20/07/10 ~ 30th Anniversary Gala Weekend

I apologise again that we are seven months into the year before I am making the first update of 2010... But things have been busy for all involved with the club. Much effort has been put into the site to tidy it up.

Mike Lowe and Dave Blaza have been continuing to keep the natural side of the club in check all year round with the gardening equipment whilst Dave Andrews is slowly enhancing the rest of the site with the paintbrush.

The station area is nearing completion; the 25 year old canopy was disassembled in January to make way for the new steel roof trusses manufactured by Jon Poulter at work whilst burning much of the midnight oil. Fred Cooper and team fitted the steel corrugated roof in express time of just one day and the finishing touches reside with Dave Andrews who is making vandal-proof dragon's teeth, half of which have been fitted to date. The railings behind the station are complete and painted black.

The steaming bays have gone back to black, a colour which they have not seen for at least a decade, with newly painted buffer stops to suit! The station footbridge has been repainted in its original colours by John Hutson and has smartened up a sorry looking structure. The unloading line to the steaming bay was reprofiled this year to help the longer wheel base locos get on the turntable by reducing the angle of descent of it.

The usual club trips have taken place by some members, to Bournemouth for their open day and IMLEC this year. A visit was made by a few to Cardiff MES, a real eye opener.

The 30 years of steaming at the club was marked this year by a Gala weekend with two play days open to other clubs and societies whilst also giving rides to the public. The weather was kind to us this year with warm sunshine both days. There was a good turn out of locos, four from Reading MES alone. There were two firsts for Basingstoke MES with Malcolm Duckett's "Nigel Gresley" and Steve Newell's B1 taking paying passengers for the first time since their completions. To end the day off Tom Burgess surpassed himself with a barbeque (as usual) with an excellent spread for all and a play in the evening. Some visitors enjoyed themselves so much they kept threatening to come off the track to go home but couldn’t resist putting a few more lumps in the firebox, right Mr Mattingly?!!

Photo: Malcolm Duckett

Thanks to everyone who came and contributed in some way, whether they bought food, a loco or just themselves! Special thanks go to Pat Lowe and Eric Widowson for their sterling work in the kitchen all day keeping us fuelled and watered! It was an enjoyable weekend had by all - so here's to the next 30 years!

14/11/09 ~ Pete Simmonds

It is with great sadness that we report the loss of Pete Simmonds, who passed away yesterday on 13th November. Pete was a founder member of the society and was an active member; his liking of gardening and painting has helped to keep the track site in tip-top condition for the last 30 years. He also attended every passenger hauling event with his then loco, Jersey Lil, come wind, rain or shine. He was also a great teacher, getting many of the younger members of the club interested and letting them drive his locos.

He was a real gentleman and a brilliant character; his pipe and tobacco trail will be surely missed.

01/11/09 ~ A Year in Pictures!

Firstly, I must begin by apologising for the substantial lack of updates, from which I have had two comments passed to me about the lack of updates on this site. I suppose like a lot of others in the hobby I'm becoming good at finding excuses and other ways to spend my time! What little time remains always seem to be spent in the workshop!

With all that said, John Taviner does an excellent job on the Society newsletter which provides much of the information and the 'what's happening' down the club, which is also available on this site as soon as it is published. 'Nuff said on that.

	So what sort of year have we had at BDMES? Well, 2009 has been a very active, enjoyable and successful one. We have had several new locos finished or on the track, some of which include; Terry Hobbs' 3.5" gauge 'William' and 5" gauge B1, John Hutson's 5" gauge O2T 'Sandown', Neil Davis' 5"T 'Gert', Ian Roberts' 5" GWR Star class 'Queen Victoria' (shown on the left), Bob Lovett's 5" L1 George Shields 3.5" 9F and the infamous ModelWorks 5" 9F 'Evening Star' from Mike Lowe. Well done to all these people and hopefully there will be many happy years of steaming to come!
	At the beginning of this year there was some maintenance carried out on the station platform, where differential settlement of the station floor slabs was creating a trip hazard to both passengers and members alike, so these were removed and a more substantial concrete base was added and the new floor slabs laid on top of this. Meanwhile Tom Burgess was on the plumbing and put in all new above-ground compressed air pipe network as it was leaking so badly the compressor was running flat out to maintain pressure in the system. He also replaced the leaking water stop cock with a new one plumbed into the where it is better protected against our vandal friends.
	The station slabs was finished within three months with Dave Blaza laying these; the improvement was received well by our passengers in April Public Running.
	Whilst this was being carried out, the opportunity was taken to overhaul the entire signal wiring in the ground, running new wires in proper conduit with access points around the track.
	John Hutson also lead a crew who overhaul the four main passenger trucks. Dave Andrews was responsible for repairing the aged water columns that were leaking and made a new drain underneath one which was a danger hazard last Christmas Public Running when the wasted water froze on the flat concrete during the day! He also painted the turntable again. Work on going this year will be the enlargement of the station canopy over the extended station floor area, with new lattice work in the roof being bought by Terry Hobbs. New railings will also be required along the new station area, and these have been bought by John Hutson and Dave Andrews in the hoop-top railway style panels, which will need installing over the winter months.
	There have also been many trips this year to clubs, societies and events. There have been many 'unofficial' club trips to the Severn Valley, Bluebell Railway, Guildford Show, Midlands Exhibition, Eastleigh 100 years open weekend...

