Club Reports

Hello everone,,,April was a quieter month in the shop and with no shows to attend,, I almost fell asleep!!!

Total turnover for the shop was a modest £354.33 including a £100 loco deposit taken for Nigel. After fees and shipping/packing costs £283.95 was sent to the bank.

The Live drive kits (30) arrived latre in the month from David and Tammy and so I have my work cut out to prepare them for sale. I will be bringing back 20 kits as a Deluxe variant as these were a firm favourite on the last batch.

The remainder will be standard DIY kits. Prices will remain the same as before.

I am expecting some tool kits and extention leads in due course from Andrew if he can fit production into his already busy schedule.

This weekend we are at a new venue at Ruddington with a fully stocked shop so lets…

Well that month whizzed by didnt it!!!!

We had 2 nice shows and a fair support at both. ABrail was nice as usual and a late call to london saw us all wobbling off to the smoke to battle with the bots!!

Total turnover for the month was £884-73.with Abingdon and Ally pally contributing £383.45 to the above total. After fees, postage and discounts taken into account, £782.14 was sent to the bank.

David frith has sent some airline adaptors through and David Palmer is on the case to source the next bunch of livedrive kits.

The next gig will be the Severn Vally weekend in early May followed by Nottingham. So if we dont cross psths till then, have a good spring!!

Well folks,, we are heading forwards to the better weather, longer days and a few more shows to attend.

Talking of shows, as usual, our journey to Doncaster in Yorkshire did not disappoint, with a good enthusiastic attendance and good supporting staff on the roadshow, the poor weather seemed to bring out even more hungry modellers with deep pockets and arms to match!! One couple decided to purchase not one, but 4 Live steam loco sets and paid up 2545-00 in full earning themselves a free Salt Wagon for their patronage!!

A new item added to the shop inventory for 2026 was ‘Stock Ballast Weights’ which was as a result of adding ballast to our rather ‘jumpy’ Salt wagons. I obtained a box of said weights and as there was an excess, I prepared some for general sale. It must be something folk are wanting as we cleared the lot…

And,,,,, there off!!

Yes the year started strongly with a flurry of eager punters chewing at my shop inventory.

After a particularly nasty bout of Flu that swept through my family, I was soon on the case, logging sales on a day by day basis.

The stash of motor magnets is now depleted so a plan is in place to share what we have between us who hold stock and an order will go in for the next consignment.

Total turnover for the month was £785-80 with a balance of £650.35 going to the bank after the deduction of postage costs and fees.

More gauges have been ordered and will be here in a few days. Also the next batch of Livedrive units have been ordered from David Palmer and will follow in due course.

Welll,, thats that then!! A quiet end to a busy year in the shop with just 3 punters making an effort in December.

We scraped in just £349.90 and sent £321.74 to the bank after the usual minuses.

We have just 3 Salt wagons left, but i expect those to shift by Donny at the latest.

I will be taming down the club Salt wagons for Donny also so they are a little less gregarious behind our lovely A3/A4 motive power.

I am at the thick end of sorting all the Hornby tat finally with just some spreadsheet work to do and final valuations etc. Yippee,, i can finally get on with some kind of layout to run all my stock on at last!!!

Thanks for all your help over the year to keep the parts flowing and the coffee!! (More on that at the AGM!)

The hobby is dying!!! Don’t you believe it!!

November has met with increased enthusiasm and our trusty customers have been back for more!!

We had a delivery of rotary valves from David Frith and a delivery of cast brass pony’s and steps from our supplier in Dorset.

Our salt vans have been as popular as ever and we are down to just 3 shiny examples in the ‘showroom’ now.

Jack really delivered with the Loco headboards and these have started to migrate to their new positions on Smoke box doors. One has even found its way to Germany.

Our gig at the NEC was well supported and contributed £491.21 to the monthly pot.

Ok, so another month another dollar or two!!

We rolled into October with wagon and parts sales still bubbling over nicely.

We had a small delivery of the new A3 Timing Adjusters (15) of which 6 were snapped up quickly. We also have cast brass parts on back order, takes a while usually.

David P has kindly made up 31 loco to Tender cables so we are well stocked on these now.

Gaydon show was active with live drive kits and wagons floating off into the Live Steam Ether!! Magnets have been a good seller so more have been asked for to keep us buoyant, or should that be Attractive!!

