Winter 2015/16 Newsletter Halesworth & District
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HALESWORTH & DISTRICT MODEL ENGINEERING SOCIETY Ltd WINTER 2015/16 NEWSLETTER Management Committee and Other Posts Chairman Philip Hall Vice Chairman Dick Barker Secretary Chris Walliman [email protected] Treasurer Gary Edwards Members Don Black, Vic Churchill, Ron Day, Terry Fleet. Boiler Inspectors: Dick Barker, Don Black, Vic Churchill, Kevin Rackham. Driver Authoriser (locos) Vic Churchill Guard Authoriser (locos) Philip Hall. Web Master Kevin Rackham Newsletter Editor Julie Williams Email: [email protected] Cover Picture. Jon Kennard Line up of all the HDMES drivers and traction engines in steam at the LOWMEX Exhibition held at the Ormiston Denes Academy in October. Please note that the opinions and views in the articles published in this newsletter are those of the contributors and may not necessarily be those of H&DMES or its members. We reserve the right to edit, or shorten, any material offered for publication in the Newsletter. 2 Chairman’s Jottings Winter 2015 Philip Hall As I say goodbye to the last of our festive guests and put the decorations back in the loft, I find time to reflect on the last twelve months. There have been sad losses of old friends and a welcome to enthusiastic new members; an encouragement for the club to go from strength to strength. We have enjoyed some good speakers and interesting chat nights, with many an exchange of ideas. The BBQ as usual was excellent and the exchange visits with our Ipswich friends were particularly successful. The exhibition was of course wonderful and was a credit to all who organised it and good publicity for our club. I have more or less completed the program for 2016 and I think that we can look forward to an enjoyable and successful year. Half the winter is now nearly over and we can soon venture back into our workshops although some of the more hardy souls among us may have already done so. For now all it remains for me to do, is to thank you all for your continuing support for our society and to wish you and all your families a Happy and Healthy New Year. ------------------------------------- BREAKING NEWS FROM THE COWSHED Chris Walliman New Year Day Steam up. I didn’t do a head count but 2 gallons of delicious homemade soup and 50 bread rolls disappeared in a fairly short time. A big thank you to Maureen Churchill who made the soup in the early hours of the New Year and those others who operated the soup kitchen, serving the grateful members and their guests. A total of eight locomotives were seen operating on the raised and ground level tracks. The traction engines were conspicuous by their absence, but before you all say “Fair weather friends” it’s worth noting that a number of engines were undergoing maintenance or had just been polished or etc., etc. 3 New Members. We have had four new members join the club since the last Newsletter was published. They are; John Child from Gorleston, Dale Yates from Wrentham, David Lewis from Halesworth and James Hewett from the Southwold Railway Trust who has joined as the Trusts custodian of their 5 inch gauge model of “Southwold”. On behalf of all members of HDMES I welcome you to the club and hope to see you down at the site enjoying the hobby as often as possible. These recent arrivals take our membership to 122. Ongoing Works. After a long haul the Signal Box is nearing completion with just detailing work outstanding. Kevin Rackham took the lead on this project, aided by the Thursday gang, and is to be congratulated on the style and quality of the work. It was noted that all the seats in the box were occupied during the New Year Steam Up. The Thursday gang have completed concreting between the supports of the ground level track, the last section being completed on Christmas Eve. Now that is beyond the call of duty! This work was to make maintenance easier as the grass and weeds can no longer grow under the track. The next major project is to put kerbing around the traction engine roadway to stop the grass and weeds from migrating onto the road surface. This project, led by Dick Barker, is also aimed at reducing maintenance effort and the need to use weedkiller on the roadway. After many years of heavy use the electric loco Southwold, built for us by Peter Lewis, was showing a bit of wear in the bogies. Vic Churchill took the bogies home and gave them a refurbishment and the loco is now as good as new. Library. Our librarian Terry Fleet has mentioned that he has two or three Model Engineer volumes missing and not booked out. Please check if you have them and if so let Terry know or return them. 4 Wanted - a flat screen TV for the clubroom. The clubroom will be repainted in the near future and the aim is to put the book cupboards at the other end of the room (kitchen end) and have a projection screen and flat screen TV at the toilet end of the room. The TV will only be used to show pre-recorded media. So, if you are going for an upgrade to a full wall TV and don’t know what to do with the redundant 60 inch TV with cinema surround sound complete with girls selling Kiora drinks and ice cream, please contact me or any committee member. --------------------------------------- LOWMEX 2015 Kevin Rackham The Ormiston Denes Academy was the new venue for this year. We arrived Friday afternoon ready for the set up. Unfortunately the Lowestoft traffic conspired against us, as most of the area stewards got delayed in getting to the Academy to begin with there was a lot of exhibitors with few to guide them to their allocated locations. However, this was soon resolved as the various plans swung into action. Thanks go to the majority of exhibitors who were patient and understanding. Over 270 tables (yes, 100 more than last year) were put into position. I lost count of the chairs that had to be moved. Several tables had to be carried downstairs as the school hadn’t got that many on the ground floor. Some of these had the hardboard sheet covering them to save any damage from loco wheels etc. The HDMES tables looked resplendent in their royal blue cloths, recycled from some donated fire retardant curtains, thanks go to Barb for being the seamstress. Whist we were busy inside, the outside teams, ably assisted by some of the exhibitors, set up the various areas with aluminium, rope and tape barriers and the two miniature railways. The biggest logistical challenge was the filling of the boating pond. The nearest fire hydrant 5 is in the middle of the A12, there is only a ½” tap within range of the field, so the pond was filled via a bowser, which had to be refilled 6 times with the last runs being via flood lights. Thanks go to all involved in this marathon. By about 19:30 all the models etc. that were due to arrive had arrived. We had a final check round, secured everything and left. In the morning we were greeted with news that one of the Norwich & District Society of Model Engineers members, Clint Ballard, was seriously injured in the crash on the Acle Straight on the way home after setting up Friday evening. He was moved to Addenbrooke’s hospital, but unfortunately they were unable to save his right arm. Mid December and he has been transferred back to the N&N hospital and is said to be much improved, bright, lucid and cheerful. We wish him all the best on his road to recovery. Saturday morning the remainder of the models arrived and were quickly put into position. By 10:00 everything was ready and the first of the public were already walking round. The Exhibition was officially opened at 12:00 by the Mayor of Lowestoft, Stephen Ardley, who was introduced by Terry Fleet. A walk round the exhibition:- Watching over the main entrance raised on a hydraulic table was the imposing exhibition sentinel “The Mighty Kito” (Photo 1.) which is really impressive and gets its name from the side plate of a chain block which is now his shield. The Kito is made entirely from scrap items, which are all associated with lifting gear. The Tombola area was next and was filled with items ranging from the original water colour of Photo 1 6 the North Norfolk Railway, painted and donated by Derek cook; name the large radio controlled helicopter with camera, donated by AR Motorcycles; to the brilliant array of tools etc. generously donated by local firms, as well as some bought items. Turning right we go into the main hall, which was filled with a huge array of Model Engineering exhibits. The largest display was HDMES. (Photo 2) . This year 39 of our club members were exhibiting their models and skills mainly in the Photo 2 hall, but outside as well as in the dining hall. This was an awesome display again this year, and showed off the diverse range of skills, in all aspects of model engineering that exist within our club. Models running under their own power (steam, electric or hot air) or on compressed air were spread round the hall to increase the interest. Also running on compressed air were the models of Tug Wilson and Chris Collinson. Ken Kinsey was demonstrating his 45mm gauge Ransommes & Rapier railway crane, lifting scale trucks and repositioning them back onto the track.