IMLEC 2009 Bristol...

...and club trips to Bournemouth, Oxford and Southampton. We also had an excellent number of members from other clubs visit us on our Open Day in May this year, despite the slightly wet weather we had!

This year there was no less than two club mainline excursions; one to Weymouth behind Unrebuilt Battle of Britain class Bullied pacific 'Tangmere' on the Sunny South Special on Thursday 9th July...

...and GWR King class 'King Edward I' on the Torbay Express to Paignton & Kingswear on Sunday 30th August.

...and not forgetting James Taviner and Steve Newell who took at holiday to Poland in September to go and drive their standard and narrow gauge steam locos on the mainline! These are the trips that I know about but I'm sure there were plenty more which other members went on. If I have missed some out let me know!

Dave Mattingly suggested we have a mass steam up event, named the 'Festival of Steam' where members dig out some of their old locos which many members of the club might not have seen before and generally have a good 'play day'! All those who attended pulled out the stops and it was a super day. The weather was fine and Tom Burgess put on his usual excellent cuisine with his BBQ skills! Unfortunately, the idea of seeing old locos back in steam never took off the ground, perhaps because unsticking clacks etc. is a time consuming job, but also the nightmare of locos with no new boiler certificates can put people off, so it was the usual 'running' engines that appeared, but there was a large variety which aren't normally all up the club at the same time with a 9F and small 3.5" locos running side by side for example! It was worth the effort by all accounts, just to get people motivated and talking and have a fun day, so well done Dave! You've got the job for next year!

Public running has also been successful with continuous streams of happy passengers and so far, kind weather for this year. we had a very successful Halloween event on the 31st October with some late night running in the dark with hauling passengers with other members having a 'bit of a play'! John Poulter did an excellent job of taking the reins on this event, bringing up lots of scary Halloween paraphernalia, a smoke machine with candles in the tunnel and all around the track (and cutting up pumpkins!). All the members who were there pulled out all the stops and it was really good fun for all who attended with the passengers enjoying it too! Well done to John and all who attended, especially the kitchen staff, Pat and Barbara who put on the warm food for all us hungry boys!

To summarise this year for the club, it has been successful for all the events which were organised and executed superbly. We have carried out some of the much needed TLC on the site and there has been a good sense of club spirit. There have been many good unofficial club outings too and some really nice locomotives completed this year from our members. So, all in all, a very good year!

07/12/08~ Santa Special Event

The Christmas spirit visited the Society today when Father Christmas arrived with bags of Presents for all the budding children waiting to see him and have their ride on the trains. The traction for the day was in the form of two diesels and two steam engines, which dealt with the large numbers of customers well. Below shows a selection of photographs from the day.

	When people first arrived on site at approximately nine o'clock everything was frost covered, with the steel rails white and furry from all the frozen ice! It soon became apparent that the ice on the rails was not the biggest problem but the frozen pad locks which needed to be melted open with hot water! Once the site was eventually unlocked, the Society's class 66 was put on the track to tackle the icy tracks. Unfortunately the loco struggled to get a grip, with the wheels slipping up the hill requiring the first few trains to be taken round single carriage only. Malcolm Duckett was the first driver of the day, followed by Bob Lovett.
	Another problem experienced by the cold temperatures was the water towers which had also frozen solid; they too required melting open! The tower crane by the footbridge didn't start to work until lunch time however! Other problems were the icy platforms where any spilt water turned to ice during the day and the underpass where the icy grass had been trodden down to a continuous layer of ice. Terry Hobbs was on ice patrol warning unsuspecting passengers! Andrew Hobbs is seen here driving the Prairie tank, which had no problems with the ice and heavy loads - in true Great Western style it barked away every time!
	The sun had melted most of the frost by the end of the day. Tom Burgess is seen here driving the Society's 'Freightliner' diesel. He also had a spell beforehand had on his class 37 which he brought along.
	Mike Lowe is seen here sporting his Santa hat in the same spot with LNER 'Jersey Lilly'. One advantage of the cold weather is the good photographic opportunities produced by the steam. Unfortunately it doesn't work in your favour when your driving - it does a great job of hiding the signals!
	A final shot of Mike blowing down jersey - creating quite a steam-screen! Overall the day was a huge success with children (and parents) leaving with smiles on their faces. Members who attended enjoyed themselves, getting the biggest leftover mince pies i've ever eaten at the end of the day! A huge thanks should go to Graham Blissett and family for organisation and execution, the Taviner family, Pat Lowe, who's tea kept us from freezing and everyone who turned up to make the day a success.

B&DMES Officers Details

*From 1st March 2010 - February 28th 2011

Project Leaders

In order to avoid duplication and conflicting work by members, the following members have been given the following projects to look after. Please offer your services to a project leader if you wish to help the club by providing your services - no pay but tea and biscuits! The list seems to change regularly at present. If there are any jobs which want doing see a committee member.

If you would like to volunteer for any of the vacant leaders/offer assistance please make yourself known to a committee member.

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