January 2019

Alisdair, Alistair, Andy, Chris, Stephen Harold and long-time-dormant FCAG member Stephen Hawkins met at Graham's house for the first get-together of 2019. This month's Short Talk, by Stephen Harold, concerned his day job as a power controller at the DRS control office in Carlisle: ensuring that serviceable locos are available for scheduled workings and that scheduled maintenance is performed on time. We had an extensive explanation with many questions answered: thanks Stephen.

There was quite a lot of "admin" discussion, now that the group is regularly six people or more it is less convenient than before to met at members' houses so we are investigating what alternatives might be available. If you know of premises we could use on a Saturday afternoon once every two months in either Edinburgh or Glasgow areas, do let Alisdair Campbell know.

Sauchenford got a little more work on the fit of the cassettes in the fiddle yards.

Over the Christmas period, Stephen and Alisdair fitted new connector clips to mate with the aluminium angle of the cassettes:

Some initial disappointment was seen when a test loco derailed consistently due to a hard-to-detect track fault. Eventually we realised there was no track fault: the bogie of the diesel loco was binding on the body and throwing it off the track at a slight curve! That was soon fixed, and we were a little further down the road of improved reliability.

Next month's venue is not finalised and will be communicated by the usual e-mail to 2mm members within Scotland. If you feel like coming along, or want to see what 2mm finescale looks like before joining the Association, just get in touch with Alisdair Campbell via the Data Officer contact mentioned here. Or come to Model Rail Scotland on 22-24 February in Glasgow, where we'll be manning the 2mmSA stand.