Mike Bellamy

Thanks Paul. Agreed about the backscene having seen the way that was developed on NGRM with almost daily updates. Some of your photos also show the use of mirrors at each end - most effective - and of course well done to David for "flying the flag" for 7mm NG.

.

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

 

There are very few small estate cars anymore, estate cars seem to be based on Volvo sized things. Whereas years ago all sizes of all makes of car had an estate in their range.

Agreed. Mrs B goes to a cake decorating group and has a huge toolbox on wheels that's bigger than any toolbox I have in the garage. Problem is that it's getting too heavy for her to lift in and out of the car (VW Polo) but we haven't found another small car with a low boot opening - they all seem to have the opening well above the bumper and as she's vertically challenged, lifting the box that high to then lower it into the back is getting too much.

Last week I bought her this stackable system by DeWalt from Screwfix - at £79.99 it's a lot cheaper than changing the car. She can then take the separate boxes into the church hall one at a time or leave them in the car until needed.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-tstak-3-in-1-rolling-workshop/507jy

.

3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

And did their apprentice training centre also order 2 copies of the portable and temporary installation regs

 

Not only a copy of the regs but they also put another club member through their training course and forgot to send us an invoice. When we dealt with his house clearance after he passed away a few years ago, he still had his copy of the training manual on his bookcase - and now I've got it - although I'm sure it's about 15 years out of date.

6 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

 The club bought the necessary stuff to make some portable distribution boards. 

Thanks for another memory - after the Assembly Rooms got too expensive, we moved to Moorways sports centre where the only power was a couple of 13a sockets on the wall near the door and a single three phase 415v socket. Our two electrical wizards had to build a lockable distribution cabinet which was placed in the middle of the hall with three outputs to the three islands of layouts in the centre. Different coloured cables were used and the 4-way sockets were painted matching colours to ensure that there was no possibility of mixing phases. By coincidence our two electricians were also training apprentices at a local power station.

.

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

The lighting at the NEC is probably the same that was put in when originally constructed, and is probably not really fit for purpose in this day and age.  

 

I've organised a number of shows, and depending on the level of support you receive from club members, and the level of communication you get from those invited to attend, will make your stress levels go up or down. (I strongly suspect Mike Bellamy would concur with this.)

 

Back on to the lighting saga.

Thanks for the mention. I agree with almost everything you say but I'm sure that the lighting in Hall 5 did get an upgrade as I remember when it was the sort of orange light given out by sodium (?) street lights but now they are a more natural yellow/white colour and whilst not daylight, they are better than before.

When we first started exhibiting at the Assembly Rooms in Derby 40 years ago, all of the layouts & traders down each side of the Great Hall were under the balcony with very few lights as it was designed as a performance venue not an exhibition hall. We had several mass production sessions building lighting stands - two 3ft or 4ft pieces of metal conduit, a square foot piece, joining piece and clamp to hold onto the layout or traders table, a long cable and two large spotlights on a T-piece at the top - all carried in two large boxes which were bl**dy heavy - but then I was 40 years younger and I certainly wouldn't be able to lift them now.

.

3 hours ago, petethemole said:

Satan's Slaves, from the visible patch; British in origin rather than US, but they have a history of violent incidents.

Thanks - after reading the Wikipedia entry, I'll look out for them when next in Yorkshire, and make sure I'm not in the caravan parking area just in case they turn up again. Interesting to see that they are a properly constituted Limited Company. Their entry on the Companies House Register says the nature of their business is  "Other amusement and recreation activities not elsewhere classified "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satans_Slaves_Motorcycle_Club

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05045235

.

9 hours ago, 45568 said:

 Try doing that on the M1/A1 North in Yorkshire or Northumberland mid-February with a thin freezing rain falling! 

Very few shorts and t-shirts on display when we met a group of mature gentlemen with large American machines at the Skelton Lake service area on the M1 near Leeds a couple of years ago. We were on our way to the Harrogate Christmas Market (so not the warmest of weather) and pulled in for a break - to start with we were the only vehicle in the empty caravan parking area. Half hour later after coffee and cake, we returned to find this sight awaiting us !!  The Clint Eastwood film comes to mind - push one bike over and they all go over . . . . 

8 hours ago, Arun Sharma said:

Good point, I think small traders are feeling the pinch especially as many found that, as a result of Covid, they were selling more stock with fewer overheads via mail order than they ever had at shows. Don't forget the cost of diesel, hotel accom, car park charges and that's before considering stand/table/power charges.

33 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

From modelling pre-group P4 I have got to know many of the small "specialist" traders over thirty years. Most gave up with the very large shows years ago. Partly due to costs and expenses but also because their customer base wasn't visiting those shows in any numbers. High cost, low sales.

