A night express about to cross the Forth Rail Bridge Detail from a mid-30s LNER advertising poster

COMMENT

First of all, some comings and goings. Richard Vaughan-Davies is leaving us to move with his wife to The Midlands to be closer to their family. Richard was a club Committee member and also worked on ‘Box’ when we were open. Many thanks for your contributions Richard and we hope that your move goes well and you settle quickly. Secondly, a number of you will remember ex-member John Mages, he told us recently that he would like to return to the fold and we look forward to seeing him again soon.

Of importance to all of you will be news that we now plan to reopen in the near future, and the details of how this will happen can be found below. It will, inevitably, be a little complicated for the time being as some Covid management requirements have to remain but, as long as things don’t go into reverse again, a sort of normal service will be resumed.

And remember, shortly after re-opening, we plan to hold a large stock-sale on Saturday the 5th. June, between 10am and 12pm, in the main ground floor hall at FOYD. A large and varied collection of stock will be available for purchase, including the late John Gardner’s collection. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, I have not been able to inspect what is there but I understand that the majority of it is OO. There will also be a very small selection of N gauge coaches as well however. Please remember that you will be required to wear masks at the sale. A card machine will be available to assist with purchases but note please that this will only be for purchases above £25. The charge back to the club is just too expensive to justify its use for lesser sums unfortunately.

TICKETS PLEASE

Before anyone accuses me of sexism, by today’s standards an inappropriate and unacceptable advertising copy. I found this on the reverse of a ‘30s ticket that came inside a book I purchased. It’s really appalling, but I couldn’t resist a wry smile. Happily though, language and attitudes do change somewhat with the times.

THE PLAN FOR REOPENING

There is a lot to be done before the club can be truly open for business, but we do have a roadmap [to use that popular cliché] which will eventually enable us to get there. First of all, as long as there is no change in Welsh Government regulations, we will reopen during the week beginning the 31st May, on the Wednesday and Thursday of that week [the 2nd. & 3rd. June] at the normal times. We shall remain open on each of those days for the immediate future. Clearly however, it is not quite as simple as that and the following notes explain how this will happen and what needs to take place first:

During the weekend prior to reopening, the club will receive a thorough clean, with particular attention being given to the club room, door handles and the signing-in book and toilet areas. Arrangements have been made already to ensure that this takes place.
Members may not simply turn up at will on either or both of the days. Currently, a maximum of 15 individuals at any one time are allowed to attend events like our club. Some members may not wish to return yet but for those who do, please e-mail me quickly with your preferred day. My e-mail address is tonyrichards2002@gmail.com If you have no e-mail facility, phone me on 07810 854238. Every effort will be made to giving first choice preferences, but I cannot guarantee this if the numbers exceed the current quota. On this, I’m afraid, my decision will have to be final. Things will relax in the future I am sure however.
Should more than 30 members wish to return immediately, consideration will need to be given to either allocating time slots for attendance or opening on a third day [a Tuesday or Friday]. I do not want to consider this – and so further complicate arrangements – until it becomes absolutely necessary.
Once preferences have been received, I shall circulate a rota to all who have replied.
Whilst I know that this all sounds terribly proscriptive, all members attending must:
- Use the antiseptic hand wash gel provided at the ground-floor entrance to FOYD and continue to use it when necessary [eg after using the ‘facilities’]
- Take care to always sign in and out of the club at the signing-in point on the 3rd. floor
- Provide and wear their own face masks at all times – no mask, no entry
- Be sensible when it comes to social distancing and sensitive to other members’ feeling about safe personal space [regardless as to whether or not you have received your vaccinations]
- Not leave tea or coffee mugs for others to wash up for you – do them yourself!

There may be a need to add to the above or, hopefully, relax some of it in due course. I shall e-mail any further amendments as they occur.

A final point concerns returning to working on or using the layouts. All, with the exception of Box, are very dusty and dead flies abound! Clearly, all with need careful and gentle cleaning before anything can be done to / on them. I am not going to prepare a rota for these duties but am asking those who have the lead for the layouts or builds to take responsibility for convening a cleaning team to enable further work to take place. I will provide soft bristle brushes and a portable vacuum cleaner for this to take place. Please not delay this work as there is a possibility of a club open day a little later in the summer. In most cases, an evening’s work should see it done.

We are looking forward to that time when we can return to less rule-bound activity at the club. No-one yet knows when that will be however and so the above, whilst a little restrictive, is the only way in which we can begin to return to club life. Thanks all for your considerable patience and co-operation.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

For those who took the opportunity of suspending their payments during the lockdowns, reinstating them will become a requirement but not something which is immediately necessary for attendance in early June. We’ll discuss it during the following weeks. Let’s get back first!

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Well, that went the way of the world! But, as mentioned a couple of newsletters back, the Chair will convene an Extraordinary General Meeting in due course to accept the Examiner’s report on the club’s finances, elect Committee members and deal with any other matters arising. You will be given plenty of notice of this event and will be able to ask for agenda items to be considered also.

THE 2021 PRIVATE OWNER WAGON COMMISSION

Unless you want to purchase some O gauge wagons, you’ve missed the boat! With just 4 O gauge examples left, this has been an extraordinarily successful sale, our best so far and over-subscribed. Many thanks to Noel Blows for his work in commissioning the sale, dealing with posting a huge number of parcels and working so hard to make it a success. Consideration is now being given to the next release, but nothing more on that for quite a while!