Mike Bellamy

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 ? .

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. .

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. .

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 . . . ! .

We had similar at the university where I worked as an administrator. When they had a new system, the Finance Dept shut down for a week either side of the month end so they could try and get the books to balance before starting on the next month. The problem was that at one time my area dealt booking travel for staff to visit UK and Overseas partnerships - but you can't get a purchase order for the travel agency if the system has been shut down. On more that one occasion, staff had to book their own travel and accommodation on credit card and claim it back when they cranked the handle and got the cogs going around again !! Can you imagine Tesco (or any other business) shutting down in this way. .

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 ! .

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 . . . . . . .

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. .

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 ! .

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/ .

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 .

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 . . . . . . . . . . .

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 . . . . .

Lake Louise - I thought that sounded familiar and then found out why. Brother and wife have booked a three night stay at Skoki Lodge in September. No road access and so they have to walk about seven miles through the forest. When William and Kate were there, they arrived by Helicopter . . . . . .! https://www.skoki.com/ https://www.skoki.com/articles/royal_couple_visits_skoki_lodge.php https://www.hellomagazine.com/travel/2014020916892/kate-middleton-prince-william-holiday-ski-resort-canada-banff/ .

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. .

I had that for many years until lockdown. All the remaining biscuits, crisps and cans of fizz were donated to a local food bank and the tea, coffee and sugar went home with me. After we eventually reopened we decided to just continue with free drinks. We have to buy tea and coffee for the quarterly swapmeets we run and so the costs are absorbed into those events (anything remaining goes back to the clubroom) and a couple of members buy milk when needed and pay out of their own pocket as a 'donation' to the club so the treasurer (me) doesn't have to bother with a refreshments account. .

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. .

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. .

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 .

. . . . . and a snow plough . . . . ? .

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 .

You should investigate the John Knowles company of Woodville, South Derbyshire who had an 18" line serving their clay pipe factory. Hunslet loco "Jack" is preserved at Statfold and sister "Gwen" is over in USA. This book tells you all you need to know about the company and their railways. Don't pay silly Ebay prices (I saw one at £83 !!) as it is available new from the Industrial Railway Society. https://irsshop.co.uk/Tramways-Railways-of-John-Knowles Where are you as the 7mm Narrow Gauge Assn has a modelling day at Mickleover (Derby) in January where there are going to be 2 or 3 O-9 layouts and the Assn's main exhibition is at Burton in June - and only a few miles from the John Knowles site - but it's all under a housing estate now ! .

I agree with all three comments. I worked for Lloyds for 25 years where I took part in both a profit sharing scheme and a share savings scheme. By getting both of these incentives paid in shares gave a tax advantage unless you sold the shares within a fixed period after receiving them (might have been five years?) when income tax was deducted. After I was made redundant back in 1997, my payoff kept us going until I got another job and so there was no need to cash in the shares, Financial advice is always to look to the long term and historically shares had always gone up in value over a five year period. So far so good - then the financial crash and Lloyds was almost bankrupt, saved by a massive government bailout but then came the disastrous merger with Halifax & Bank of Scotland. Year later the shares have still to recover even though the government shares have all been sold off (unlike NatWest). Those shares were to be eventually sold for a retirement bungalow and a round the world cruise - when I did retire we extended the mortgage to get the bungalow (even after downsizing from 4 bed detached) and the shares won't even pay for a weekend in Skegness - perhaps after I'm gone the kids might benefit from an increase in the share value . . . . . . . .

Paul - over on the Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling OnLine Forum (NGRM), David @DLT posted photos almost daily showing how he developed new areas of the backscene and took on board the advice from many fellow modellers until he got it just about right so you can't see where the real buildings and scenery merge into the backscene. Nothing like a deadline to get things moving and thankfully the redevelopment was all completed in time. Perhaps David could add some more photos on the Bridport topic here for the benefit of a wider audience. The use of mirrors at each end also make the layout look much bigger than it really is and means he's had to detail all the parts you don't always see but they show up in the reflection. .

The way it was explained to me several years ago was that the Club is a Charity and the exhibition is organised by the Ltd Company. The Ltd Co was set up for the move to the NEC as the club committee wanted to protect the club in case it was a disaster - of course it was a great success and over the years the surplus has enabled the Ltd Co to buy the clubroom which is now rented to the club. The Ltd Co in turn can donate surplus funds to the charity and so as Mark says, the surplus is retained with the organisation - I expect there are also tax advantages by charging rent and donating to charity. We do exactly the same thing at our local Community Centre which is a charity but the volunteer led tea-rooms are operated by a Limited Company - the Community Centre charges the Tearooms rent and all surplus funds from the Tearooms are donated to the centre. .