Total turn over for the month was £1061.11 with £921.28 going to the bank after deductions of fees, committee discounts and postage.

Ohhh that month flew past a bit quickly,,,! We must have been busy!!!

Indeed it was and after a steady start and a few wagon/part sales we had our Statfold Weekend where it was nice to ‘get back on the horse’ so to speak. My recovery has gone well so far, and i was able to enjoy our company and keep the parts flowing for Chris's instant fixit shop!!

The rake of club salt wagons proved hard for chris not to photograph going around the layout, and so,,,,,

,,,,,On 20th of the month or thereabouts a mailshot went out regarding our new Salt Wagons to the membership and that was like lighting a fuse!!

The resultant enthusiastic ‘Salt Rush ‘ ensued and I was run off my feet with wagon orders!! 13 went out in one day.!!! There were some triple orders, double orders and a pair went off t…

Ohhhh back so soon!!!!

Twiddling my thumbs and low activity means August gets a prompt report.

A couple of orders and ‘mass’ wagon movement means we have some figures.

Turnover was 619.14 for the month with shipping, fees and discounts leaving 523.47 to go to the bank.

We sold 21 wagons so off to a good start there. Once the mailshot goes out to the populace, I expect them to move much quicker.

Well,,,, its been a while with lots happening. We started July with the Bluebell bash which i was glad to attend although my surgury had beckoned. It was a nice outing for the club with much improved accommodation this time at the Uckfield PI.

The shop this time of year is usually slow due to holidays and spending patterns changing, but we managed a healthy turn over of 723.77 with 618.12 going to the bank after postage, fees and discounts applied.

The club wagons were hot off the press and ready to fly the nest but not till the summer meet in August.

Alas I couldn’t make the Yorkshire bash as my surgury reared its head again on 1st August hence this late report.

Nick

After a raging inferno greeting us for July we look back at June. Nothing major to reflect on but the shop did nicely on the whole.

Turn over was a cool 1062.35 and after postage and fees 915.37 was deposited in the bank.

Ive been keeping a keen eye on postage costs as they are creeping up slowly and whilst we only spent 83.22 on actual postage, the 116.95 charged in total to customers and included in the total above covers the envelopes, packaging / boxes etc so we have it just right,,,,for now!!

What i can give you is the total turn over for the last 6 months from year start which is 7183.23 which is a massive increase on this time last year. Keep this up and we will average 14k T/O for the year.

We’ve just had a nice time at the Bluebell Railway and while no…

Hey guys, im sure somone has turned the time clock up a notch or two as the months seem to tear past and my memory cant keep up!!! Or maybe its just called getting old ha ha!!

May was a good month as May’s go for the club shop, we started with our trip to the Severn Vally Railway gig which was lovely to be back in familiar surroundings with old friends and colleagues, catching up on all things steamy!!! Ohh steady on there Nick!!! We took around the 500 quid mark over the weekend.

Total turnover for the month was a decent 1071.32 inc a Loco service charge of 173.50, after fees and postage, a handsome 977.41 was deposited at the bank.

We are running a bit flat on some items which are being looked at by the necessary producers.

One interesting Order came from a chap in Germany…

Where is this year going!!!! Just a while ago it was dark and cold and wet and now we have the opposite.!! I am struggling with the enforced heat, but not to worry it wont last and the rust will be back soon!!

Another good month for the club shop and a late flurry of activity brought us to 4 figures,,,,just!!!

Total turnover for April was 1037.40 with 957.32 being the net amount to the bank after fees and postage.

We had a bunch of Tender connection leads and track connection leads made for us by Andrew ans very good they are too.

We have 100 salt wagons on order so look forward to those comming into stock in due course.

New clothing is being considered as well so we should all look Bang Tidy in a few months time!!

Another busy month,,, thats two in a row,, Careful!!!!

We started the month with a nice show at ABRail in Oxford which brought out more new adopters of live steam and this helped the figures for March. The newly packaged tool sets have been well received with 5 sets going out over the month. More Magnets have arrived to serve the membership as needed. The new coffee arraingements have worked well so far and are yet to inprove a little more. Sorry I didnt make london this time but am planning to be at the SVR in May… life goes on eh! and health fits around it!!!!

