London Road (was Possible East Suffolk Area Group)

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Jol Wilkinson
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London Road (was Possible East Suffolk Area Group)

Postby Jol Wilkinson » Tue Nov 16, 2010 5:48 pm

I'm setting up London Road this coming weekend, in a local village hall, for a test session before the layout's next outing in January. I'll also be setting up the new baseboards for the "extension" to convert the terminus into a through station.

The location is between Ipswich and Woodbridge. If anyone fancies calling in for a chat on Sunday morning - between 10:00 and 12:00 - please send me a message so I can provide details of the venue. I'd like to sound out interest in setting up an East Suffolk area group, for the occasional "get together", etc.
Last edited by Jol Wilkinson on Mon Dec 06, 2010 10:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

nigelcliffe
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Re: Possible East Suffolk Area Group

Postby nigelcliffe » Tue Nov 16, 2010 5:57 pm

Drop a line to Don Gilliland, who organises the Suffolk/Norfolk area group. I expect some of their members might want to come along. I'll be away at Warley all this weekend.

The existing group wanders around the area, meeting in various places which includes the eastern fringes (you don't get much more Eastern Fringe than Coldfair Green !). Activities include general natter, doing your own thing, and working on the group layout ( also called Coldfair Green). Typical meeting schedule is two per month; one roving around member's homes, the other Eye/Diss to work on the group layout. Shared transport from the Ipswich area may be possible.


- Nigel

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Jol Wilkinson
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Re: Possible East Suffolk Area Group

Postby Jol Wilkinson » Wed Nov 17, 2010 10:15 am

Nigel,

thanks for the update on the S/N area group. I had seen mention of it in the Blue Sheet, but hadn't seen anything about the group's activities. A couple of other S4 members in the Ipswich area that I had spoken to some while ago didn't mention it either.

The invite to pop along to the London Road set up session was simply a spur of the moment idea, should anyone be interested.

Regards,

Jol Wilkinson

nigelcliffe
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Re: Possible East Suffolk Area Group

Postby nigelcliffe » Wed Nov 17, 2010 10:53 am

Jol,

me apart, I don't think the Suffolk/Norfolk group are heavy computer users, so there is little online. And I've enough other things to not want to start off being the web front for the group.

I don't know how old the Blue Sheet on the Suffolk/Norfolk group is. Don's home address hasn't changed recently, though his email did change about a year or so ago. I can provide contact details off the forum.

There is a Suffolk/Norfolk meeting this Friday evening in Stowmarket, but I'll be at Warley setting up for the weekend.

- Nigel

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dcockling
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Re: Possible East Suffolk Area Group

Postby dcockling » Wed Nov 17, 2010 2:06 pm

The Blue Sheet is published in paper form once a year and a copy is sent to every member with July's Scalefour News. From the number of queries I get though that could be answered by looking at it I reckon a large proportion go unnoticed or get lost.

If required i.e. there are any significant changes a new one is produced in Dec/Jan but to save costs it is only available on the website: there will be a new one soon. New members get the most up to date version.

One limitation is where Area Group Organizers have their privacy settings set tightly e.g. Mr Gilliland has his set to withhold his first name from publication so he appears as Mr J D Gilliland, his address is shown but both his telephone number and e-mail address are set to 'withhold'. He is entitled to set these up however he wishes, as are you all, and I can't change them without express instructions from the individual concerned, but it does make it more difficult to contact someone who is there as a point of contact, in this case it would appear that a letter (remember those) is the only way of making contact. No personal criticism is intended here, I've just used this as an illustration as there are many other AGOs with similar settings.

In order to circumvent this, sometime ago I created 'Society' e-mail addresses for all Area Groups where they didn't already exist, so that each Area Group has an e-mail address published on the Blue Sheet so as to help members make contact. Where the AGO either doesn't have e-mail, doesn't want their e-mail address published or doesn't want the Society address to redirect to them, they redirect to me and I then pass any message along; in this case it's norfolkandsuffolk@scalefour.org

All the Best
Danny

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Weskie
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Re: Possible East Suffolk Area Group

Postby Weskie » Sun Dec 05, 2010 10:47 pm

Jol

Did you manage to get 'London road' set up for a test session the other weekend? How did it go? I take it that it's next outing in January is to our show(Leamington and Warwick)? Any pictures to tempt us?

Cheers
Andy Westcott

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Jol Wilkinson
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Re: Possible East Suffolk Area Group

Postby Jol Wilkinson » Mon Dec 06, 2010 5:00 pm

Hi Andy,

yes, we got the layout and the new boards for the "extension" set up in the Angela Cobbold Hall . Everything worked okay, after we had replaced four more droppers (the lesson to be learned is not to solder these to the underside of the rail with solder paint - twenty years on dry joints and mechanical failures occur) and eased off a bit of a tight fit on the traverser plate. The other main task was to fit new weights to the signal operating mechanisms - some of the relays seem to have lost a bit of grunt over the years.

The attached photo shows both old and new, although the existing layout doesn't have the lighting gantries fitted. The three boards in the foreground will replace the right hand one on the existing layout so we will have the luxury of a through station. Harry, testing the layout with a loco, is one of the regular team. He is looking worried because, like all of us, it's easy to forget how it all works and on the infrequent occassions we get to play trains, it all comes as a bit of a shock. Oh for the luxury of a facility where we could leave the layout erected.

Hopefully we will all be able to get it right in January.

Regards,

Jol

And in case anybody is wondering, Angela Cobbold was a member of the local (Ipswich) brewing family. I believe the name is still used by Greene King, but I prefer to support Adnams.
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