July club evening.
We were supposed to be at Chipperfield for the evening but apparently parking was restricted due to filming in the local area. Decisions were taken and late Sunday I was asked to resurrect a club evening of speakers. Most other organisations bring in speakers who normally have a set of subjects but talks only last an hour. We are different as we have an overall three hour meeting and over 2 hours of that are occupied by speakers covering interesting subjects and filling the time available.
This was the Sunday before when the decision was taken, so 3 days to put an evening together. I had already named the subject of G1 trains and did a few phone calls and it was put together in 24 hours, I just made the calls it was club members who did the work. and we even had a filler speaker on standby! So, to begin with thanks to Roger Stephen, Brian Looker, David Jones with Tony Ashgrove as standby. The setting up was all down to Rob Briancourt with myself to do the joining up bits, A later email also said, by the way could you run the evening as well?
We started with thanking Mike G for the excellent outing we had to the Black Country Living Museum everyone enjoyed it. I confirmed the barbecue at the Puffing Field as Sunday 16th. August although Mike J said filming does not stop until a few days after that.
With no A.O.B we started the G1 themed evening with Roger telling us about his Aster Duchess loco and tender. We saw video of the loco in action and it was seeing it run that added confidence to Roger when he bought it. told us about the kit and the Japanese company that covered an enormous number of live steam kits over the years I think Roger mentioned that the kit run was for 400 with maroon or green as a choice a later group were in the temporary blue colour as well.
The model is a 4 cylinder live steam spirit driven loco and later conversation with Brian also suggested it was running as a compound with the low pressure cylinders inside the frames. Roger went through the construction plans high lighting parts of interest with a laser, and acquainting us with the method of construction. With the screws added in, there were over 1000 parts and some of them were unknown metric sizes in the UK.
Roger responded to queries during the talk and answered questions afterwards and received a warm round of applause for his efforts.
Now it was Brian and myself as Brian had been making me a narrow-gauge engine with electric power. I had shown him the bits I had accumulated and the book which had a similar engine to what I was going towards called Eric! I was nearly christened Eric as it was my grandmother's wish but my father dashed to register my name before it became an issue. (Thanks dad!). I have no dislike for the name but as a loco name I felt it more appropriate, so Eric it will be.
The literal unveiling was there and then and I was presented with the loco at my first sight and a nice surprise it was too. There is still work to do but I will feel I have had an i/p. We talked about it generally and then showed the other projects Brian had brought with him.
First was his 'flying banana' or GWR Diesel Rail Car, a vehicle I have always admired and I have 2 in OO gauge which run very nicely. This was powered in the same way with Brian's own power unit. Brian said he had trouble getting the curve of the roof correct and generally the way the project had progressed. Next came out his Blue DMU carriage there are 2 others in the pipeline to form the full train, these had the same drive unit and used a hand held 2.4Ghtz transmitter for control.
There was a general chat about carriages and bogies and then we broke for tea. Neil and Andy were on hand for tea and coffee. It must have been the night ever but tea was most welcome and preferred to cold drinks. Conversation continued in the foyer, there were 19/20 of us for the evening with other commitments from members who were not present. I think they missed a treat!
We went back in with doors open of course, and now the evening was cooling down a little and David took over to talk about rolling stock and what he called the graveyard shift! Well, nobody had gone home early so not so bad after all. David had brought along a selection of carriages mainly narrow gauge but also a G1 carriage to fit a LSWR engine he had bought. He told us that he preferred to work with metal no time for wood but had to accept what the current methods were. He had problems with MDF at 2mm thickness but there was opposition in the audience and perhaps the protagonists were thinking of different versions of the material, there was a promise to bring in the favoured type next month.
David went on to detail some of the things he was doing and one member of the audience decided the only way to fully understand the concept, was to close his eyes and visualise it for himself. I should add that the member concerned was well involved with the setting up of chairs and tables for the evening and the clearing up.
David was telling us how he detailed a goods wagon with vinyl transfers and was challenged on the way to do it in an easier way, one never stops learning! As an ex-teacher he has a lovely way of presenting which took us all back to our school days and back into the 3rd. form, banter back and forth but David held his audience and kept all interested until the end of the evening around 10 o/clock.
I thanked all concerned with the presentations and reminded members that the neighbours would all have their windows open so please leave quietly. The additional photos of the evening taken by Rob show most of what happened during the evening.
Thanks as always to those that were in the background and made the evening work. Next month we shall have a similar evening but devoted to the early steam model boats and current copies of same with another small group of members. Bowmans models will be mentioned as a theme with various models for all to see. I hope to have selection of contemporaneous electric motors, both pre and post-war to remind members of those times. With Malcolm with his modern take on steam power.
Best to all,
Roy Verden
9th July 2026