Total turnover for the month was £1343.81 with a net figure of £1268.37 going to the bank after fees and disbursments. This was just spares sales and postage so not a bad result at all.

I’m working my way through the mountain of…

So now ive had time to recover from the early March madness known as ABRail 25 where we enjoyed a super weekend at the Abingdon and Witney College, I have had time to crunch all the numbers for February and what a super month that was!!

After a mild start, the going got rather firm at the Donny Racecourse and as per the norm, the well shod Horses (er Punters) started from a gentle canter into a brisk trot before making a proper dash for the post.

Total turnover for the shop was 1284-91. Added to this was payment for a loco sale at Donny of 495-00 and a Loco service charge of 171-00 so a gross of 1950-91. After fees, discounts and postage were deducted, 1775-00 was sent to the bank.

Nigel shifted 3 more locos at Donny, including a Papyrus for 1075-00 so the Loco Shed windows are…

So were all set for the first show of the year, shop all packed and ready, water bottles all filled, coffee machine serviced,,,what else could there be to do,,,hmmmmm,,, ahhh yess how about the January shop report!!!

Iv’e been so busy collating all the shop stock and rushing about preparing for my inpending hospital sojurn,, iv’e overlooked the report,,!! (Again!)

Well i can report a healthy return for January,, folk with short arms have found the bottom of thier deep pockets!!

Total turnover for the month was £717.75 with £648.80 arriving at the bank account after postage and fees deducted.

One of our faithfull members from Germny,, Gunther, who always graces us with his generous pile of Euros, indulged himself in a bonanza of spares to keep his obvious live steam collection in fine fettle.

Part of the above figure does include a balance payment for a special edition for…

Ok, so December came and went like a flash, so much so ive gotten behind with everything.

Not much to report out of the ordinary but most of the sales were for servicing parts so we can be assured that there is a healthy air of loco maintenance occurring. So interest is still there for OO live steam on the whole and this has been helped for us by our out of house engineer David Frith emerging back to his workshop to produce more of the little gems we have become accustomed to seeing over the last few years.

Turn over for December was 482.60 with 404.53 going to the bank after fees and postage.

It will soon be time for our AGM where we can see how we have done over the last year, I'm not quite there yet with the Hornby stock and spreadsheets etc so a bit…

Where is the time going!!!! This one slipped through the diary pages.!!

Well, things picked up nicely for November with a lot of support from abroad. Customers from Texas, Australia, Seattle, Germany to name a few! Plus an awakening of some of our local steam delinquents so were good to go!

Our turn over for the month was 1152.65 with 988-39 sent to the bank after fees, committee discounts and postage applied.

We have the good news that our Engineer David Frith along with son is able to help us out with some rare and much needed parts although at a reduced rate of production due to circumstances. We did get a small quantity of parts through but only what was in stock with David ans so we wil patiently await new bits and bobs.

We are approaching year end and annual report time so a mass count up will…

Well peeps ,, the times rolls on and we are now into the darker mornings and even darker evenings and im still awaiting the rush to the shop door of all those hungry little live steamers who need stuff to run thier trains. Im sure there out there,,,,somwhere,,,, ill just have to wait patiently i guess.. !! At least my mug shot made it into the financial press for some reason,,,,,uncle Maurice would have been proud im sure!!

So, eyes down!!,,,, the shop just about, ticked over nicely for October with a modest turnover of £397.59. After postage and fees, £342.27 was deposited at the bank. Not a huge amount but it will cover the cost of any out goings we may have,,

,,,and talking of which, a little bird tells me we have some ‘engineering’ on the way to me for the shop so watch this space.

We have…

Hi all, Not much to report on this month,,,, we had a nice show at Statfold and i was away the last week of the month.

However, we managed to squeeze £224.85 from the populace with £176.69 being sent to the bank after postage and fees.

I am in the process of re-installing the contents of the club shop back into the newly decorated model room/shipping facility now that the work on my house has passed the 3/4 mark. It’s nice to not have to keep running to the summer house for parts and requests. I will endeavour to finish of the hornby part haul sorting and listings so we all know whats available. As we have lost our CNC part source at least for the time being, we have to prioritise what we have for repairs and possible patterning for new suppliers as needed.

Hopefully standard parts sales will…

Well arnt we having a great summer in the club,,,!!! Trips all over the place, great company and great food and drink, what more could we want!!!

