Hi Everybody, I think most of you know that I have chronic lung disease (Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis) its got to the end stages of the condition, five years since it was diagnosed. The only possible way forward is to have a lung transplant, unfortunately I don't meet the criteria for consideration here in the UK, mainly down to age and availability of organs. The only other place where I would be prepared to undergo the transplant is the USA, The Miami Transplant Centre at the Jackson Memorial Hospital have agreed to carry out the procedure. I shall be traveling there in the next two weeks to start the process, which could take up to a year, 2 to 4 four months to source the organs and then 6 months recovery after the operation. As far as the club is concerned the two areas I am mostly involved in are loco sales and servicing, Charles having recently taken over the roadshow. The servicing will continue with Chris and Eric, with Chris taking on loco sales. I'll still be around and in touch, the joys of modern communication, I may just go a little quiet during the surgery and immediate recovery which is about 3 weeks. Maurice

As you will be aware from Nick, we have been having issues getting a supply of parts from AC Models. This has been caused by their various property moves. We have talked to Clive (the owner of AC Models) about buying the live steam stock, but he did not want to sell. Clive has now concluded a deal with an old friend who has a company in Liskeard that will now distribute and sell the parts on behalf of AC and using the AC name, AC still own the parts. As Clive is now sharing the profits with this company our discount has been reduced to 20%. To put his in perspective we were paying £8.00 fro a set of tender wheels, we are now paying £16.00, with a retail of £19.99. Unfortunately we don't have anywhere else to go. I believe we now need to take some more control of critical parts, maybe 5 or 6 items, tender wheels being a good example as they would be difficult and expensive to re-manufacture. AC have 150 sets in stock, with possibly some more in unopened packing cases, I believe we should over time, say the next 18 months buy these parts in batches so that we end up owning them all, that with a refurbishment service should take care of that situation for some years to come. Another example would be the contact strips for the tender. We would do this in a prudent manner within the finances of the club. Please let me have any questions or concerns also if you are in agreement? Maurice

Hi Everybody, As most of you know, spare parts are becoming more difficult to source. Only this week I have had to buy a replacement electric motor for a loco I am servicing, the price £50. Another issue we have is that occasionally we have club locos that are becoming ever more difficult to repair and service to get them to run reliably. I’m proposing that with these very difficult locos that we break them for parts, to service the remaining locos out there, but also to replace them with less used locos because the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. As an example: Used Body £80 Used tender body £50 Chassis £109 Motor £50 Whole tender £100 In addition to this you have superheater, cylinders, steam chest etc. Your thoughts appreciated. Maurice

Hi Everybody, As most of you know I now need to wind down some of my activities, I'm delighted to tell you that Charles Leekam has agreed to take over the role of Exhibition Manager. This will happen from next weekend at The Great Electric Train Show, Milton Keynes. Maurice

Hi Everybody, We have now sold 20 limited edition green editions, 7 to committee members and 13 to club members. I have not as yet claimed any of the costs even though the club has received all the monies, you will remember I funded the costs. Limited edition green costing: Painting cost £137.50 Wheel set £15.00 Front bogie £9.00 Chimney £5.50 Box £5.00 Certificate £5.00 Postage £9.00 Total £186.50 Profit contribution is £108.50 per loco sold to club members with a £50 discount to committee members, therefore total profit from all 20 is £1820 In addition to this we have sold 3 in experimental purple with a profit contribution of £526.50 Owing to me: 20 x £186.50 = £3730 3 x £175.50 = £526.50 Postage and display case J Reading £31 Sub total £4267.50 Less my two limited editions £490 Total £3797.50 I'll draw this over the coming days. Maurice

Hi Everybody, a number of loco sales: MR Owed Profit to club Mallard set sold to Phillip Brown £300 £217.58 Mallard part set to Angus Barclay £242 £140 Flying Scotsman to Graham Thorburn £283 £196 DDE To Jack Smith £309.55 £135.45 Controller set to Nigel Hoskison £52 £25 Silver Link to Jim Ford £311 £135 FSDT to Jody Collins £491 £106.32 Silver Link to Christian Kotz £369 £104 FSDT to James Reading £370 £125 Controller set to Nigel Hoskison £55.59 £20 FSDT to David Chubb £511 £100 Total £3294.14 £1304.35 In line with our discussions, these will be the last loco sales funded by me, the club will take this on. Maurice

Hi, one of our newer members James Reading has been buying parts from Nick and then selling them on e bay at highly inflated prices. This is causing problems with other member as supply of some of these parts is now very short. He is also doing the same with a loco recently purchased. Nick has now told him we will not be supplying him with any further parts. He has two limited edition locos being painted with Warren now, he has paid in full, so I will supply them but that's it. Maurice

Just been informed that the above is cancelled. Quite likely February as well, not confirmed. Let’s hope March brings some relief.

Just had a call from Warner’s to tell me Peterborough is cancelled. I asked them about Doncaster and Ally Pally next year but were unable to say. This also impacts our AGM, I’ll take a look at Zoom and see if we can do it that way.

