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Canterbury & District Model Engineering Society |
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Canterbury & District Model Engineering Society |
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Canterbury and District Model Engineering Society
PRESS RELEASE
Chris Davey, Vice-Chairman. Tel: 07741 012004.
10th August 2014.
Running out of steam is not something that the members of the Canterbury and District Model Engineering Society are used to but, on Sunday, all wished that the Hurricane Bertha had run out of ‘puff’ a good deal earlier than Sunday afternoon as she conspired to ruin the second day of the society’s ‘Trains and Traction’ weekend held at their miniature railway at Brett’s Quarries, Sturry.
The society has operated its 5-inch gauge railway at Sturry for 31-years but in recent years the members who have specialised in building miniature railway locomotives have been joined by a number of model engineers interested in building, owning and running miniature traction engines and steam lorries.
Over the last few years the society has, with the kind co-operation of Bretts, staged its ‘Trains and Traction’ weekend when both the locomotives on the miniature railway and the traction engines have all been in steam over the same weekend with the event being open to the public on the Sunday.
Lyn Wildish, who has organised the event over the past few years said “On the Saturday we invite members of other model engineering societies and clubs to bring their locomotives and traction engines for a run on our track or around our site with our own members providing the locomotives for the Sunday when we open the event for the public. On Saturday we had a very nice day but Sunday as everybody knows weather conditions conspired against us and although we managed to run some trains on the miniature railway one heavy spell of rain around 1.00pm finally forced us to call it a day”.
Paul Kemp, Chairman of the society added “Sunday morning’s weather did its best to spoil the day for both us and members of the public who enjoy the day, nevertheless we gave rides to about thirty or forty passengers who braved the elements and we thank them for their support, it was of course typical of the British weather that an hour or two after we called it a day then the sun came out and it was not a bad afternoon”.
The Canterbury and District Model Engineering Society was formed in 1972 to promote Model Engineering activities and to foster a spirit of friendship between people sharing the same interest. The society has around 65 members who come from all walks of life from all around the Canterbury and east Kent area. A few are professional engineers but most are amateurs working at home in their spare time, to produce miniature locomotives, traction engines, stationary steam engines from the day’s when steam was the main source of power.
Ends
All pictures by Chris Davey