PART 6 - Real Achievements and Change

The 26th November 1989 saw our Evercreech Junction layout at the S & D Trust’s show at the Corn Exchange, Dorchester, for the first time. This show had its own problems for us. Even in its initial form Evercreech was big and the additional two feet behind the layout, required for the fiddle-yard operators, had not been allocated. Worse still, the uneven floor of the Corn Exchange in those days exacerbated problems with our rather hurriedly constructed track joints across the baseboards. Derek Stanhope, confident that his electrics would hold-up, agreed to help a fellow exhibitor, who was shorthanded, to run his layout. Would he have been so keen had it not been an O gauge layout, I wondered! Thinking back it must have been following this that Derek and I starting talking about collaborating on our own O gauge layout i.e. West Calydon.

Our First Club Open Day

Following our success with hosting the Wessex exhibition, Phil Crocker was keen to keep the momentum going so another of his brain-childs took shape i.e. club open days. Our first was held on 9th December 1989 at Weymouth’s Art Centre. We fielded the Evercreech Junction layout, Lew Peter’s “Peterham Branch”, Roger Miller’s “Bremmerton Branch” together with Phil overseeing an OO test track. There was also what was referred to as an O gauge test track. Actually, Derek and I turned-up with some boxes of track and a few ready-made points that we proceeded to cobble together on the top of three desks, butted end on, to run our stock on. Other attractions at this open day were demonstrations of buildings construction by Geoff Youell, tree making by Paul Cox and railway kit building by Graham Garton. The Club Trade Stand run by George Dyer was also in attendance along with Alan Comben’s model railway trade stand.

March 1990 AGM

The continued and startling success of the club was proudly reported to the membership at the 2nd AGM in March 1990. The bank balance of £902.53p said more than words ever could, especially as the club’s outlook was somewhat gloomy back in March 1989.

Derek, having served as chairman of the club for the initial years of its existence, saw this as an appropriate moment to step down. Confident in the secure future of the club, he nominated me as his successor. Other committee changes were Roger Bartlett becoming vice-chairman, and Phil changing to the role of secretary with Dave Samuel taking over as treasurer. Elected additional committee members were Paul Cox and George Dyer, along with Derek as retiring chairman.

The bulk of the members, only too aware of various individual’s hard work that was now being put in, on behalf of the club, proposed many votes of thanks at the meeting as follows:

 

1990 in a Nutshell

It gave me great pleasure to announce at the March 1991 AGM (our first held as a combined AGM and social evening at the Verne Prison Officers Club) that the past year had been the most successful in the club’s history. Of note was the club’s first large-scale exhibition where we had the additional support of 14 friends and relatives, not to mention two members, and their wives, of the Bridport and District Model Railway Club. Phil undertook the monumental task of organising our own exhibition on behalf of the club with assistance from Dave Samuel. It was a tremendous success with praise received from all quarters. The more sobering news I imparted was that the high demands in terms of real commitment placed on the committee resulted in the (within year) resignation of two, namely Roger B and Paul Cox. However, such was the strength and resilience that the club now enjoyed that Roger Tozer and Phil Salmon quickly and effectively filled the vacated posts. I concluded my opening remarks by pronouncing that it had been a year of real achievements and change, mostly to the good of the club, and the success of these new ventures can be attributed to the well-established position of the club achieved under the chairmanship of Derek with the support of the members.

The Treasurer, Dave Samuel, delightedly reported that we now had a bank balance of £2,182.59p and could look forward to club membership cards and club sweat shirts, also a return to the original cost of membership (fair do’s as he proposed the increases at the 1989 AGM).

Phil as Secretary was also pleased to report that the Evercreech Junction layout had attended 10 exhibitions in the past 12 months including the ambitious attendance at the South Wales Model Show, which was supported by 11 of the members; Phil had arranged overnight accommodation in the Raglan Army Barracks. Other successful ventures had been slide shows, modelling evenings and an enjoyable evening visit to the Swanage Railway.