Our summer meet was yet another success both in running trains, eating and drinking but shop sales were especially good. Burnham-on-Sea was also a nice weekend with new friends made.

The total turnover for the month was £756.82 with £652.02 going to the bank after postage and fees allowed for.

Our biggest mover at the moment is the Tender direct connection Lead, which puts pressure on the supply chain as we have lost (for the time being) our CNC engineering partnership with David Frith. (Definitely one of those “you never what you’ve got till it’s gone “ moment's.)

Currently, we have only 1 of our Deluxe tool sets in stock and no Timing Adjustment Rings, two items that are in hot demand most…

Well, as is usually the case the shop starts to thrive once again after a late spring lull in sales,,We had a lovely time at the Chatham show which made everybody feel good and back on track so to speak.

Locos were fettled, and brought back to running order, Food and drink was enjoyed, Whistles were blown and steam raised for the pleasure of all. ,,,,Steady!!!

Our Total shop turn over for the month was £355.90 inc postage and a few second hand Hornby spares. At the Chatham show we collected payment on a couple of outstanding Service invoices on members locos totalling £361.50. After postage and fees, a total of £660.65 was sent to the bank, so respectable returns considering its holiday season and folks money finds new targets to hit.

We have our summer meet next weekend which will give good opportunity to move a bit more stock,…

Another very quiet month in the shop. Holidays must be popular at the moment.

We had a nice visit to Exeter for the Exeter model rail show and managed to shift all the pre-loved coaching and other rolling stock bought in by Nigel from loco purchases. This little lot raised £102.

Total turnover for the month was 245.80 with 232.52 sent to the bank after postage etc.

Next stop for us is Chatham where we may pick up some more business hopefully.

Nick

A very quiet month indeed!!!! Perhaps holidays are provoking more important to folk now we have got away from the covid period of opur lives…!

Total turnover for the month was £214.45 with £163.33 going top the bank after fees and postage.

With our shows coming back to the fore very soon, I expect an uplift in interest and sales.

We had a delivery of 10 Tender Direct Cables from Eric.

The sifting of the hornby stock continues with encouraging amounts of treasure being found and logged.

A new spreadsheet will soon list all our booty so you hungry loco builders out there can snap up a few bits and bobs to satisfy those designs.

Well,,, not a lot happened in April to write home about and i thought at one point we had been forgotten as only 3 sales came in by the middle of the month,, then as is always the case things warmed up a little. The last week of the month came and went with a flurry of sales so we are all good once again. Seems the shop works a bit like the weather,,,, just a light breeze or a total washout!!!!

Turnover for the month totalled £679.60. After fees and postage, £585.31 was sent to the bank.

We have a few bits on order with David Frith and another 5 Wowstick sets have been ordered and paid for so these will be here for next week.

The sorting of the Hornby Spares is ongoing and some parts have already found their way into restoring some sales locos and fulfilling…

March came and went almost quietly… oh yes we had a show in London at Ally Pally which was a success in terms of sales and servicing alike. Highlight for us was seeing Jack Lithgo all grown up and still enthused with his LS Mallard. He helped us out for the two days along with Mark Impy who gave us splendid service on the outside loop. We made £436 at this show in shop sales.

Total turnover for the month was £840.76 with £779.72 sent to the bank after fees and postage.

April has been slow thus far but we are well stocked with spares and loco sales have been going well.

Reports in the usual places.

Nick

February has been its usual exciting self with brisk movement of stock and locomotives and the Doncaster show didnt dissapoint.

Shop Turnover for the month amounted to £748.30 with £349.00 of this coming from the Donny show alone. The Donny show also produced interest in the Special Locos that we are offering and orders were placed for 2 there, Deposits were placed using the shop card facilities, a total of £1090.00. We also took a card payment for Loco Servicing amounting to £148.75.

After fees and postage, a total of £1830.24 was transfered to the bank account.

We curently have Steam Valves and Timing Adjusters on order with David Frith and these should filter through soon.

Next show is London so we are gearing up for that to make sure all our friends are well supported.

Nick

Well,,, here we are solidly set in 2024 and as usual, we are doing splenidly as a club in obtaining and providing Services and parts to our membership.

