Doncaster & District Model Engineering Society Ltd

Sunday 1st June 2008 Rain and more rain!
Hopefully June 2008 is not going repeat the flooding of 2007. The signs are not good. However the young ducklings in the park did not seem too bothered as the puddles began to form next to the railway tracks. However a train service managed to commence once the rain had stopped. The first passenger of the day and crew brave the cold weather. 

On the left Ron patiently works on "Remus" whilst the rain pours down outside the shed. Again it is the mechanical water pump that is receiving attention.
In the middle Matthew is pleased to recover his colourful shirt that has for the last few months been used for polishing "Remus". On a fashion footnote I understand that a floral design is now the trend for the male. Pity I threw away some of my shirts from the 70's that's is if they would have fitted! No chance. 
"By the left quick march, left, right, left, right….." Our member Thomas and the young lady gave us members a brief drill demonstration of what they are practicing for the Army Cadets that they are involved with. 

Wednesday 4th June 2008. A 7.45 am start for our members in readiness for the concreting of the platform areas at the Thorne Central Station. Click here to look back to 2007 when the work was first started.

Sunday 8th June 2008. The first day of the newly concreted Platform 1&2. The next phase will be to curve the tarmac edging on Platform 1 as shown by the arrow on the photograph on the right.

Not only did the sun shine brilliantly for our operating day it was also a celebration for two members myself (Bob) and our member David. I have always tried to travel on some form of electric traction on my birthday on the 7th June. In the past I have ridden on the trolleybuses in Toronto,  Budapest etc, but as financial resources would only permit a journey to Sheffield for free using my Senior Citizens bus pass, the Supertram system was ideal for the 2008 birthday. The day after David and myself celebrated with a joint cake of Thomas the Tank Engine. We decided not put any candles on the cake as the grand total would have been 99! That would have not helped Global Warming.

Sunday 15th June 2008. The operating day was held in warm sunshine using the electric locomotive John Stokes and a visiting locomotive brought by our member Jack Salter. Unfortunately no photographs have been forwarded to me of this event.
Sunday 22nd June 2008 The sun shone again for this operating day, but gale force winds of up to 50 - 60 mph swept across the park and the railway between 11 am - 4 pm. Operating the trains proved to be interesting as hats were blown off and some of the smaller tree branches and leafs were blown across the tracks. It was more like Autumn. By 3 pm we had to cease the tea and sweet stall as the gales reached a peak at 3 pm.  However as the trains were more firmly held to the tracks enabling the train service to continue until 4 pm at which a decision was made to cease the train service due to lack of passengers put off from venturing out to the park in the gale force winds.     

Above Left: Our member Matthew Bunting getting the steam locomotive ready for the first steam train service on Sunday 22 June as the gale force winds start to sweep across the park.
Above right: Sunday 15th June at the Black Country Museum perhaps explains why there were no photographs of the railway on that day as I and two other members were visiting the museum sampling trolleybus rides for their "Trolley Galore" event and their fish and chips done in dripping. The fish and chip shop opens at 12 noon but I would advise you join the queue at least half an hour before hand. A new and much larger fish and chip shop is to be reconstructed for 2009/10. The trolleybus above originated from Belfast and was on loan for the weekend by the East Anglia Transport Museum near Lowestoft where it usually resides.   

Above Left: The queue for the fish and chip shop at 11.45 am.
Above Middle: The proposed replacement shop for 2008 that is to be dismantled and brought from Birmingham and re-erected at the museum.
Above Right: Artist impression of the new street scene including the fish and chip shop.

Sunday 29th June 2008.  The covers go on at 3.00 pm after a very pleasant couple of hours of train operation in the warm sunshine. The summer so far is not the best and the pattern of dry sunny weather during the week and rain at the weekends especially Sundays seems to be a regular pattern for June. 
However the weather did not deter Ron in the shed as he attended to a pipe on the steam locomotive Remus. This locomotive seems to be demanding a lot of attention this year, perhaps its age is a factor having been built in 1985.



Click here to see Ron at work on the slightly larger new locomotive "Tornado" the new A1 Peppercorn engine presently under construction at Darlington.

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