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Mike Bellamy

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Everything posted by Mike Bellamy

  1. What an amazing day and a great success, partially due to the great variety of layouts we had on display - although organised by the small local group of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association, we actually had OO9, O9, O-14, O-16.5, O standard, On2, On3, 16mm and even one I hadn't thought about before which was O-24.5 as the etched trams from the Kinver Light Railway were running on 3ft 6in gauge track !! Adrian has posted a lot of photos in the Elsbridge topic - this was Neil Blair's layout and following his sudden passing last year, it is now in the care of our local area group and was exhibited in his memory as he had also been our event organiser. See the link below. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/97585-elsbridge-tramway-company-elsbridge-town-neilhbs-layout/?do=findComment&comment=5412988 Many thanks to all those who came to see us and in particular helped to reduce Neil's book mountain that our group had inherited - funds raised will go towards our new group layout, a project he was keen to get started once he had finished Elsbridge. It is fitting to note that one of the three helpers in the kitchen was Neil's' mum Leigh, and his husband Dan had intended to be there as well but he has a rather important accountancy exam on Monday and had some essential revision to complete. We are already talking about our plans for next year's show . . . . . . .
  2. Thanks Ade. Another set of great photos which show the variety of layouts we had on display - although organised by the small local group of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association, we actually had OO9, O9, O-14, O-16.5, O standard, On2, On3, 16mm and even one I hadn't thought about before which was O-24.5 as the etched trams from the Kinver Light Railway were running on 3ft 6in gauge track !! Many thanks to all those who came to see us and in particular helped to reduce Neil's book mountain that our group had inherited - funds raised will go towards our new group layout, a project he was keen to get started once he had finished Elsbridge. It is fitting to note that one of the three helpers in the kitchen was Neil's' mum Leigh, and his husband Dan had intended to be there as well but he has a rather important accountancy exam on Monday and had some essential revision to complete. We are already talking about our plans for next year's show . . . . . . .
  3. No need for any Food Hygiene certificates if it is only occasional catering - see the links and quote below - although these quote EU directives, they are still current on the Food Standards Agency website. https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/providing-food-at-community-and-charity-events https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/hall-provision.pdf .
  4. In your former home town, that's a bit different to the view out of my bedroom window across the Harrowby Road allotments and up Hall's Hill. However I'm sure we had temperatures like that back in the 1960s as I had ice on the inside of the window even though my Dad was a plumber and heating engineer ! .
  5. Mrs B was looking for a specific specialist cookery book and found it at World of Books for (I think) £18 and was amazed that it had a British Heart Foundation price on for £2.50. She was so cross at the substantial mark-up and said she would rather give a donation to BHF than add to the profits of WoB. She complained, returned the book and got a full refund. .
  6. Thank you for your support - if you bought a bacon cob, even more thanks as I cooked about 80 in three hours !! See you in September (7th), although we are considering the possibility of another event in June. If this also goes ahead, look out for Railway Modeller and UK Model Shops adverts. When we expanded the Derby Show to use both halls at the Assembly Rooms, we alternated using the smaller hall with Continental organised by the SNCF Society, and then the year after would be American organised by the NMRA. It was interesting to see the peaks and troughs in the attendance graph as for a while Continental was more popular and then it changed so that the American years had the higher attendance (or was it the other way around - I can't remember). When we went to the smaller Moorways Sports Centre and then to Derby Roundhouse, we continued to invite a selection of both American and Continental layouts - after all good modelling is good modelling regardless of scale, gauge and location. Sadly all three venues have now closed. .
  7. I disagree - that isn't what they say on the front page of their website copied below. It's a bit like Tesco saying they are going to stop selling baked beans (or anything else) - it doesn't automatically mean they are closing the business. Why not be more positive and suggest some answers to James, who asked who would be an alternative supplier for the accessories previously available from Brassmasters. .
  8. I had similar issues with a delivery from work to Israel. It was tracked East Midlands - Heathrow - Johannesburg - Cape Town - Heathrow - Tel Aviv. Getting back on topic - I wonder if @SM42 can offer assistance to the original question ? .