We have replenished stocks of some much missed items, and they have already found new homes in a number of cases. We now have posh new rechargeable Wowstick screwdriver sets, pressure gauges and enough Live drive kits to keep us going for a good while.

Total turnover for January was £1124.60 with 1014.95 being deposited in the bank after fees and postage accounted for.

We are low on a couple of maintenance items that will need to be sanctioned and ordered from the suppliers in due course but not a huge problem.

During the next month I hope to deep dive all the spares we have got from hornby to give a clearer picture of what we have and what we can…

A slow month for the shop which is just as well as we come to the close of the year and the end of accounting for the current year.

Our total turnover for December was £267.25 and after fees and postage £210.87 went to the bank.

My short spell in hospital coincided well with a slow shop so it was easy to catch up once I was home.

I have endeavoured to increase the stock levels of some long missed items so in due course we will have some Wowsticks, and pressure gauges back in stock. As i have a little more time on my hands, i have made up some airline kits and boosted the stock of other spares that we had in stock but were not available to purchase. We now have 40 new standard Live drive kits in stock so a lot of members will be happy!…

An excellent month for the club and shop with brisk trading and a swift flourish at the end with the Warley show bringing in the last few bags of live steam gold!!!

We grossed £1514.30 for the month including a Silverlink loco and controllers sale at Warley by Nigel of £570 in total!! After postage and fees we deposited £1471.10 to the bank.

We also had a brilliant presentation at Warley to both Richard Hallam and Hornby for Efforts all round in bringing the OO Live Steam phenomenon to us all 20 years ago. Plaques and hand shakes all round and we got to see Richard all pimped out in a dapper shirt, tie and jacket for the occasion. Splendid memory for us all!!!

I gave the DCP Micro cage a rattle to see what the state of play is with the long awaited Live drive order and i got…

Well,,, October was certainly a lively month with 2 shows to attend, GETS in MK and GBMRS at Gaydon and a profitable visit to Hornby in Kent to collect a super collection of spare parts that should see many of us out!!!

It's going to take me most of my Xmas holiday to make meaningful sence of what we have and how to present the stock to those that need it. Lots of counting ahead!!

Still awaiting the Livedrive delivery from DCP Micro but i guess its a waiting game on that one.

Our turnover for October was £1096.52 with £1071.18 going to the bank after postage and fees deducted. The SNG painting i held from Maurice's collection sold for £40 to an eager fan and this is included in the above figures.

Reports are in the usual place for your perusal.

Nick

So thats it!!! Summer was washed away well and truly with my hols to the south coast, I experienced 2 hurricanes and at least 4 storms in 2 weeks, shaking my caravan from side to side and with horizontal rain, it was like enduring a rough fairground ride, or a quick reverse on the Flying Scotsman!!!!!

So although sales were predictedly sparse we did well with a turnover of £423.30. After postage and fees £407.32 was transferred to the bank.

I received 27 bespoke hand made loco to tender cables from Dave Price which are super..these little gems have been sought after for a while now and no longer available from our hornby parts supplier. Well done to Dave for undertaking this laborious task. These will bring us a tidy profit so make sure you buy Dave a Lemonade at GETS!!

Our parts deal with Hornby has almost been clinched…

Ok folks,, August was an interesting month with a good turnover mainly down to one individual who purchased no less than 48 different items over several orders. I had to tell him to stop hoarding parts and had to refuse a duplicate order for loco wheels!!

Sheesh,,,, Wanda they think we are? Wholesalers!!!!

I also sent a brand new controller set from Maurice's collection to Austrailia at great cost.

An order for another 30 A4 CNC front rotary valve cover as these are very popular and sell well.

Total turnover for august was £1376.30 with £1150.70 sent to the bank after postage and fees were deducted.

Currently im looking at designs for the proposed Mugs for the 20th Anniversary, and hope to have these delivered in time for GETS. More details to follow.

So the Bluebell Railway bash got us off to a good start for July, Although the sales were slow there the rest of the month made up for it.

An order placed with ACModelSpares for the sum of £3911.36 materialised and we now have plenty of Hornby parts in stock for the foreseeable. Dave Price is looking to make up Loco to Tender power cables as these are now extinct as far as Hornby parts are concerned.

We have managed to sweep the remnants of Maurice's bargain basement items away now and I have 85-00 to add to the paypal account.

