"A change to the scheduled programme....."
Laurence was on holiday, so it was going to be just two this week. However, the morning of the get-together, Geoff got a call advising that Chris Holmes, a long-time associate of the Cottesmore group, was planning to visit that day. Geoff and Stephen had little time to spruce-up the layout, but it was up-and-running in good time. It was mainly John's stock plus the new mineral wagons on show.
In the hey-day of Cottesmore, Chris had built a small terminus layout called Stoke Goldington, which had a standard Cottesmore interface - just in case. At the Sandown Park show in 1985, when every piece of Cottesmore was put into use, his layout extended the overall layout to 65 foot long. We hope that Chris will be joining us at the Burton exhibition as a guest operator, so he was immediately pressed into duty to get a taste of what he has in store.
We had also asked Chris to cast a critical eye over the layout and an interesting discussion followed the running session. The suitability of some items for the period being represented was queried, but they passed muster. Lack of signage and people - agreed. He picked-up the lack of 'passenger facing point locking', something Geoff had been seriously considering recently. Geoff's solution of door bolts (as early Leighton Buzzard) was countered by Chris's suggestion of a small ground frame at the end of the platform serving the three adjacent points and one a little further down the mainline. A simple solution, worth serious consideration. He also queried the relative positions of the water tower and the uncoupling magnet in the platform which didn't allow for a prototypical operation. Another one good one for the next meeting. Was the public telephone box out of place? No, explained Geoff, as the road was public and led to the prevailing right-of-way path around the goods shed (as detailed in the local area plans - yet to be released!)
Murphy was clearly in attendance as two track-joints failed that had to be repaired, for electrical continuity. Annoying, as we hadn't had any for many many months. Stephen did manage some work - he painted the workshop floor (but didn't manage to glue the anvil in place). The 'skinny' cows were also 'beefed-up' with some strategically applied modelling filler, to bring them into line with the others.
Finally, the local taxi service pulled out 'all the stops' to get Chris to the station for his return trip.
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| 'Stanley' - Standard 10 |
