
Hi All, I trust everyone is keeping safe and well. We are nearly into to April and Easter is on the horizon. We have had our AGM in March, and we have a new Secretary Steve Harrod, also a new Vice Chairman Ken Winter, The treasurer and the committee apart from Steve and Ken remain the same and myself as Chairman, and as I said , this will be my last year. This will make ten years as Chairman, so I hope Ken will take on the role next year.
The forms are out for Weeting and need to be in by the 5th of April’s meeting.
Progress on the track is going well, running days are in place, so all in all we should have a good year.
As you will be aware Mick W stood down as Secretary, he has served us well, but he still remains on the committee, so it will be good to still have his input.
I hope to see you all in the come year. DM.
The Secretary's Report.
Well this is my last report as Secretary. I have been Secretary since 2015, so it is really time for a change. There have been good times and there have been bad time. Still , being positive, now only the good times to come. During my time as Secretary much has changed, and these certainly have changed for the good and we have our Chairman Dave M to thank for this. So thank you Dave for all the good changes you have instigated.
Not being the Secretary will give me much more time to do the things I want to do, instead of what was required to do. I will be able to run my engine when every I want. I might even get time to look round the Weeting Rally, something I have never done, so something to look forward to.
I wish the new Secretary every success and I will certainly help Steve H to become the person we need to kept us all up to date with every thing.
MW.
Heavy Lift Canopy
For want of a description, in the Accounts this is what it is called. A roof over a frame which has been built, in some of the coldest weather this year. All is going well the posts and the girders are all done , bolted strongly so that the roof trusses have been put up in pieces. We did talk about getting some help in erecting them whole or in one piece, they are very heavy, so it was decided to dismantle them into three main pieces, the main cross members and the two roof trusses, our leader Norman H arrived one day with this magnificent set of, put together scaffold’s which runs on wheels and is the correct hight and is very safe ,health and safety wise. Every one is happy to work on the top of these . As I write this piece we have four of the five roof trusses erected, 8 of the roof purlins, and 4 roof sheets, so there is more to come , but perhaps the weather will be kinder to us in the future. See below with some new pictures.
Left picture: cross member up and bolted in, with first roof truss in also. Second picture: bolting the queen post, getting ready for the opposite piece.
Picture below shows two trusses up and the purlins no 3 to be erected.
First roof sheet attached
Fixing the tops of the sheets
Fourth roof sheet now attched
The day the scaffold arrived, what went where
The weather has been kinder of late, can still be cold up the ladder or on the scaffolding, and even with gloves, and sometimes gloves have to come off when trying to put a nut on a bolt, but we can now come down and warm our hands and our feet, and go back to work.
We are at a time where we have all the Roof trusses up and are now finishing the strengthening rod vertically and horizontally, all the purlins are bolted and really we are ready to lay more of the roof sheets, so I will keep you up to date, as progress marches on.
Monday 20 February 2023 all the roof sheets are on and the capping is in place along the whole of the roof. We will continue the roof as soon as we have the turntable which has been moved from the original position to the position where the locomotive can be transferred from the trailer or van and which ever it is positioned on the turntable if it is pointing the wrong way then it can be turned round to run in the correct direction. This is now paramount so that we can advise the 7 1/4 members that what ever way it is in their carrier they can get it faced in the correct direction. So this is our priority at the moment. More pictures –
We are well on with the wooden pieces required to go round the roof ,all the side bits are shaped and most are painted, We have started to dig out the foundation for the floor under the canopy, this will give us a smooth floor to help with reversing the trailers onto the lift and for the area for testing under-cover the Traction Engines. All this work is underway, so it is a very busy time.
"There's more than one way to skin a cat"
Following a defeat at the January general meeting, the workforce required some way of making it a pleasure rather than a chore working at the track during the last couple of months. OK ,we could have had, a shut down, but we are stronger than that. Asking and being rejected for some club funds to buy a cast Iron “chiminea” Geoff E collected all the none usable metal bars” Unusable for making rails from, we set to and built our own version of a “Chiminea”, it turned out a “God-send” and so far nobody has suffered Frost Bite. Thank you Geoff E and the guys who had some welding practise. mw
I feel no explanations are necessary, the pleasure is in their faces
More pictures of ways to keep the workforce warm and happy to work in this cold environment. No explanations are necessary, just see the smiles on their faces. A happy work force, is a joy to work for nowt.
On the menu was tea and coffee with sausage and bacon rolls with perhaps a doughnut or apple pie and some very nice sausage rolls. Thanks Bridet! Thanks Stuart! A real joy to attend.
Following on from the last Mardle we have now taken delivery of the Generator.
The generator was delivered, thank you, Stuart Hines and two of his workforce, a Trailer arrived on Saturday 11th and with the help of Matt (Thank you) and a special tractor it was unloaded and placed in it’s correct position. A job to complete once the track is operational again, so watch this space. It is a 15 KW 62 amps, Lister Generator so will do all the electrical work we should need in the future. Here are some of the pictures.
Top picture is the Lister Generator on the trailer, having just arrived. Picture two, moving it to its posi-tion on two large sleepers. A cover will be built , using the balance of the angle which was left after the roof trusses were made for the Heavy Lift Canopy.
Picture Three we have screwed the genny to the sleepers and covered it with a large tarpaulin. Picture Four, Paul B and DaveM are fixing the armoured cable under the workshop ready to position the cable to join up to the Genny.
The start of positioning the turntable after the heavy lift equipment
We now have three work teams; Turntable, Heavy Lift canopy and the Genny. We started the turntable on Monday 20th Feb and on the very first day, the rails were cut and the turntable hole was dug out. The work on the wood work items for the canopy has started, we need approximately 160 pieces drilled cut to give the curve at the bottom, sanded and painted ready to be assembled on the pieces
To be bolted on the long sides of the canopy, ready for the 160 , 80 each side down pieces. The two ends then need to be worked out about 70 each end and probably 35 different lengths, time will tell but they need to follow the roof struts and inline level with the side pieces. So still a lot to do and perhaps the weather will get better. See some pictures.
Only just the start of this part of the work, more to do but follow it in the next Mardle.
SQUADRON 666
We have had Christmas and some of our members asked Father Christmas for an Airplane; a couple of new Spitfires and P51, and some trainers. We can only fly on completely calm days which have to be Saturday’s. So, it can be difficult to get proficient in the ups and downs and the left to rights in controlling such an aircraft. He are the current pictures.
STOP PRESS: the latest news following the AGM
At this years AGM there were the following changes.
Dave Moore was re-elected as Chairman.
Ken Winter was elected as Vice Chairman.
Geoff Bethell was re-elected as Treasurer.
Steve Harrord was elected as Secretary.
Geoff Ellis, Mike Starling, Mike Lee, Paul Bailey , Mick Wickens were elected as the other members of the Committee.
The MSW Trophy was won for 2022 by Norman Howe. The citation was “For his outstanding commitment and attendance at the Brandon & District Society of Model Engineers track”.
Signed by Chairman Dave M – date 1st March 2023.