Total turnover for July was 628.10 with a net of 474.00 going to the bank after postage, Zettle fees and paypal are taken into account.

Roll on the end of August!!

Nick

Well this one slipped right through the net!!

What with the Bluebell bash , Weddings, Work and other family events, as Jethro would say,,,I think what happend was,,,,!!!!!! Err never mind.

Total turnover for the month was a modest 478.40 with 384.22 going to the bank after fees and postage etc.

The layout maintenance was finished off by the end of the month to be collected by Chris for a fresh start at the Bluebell event.

July was a lot more exciting!!!

Well folks, the warmer weather is on the way and May has proved a busy month for our live steamers.

Three bank holidays and a Coronation have not dented the appetite for live steam spares around the world.

Out turnover for May was £1067.40 with £839.00 going to the bank after postage and paypal fees etc are accounted for.

I have almost concluded the overhaul maintenance on the layout and will now start to sort out the shop stock situation in the run up tyo the Bluebell bash and the Summer meet in July.

I will now prepare an order to ACModelSpares for Hornby spares that are running low or depleted from stock.

Adrian,, could you possibly supply me with some DVDs??? I have had none in stock for some time now.

Hi all,

Back to a steady income for April as folk start to spend there savings on holidays etc.

Turnover for the shop this month was £893.60 and a single purchase from Maurices chattels of £8.25 gives us a total of 901.85.

After postage and fees £741 was sent to the bank.

We had a delivery of new Tool sets from David and i have ordered new boxes to clothe them in, still amazingly good sellers even though a price rise to £47 due to production costs. 4 sets sold already!!

We have Cylinder Clamps, Live Drives and Pony trucks on Oder for a future delivery.

Hello everyone, its me again with this months driv,,,,,, er shop report!!

Well what a month that was,,!! Wind, Rain, Snow, Hail, Frost, Grey skies, Blue skies all mixed together with a couple of nice shows at either end of our little world.

The first was at Harrogate at the Yorkshire showground which whilst it didn't turn much coin for the club it was a nice venture North, (we need more North!!!) to interact with the ‘lesser spotted yorshireman’ who generally don coats with long pockets to go with their very short arms. This ensures they hold on to their beer tokens, and in some cases, forget to pay their bills. Yes, We are still awaiting our attendance money for this show, Mr Boak of Pickering, your time is up, please come to the office.!!

The next was our usual sojourn to the ‘Smoke’ for the BRM bash at ‘That…

Well thats February swept out of the way along with its weather hopefully, nevertheless, the club had a brill month in trading.

We started strongly in the first week with overseas sales underpinning the profit margins and the trend continued right through to our first outing of the year to the Doncaster BRM show.

The Doncaster event was a great success bringing the shop £404 over the two days, added to this was an income from Maurices Estate of £239 over the weekend. Thanks Maurice!!! There is very little left from the Chattels of Chiswick so we have been blessed with the kindness of dear Maurice In this regard.

The gross shop turnover for the month was £1895 with £1810 going to the bank after postage, fees and discounts were applied.

David Frith has sent me 10 sets of bronze loco axle bushings for those very worn out chassis that…

Well folks, here we are in an another year and a new accounting year for the club and the club shop. We will be running the numbers from Jan through to December from now on.

January burst into action for us with brisk sales from around the globe from New Zeland to Germany to my very home town of Bletchley, such is our live steam demographic.

Total sales for the month was £1053.00 with £940.27 being the net figure sent to the bank after fees and postage was deducted.

We are out of many items like Water, Tools, Wowsticks, Airline kits and Gauges so a shopping spree will be in order soon.

One of the new bespoke items to come to the shop for the future will be bronze wheel bearings after a customer requested some due to excessive wear. We have asked our trusty engineer David to spin some…

As i pen this, the new year is hear and the sun is shinning brightly, so maybe this is a good sign of a better year for us all!

Well, i can only hope Eh!!!!

December is usually a modest month shop wise and this time was no exception. Turn over was a reasonable £557.75 and added to this was £357.00 for the last few DCC loco sales and some track work from Maurices collection.

After fees and postage etc a total of £824.96 was sent to the bank.

As we go into the new year I will be looking at placing a new order with AC Models for a boost to our Hornby Spares collection so we have continuance of loco maintenance in that area where needed.

On the subject of maintenance, I have some thoughts.

