Crawley Model Engineers

	January 2012 Newsletter Although this is a January edition most readers will get it before the New Year, so it will be a bit short. The 4th December was a Running Day and there were three locos out for a breath of steam. John’s diminutive ‘Invicta’ which as winds were fairly light, managed to get round a number of times with just the driver as a passenger. The other locos were both ‘Simplexes’ (Simplexii?) Marks being the first in steam followed by the Club BR version being driven by Ian, who needed some practice in steam driving to get back up to his standard of some years ago. All the locos went well with just the usual lack of steam causing a holdup or two! Meanwhile Bob and I set about changing the leg shield brackets on the blue driving carriage. As Bob had received some instruction from the builder on dismantling them, we had no difficulty in completing the job in about 90 minutes. When the carriage was put on behind Ian’s train it was obviously a great improvement. He did a few laps with passengers on board and apart from collecting up some leaves on the foot boards it ran very well. John had made some improvement to the brake lever, it now has a handsome wooden knob fitted. "Mind the Gap" this will be filled in shortly with 9 mm plywood. It has been suggested that wooden fence be added to the front and rear of the carriages as protection from trapped legs. We have seen this on other Club’s carriages and as the leg shields are plywood, it will be easy to fix. Mark and Ian took advantage of the weather (mild and dry) to get a few extra laps in so we were a bit late in packing up at 1:15. The next Wednesday was a bit chilly so not many of us turned up and even less felt inclined to do anything other than drink tea! Some discussion about the modifications to the carriages took place and a pair of wooden strips was fitted to fill the gap on the blue driving carriage. The weather was much better on the following Sunday, the shortest of the year as far as daylight goes, it was almost warm. Warm enough for two locos to be in steam. Mark and Bob had their respective engines running; Bob, after fitting a new grate, found the Collett steamed much better whist Mark was doing well with his Simplex. Both drivers tried out the new carriage and said it was stable and ran well and as a passenger I found the wider seats more comfortable. All we have to do is fix the other five in the New Year. So, only a short Newsletter this time. See you at the Annual General Meeting.
Page last updated January 2012 Copyright © 2006-2012, CME

January 2012 Newsletter

Although this is a January edition most readers will get it before the New Year, so it will be a bit short.

The 4th December was a Running Day and there were three locos out for a breath of steam. John’s diminutive ‘Invicta’ which as winds were fairly light, managed to get round a number of times with just the driver as a passenger. The other locos were both ‘Simplexes’ (Simplexii?) Marks being the first in steam followed by the Club BR version being driven by Ian, who needed some practice in steam driving to get back up to his standard of some years ago.

All the locos went well with just the usual lack of steam causing a holdup or two! Meanwhile Bob and I set about changing the leg shield brackets on the blue driving carriage. As Bob had received some instruction from the builder on dismantling them, we had no difficulty in completing the job in about 90 minutes. When the carriage was put on behind Ian’s train it was obviously a great improvement. He did a few laps with passengers on board and apart from collecting up some leaves on the foot boards it ran very well. John had made some improvement to the brake lever, it now has a handsome wooden knob fitted.

"Mind the Gap" this will be filled in shortly with 9 mm plywood.

It has been suggested that wooden fence be added to the front and rear of the carriages as protection from trapped legs. We have seen this on other Club’s carriages and as the leg shields are plywood, it will be easy to fix.

Mark and Ian took advantage of the weather (mild and dry) to get a few extra laps in so we were a bit late in packing up at 1:15.

The next Wednesday was a bit chilly so not many of us turned up and even less felt inclined to do anything other than drink tea! Some discussion about the modifications to the carriages took place and a pair of wooden strips was fitted to fill the gap on the blue driving carriage.

The weather was much better on the following Sunday, the shortest of the year as far as daylight goes, it was almost warm. Warm enough for two locos to be in steam. Mark and Bob had their respective engines running; Bob, after fitting a new grate, found the Collett steamed much better whist Mark was doing well with his Simplex. Both drivers tried out the new carriage and said it was stable and ran well and as a passenger I found the wider seats more comfortable. All we have to do is fix the other five in the New Year.

So, only a short Newsletter this time.

January 2012 Newsletter

See you at the Annual General Meeting.