Trainman,
Thank you for your good wishes, I shall pass them on to our members.
If any one else wants to find a kit for a clubroom, this is how we did it.
Lacking any suitable accommodation, we got in touch with our local Parish Councillors and convinced them that Clay Cross needed a model railway club as it could not really afford to lose any more social assets. They gave us names of County Councillors to contact who are responsible for Education in the County, and we asked them if they had any spare classrooms in reasonable condition that they were getting rid of. Do go through the Councillors, they set policy. They have to pay somebody to scrap their old classrooms, so they come at very reasonable prices direct from the schools, but you have to refurbish them.
The first one we were offered was snapped up by someone else on the School's Board of Governors as soon as we showed interest and we think that it is now a holiday cottage on a farm in the Peak District. At least the school got a better price for it as a result of our interest.
The next building we looked at seemed alright and the rest is on the web site. Do ask for help with fund raising from the Local Council for Voluntary Service. We have spent the last 12 months putting this kit together. We had to rewire it, fit a new skirt, paint it inside and fit security grilles to all the windows. By the way portable buildings should not need solid strip foundations if they are on hard standing. Ours is on concrete pads and adjustable jacks on an old tennis court.
Gwent Rail,
We had the drawings of the ramp prepared by our Chairman, who normally draws out the track diagrams and pointwork. I am told that this ramp is actually an exact 1/4 scale model of the ramp at the end of platform 1 of the Lancashire Derbyshire and East Coast Railwy terminus at Chesterfield Market Place. Certainly many of the bricks we are re-using for authenticity are from that period and I believe that some were made by the brickworks at George Stevenson's Clay Cross Ironworks. I think that they were rejects in 1840!
You would not believe how many different types of brick we have found on the site, no two are alike. We need about 6 cubic metres of bricks to infill between the ramp walls. If we run out, we can't send down to the works for another waggon full because it has closed down. However a few yards from our building, and visible in one of the photos on our web site we have a brick vent stack from George Stevenson's Chesterfield Tunnel on the Midland Mainline. Do you think that Network Rail would miss a few bricks? After all they are not using steam any more and they should not need as many vents.
Colombo
