esngblog

After a slow start to the afternoon, I had to slip out of the meeting to go and see the venue for my son’s wedding in August.  After this visit, I came back to find the hall heaving!  There were about 15 members and visitors….

It was good to see Nick Falconer, Nigel Arnold and Richard Oliver who dropped in to discuss linking up their Koenighafen layout with our N-club and N-mod at Stuttgart.  they brought their end boards to link to N-club….

Good too to see Sean (and Sean jnr.) along with his new layout Forrestone.  It’s coming along very well, and should be ready to exhibit at next year’s ESNG show….

Meanwhile, on the small N-mod circuit we put together, Tommy was trying out his bullet train, Paul was running the usual Japanese goods trains, and Derek was testing an old Graham Farish DMU from Martin’s stock….

One puzzle remained at the end of the afternoon.  What was this piece of plastic found on the hall floor.  Neil suggests a piece from an old Graham Farish Pullman car?

And of course the evening ended with a curry.  A poorly attended curry, I must say, with just the four of us – and three of them were me, my wife and my daughter!

Thank you Allan for giving me a break from blogging with all your excellent photographs.  And it’s been good for my ego, as the blog stats have been thriving.  No doubt as I start to write again, numbers will drop dramatically.

It’s AGM time again.  The meeting was just quorate, as 10 hardy members had turned out for the ESNG AGM.  The Cha(I)rman sent his apologies from Switzerland, but I get the feeling he wasn’t taking it seriously…..

Beer cold.
Weather hot
See you soon.

Despite Allan’s absence, we had a profitable meeting.  The committee were (unfortunately) elected back unopposed and en-bloc.  The meeting didn’t like my proposed revised electoral method:

“Please reach under your chair, where there is a sheet of paper taped to its underside.  Three chairs have Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer on the paper.  If you’ve sat on that chair, you’ve got the job…..

But seriously, we had a useful discussion on the year ahead and ideas for the club.  These included:

• Working parties on PlayDays to build new modules and finish the replacement corners.
• Better integration of N-mod and N-club – perhaps scenic N-mod boards should be 400mm wide?
• Storage – no great ideas or volunteers with a garage, but perhaps we need a shed??
• Better advertising locally for the exhibition (and Matt volunteered to help.)
• Perhaps an Open Day at the hall.
• Add a child safeguarding clause to the club rules.

A committee meeting over a curry is needed to discuss these further!

Afterwards, there was a chance for a little more retail therapy, as Derek had brought around Martin’s trains again, plus some interesting tools, paint and other construction items.  I, of course, came away with a little something…..