Well, here we are on the heels of Xmas 2022 and surrounded by murky cloudy weather!! A good excuse to get this report done.

We have had a reasonable November with a turnover of £611.20. Shop sales of £381.20 and the sales of some of Maurices locos and bits totalling £230.00. After fees and deductions etc a sum of 548.18 was sent to the bank.

Eric has produced some more thrust pads and David frith will be producing some A4 Cusions for us in due course.

As we have no shows to attend at the moment the locos and rolling stock are getting a good looking at and all should be fighting fit for Doncaster in Feb 23.

We still have a couple of Maurices locos left, A DCC A4 Seagull and a DC A3 Flying Scotsman if anyone interested along with brand new Hornby points, straight and curved. I…

And thats 1 down out of 12!! The first month of our new financial year club shop wise.

Another excellent month which kicked off with a 2 day show at Bicester Heritage at the G1 Scociety Show.

Here we did very well, meeting many new friends both local and from afar as California. Shop sales were not so exciting here but we managed to shift a lot of our Maurices stock of Locos, buildings, vehicles, book and tools. Total sales of Maurices items came to £671. We shifted, with the help of our Val Price, a total of 39 books, 4 locos, 7 tools, 16 buildings, 18 cars, 1 sandblaster and 1 mail coach.

Our shop gross for the month was £1341.15 and along with Maurices items above a total of £1945.00 was sent to the bank after fees and postage deducted.

I now have to prepare the annual report…

Well this one nearly got away!!!!

With a show at the end of the month and a bad cold, i totally forgot to write up the last month of the year ending for the club shop. Please accept my apologies!

September was sort of a quiet month as i was away for half of it, but it seems our members are still keen as ever.

We grossed £846.90 for the shop income and after fees and deductions £834.74 went to the club bank.

Biggest sale involved 4 live drives shipped to Australia, which in turn threw up a bent spanner as it was discovered that some of our live drive stock contain the wrong components. This has now been addressed and corrected where needed with help from Dave Palmer.

This being the last month of the financial year of the shop sees us finish trading with some excellent figures considering…

Well, i am now back from my Hols and the numbers are now in for August.

What a month!!!!!

We kicked off the month with our usual fantastic Summer meet held on the 6-7th at the home of Dave and Shelly wood in the rather splendid climes of Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire. The turn out was fantastic and trade was brisk to say the least. Must have been something in the hosts tea and coffee and splendid fair.

Total shop turnover for the month was £1612.25 which is unprecedented for August,,and total donations from the sales of items from the estate of our much missed Maurice Rourke on that weekend alone totalled £1716.00!!!! Well done to everyone who dug deep including our special guests Jenny Kirk and wife Zoe Who spent the most. They can come again!!!! Those who haven’t seen the video produced by the duo can find it here…

Well,,, July brings us mixed blessings….! While we have another healthy dollop of good fortune from the shop, we have lost one of our backbones of the club committee, our dear friend and steam comrade, Maurice Rourke. He brought his own kind of organisation and friendliness to our club back in 2014 and has helped shape the club into what we have today. RIP Maurice and may you always be thought of, as we enjoy our club which you helped immensely !!

July turnover was a healthy £624.49 with £529.50 sent to the bank after postage and fees deducted.

We have had another 20 Brass Rotary valve covers from David Frith and a small amount of special shouldered bolts which connect the con-rod to front and rear loco wheels on all locos.

Holiday season is now with us so we will do well to better our income in the following…

No Model shows or Heritage events this year for June so we had to rely on the on line shop sales to hold us up.

June was another tidy month saleswise with a turnover of £598-90 with some international sales noted.

After fees and postage deducted, a net figure of £514-57 was transferred to the club bank.

We had a delivery of 20no rotary valves from David Frith along with 4no Rotary valve covers. More on the way in July!!

reports in usual places

Back again,, !!

Yes, May was a slow month for the shop with most activity happening at the Bristol show on Sunday and the show at SVR.

Gross for the month was £357.40 with £326.40 to the bank.

We had a small delivery from David Frith of some bespoke stainless steel shouldered screws for the A4 Piston rod to Connecting rod detail as these are not an available item but often lost or missing on locos bought in for resale.

As we enter the holiday season I expect the shop to trickle along from now through to September so lets enjoy the next couple of meetings at the Bluebell railway and our Summer Meet up in Yorkshire.

