Hello People

ELR General Manager Andy Coward’s Book “The Decline of British Railways in Bury & Rossendale

Having had a free Thursday evening and not been in London for the first time in about 7 weeks, thought I would pop down to the club, show my face and do a bit.

Tonight in attendance was Dan (me), Keith, Alan and Peter. No Alex or David tonight. Alex was on his jollies with his Mrs. Up in the North East of County Durham. Not sure on David.

Here is a list of things that have been done tonight and over the past week or two.

• Cleaned up the brew area as this seems to suffer at times from damp and dirt, so a good wipe down, carefully restocking the coffee, tea, sugar and of course biscuits. Cannot live without the essentials.
• Tidied up electrical area. This area contains items such as sockets, back boxes, low voltage cables in all sorts of sizes, data cables including cat 5 cables and soldering equipment.
• Tidied up hard ware area. This area includes areas such as drill bits, glue, fixings, drills etc.
• Tidied up Sink Area. It’s always a rarity to see a shiny sink so tonight was its turn. Nothing like a bit of elbow grease to bring it up looking like new.
• I have recently made a purchase from the East Lancashire Railways book shop as you enter the Bury Bolton Street Station on the right hand side as you enter. The book is written by the ELRs Andy Cowards and is called “The Decline of British Railways in Bury and Rossendale” We worth a read and has come highly recommended.
• A new 6ft light fitting has been fitted above the rear board. The previous 8ft fitting had gone in the previous weeks but you can’t get hold of the lamps or the innards. So a nice new fresh one has been fitted. Keith informed me that it took 3 of them 2 hours to fit one light…just a shame they didn’t wait for the electrician (me).
• 3x buffers have been replaced. These are fitted with red l.e.d.s to represent buffer stop lights. They have been replaced in the wagon works roads 1 and 2 and also on road 15 of Ramsbottom sidings.
• Last week Keith made an order to Frizzing Hall Model Railways located in Bradford in Yorkshire. He ordered some nice dark grey chunky ballast. This looks just right compared to some of the previous ballast which has turned up white or blue!
• Alan has been placing more doves around the layout with around 6 down Kenyon Street alone. These give a nice feel to the layout having them on chimney pots and roofs.
• I made a purchase awhile ago of a MGB in a nice shade of red. But in true fashion I kept forgetting to bring it down to the club.
• Also tonight an old friend has donated his old railway items to the club including a Flying Scotsman Train set, A Class 46 Diesel, A little saddle tank locomotive, Wagons, Coaches and Track. Some of the items will be moving on as they are a little too modern for us. Maybe for private sale or to the ELRs shop.
• Keith has been working with Peter to lay more isolation track and sections joining between the baseboards.

More pictures can be seen by clicking the link for the 2013 Gallery

Cheers

Dan