 

I suppose the question to ask is why do visitors go to exhibitions - is it layouts, trade or both ?

Take out the layouts and you cut out a lot of expense - hall hire, advertising, insurance, etc need to be covered but if you charged traders a lot less would more go to your event.

The Guildford O Gauge Group have a 'Trade Show' next week - 60 stands - 1000 free parking spaces and only £7.50 admission. In fact after looking at their website, it does mention that they will have layouts there which may possibly be a first. Even at Guild events there are often only a few layouts - except at the main September Guildex at Stafford.

.

11 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 . . . no matter how hard one tries to empty or just reduce the contents of them they will simply fill up with stuff from someone else's cupboard or loft. It is a futile exercise.

Agreed. Following the recent passing of a close friend, I now have 12 boxes of assorted railway books which have been given to our local narrow gauge group - at least I know when they will be going out of the loft as we intend selling those not wanted by group members at our annual modelling day / exhibition in January.

6 hours ago, BR60103 said:

There's another connected space -- all the places behind doors that say "No admittance" or "Private". 

When I went to the local hospital A&E about six years ago with chest pains, there was large waiting room and a sign that gave the minimum waiting time of four hours. However I was told to go straight though the door that said 'No Admittance' and was seen immediately. Within five minutes I was on a bed wired up to ECG etc. Kept in overnight to have a 'stress test' the next morning - this was on a treadmill which got both faster and steeper to make me really work hard. When resting there were several technicians and doctors looking at the screen as I was still all wired up. I asked if there was a problem and they said I wasn't recovering as quickly as they expected - hardly surprising as the last exercise I did was at school almost fifty years ago !  Came away with a couple of prescriptions for asprin and statin and told to exercise a bit more - no problems since then. NHS at its best and before all the issues with the pandemic and doctors strikes etc.

.

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Despite being assured that, yes, you WILL continue to receive paper statements from a certain CC provider, I've just had an email to tell me that "....your latest statement may now be viewed etc. etc".

 

I get an email like that every month but the paper copy still arrives a few days later so suggest you wait a while and see what happens..

.

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

My car is packed , I'm ready to go. I'm standing here beside the door....

 

 . . . .but you're not John Denver and you aren't leaving on a jet plane . . . . that's Dave's job

All my bags are packed
I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin'
It's early morn
The taxi's waitin'
He's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome
I could die

.

1 hour ago, rodent279 said:

 I don't like backbiting, pettiness and silly internal politics in any context. . . . .  just being a member of a club or organisation . . . . .  certainly not keen on being part of a toxic environment, such as has been revealed by certain volunteers who have openly revealed the abuse & backstabbing they have been on the receiving end of.

For similar reasons, a few years ago our club chairman, secretary and exhibition manager all resigned from the committee leaving me as treasurer as the one remaining 'senior' officer - although there were times when I felt like joining them . . . . . thankfully everything settled down soon after as one individual had his membership suspended and then an application to re-join was refused.

.

43 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Added to that the fees for the hall have gone up nearly 50%, partly caused by us. Our in club caterer complained about the state of the kitchen for our last show, they now have it professionally cleaned after any hall hirer has used the kitchen.

 

I'll have to do some sums later and see if our intended entrance fee is sufficient to cover the hire costs. Guessing it's going to be a close run thing.

We use a local church hall 3 times each year for swapmeets and every time the ladies in the kitchen say they left it much cleaner than it was when they arrived. That's the problem when so many different user groups have meetings and events there. We did get a 'Thank You' from the hall secretary for taking home tea towels and returning them washed and pressed unlike many who just leave a pile of dirty and wet towels.

At our Community Centre exhibition last month we had 520 visitors over two days at £5 each - but only paid £450 for the hall - perhaps it helps being the Chairman of the Community Centre - and the tearooms were very busy resulting in a decent profit for the centre as their volunteers run the tearooms.

.

3 hours ago, ullypug said:

 

Be interested to see anyone who has experience of doing the 0-14 conversion on the loco. Given I'm usually stretching 4mm up from OO to EM or P4, shrinking down from 16.5 to 14mm will be a new experience!

 

You need some serious experience to undertake this task as Paul Martin at EDM Models has found. Everything you need to know about  O14 can be found on his Blog in the link below. Make sure you look at the later updates further down the page as it seems that the wheels need to be reprofiled as well as gauge altered. If you do go ahead, Paul can also supply the track.

https://ngtrains.com/blog/lionheart-lb-models-o14/

.

11 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

 

Stopping for tea at Betty's in Harlow Carr Gardens. 

What a coincidence - we will be in Harrogate tomorrow and have Afternoon Tea booked at Betty's and went to Harlow Carr on a previous visit to the area..

.

