More progress

Nameplates fitted to our newest coach. Photo: Brian M

A good turnout of members at this time of year is always welcome and enables us to make progress on several fronts. We have been lucky again with our weather this week with Wednesday being a lovely sunny day and yesterday (Saturday), we enjoyed a glorious morning, the day then turning misty and damp in the afternoon.

As promised we now are able to show you the nameplates which have been produced for our newest coach which we can now confidently report is to be called 'mavis' ! The photo above shows the plates which are very impressive!

The 'Shay' and 'Thunderbox' have been checked over, started up and given a trundle up and down the shed sidings to ensure they are in good order, which they are. The Shay's rear lamp is just about finished, ready for fitting and painting (or painting and fitting?)

The new control panel for 'The General' is coming along nicely as the photo shows and is now fitted in the loco ready for final connections...

The General's new control panel Photo: Brian M

...and finally, hopefully for the last time this Winter, some more views of the railway in the recent snow and frost

All photos by John Pond 30th January 2020

TTFN

2010 Month One nearly gone

Hi there, how time flies, soon be February and the days are already lengthening !!!!! We are still managing to press on with some jobs despite the wintry weather, we had some snow again on Friday, fortunately not much, but the temperatures are still well down ! So the workshop gets a bit crowded when the guys turn up for our Saturday sessions, and the 'crack' is quite good !

Work is proceeding well with some new points for our Laurel sidings area, the General is having quite a bit of attention, including the rebuilding of the 'control' panel in the cab so all the controls are on this panel, including a new throttle lever arrangement. We have done some serious maintenance on the electric motor to ensure it is in top condition this year, as we felt the performance of the loco was down in the latter stages of last year, and this may have been one of the reasons. Some new batteries have also been obtained. The paintwork is being rubbed down ready for a repaint, some of the wheels have been reprofiled, and we are currently looking for a suitable (economic!) diesel sound unit for the loco, so if anyone can point us in the right direction, we would be grateful!

Good progress is being made fabricating a rear light (red and white LED's) for The Shay.

We are replacing some of our signs using plastic lettering to make them more durable, the locolift is about ready for painting, and we are planning a 'massive' sort out and tidy up of our loco shed, so as to provide some storage area at the back, so we can find things !

TTFN !

Wintry ALR

In 'Den' section looking towards the triangular junction

We have had our share of snow here in Norfolk over the last few weeks, although we have been let off lightly compared with other parts of the country. These lovely photos show a completely different ALR in the fresh snow.......

All photos: John Pond

But, we are a keen bunch at this Club and we can still get on with some jobs.......the boys have been working away at our loco lift which is now nearing completion. Yesterday the LLST (answers on a postcard please to .....!!!!) was sucessfully tested using one of our wagons, as the photos show.

On the way up the detachable ramp with help from the winch

In position 'ready to for attention !
Photos : John Pond

Hello 2010

Several of us turned up yesterday (Saturday 2nd Jan) for a chat, to shake some Xmas and New Year cobwebs away and to see what wanted doing. So, after said chats and a warm sausage roll or two (and some cheese straws !), we took in the signal dollies which are detachable from their posts and equipped with multi pin plugs and sockets. We need to do some maintenance as some of them require a bit of a paint touch up, and we noticed one or two broken spectacle plates, so there is always a job or three to do !

The site was looking lovely following a light covering of snow overnight, the sun was shining and it was not too cold, so good to be out in such lovely surroundings, we still can't believe how much the trees and bushes have grown in this last couple of years.

Oh and we forgot to mention that following an article that appeared in the Autumn edition of the 71/4" Gauge Society magazine, we have made up a trial spark arrestor, which was tried out on Hotspur during our recent Mince Pie Special runs. The device is basically a piece of steel cut and bent into a 'collar' that sits in the chimney with an angled flap that deflects the exhaust slightly forwards, as you will be able to see from the photos. It was very sucessful in preventing the usual 'debris' attacking the driver and the front end passengers, so we will probably make one for Lucille as well and see how we get on. So thanks to 'Xz' who penned the article, watch this space !

TTFN

Photos: Brian M

Bye 2009

Hotspur & Lucille working up the bank approaching the Lake crossing. Photo: Aldridge

Well, we finished the year in style with a flurry (yes we did have some snow too!) of events, including the Club's Christmas Evening meal at a local Hostelry where some 20 of us enjoyed a lovely meal and convivial company, then there was the trip to the Cromer End Of Pier Christmas Show, good old fashioned Christmas entertainment, two and a half hours of singing, dancing and merriment!, and to round the year off, on Sunday some 25 members, families and friends visited the ALR and enjoyed mulled wine, sausage rolls and mince pies punctuated by some trips around the circuit behind Lucille and Hotspur, excellent!

Happy New Year Everyone !!!!!