R.S.M.E. - GROUND LEVEL TRACK OPENING

30th JUNE 2001

by M. Stride

After many trials and tribulations the day had arrived, the ground level track at Reading Society of Model Engineers was to be officially opened.

The following notes and photographs will hopefully give those who could not attend a flavour of the event. The club was honoured with the presence of the editor of the 'Model Engineer' magazine, Mike Chrisp, whose eyes lit up when I suggested that I would send a report of the event for the 'Model Engineer'.

The day dawned reasonably brightly which gave the early birds a good start with the setting up of the gazebos and other things that are needed to protect all the visitors and "officials" from any inclement weather. After the recent hot spell, it was a relief that it had cooled slightly giving a much more pleasant environment.

Visitors started to arrive from mid morning and soon the site was getting quite busy with lots of old friends greeting each other and catching up on the things that have been happening. There was certainly lots of the usual banter flying around, it is a good job that model engineers are not a sensitive lot! Locomotives soon started to appear, but mostly on the raised track. I assume that those with 5" gauge locos did not have ground level driving trucks. This situation soon righted itself and we got enough locos to be able to open the track in style.

Most of the visitors came from clubs in the southern half of the country, but we did have one visitor from Yorkshire, Peter Clayton from the West Riding Small Locomotive Society who arrived with his Black Five. I am not sure he counts as a visitor because he is a member of the Reading Society as well.

A large contingent from Worthing arrived and made themselves at home with a good selection of locos.

The other clubs represented were; Andover, Harlington, Frimley, Bournemouth, Staines and the very local Amnerfield Railway.

By the time they had all arrived the car park was getting very full as were the raised track steaming bays.

The air was soon filled with the smells and sounds of steam locomotives being prepared and drivers were starting to get out onto the track so I decided it was time to investigate the locomotives to see what was about.

One of the first locomotives that caught my eye was a 5" gauge Southern King Arthur class "Sir Lamiel" being prepared by Ian Thomas from Andover. This was built from photographs and certainly looked the part. Unfortunately something came adrift on the motion so it did not run on the day.

A group not far away was clustered round an unusual looking locomotive which turned out to be Gordon Howell's (Andover) vertical boilered Indian Locomotive which converts to/from an Atkinson tractor and has been featured in these pages before. Gordon seemed to be going round and round for most of the day.

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    Gordon Howells Vertical boiler Loco

The other locos on the ground level track included local man Alan Thatcher's "Jupiter" which is the mainstay of the ground level public running and won a bronze medal at the ME Exhibition a couple of years ago.

Peter Clayton's impressive Black Five stood out not only for the quality but the sheer size. This was built from works drawings by Peter.

The other local ground level runner was Les Dawson with his NCB    loco "Anna" named after his grand daughter. This was originally owned by Reading member Cyril Kimber who passed the loco over to Les for  completion just before he passed away last year. It is always nice when these locos can remain in the club as a reminder of their original owners.

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     Les Dawson's 7¼" gauge N.C.B. 0-4-0 loco 'Anna'.

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      Peter Hissey's 5" gauge GWR 'King'.

John Rea from Worthing was running the 7¼" gauge "Tich" owned jointly by him and Les Dawson.

The raised track steaming bays were a hive of activity with several fine locomotives being prepared, Peter Hissey from Harlington was preparing his G.W.R. "King Stephen" which was a gold medal winner at the Model Engineer Exhibition a few years ago. This ran very well during the day.

The other Harlington member was Tony Bond with his venerable Brittania still going strong at the ripe old age of 27.

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     Tony Bond's 5"gauge 'Brittannia'  

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    Brian Cockman's 5" gauge 'LNER B1'.

The Bournemouth club was represented by Mike Baker with his "Achilles" and Mike Styles with his superb "Crab" to the Don Young design. This was purring around for a large part of the day.

There was a lot of interest in a fine 5" gauge Crampton single wheeler "Lady Margaret" being prepared by Tony Williams from the Staines club. This ran well although suffering from a slight lack of adhesion at times.

Another green loco, although L.N.E.R. this time was Brian Cockman's B1 built to his own design. Brian is a member of the Frimley club and also the local Amnerfield Farm Railway.

The other Amnerfield representative was Dave Jerome with his "Maid of Kent" which as usual ran without trouble most of the day.

And now for the biggest contingent of all, Worthing Club. I counted seven locos from Worthing, all of which seemed to be running very well.

The one that stood out first was the 3½" gauge Merchant Navy "British Irish Line" in blue livery built by Charles Weatherley. This ran well during the day and stood out from the crowd.

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   Charles Weatherley's 3½" gauge 'Merchant Navy'.

Two Great Western engines being readied were the 3½" gauge "County of Devon" to the LBSC County design by Alan Norman which had vacuum brakes fitted to the loco and the well finished G.W.R. 5700 to L.B.S.C's. "Pansy" design by Jim Ledger. This had a nice goods wagon driving truck.

The other Southern loco was the 3½" Schools class "Eastbourne" being set up by Alan Breese from Worthing.

The final loco was a north of the border design, a nice "Glen" to the Don Young design by Mike Wheelwright.

We had a fine selection of locomotives from several designers with a few "own designs" thrown in. All of this variety helped to fuel the "inter-railway" banter in the steaming bays.

The opening ceremony was to be performed by our President, Jack Shayler, assisted by Ian Brown who both have a long history in the club.

Alan Thatcher steamed his locomotive "Jupiter" and lined up behind the tape along with what seemed to be an army of locos behind ready to do a processional lap. An army of photographers also sprang up from nowhere to record the event.

After a short speech from Ian, the tape was cut with the ceremonial scissors by Jack and the procession led by Jupiter moved off from the station accompanied by a similar procession on the raised track alongside. Jack climbed into Gordon Howell's loco for the ride and the track was well and truly open. From then on both tracks were very busy indeed.

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Alan Thatcher and 'Jupiter' awaiting the cutting of the ribbon by club President Jack Shayler

This carried on in the fine afternoon until about 5 o'clock when the sight of the barbecue being prepared seemed to reduce the desire to run locomotives. One final effort was made by Peter Clayton and his Black Five with four full carriages doing several laps and having a great time storming up the bank. There is something impressive about looking back to see the rest of the train coming round the bend, just like the 12" to the foot variety.

As usual on these occasions, none of it would happen without the work of several club members and other helpers in the background. Thanks must go to the "Wednesday Warriors" who worked very hard over the past four years to get the track and steaming bays built and working.

On the day, special thanks are due to Nigel ........., Tony Giles and Tracy and Gary Williams who did sterling service providing tea and refreshments.

Also to Tony Giles (again) and Graham Bustin who did a good job burning the burgers and sausages for the barbecue.

When I left at about 6pm, all was quiet except for the sound of burgers and sausages being happily disposed of by all and sundry including the 'Model Engineer' editor, Mike Chrisp.

Take a pictorial 'trip' around the Ground Level track by 'clicking' here.

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