  9. We are the same at Mickleover. When we first started the Derby show about 40 years ago, we were raising money to move out of the church hall and get our own clubrooms. Although it was never actually written into the rules, as Treasurer, I made sure subscriptions and weekly fees covered the rent and running costs, the Village Hall show paid for layouts and the Assembly Rooms (then Moorways and finally Derby Roundhouse shows), went into the building fund. We were fortunate to be able to rent and then buy our building at the Community Centre, which then enables us to open the clubroom as part of the exhibition. A surveyor has said that the building isn't in danger of imminent collapse but we should soon start to consider a replacement - but the problem is that building costs are rising faster than our income as we can no longer use Derby Roundhouse as it was closed to all external events by Derby College during the first lockdown. Substantial deposits for the next three years were returned - but we would rather have been able to continue with the show. Going back to Warley - their clubroom shows where the surplus has been invested - the Ltd Co owns the building and rents it to the club. The club pays a market rent to the Ltd Co but then the Ltd Co donates it's surplus to the club. Same money going around in circles but each of the transactions have tax advantages. All explained to us by Paul Jones who just happened to be an Accountant, when we were considering the same arrangement but eventually the committee decided that it would be too onerous (couldn't be bothered) to consider how we might meet 'Charitable Aims'. I applaud @Chris M and WMRC for the work they have done, and continue to do, in encouraging youngsters into the hobby with tuition sessions and open days etc. Some of our members just thought that an open day was an opportunity to play trains all day and ignore visitors. .
  10. Our clubroom appears to be a similar size but has a single brick skin and uninsulated asbestos roof. To try and retain some heat and reduce costs all windows have had 50mm Kingspan type insulation fitted so that there is no light at all getting in. We have grilles fitted on the outside so no windows opened anyway. We get up to 20 members in there 4 nights a week and nobody has ever complained about the lack of ventilation or natural light. When we have open days the double doors are left open. .
  11. Especially if it was like our visit in Mid August BC (Before Covid) when the strong wind and heavy rain meant that most passengers stayed on the train . . . ! .
  12. Sorry but I had to smile at that quote - there may be a bus service from the Southern Peak area but just to be silly, I looked at the option of travelling by train from Matlock on a Sunday. Leave at 8.59 arrive Buxton 12.50. Visit the show then depart Buxton 15.56 arrive Matlock 19.26 - so that's over 7 hours travelling at a cost of £59 to go 20 miles up the road - wouldn't it be a good idea to have a railway line that joined the two places together . . . . . . . . Looking forward to my visit - must keep a check on MrsB's holiday bookings ! .
  13. 256 when I looked a few minutes ago - but they did not show in the same search yesterday and so some stock is still being added . . . . . . .
  14. I am Chairman of the local Community Centre at Mickleover (Derby) as our model railway group have a separate building that was at one time part of the Community Centre but is now under our ownership. Entrance to the car park is past the local library. We have a lease for the centre but not the car park, which is under the ownership of Derby City Council. There is a large sign on the end of the club's building that everyone entering should see, stating that it is a private car park for Community Centre and Library users only. There are also two signs on each of the pedestrian exits from the car park. However the users of the car park must be visually impaired as they don't see any of the signs and freely use the car park if they work nearby or as a park and ride facility to the hospital or into town. Whenever I go to the Centre, I have difficulty parking as the 35 spaces are often full even before the Centre is open. There is also a local bar/restaurant that actually shows the location of the car park and says it is free to use. Numerous complaints over several years have received a zero response. As a result we now have club members who avoid our Friday evening meetings as they can't park nearby. .
