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As many of you will be aware for quite a while we have been talking about improving the way we display the OOLS Club Limited Edition locos and also the superb cutaway ‘Arfer’ loco at shows. 

Although many ideas were looked into the majority were deemed unsuitable because of the lack of transport space in the Xtrail so for a long time no actual progress had been made.

Unfortunately, at this year’s Alexandra Palace show the lack a proper display plinth contributed to some damage to ‘Arfer’s’ operating mechanism. Although David successfully repaired/improved the damage finding a suitable display option was now urgent to prevent any reoccurrence.

Reviewing all the previous suggestions, ideas and restrictions led the following design criteria

• The need to display three limited edition locos plus ‘Arfer’

• The stand can be assembled quickly

• No tools are required to assemble/disassemble

• When collapsed it can be packed into small spaces within the existing transport units.

• No additional storage space is required

Three weeks of planning, designing and industrial level cardboard engineering finally resulted in a prototype stand and more detailed information and photos on this can be found on the post pinned to the top of the main site Groups page.

https://www.oolivesteam.com/group/club-roadshow/discussion

To prove the concept the stand was used at both the Severn Valley and Ruddington shows where it proved to be an effective solution to the display problem. It will also be used at the Wabtec special event in Doncaster after which Nick will take it home to use as a template to evolve it into a more substantial and long-lasting wooden version.

This is the request for approve for funding for wood, varnish and glues so he can get to work. As with the layout build we are looking at using quality birch ply so the guesstimate will be between £50 & £100 for the materials.

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