Meeting notes

[grovenor-2685]

Thursday, 22 November 2007
Fylde Area Group
The 15th of November saw another Fylde Area Group meeting well attended, 13 members discussing a variety of topics with a number of locos to run on the layout.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 13th December (not the usual third Thursday) when we will have a presentation by Dr. John Sykes on 'GN Lines in the West Riding' followed by a hotpot supper.

Please contact Mike Norris (details on Blue Sheet) if you require additional information.
Posted by Mike Norris at 10:33 PM 0 comments

[grovenor-2685]

Saturday, 27 October 2007
Fylde Area Group

This months talk by member Graham Seed was very interesting and well received. Graham brought his test track and Lenz system, along with a cordless phone to show how easy it is to control several locomotives at once. After a brief introduction we were quickly into CV's (configuration variables) , demonstrating how easy it is to get motors running right by listening to the motor and watching for surges in the movement of the locomotive. It was amazing to see just how much entertainment can be had running four locomotives up and down 5 foot of track when there are three drivers!

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Next meeting - Run and Natter - 15th November - please contact Mike Norris for further details.

[grovenor-2685]

Fylde Area Group
Next Thurday 18th October, sees one of our members, Graham Seed proving us with a talk/discussion on slow speed running using DCC.
Graham was one of the DCC demonstrators at this year Scalefour North and is well known for his slow runnign locomotives.
Please contact me directly (phone number on Blue Sheet) if you need details to attend.
Posted by Mike Norris at 10:34 PM

[grovenor-2685]

Thursday, 4 December 2008
Fylde Area Group
On Thursday 20th November, we had a 'Run and Natter' meeting attended by 10 members. Although a lot was discussed, including the program for next year, which will be printed and available at our next meeting, nothing much was running!

On Saturday the 15th November the layout was visited by the East of Scotland 4mm Group, 8 members attending, most of whom had travelled down for Edinburgh for the day, including Jim Summers - the former editor of the Scalefour News who was instrumental in getting me to put pen to paper to write about the layout in edition no. 154. Also among the visitors was a former Flyde group member Bob Hetherington. After 4 hours of operating Preston, it seemed all had enjoyed themselves, I will be looking towards arranging a reciprocal visit at some point in the new year, thank you to David Orr for the invitation. Also thanks to my mentors David and Anthony who help newbies get to grips with the operation of the layout.

The next meeting is Thursday 11th December, (NOTE not the third Thursday), please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information and this meeting is a talk by Anthony Miller 'LNER Good Traffic', followed by a hotpot supper.
Posted by Mike Norris at 8:10 PM 0 comments
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Fylde Area Group
On Thursday the 23rd August, one of our members 'Arthur Kimber' gave the group a talk 'Railways & Memories of North West Durham'. It was well patronised with 10 members being present.



Arthur covered the area where he grow up and presented many of his own photographs, Arthur was born in Swalwell on the North Eastern from Consett to Dunston and Scotswood, starting there he covered the local industry and how his father really provided the imputus to his interest with railways.



He told us about all the lines in the area and covered many of the locations between Blaydon and Gateshead King Edward Bridge, including the Tanfield railway and Garesfield wagon way.



There were many photographs of the loco sheds at Bowes Bridge, Blaydon, Gatehead and Borough Gardens, including the loco allocations in 1947. Also numerous shots of other locations where provided including the Dunston Staithes, Derwent Hough Staithes, Dunston Power station and Vickers Armstrong.



In all we had a very informative and enjoyable evening - Thank you Arthur.
Posted by Mike Norris at 9:18 PM

[grovenor-2685]

Saturday, 18 October 2008
Fylde Area Group Meeting
The 18th of September was our usual run and natter meeting, with 10 members in attendance.

We were treated to 14768 Clan McKenzie, HR Clan Class loco being built by John James as a commission, which I later saw fully lined out and painted at Scaleforum the following week.

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We also saw some test etches form Ian MacCormac, in both 4 mm and 7 mm scales of an LBSCR 1865 Craven 1st, very fine.