Hi Everybody, Eight locos sold in the recent past, they are seven Mallard sets, four for limited editions, plus one Seagull. Total profit to the club £1352.50 Owed to me for loco purchases for the above £1748.20 Eric will have the detail breakdown and I will be asking him to pay £1748.20. Maurice

Hi Everybody, I talked with Chris this morning and we are both of the opinion that the risk of getting this virus will likely increase significantly in the coming days and weeks. Some of us are not in the best of health and as such Chris and I believe we should not attend Alexandra Palace this March. I would further propose that those who have booked hotel accommodation should still receive the daily allowance. Comments please. Maurice

Hi Everybody, Nick, George and I are meeting on March 7th to film the next tutorials, I have started a list below of the topics we plan to cover, time allowing, please add more and prioritise as well please: 1, How to change cylinder seals on A3 and A4. (I expect to have the new tool to hold the cylinder block, I appreciate this will not have been tested, so we will film with and without just in case.) 2, How to change tender wheels. 3, How to rectify red or green lights not working. 4, How to set and adjust the timing. Maurice

Hi Everybody, Thanks to Adrian for circulating the article, some good parts, particularly about he club, but very unfortunate that they lay most of the blame for the sales drop off due to the handbook. This comment can only have come from us, I'm not aware of anyone else commenting about live steam in this way. Frankly it's anecdotal at best and does not help us in promoting live steam or our relationship with Hornby, they for sure will know where this has come from. Also it is irrelevant today, unless you're about to buy a loco. Following my recent post re success, surely this is the way to go, there is no requirement to mention the handbook until someone has bought or is about to buy a loco. Can we all agree that the handbook will not be referred to in future, unless the above applies and we will not be brandishing copies of it about the layout. I would like responses to the above please? Maurice

Hi, just unpacked from yesterday at Doncaster and my large water syringe has gone walkabout anybody got it? Thanks, Maurice

Hi Everybody, I spoke with Peter Crichton yesterday, he is going to be restricted on spoke this year, he wants two or three new layouts and the museum have given him less space as well. He has asked if we could pass this year, but will invite us in 2021. Disappointing I know, but we do have Doncaster the weekend before. Maurice

Hi, a member wants to buy one of our Mallard sets and use it in the USA, he tells me that there is a switch inside the transformer to change it to 110 volts, is that right? Maurice

As most of you know, we tested a new aluminium rotary valve cover for the A4 at Peterborough. This test was successful. Nick, Chris and I had a conversation regarding demand. We concluded that 42, orders in multiples of 7, with price reducing by volume, should be made. The original cost per unit estimate was approximately £10. A quick decision was needed yesterday as the tooling set up in the machine would have to be dismantled as other work was pending. We therefore placed the order for 42, plus of course the two test units. By doing this we made a further reduction in price to £7-15 per cover. I appreciate that this is outside the process and apologise, but ask for your understanding taking into account the circumstances. Maurice

Hi, Just had an e mail from Rebecca James, who has talked to Nick about having Christmas supper after the AGM at Peterborough. The Fox and Hounds at Alwalton are offering a Christmas menu of three courses for £22. I think it an excellent idea, are we agreed? Maurice

Hi, I'm sure you are all aware of the next limited edition, I propose to post the following on the main site having received any comments from yourselves. As before there will be a discount of £50 for committee members so £245. I expect the profit contribution per loco to the club to be similar to limited edition 1.Please get back to me with your comments by weekend. This second limited edition will be based on the Hornby live steam A4 pacific. There will a maximum of 35 locos, in keeping with the number of A4’s built. ​As you may know the first four built were out-shopped in three contrasting shades of grey, especially for the Silver Jubilee service. Following their success it was decided to order a further seventeen locomotives. As they would work a range of passenger services the silver livery was deemed inappropriate and would therefore revert to green with white and black lining, which all previous passenger locomotives of the LNER had been painted, with one exception No 10000. It was felt they would fit better with the teak coaching stock. The first loco, 4482, in this livery appeared in December 1936. The parabolic curve of the junction between green and black paint at the front was used again. However there was a concern that the green paint would not withstand the heat on the sides of the smokebox. So on locos 4483-4487 the parabolic curve was discarded and the black paint was solid and carried to the first boiler cleading band. This, at best did not fit with the lines of the engine, only three more locos of this batch were painted in green, all with the parabolic curve. The nine are as follows: 4482 Golden Eagle (parabolic curve) 4483 Kingfisher (solid black front) 4484 Falcon (solid black front) 4485 Kestrel (solid black front) 4486 Merlin (solid black front) 4487 Sea Eagle (solid black front) 4493 Woodcock (parabolic curve) 4494 Osprey (parabolic curve) 4495 Great Snipe (parabolic curve) So how will it work? We have engaged Warren Haywood again to paint, number and letter the loco and tender bodies; Warren has been building and painting models for over 30 years and produces work of excellent quality. Should you wish to have one of these unique models, you will need to donate a loco, ideally a Mallard, as a body with valances is needed, In addition to the livery change, each loco will be fitted with green-coupled wheels, green bogie and pony truck wheels; also a black single chimney will replace the double chimney of the donor loco. Each loco comes with a coloured cardboard storage box with a numbered limited edition certificate authenticated by Richard Hallam our club president and inventor of the OO live steam system. All you need to do is decide which name you would like and provide a donor loco, if you don’t have one, we have acquired some Mallard donor locos over the past few months, all have been checked and serviced including replacing piston seals, they also come with the club three month warranty. As far as cost is concerned we wanted to keep the price the same as the previous limited edition, you’ll appreciate the cost is higher due to the change/painting of the wheels and the cost of the single chimney. This we have been able to do by offering the display case as an optional extra. Warren has availability for the first batch from September with a turn around time of eight weeks. So get your order in now. Cost of this limited edition £295 plus postage £150 deposit with order, balance on completion. Glass display case £30 plus postage Mallard donor loco only £295 plus postage Mallard set with marked box £375 plus postage Mallard set with good box £395 plus postage I’m more than happy to answer any questions and give any help needed. To make a purchase please contact me in the first instance to discuss your requirements. My contact details are: Maurice Rourke   - Tel: 07787 565565 e mail mr@rourkesdrift.com