esngblog

Because it has been one of those funny five week months, I made the executive decision to meet on the 30th, as well as next Wednesday.  The usual suspects were in attendance, and Good to see Paul managing to log in – but silently, as his sound didn’t seem to be working.

Phil was showing off his Night Mail set, and Brian what he claimed was a glass of water.  Maxine joined the meeting for a while, and Paul showed us some trains in action on his living room layout.  As usual, there was 90 minutes of sparking conversation – little of which mentioned railways.

Allan managed to follow Ron’s instructions but made a sudden exit near the end of the meeting.  I thought it might be something I said, but…

Battery died.  Should have had it plugged it in the mains and not run it off the battery.

We didn’t see Graham on-line, but all was revealed in his email later….

Hi Jon

Now I have a new Hub I was going to join the meeting, but the email for the zoom invite had disappeared, and also the app.

I tried to reconnect, by the time I had connected I think the meeting had finished .

Carry on Zooming, Graham

He’ll get there eventually!  We’ll see who logs in next week.

Zoom time once again.  Unfortunately missing the Cha(i)rman again, as he was unwell (not Covid-19).  We were also joined by Peter, and by Maxine to check up on us all.  Simon was showing off his 3-D printed Daleks.  Graham was still only transmitting one word in two, but held up a note saying that he is getting new internet on Friday.  So next meeting, we may get the all-singing, all-dancing version.

We discussed ESNG meetings, and like the emails I had received from a couple of people, thought that we might as well write 2020 off.  However, one bright idea was to get 3 or 4 of us to meet up to do more work on the fiddleyard.  That is worth pursuing, though we’ll watch the increase of cases of covid for the next couple of weeks before doing anything.

What would it have been like to live through the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918-19?  We are fortunate in some ways, that we have all the forms of electronic communication to stop us being totally isolated.

To close, a couple of photos to inspire the creative juices.  First, Chicago in 1956.  I like the low level goods yard parallel to the main station.

And second, somewhere in Europe just after WW2.  It would make an interesting model.

Well, having read and reread the government guidance, I’ve reluctantly concluded that we can only entertain 6 members at a meeting at present.  If we have more than 6, we have to have 2 groups and they are not allowed to socialise.  Unfortunately, I like all the club members, so we can’t split into warring groups!

And I quote (my bold text)…..  “In practice, however, this will make it difficult for some activities to take place without breaking the law. Activities where there is a significant likelihood of groups of more than six mingling – and therefore breaking the law – should not take place until further COVID-19 Secure guidance has been developed and approved to enable the activity to happen safely. This may include extended tour groups, large banquet dinners, society or club meetings, or amateur music or drama rehearsals.”

However, I note that an exception to the ‘rule of six’ is support groups – “formally organised groups to provide mutual aid, therapy or any other form of support.”  This includes recovering addicts.  The way we all buy trains, I’m not sure about the recovering bit……

Still little modelling, but a lovely autumn day’s weather, so we visited Winchelsea and Hastings.  Mrs Bartlett had a paddle and I watch a procession of gulls and terns along the beach, before lunch with one of her old friends.