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Next we had an interesting (if somewhat unlikely) comparision between an early coach and a Clan class of 1919, the coach being barely the size of the clan's tender, this shows just how much the railway had developed in 50 years.

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The next meeting is Thursday 23rd October, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information and the meeting is a talk by Arthur Kimber 'Railways and Memories of North West Durham'.

Posted by Mike Norris at 8:57 PM

[grovenor-2685]

Friday, 12 September 2008
Fylde Area Group Meeting
On the 17th of July we held a run and natters meeting (before our short summer recess), with 7 members in attendance. As usual modelling matters far and wide were discussed but John James did bring along a wonderful model of a Brassmasters G2 (here seen on the Through lines at - an ideal locomotive for Preston).

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The next meeting is Thursday 18th September, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), should you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.
Posted by Mike Norris at 11:17 AM

[grovenor-2685]

Saturday, 12 July 2008
Fylde Area Group Meeting
On the 19th June we held a run and natter meeting, attended by some 9 members. The evening was mainly spent discussing modelling topics rather than running, but overall an enjoyable evening was had by all.


Tony Miller did bring along a number of his wonderful hand painted coal wagons, many local to the Preston area, particular impressive is the 'Preston Industrial Co-Operative' wagon. These were hauled round the layout by my Jinty 7472 (a Preston engine - often nicknamed at the time 'City of Preston').

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On Wednesday the 2nd July a number of members travelled to John James's house for an inaugural run of Benfieldside following its re-installation and rewiring, again a most enjoyable evening was had by all and we are all looking forward to another session.

The next meeting is Thursday 17th July, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.
Posted by Mike Norris at 10:24 PM

[grovenor-2685]

Friday, 14 September 2007

I've now almost completed the process of contacting all of the Area Groups asking them to revise and update their website entries.
Of the 44 groups: 23 have been updated, 5 were updated during the year before I started this, 11 more have been contacted and I'm waiting for a response and there are 5 that I'm having problems with.

I've just uploaded the latest revision; by Fylde Area Group:

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http://www.scalefour.org/p4areasdets.htm#Fylde
Posted by Danny Cockling at 12:48 AM

[grovenor-2685]

Thursday, 11 October 2007
Fylde Area Group
Next Thurday 18th October, sees one of our members, Graham Seed proving us with a talk/discussion on slow speed running using DCC.
Graham was one of the DCC demonstrators at this year Scalefour North and is well known for his slow runnign locomotives.
Please contact me directly (phone number on Blue Sheet) if you need details to attend.
Posted by Mike Norris at 10:34 PM

[grovenor-2685]

Sunday, 13 January 2008
Fylde Area Group
The 13th December saw another Fylde Area Group meeting again well attended although winter bug had taken its toll on a couple of members.
This meeting was an illustrated talk by John Sykes (EM Gauge Society and HMRS member), 'GN Lines in the West Riding' - this was a follow-on talk from the one John gave us when he focused on the area of his own model as Ingrow (G.N). , this this time John has spread the net to the entire are of the GN in West Riding. He provided us with an overview of the line concerned, with photos of many of the express (EP), ordinary (OP) and excursion passeneger trains. With details of special locomotive transfers to cover excusion traffic. We were then shown details of the goods and marshalling pilots, with shed rosters and logding turns, followed by a typical loco diagram and passenger working. Many Thanks to John for such an interesting and detailed presentation, clearly he is very knowlegable well researched on the Great Northern.
This was followed by a hotpot supper provided by Elaine (my wife), everyone leaving close on midnight, exchanging best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Our next meeting is Thursday 17th January for a 'Run and Natter', please contact Mike Norris (details on Blue Sheet) if you require additional information.
Posted by Mike Norris at 9:38 PM

[grovenor-2685]

Thursday, 7 February 2008
Fylde Area Group
The 17th January saw our 'Run and Natter' session with a smaller that usual number of members, down to 9 members, but in view of the weather this could be classed as brilliant!