  15. About 40 years ago, when we started the Derby Exhibition, local press publicity and an interview with our exhibition 'manager' (organiser) led to him receiving a letter from the Inland Revenue (as it was called then) asking how much he had been paid to organise the show ! Of course it was all voluntary and so they asked to see the accounts for the event and the accounts for the model railway club. This resulted in the club having to pay tax (corporation tax ??) on the bank interest which we had received gross without tax deducted by the bank. We did however manage to get them to accept that the 'profit' was used by the club to pay rent and build layouts etc. We had followed the example of others by having 'day membership' written into our rules (now a much more detailed constitution) and I sent them a photocopy of a ticket issued to one of our members who had been to a show at Harrogate as the ticket actually had printed on it 'admittance by payment of a day membership in accordance with the rules'. The Revenue accepted this, and somewhere in the loft in my old club records, I still have their letter confirming that we could use what they called 'The Harrogate Example' as income from your own members is not taxable. We did have to continue paying tax on our interest for another 10 or so years until we were told that as it was such a low and trivial amount, we could stop completing tax returns. Something else to mention from personal experience - HMRC are automatically advised by banks and building societies about the interest you receive - going back 50 years now to when I started at Lloyds, one of my jobs was to manually complete a form for every customer who had received any interest above a specified limit so that they could check if tax was payable as when added to other income etc, the customer may have gone over the taxable income limit. It took many weeks to do this and was eventually automated - but by that time I had progressed to the counter as a cashier ! .
  16. Chris Ward, who started (and sold) CWRailways linked above has come out of retirement and set up Chris-Draw and says on his website he will provide a quote for commission work - might be worth contacting him. Following on from the Tar Tank wagon discussions in another topic, the hemispherical tank looks interesting https://www.chris-draw.com/ .
  17. Sorry but both of those colours are so out of fashion now - the one to use in 2024 (according to the Pantone Colour Institute) is Peach Fuzz, as illustrated in the link below - together with links to other "Colours of the Year" "Peach Fuzz captures our desire to nurture ourselves and others. It's a velvety gentle peach tone whose all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body, and soul" https://www.pantone.com/uk/en/color-of-the-year/2024 Interesting to see that in several places on their website, they use both spellings for Colour and Color .
  18. MBS Models is not listed as a recognised trader on the Gauge O Guild website and @mbs2015 hasn't been on the forum since 2018. By adding @ to his user name, he may get a notification about this post . . . . . . . . . . .
  19. Sorry Andy but I first misread that as "see if we can UPSET some Premium members . . ." and I thought no you wouldn't do that would you - after all, it's the season of goodwill to all on RMweb - even if there are some who I'm sure you and Phil would really like to upset by closing down their accounts . . . . .
  20. We have started using Sumup for our club events. Initial cost about £100 for the machine that runs on wifi or mobile phone bluetooth or hot-spot. Charge is 1.69% of value with no separate transaction charges. At our recent show, we had 18 transactions on the club secondhand table with sales of around £1,200 so the deduction on that would have been £20. This came out of the 10% charged for members sales so we were still just about in profit after paying for the machine in the first place and it's now available for future events. .
  21. I saw a report on the BBC News at 6.00pm when she was interviewed at her home which was on the coast and she was also seen swimming in the sea. Although the report didn't say anything about her location, she did say that she hadn't been able to get another job and so I assumed that she was still a resident on the island. .
  22. The internal walls in our clubroom are in BR Executive Livery - as you might expect being based in Derby we had a few members who were at Derby works. We turned the colour scheme upside down with dark grey up to waist height, then a red stripe and pale grey up to the ceiling. .
  23. On a narrow gauge forum a couple of days ago, there was a discussion about the shades of grey (not 50 ) used on a preserved diesel loco. We were then given the actual colour off the tin of paint they used - Greyfriar BS00A13. A Google search flagged up the two applications for planning permission from "Fat Face" (no connection to Richard HH) where it seems they use this colour - but only as the base coat for their projecting sign - yet they use a variety of other colours from both Dulux and Farrow & Ball so why just use Dulux Greyfriars just on the sign . . . . https://portal.peakdistrict.gov.uk/system/download/23611493 https://planning.islington.gov.uk/NorthgatePublicDocs/00292625.pdf .
  24. There has been a local layout based on the Pipeworks but I can't find photos at the moment. However some other links below may help 7mmNGA picture galley of O-9 layouts https://7mmnga.org.uk/galleryO-9.php The Brickworks which I think is O-14 https://7mmnga.org.uk/view_gallery.php?gallery=9 Mynydd Mawr brick works Standard 7mm and O-16.5 by Don Mason (known as Member Number One as he founded the 7mmNGA with an advert in Railway Modeller in 1979) https://7mmnga.org.uk/view_gallery.php?gallery=43 .
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