Nick

Just checking in here as we come to the end of May and realised that the April Report is missing!!

Well,, here it is!!!

ohhh!!!! along way to think back but we were enjoying a couple of days at the Bristol show at the end of April and the SVR the weekend after so it threw me out a bit.

April was a good moth for the club with a turnover of £1177.60 With a net figure of £1021.16 being deposited at the bank after charges and postage costs were deducted.

Sale of the Month was a set of pre-loved controllers that sold for £75 to Austrailia, the postage was £85 on top, happily paid by Cristian Kotz, such is the support for our great club.

We had a small delivery of regulator rod brass ends from David Frith to compliment the rods made by Andrew John, these are the…

We are now well into spring with Easter just around the corner and i can report on healthy activity in the Online and P.O.S shop.

March 19th-20th saw us at the Ally Pally one again and we were back to our best, playing, entertaining and drawing in the coppers.

Our total turnover was £2198.35!! Of that impressive total, £874.00 was for Loco sales via Maurice’s Loco Devision, £139.75 was postage charged out, leaving a net of £1184.60 for all shop parts sales.

The Ally Pally show generated £325.00 of that net figure. Coffee sales are on the up as well at 20 coffees consumed. Keep it up lads!!!

As an interesting note, over the last 6 months trading, we have turned over £6624.74 in the shop which is very encouraging.

We have received some excellent, (non obtainable) screws from David Frith, which will be very helpful in keeping our locos…

Evening all,,, well,,,, since may last report, the state of world affairs have changed remarkably, and one cannot help thinking of where we may be in a month, 2 months or a years time..!! Hopefully we can retain life as we know it and enjoy our live steam modelling for the foreseeable..! At least we seem to have killed off Covid or at least all talk of it.!!!!

Nevertheless,,,, February has been another good month for the Club shop with a turnover of

£886-00 with £804-00 going to the bank after fees and postage have been deducted.

We had a splendid Doncaster show with over £277 in sales. Coffee consumption was back to the usual levels as were the various rail incidences!!!! 😅

It was nice to catch up with Eric once again as we don’t get to see him so much now as northern based shows are becoming scarce.

Hi all,

Well,,, here we are,, head long into 2022, covid is hopefully dispersing into the ether, and we have a pleasant looking show calendar ahead. Sales are buoyant and our Hornby stock is now in a better position than of late. What could be better!!

Turnover for the month was £767.90 with £675.60 sent to the bank after fees and postage deducted.

The Hornby stock duly arrived from ACModelspares and has been added to the inventory boosting the overall ‘retail stock value’ to an eye watering £20,000+. Of course our ‘buy in value’ or ‘net value’ is a more manageable £11.900 for insurance and liability purposes.

David Frith has produced another batch of Rotary Valves which arrived a few weeks ago and seem to be finding homes all over the world.

Next weekend we will enjoy BRM at Doncaster once again so i will bring along a ‘Short Shop’…

Well,,, Xmas 2021 was a lot different to Xmas 2020.

Sales were brisk and the new batch of live drives were being processed along with the Deluxe versions.

Total turnover for the month was £964.60 with £852.50 going to the bank after postage and fees deducted.

At this time negotiations were being held with the new organisers of ACModelspares which is Megan, daughter of Clive, the owner of AC Models.

The original Hornby spares deal which we have held for 5 years or so with AC Models has vapourized over the last year or so due to, in part, the pandemic and reorganisation of ACModels itself. In due course, Maurice struck up a new deal with Clive on what parts are available which appears to be quite an amount. We were then passed over to Megan based in in Liskeard. Our new deal is 20% discount on list, which while…

Hi all,,

November has been another good month in the shop.

Total turn over for the month was £925.29 with £818.84 being transferred to the bank after postage and fees have been deducted.

The new rotary steam vales have been spotted and 50% of the stock has gone! I boxed up the last few tool sets I had in the drawer and they have shot out of the door!

During the month a 25 litre drum of Distilled water and 50 jerry cans have arrived to keep us all in water. Printer rolls for the mail printer also arrived. Also 30 new Live-drive kits are imminent for delivery from DCP Micro.

We now look forward to our AGM next week and then a long wait till our first show of 2022 at Donny Racecourse!