Anyway there was a wide variety of locos 'on trial' with a large contingent of LNER locos from Arthur, a number of which had run on Preston before. We also saw a new GWR loco (don't know the class - sorry!) from Peter which had suffered some chimney reshaping due to an accidental drop during weathering, butI think a good night was had by all.

A note that our next meeting planned to be a Video and Internet night, will actually be a 'Run and Natter' meeting due to overrunning engineering works (well decorating actually), so please bring items of interest and stock/locomotives to run.

Next meeting Thursday 21st February, please contact mike Norris (details on Blue Sheet) if you require additional information.
Posted by Mike Norris at 8:43 PM

[grovenor-2685]

Wednesday, 19 March 2008
Fylde Area Group

The 21st of February saw out planned 'Internet and Video' night replaced by a 'run and natter' session due to decorating works. The meeting was well attended by 9 members and one visitor (a local 3mm modeller and a regular operator of 'Preston' - Terry Tracey).

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A variety of topics were discussed as usual and a number of visiting locos made an appearance, also on the night my Stanier 2-6-4T made its inaugural run (see picture), I will try to get more pictures of other visiting loco's for next months update.

The next meeting is Thursday 20th March, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information.

Next months meeting is a talk by Terry Tracey on 'Allhallows' a Kent SR station and model, the date for that meeting is 17th April.
Posted by Mike Norris at 8:58 PM

[grovenor-2685]

Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Fylde Area Group
Our meeting on the 20th March was again well attended with 12 members present.

There were the usual wide range of topics under discussion. But as promised in the last update I would include some photographs of visiting locomotives of which there were several.

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Bob Ellis brought this delightful NER Class P 0-6-0 No 1823

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John James brought a wonderful LNWR Super D - such a perfect engine for Preston and I was able to fully appreciate the detail having had a run behind 49395 at the West somerset Steam Gala the week before!

Arthur Kimber showed us his progress on two etched locomotives he has been designing;

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NER 290 Class J77

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NER T/T1 Q5

The next meeting is Thursday 17th April, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a talk by Terry Tracey on 'Allhallows' a Kent SR station and model.
Posted by Mike Norris at 10:27 PM

[grovenor-2685]

Saturday, 10 May 2008
Fylde Area Group Meeting
On the 17th April we were given a talk by Terry Tracey (a 3mm scale local modeller), this was about his current model project 'Allhallows'.

Terry took us through the history and development of this pre-war Southern railway station built as a branch off the South Eastern and Chatham line from Gravesend to Port Victoria. Following this he showed us slides of his layout and explained the progress so far. It seemed the Southern railway wanted to develop a seaside resort (effectively in the Thames estuary) and this was the location chosen, once the railway was built war interrupted the plans, but post war austerity saw Allhallows as the lowest priced 'seaside' ticket available from London. To this end long expresses were provided with many thousands or people making the journey to nowhere, as the expected developments at Allhallows never materialised, but it still did not seem to deter the desire to get out of London.

To support the talk Terry brought along many of the original signalling diagrams, which included locking tables (most rare) for many of the stations along the line and also included some of the stations altered to support the new branch.

Many thanks to Terry for a very interesting evening.

The next meeting is Thursday 15th May, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.
Posted by Mike Norris at 9:23 PM

[grovenor-2685]

Monday, 16 June 2008
Fylde Area Group Meeting
On the 15th May we held a run and natter meeting, which was well attended by some 13 members, including a visitor brought down from Segbergh Cumbria by Alan Fell. Our visitor was Henry Wilson, an antiquarian, secondhand and new book dealer with focus on transport and industrial history, recently moved to the area. He proved to be a popular contact by several members, trying to track down some of those elusive research articles.

Also visiting for a run on the same day was Ian Everett's Austin Seven, which had unfortunately suffered a rather nasty rough shunt on the way to Preston.

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The next meeting is Thursday 19th June, please contact Mike Norris (details on blue sheet), if you require more information and the meeting is a run and natter session, please bring something of interest to run or discuss.
Posted by Mike Norris at 11:11 PM