Chairman's Chatter Home

November 06

The A.G.M. has always been a meeting where members express their personal views. The club has nearly 30 members, all with different interests within the hobby and all perhaps expecting the club to provide them with something different for their annual subscription. Over the past 35+ years I have seen the club meet in different rooms, each giving a restriction on what the club can provide by way of a ‘club’ layout because of the floor area available. We are very lucky that our present situation does allow for the three major interests within the membership to be catered for.

In latter years, the hobby has changed especially in 4mm scale in that ‘Ready To Run’ stock is available at very high standards. Even weathering is included on some stock and the only stock actually kit-built or scratch-built are those obscure items not yet available. We have seen some fine examples recently at Show and Tell. 4mm railway modelling now concentrates on the layout and overall picture rather than building up stock numbers. 

Mention was made at the A.G.M. of the space, cost and staffing of the 7mm layout. The scale alone means that any 7mm layout built will be larger than a 4mm layout, the cost of raw materials likewise larger. The method we chose to operate the layout, (a scheme 
as close to the prototype as possible), whilst more complicated and costly to build is now paying dividends as we can operate the layout in the way we wish. Itchen Vale, however, is proving a little difficult to include signalling and some of the operational moves are difficult to achieve smoothly.  

At the end of the day, the number of interested members and participating operators will determine the activities the club supports. The activity on Abbotstone prior to the Telford show was well worth the effort by all members concerned. Our layout looked good, performed well and as we heard was enjoyed by many.

OO gauge Matters 

Discussions are taking place regarding the signalling of the layout. As with most layouts some compromise is necessary. Linking the signals to running will be a problem as the track wiring has no allowance for this but no doubt a solution will be found.

EM gauge Matters 

It was good to see Cricketers Green in action again recently and especially with some of Roger’s stock in action. 

O gauge Matters 

The planning for Itchen Bottom’s rewiring etc is under way with work hopefully starting early in 2007. Meanwhile we shall use the 
rest of 2006 getting the layout ready for Southampton’s Exhibition. 

Other Business 

A reminder that subs are due again, see our new Treasurer, Peter. 

Also a reminder of the party date in December, see the diary. The hosts will want details of your offerings soon.