esngblog

Well, the meeting was buzzing tonight.  13 members present, and it all got a bit much for the treasurer with so much money to collect, so he took a break to lock up the school.  the chairman didn’t make it due to dodgy knees and an early round.  Is it coincidental that whenever he can’t make it, numbers go up?  Surely not!

Here we see a number of the amusing little ESNG members in their natural habitat….  Whoops, touch of the David Attenboroughs.  Honest John was testing a number of delightful Grey Goose Mouse (or should it be geese mice) units.  I understand these were pioneer overhead electric units, capable of working off four supply voltages, with multiple pantographs to suit.  Paul was running a mix of bullet trains and other Japanese multiple units.  Some of the ‘normal’ commuter units are again good looking trains.

Derek had an old Graham Farish 4-4-0 and four wheel coaches in Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway livery.  It ran very well for much of the evening without overheating or any other old Farish tricks.  This blue livery always looks very smart, but the real interest in the line was it’s joint ownership between the Midland and LSWR, later LMS and Southern.  This provided an eclectic mix of stock that makes a very good model.  The line was closed, probably unwisely, during the 1960’s.

Finally, Simon had a large American steamer on show with a long train of oil tankers.

Well, it’s been an interesting weekend.  Thursday, my son gets engaged.  Saturday our church holds an Autumn Fair and makes £440 for charity, so I am busy all day setting things up and running the ‘hook the duck’ game.  Sunday it’s church and the ESNG PlayDay.  Monday has a difficult funeral to go to.

The PlayDay was a pleasant interlude, with 6 members and Miles in attendance, and brief visits from my better half and Graham’s son-in-law and two children.  We got a respectable 2×2 module circuit up and running in little over half-an-hour.  Dave had brought along one of his pairs of modules and Allan brought the Speedo board, so we had a little more interest than usual in the layout.

There was a good variety of trains on display.  Two Japanese bullet train and some goods trains.  Two American passenger trains.  I gave my Penn Central train an outing, as I had replaced the old Kato business car bogies with Microtrains ones.  Although I lost the lighting, the running is greatly improved.  A Swiss passenger train.  A number of UK passenger trains from all BR regions (except Scotland).

My photographic record is limited, as my camera battery died at the wrong moment, but I managed these two videos.  The first shows my Midland 4F 0-6-0 heading up some new Maunsell coaches and assorted Southern parcels stock.  The second shows the same train crossing with Allan’s Maunsell N class 2-6-0 and a train of mainly Bullied coaches.

I also managed to spring clean (OK, it’s autumn) the railway storage cupboard and move the 4 N-mod corner sections down a shelf, so they are easier to get out for club nights.

And of course the evening finished with 6 of us enjoying a curry…..

After the excitement of TINGS, it was back to the usual club night.  8 members were present and occasionally correct.  Whilst Bruno raced his 0-6-0 tank against Graham and Paul’s bullet trains, Allan, Duncan and I talked over wiring the end loop and plans for Stuttgart.  Mid-November will come all too quickly.  At least for Duncan, who has to solder up another 1,000 pine trees from wire.

Altogether a pleasant evening, and we packed up at 9:30 as Allan is up at 2:30am for the school milk round.

UPDATE.  Paul sent me this photo of his two bullet trains and Graham’s canary.

One purchase from TINGS I didn’t mention was a number of packs of etched container shackles and chain from N-Brass.  I have a train of Conflats waiting for this finishing touch.  A search on RMweb and Google came up with the following photos of model and real thing.  The fixings look consistent enough.  I did note that it was best to have only one small container on a wagon – two containers had to be roped together, then shackled from the ends.  This may be just two difficult for me in N gauge….