Yours truly aboard the Hastings DMU set that ran on the Swanage line over
the 1990 summer period. Our visit and ride on the line was made even
more enjoyable by an exceptionally warm evening.

Further, with a move to Whitsun, our club open day had become established on the Weymouth calendar and a useful revenue earner for the club. In round terms it generated the float for the annual exhibition.

Birth of the Weymouth MRA

For some time the membership of the Upwey and Broadwey MRC had included the majority of the Weymouth and District Model Club’s Railway Group. Concerns over the future of their modelling group prompted their suggestion that they merge with our club. Phil however considered that the combining together of the two clubs merited something more appropriate in terms of a name. So, it should not be forgotten that ours is an association of two railway modelling clubs: one long established and well respected, the other new, but energetic. A near unanimous vote at the March 1991 AGM heralded the birth of the Weymouth Model Railway Association. I say near unanimous as I noted that several of the Upwey & Broadwey MRC members were sorry that our club name was to be dropped, indeed Roger B was looking quite emotional. Alan Comben proposed and Brian Ely seconded the actual name for our new association.

Evercreech Junction – The End of the Line

Yes, it was me who put the boot in! The pace and number of exhibitions attended was taking its toll on the layout, not to mention the members. Operating the layout required great concentration from two operators at the very complex control panel and, at least, one further operator per fiddle yard: the Bath and Bournemouth ends of the layout. The operators in overall control of the train movements were dedicated to either driving “Up” or “Down” trains, whilst those on the fiddle-yards had to handle departures and arrivals. Trains arriving in the fiddle-yard had to have the engine removed and another placed at the front of the train (subject to any required reconfiguration), ready for the run in the opposite direction. The “Bath” fiddle yard had the complication of setting up double-headed trains, whereas “Bournemouth” fiddle yard operations where compounded by the Highbridge branch trains entering and leaving at the opposite end of the yard.

Typically it took around 45 minutes to carry-out all the scheduled train movements if nothing went wrong. Derek and I once drove the whole schedule in well under 45 minutes, but we reduced the fiddle-yard operators to gibbering heaps in the process – we were in no better shape ourselves! The majority of problems with the layout stemmed from the poor quality materials used in its construction, which were begged, borrowed, or stolen. Hardly surprising considering that a very large exhibition layout had been built literally on a shoestring! Around May 1991 I instigated a poll of the members as to the fate of the Evercreech Junction layout. All agreed reluctantly (none more than Roger B) that it should be scrapped. It had served the club, now Association, well, and in round terms it was pivotal in its establishment and startling success.

Footnote on Our Evercreech Junction Layout

In the last year of exhibiting our Evercreech Junction layout, we could muster in excess of 50 locos from 9Fs, 8Fs, 7Fs, 4MTs, 4Fs and 2Ps to a 1P, a BR standard class 3 and a DMU set for the Highbridge branch working. Coaching and goods stock was too numerous to count, and the Pines Express with its characteristic mix of Gresley and Stanier coaches included an ex-LMS 12-wheel Diner.


Schematic of train movements around our Evercreech Junction layout

Some 20 trains (several double-headed) were run to a Summer Saturday schedule up and down the line, involving 50 plus movements. When Roger B manned a fiddle-yard, he took great delight in unusual train formations (typical of the ex-S & D line); not all of them making the run between Bath and Bournemouth without incident. Indeed on one operating session at the controls, I can recall wanting the “Down” Pines to make an impressive entrance onto the layout. The rapid start from the Bath-end fiddle-yard of an ex-LMS 2P piloting a West Country caused a coupling failure that resulted in the majority of the very varied 12-coach train being left in the fiddle yard – embarrassment isn't quite the word as Donald Beale and Peter Smith were looking on at the time! (Donald and Peter were the most famed driver and fireman of the S & D, amongst their credits is crewing Evening Star on her visits to the line.)

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