Livingston - West Lothian Starters Group
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 8:37 am
Having realised that there was a need for a starters group based up here in Scotland I have decided to go ahead and set one up. We have limited space as meetings will be held in one another's homes and I already have enough members to make it work. All those who have joined so far are already members of either the East of Scotland 4mm Group or the West Scotland 4mm Group who would like to build something for themselves at home as well as being involved in either of the two senior groups' club layouts.
Our aim is to have mutual encouragement as we go about building our home layouts and to encourage the development in skills that will lead to good working layouts either for home or exhibition. It will also bring up, I hope, the skills level so that it will be of benefit to the older organisations.
There are no time restrictions or limits on the members and we have no committee either. There may be occasional costs involved for the buying of materials, but I am hoping we can save money on postage, etc. by collective buying. Personally I want this to be pretty informal and for my own part to be simply, a facilitator, and someone who is also wanting to build a new layout of his own and our little group be a useful adjunct to both groups and their membership.
As some of you will be aware I like to use the Fourum as a teaching aid and this posting will cover a range of things as we tackle them - so I am hoping to keep these things all together on this thread, but put up other posts to point the way to topics being covered by the group as we go along. I hope the other members of the group will use this space to add to the conversation and also get them using the Fourum for useful feedback from the regulars who use it and those I have found to be helpful to starters generally. I appreciate the useful comments made during my West Group builders series, which clearly has been of use to other members. I will get back to finishing the third part as soon as I can.
Although it is a "Starters" group it is not necessarily a "Beginners" group as there are members who already have some experience in building in S4/P4 including myself, however some have had no layout at home ever and some have perhaps a layout in another scale/gauge and there are also one or two experts in other fields, ex. electronics, who are members. I also hope to call on other folk I have been friends with over the years for help from time to time. I have helped many people over the years - so look out I may be asking the odd favour, in terms of peoples expertise!
I am keen that this will be an outward looking group as the membership will learn more quickly with the engagement of others. I am also wanting each to perhaps start their own blog, as member Chris Gogh has done very successfully on his own in recent times, as it will allow everyone to see progress as it is made at whatever pace - life does get in the way as it has for me over the last two years, so no pressure.
I have for some years now sent out a "Blower" to the West Group members, similar to Jim's "Pullage" which is meant for the East Group members. I thought I would start one for the "Starters" group but this one will be downloadable for the Society members who are also in the process of building layouts for themselves or similar groups which may be wanting to start up. I am hoping that ideas may be shared and that from time to time similar groups may wish to meet up at shows etc. If there are any individuals out there who are not part of any group but who would like to feel part of what we are doing please let me know as we would like to hear from you and may be able to give some encouragement, maybe meet up from time to time.
We have already had a couple of meetings since the New Year and members of the group have already started to take their turn at hosting events.
Our little quarterly newsletter is called the "Dubbie Shunt" named after a fairly obtuse colliery exchange yard that used to exist in Fife, which I thought might be appropriate for a little group of friends like ourselves. We are not here to change the world, but instead, have some pleasure mixed with progress on our own layouts.
Here is what we have been up to so far.
For members of the Starters Group here is the first part of the West Group's Build a loco Project which we will be referring to for this weekends encounter it has tool lists etc. We will be making a set of jigs for loco building and looking at how they work.
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=666
Our aim is to have mutual encouragement as we go about building our home layouts and to encourage the development in skills that will lead to good working layouts either for home or exhibition. It will also bring up, I hope, the skills level so that it will be of benefit to the older organisations.
There are no time restrictions or limits on the members and we have no committee either. There may be occasional costs involved for the buying of materials, but I am hoping we can save money on postage, etc. by collective buying. Personally I want this to be pretty informal and for my own part to be simply, a facilitator, and someone who is also wanting to build a new layout of his own and our little group be a useful adjunct to both groups and their membership.
As some of you will be aware I like to use the Fourum as a teaching aid and this posting will cover a range of things as we tackle them - so I am hoping to keep these things all together on this thread, but put up other posts to point the way to topics being covered by the group as we go along. I hope the other members of the group will use this space to add to the conversation and also get them using the Fourum for useful feedback from the regulars who use it and those I have found to be helpful to starters generally. I appreciate the useful comments made during my West Group builders series, which clearly has been of use to other members. I will get back to finishing the third part as soon as I can.
Although it is a "Starters" group it is not necessarily a "Beginners" group as there are members who already have some experience in building in S4/P4 including myself, however some have had no layout at home ever and some have perhaps a layout in another scale/gauge and there are also one or two experts in other fields, ex. electronics, who are members. I also hope to call on other folk I have been friends with over the years for help from time to time. I have helped many people over the years - so look out I may be asking the odd favour, in terms of peoples expertise!
I am keen that this will be an outward looking group as the membership will learn more quickly with the engagement of others. I am also wanting each to perhaps start their own blog, as member Chris Gogh has done very successfully on his own in recent times, as it will allow everyone to see progress as it is made at whatever pace - life does get in the way as it has for me over the last two years, so no pressure.
I have for some years now sent out a "Blower" to the West Group members, similar to Jim's "Pullage" which is meant for the East Group members. I thought I would start one for the "Starters" group but this one will be downloadable for the Society members who are also in the process of building layouts for themselves or similar groups which may be wanting to start up. I am hoping that ideas may be shared and that from time to time similar groups may wish to meet up at shows etc. If there are any individuals out there who are not part of any group but who would like to feel part of what we are doing please let me know as we would like to hear from you and may be able to give some encouragement, maybe meet up from time to time.
We have already had a couple of meetings since the New Year and members of the group have already started to take their turn at hosting events.
Our little quarterly newsletter is called the "Dubbie Shunt" named after a fairly obtuse colliery exchange yard that used to exist in Fife, which I thought might be appropriate for a little group of friends like ourselves. We are not here to change the world, but instead, have some pleasure mixed with progress on our own layouts.
Here is what we have been up to so far.
For members of the Starters Group here is the first part of the West Group's Build a loco Project which we will be referring to for this weekends encounter it has tool lists etc. We will be making a set of jigs for loco building and looking at how they work.
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=666