5 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

This is my normal route when coming home from points north with the addition of taking the A414 from Stansted to Chelmsford then the A130 (to avoid the M25 car park).

Thanks Phil - I haven't been that far south-east into Essex although we did get south of the river to Margate last year (and I didn't visit Hornby!). A few years ago, my brother was a frequent flyer from Stanstead to Dublin every week for about a year - and he's been in Southend this weekend to see the Stylistics in concert. Last night he was following Tony's route to get back home to Grantham.

.

Having been to the Warley show a number of times, I would say that in parts the "Creative Craft Show" and the "Cake International Show" at the NEC on Saturday were even busier than Warley but as one might expect the gender balance was the opposite - and instead of being bashed by rucksacks, our ankles were being attacked from all directions by shopping trollies on wheels. Very busy and as someone who doesn't do crafts or cakes (except for eating) it was very interesting. I was there as the chauffeur and the official bag-carrier for Mrs B but after six hours even she had had enough. Came away with a 6" steel rule for a pound and an A5 cutting mat, also one pound. I have no idea how much she spent but the bags were heavy. The level of detail in some of the cake / sugar-paste / icing creations were much better than seen on many layouts. Brief BBC report below but unfortunately this shows some of the more bizarre creations rather than the very intricate flower displays that were incredibly realistic..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-24891683

.

9 hours ago, Tony_S said:

The journey from near Grantham to York was awful. The A1 was closed and we were diverted off through somewhere called Blyth and then through various other places to rejoin the A1, though it may have been the A1M by then. Another diversion to avoid bridgeworks took us away from the A1.

I expect some of that was because of weekend closure as we drove north of Doncaster on Monday where the bridge works were down to a single lane in each direction. If you don't need to go to Grantham then you can avoid almost all of the A1 by coming home on the M1 around Leeds and then coming off south of Leicester on the A14 to Cambridge and then M11 towards home.

I left Grantham in 1978 but until very recently we went to visit family every couple of weeks, until it was time to start arranging funerals . . . . . . . . 

Hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday - did you know there's a museum and model shop in York . . . . . . . . 😀

.

On 03/11/2023 at 23:01, TheQ said:

 

A couple of Questions to MikeB or anyone else who has used the sumup or sumup solo system.

Do you have to use the unit regularly to keep the SIM "live"?

Can you identify using the system, what it was used for, ie on our bank statements? , we'd like to see each purchase marked as either, door, cafe, or S/H ( second hand sale).

 

We 'inherited' our first "Solo" unit from another club who had last used it in January, but after charging it up and re-registering the machine to our account, it worked perfectly in October so that was a gap of 9 months out of use. I have since bought a second machine so that we can use one for second hand sales and the other on the door. We run three swapmeets and one exhibition each year and as it obviously boosted sales it has been a worthwhile investment.

You do have the facility to type in what it has been used for and that will be shown on your summary sent as a PDF by email a couple of days later when the cash goes in the bank - however the amount into the bank will be the total transactions for that day so you need to keep your PDF sheets as evidence of what the card was used for. However even though we have this facility, we haven't actually used it as all transactions at the show last month were on the club sales stand (and the same at the swapmeets). In addition to the daily payout sheet, you also get a monthly summary and an invoice to show the total charges that have already been deducted (1.69%).

One thing I didn't mention is the ability to send a payment link to people. We had a lot of members who wanted to support the club by remaining as members but didn't come to the meetings or take any other active part in our activities. I was able to email them a renewal membership form and a link to the SumUp website where they entered their card number onto a secure site and that was their membership paid for. At no time do we see the card number or customer's name so if sending out these payment links you need to use their initials so that you know who has paid - such as Membership MB.

Hope that helps . . . . . . 

Mike

On 02/11/2023 at 10:23, polybear said:

Bear has never been to Warley - and after hearing many of the horror stories I suspect it's likely to stay that way.....

On 02/11/2023 at 13:52, Happy Hippo said:

The Warley show is fine:  . . . . . Saturday it is a total scrum.

Having been to the Warley show a number of times, I would say that in parts the "Creative Craft Show" and the "Cake International Show" at the NEC yesterday were even busier than Warley but as one might expect the gender balance was the opposite - and instead of being bashed by rucksacks, our ankles were being attacked from all directions by shopping trollies on wheels. Very busy and as someone who doesn't do crafts or cakes (except for eating) it was very interesting. I was there as the chauffeur and the official bag-carrier for Mrs B but after six hours even she had had enough. Came away with a 6" steel rule for a pound and an A5 cutting mat, also one pound. I have no idea how much she spent but the bags were heavy. Brief BBC report below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-67301315

.

As well as being at DEFine, Dave Roome's Underhill Yard is featured in the latest (299) issue of Model Railway Journal.

.