Warley MRC's clubrooms once again hosted the ScaleSeven Group's annual general meeting. It's a marvellous space, an industrial unit with plenty of space for a wide variety of railway modelling.
The S7 section had set up Bob Essery's Dewsbury, for some running rights for non-DCC stock. Best Beloved and I took along a couple of our locos, both of which weren't all that happy with the inside keys on the Midland Railway permanent way!
@Ian@StEnochs will be able to fill in the details on this lovely little loco.
I believe the 0-4-2 belongs to Ian Roll, from the Lee Marsh stable. I'm not sure who the owner of the Hudswell Clarke is.
Dewsbury station building. The layout has been in storage for some time, and there were signs of neglect about the place. The S7 section are busy working on their own layout, Ellerton Road, but it was good of them to erect Bob's original S7 exhibition layout for us to play with - even if it was a bit cranky due to its age!
As I mentioned earlier, I failed to get photos of the wagon competition entries. Once the AGM business was done, most had been packed away and headed for home. Graham Beare's entry, though, was swiftly snapped before it too disappeared back to Basingstoke!
Gordon Gravett was the guest judge for the competition. Neither of the winners he selected could be there in person to receive their trophies. Other members were able to stand in for the presentations, which will make for some interesting captions in the newsletter!
The meeting itself went through the usual stages. There was some discussion about how the Group should promote itself better, since the resignation of the publicity officer last year. The outgoing officer, John Birch, has made some good progress laying groundwork for the Group's publicity, and it was felt important that this should not be wasted.
An interesting pair of presentations were given by Rob Thompson and Graham Beare covering the wheel survey, how the wheels fund worked and production of the actual wheels themselves. Rob explained his analysis of the survey results, which was intended to give the committee some guidance as to which diameters and types of wheel might be put into production, but really showed how difficult it is to select anything suitable. In fact, some of the most popular types appeared to emanate from only one or two modellers, and even driving wheels already in the Stores - which posed the question of why members weren't already aware of them! Quite a bit of discussion ensued, where some good ideas about getting a wider range of wheels into the Stores fairly quickly were put forward, which the committee will no doubt be keen to discuss in more detail. The general opinion of the committee is that new wheels should be moulded with detailed rear faces where possible, which was met with approval. However, where an existing tool exists, pragmatically it might be simpler to continue with flat-backed wheels. Several members expressed satisfaction with this proposal if it meant suitable driving wheels might be available quickly.
There was also discussion about the potential for S7 ready-to-run track. Again, difficulties were noted in choosing a suitable prototype - the ethos of the S7 Group being to model as accurately and as close to the prototype as possibly: how many bolts for chairs, sleeper spacing and all the other niceties of PW. It was, however, noted that in some ways if members were really that bothered they would already be building their own track, so a well-detailed generic style of track work might be the best way forward. In the end, perhaps it was felt that selecting a "standard" post-1923 style of permanent way would suit most people, with a leaning towards flat-bottom rail.
The current committee members were re-elected for another year. Several have already noted they wish to stand down in coming years, so the chairman asked politely for people to seriously consider whether they might be prepared to stand for these posts, or if they knew anyone who might be willing to stand.
A fuller report and minutes will, of course, appear from the Secretary, Rob Thompson, in due course.