A somewhat stylised early engraving from The Illustrated London News showing the opening of The South Wales Railway, with a train crossing Brunel’s Landore Viaduct, in June 1850.
The canal in the foreground is, I believe, Smith’s Canal. This 3-mile waterway carried coal from collieries at Llansamlet to the River Tawe at Foxhole. Completed around 1784, the canal had a relatively short life and closed around 1852, shortly after the opening of The South Wales Railway.

MEMBERS’ CAR-PARKING ARRANGEMENTS WHILST VISITING THE CLUB ON THURSDAYS

Thursdays are a particularly busy day for FOYD with its two biggest users, Rising Stars and ourselves, filling the building and the car park from around 5.30pm. This has become more-and-more difficult to manage and frayed tempers have been aired from time-to-time. To try to ensure that parking difficulties do not continue to test the collective patience, Noel Blows and I, with Stuart Jefferson from Rising Stars, met Cllr Chris Holley today [6th] to agree a solution. The following will not be absolutely perfect, but it is the best which could be arrived at given the growing demand for parking space and the more-important need to recognise the particular requirements of those with disabilities. These arrangements apply to THURSDAYS only.

• From the first Thursday in July [the 7th], and on all subsequent Thursdays, only vehicles with Blue Badges may park beyond the start of the ramp at the rear of the building. All of that area facing our main entrance, and the lower recently-cleared space beyond, will be reserved for Blue Badge holders only. Ideally, all of the lower space [ie closer to the railway] should be kept clear for Rising Stars Blue Badge holders. All Blue Badge holders should also be bona-fide badge holders themselves and display them as they would usually. However, any club member providing a lift for a Blue Badge-holding club member who is their passenger may also park there [we think only one].

As a rider to the above, if any club member holding a Blue Badge is capable of walking easily from the end car-park [ie opposite the open shelters], they should park in that car park and leave the area beyond the ramp for those with more-substantial difficulty.

• Club members for whom the above does not apply should park either in the end car-park or beyond in the surgery car-park. The end car-park is being reserved for SRMG members only and non-Blue Badge Rising Stars users will park outside the gates. The end car-park will soon be lined-out to ensure the maximum use of its space. However, take note that parking will need to be nose-to-tail and those who arrive first should park up to the wall. If you arrive early but also intend leaving early, you may wish to use the surgery car park to avoid been blocked in. Clearly, patience is going to be the watch-word here…..

• As this rule will apply on Thursdays only, it follows that visiting the club on other days will not be affected and may be easier. Some may, perhaps, choose to change the day of their visit, but that is a personal matter and it is not a requirement. Just saying….!

Both Rising Stars and ourselves are in many ways victims of our own success. Parking was always going to become an issue one day and, hopefully, the above arrangements will reduce at least 90% of the frustration experienced from time-to-time. Cllr Chris Holley has advised that he will not allow any new groups to use the building on Thursday because the building has reached capacity on that day.

STOCK SALES

A number of members have shown interest in the club running a members’ personal stock sale [at least one indicating some time back that he had an amount of N gauge that he would like to move on]. If any wish to continue with this, please let me know by the end of the month so that a convenient date may be arranged. The club does not charge commission on this type of sale [although a small donation is always welcome!]. On the matter of a general stock sale, I am currently acquiring stock for one although insufficient has been amassed yet for a full sale. When it is held, it will include both OO and N gauge alongside other items.

THE BIG EVENT!

No, not a late announcement about the Platinum Jubilee but a reminder that, at last, our much-delayed club dinner will be held this coming Friday [the 10th] at Norton House. Those attending are advised to be there by 7.00pm as this will allow half-an-hour for drinks and mingling before dinner at 7.30pm. Our guests are Mr and Mrs Martin Trainer and Ms Eloise Davies and partner [Oxford Diecast]. The Ukulele Band will play between 8.30 and 9.30pm and Rob Pendry will be playing a loop of railway-related film during the night, also. All being well, the celebrations should be over between 10.00 and 10.30pm.

But the dinner is only the last part of the day: during the afternoon Mr and Mrs Martin Trainer will be visiting the club to see the newly-installed Pennard Halt layout which Martin donated to the club some time ago. The rebuild team have been hard at it for months and many thanks to them for meeting the deadline. The guests should be arriving for 2.30pm and, after viewing Pennard Halt, they will be shown the rest of the club. They’ll probably be leaving at 4.00pm. Any member who wishes to attend this event is more than welcome and feel free to bring stock to run on the Test Tracks.

It would be greatly appreciated if those involved with any layout builds could leave them in as tidy-a-state as possible by close-of-play on Thursday. This is simply to show the club in the best light possible on Friday. Thank you all for your help with this.

The upper end of High St and the front of the earlier Great Western Railway station in Swansea.
A fine late 19th. Century photograph, origin unknown, sent to me by Steve Rodwell.

PICTURES AND PRINTS…..

It would be remiss not to thank Rob Pendry for his recent donation of two framed maps. These have been put up in the club room and show colliery locations across the South Wales coalfield. They are extremely detailed and well worth a look. Thanks, too, to Bob Cotton once again for putting them up. They complement the print of the Mumbles Tram perfectly.

And on the subject of prints, when I recently collected some donated items, at the bottom of one of the dusty boxes were some folded sheets of paper. When these were opened up, one was a full size [and that’s enormous] LNER travel poster for The Yorkshire Dales [in landscape] and the other, a BR travel poster for The Cotswolds [in portrait]. Both have suffered a little over the years but are good enough to conserve and frame. The former will be quite valuable, too. They will be put up, somewhere, in the club in due course.

FINALLY

Advance notice for your diaries: the West Wales branch of the Gauge O Guild is holding its model railway show in Pencader on the 27th. November. Further details in due course.

And do not forget our own Open Day on the 18th September this year. We will have use of the entire building and planning is well under way. More on this soon.