President Ted Williams 02 4384 3089
Vice President Bruce Langdon 02 4396 3767
Secretary Peter Holt 02 4397 2700
Treasurer Norm Browne 02 4396 3564
Members’ Board Member John Crowhurst 02 4343 1980
Boiler Inspector Lindsay Brack Smoke Signal

RUNNING DAY 1^st Saturday of each month
CLUB MEETING Last Thursday of each month 7.30 pm at the club, Lot 10 Showground Road, Narara

POSTAL ADDRESS P.O. Box 692, Gosford, 2250

EDITOR Rob Lougher

The March running day was a fairly quiet day due to the weather being somewhat unpredictable until around lunchtime the crowds did however increase after lunch.

The list of locos whistling out for the March Running day is listed below.

2705 Ted Williams.

4101 Club Loco.

985 Mick Farrell.

XPT Allan Fogarty.

421 John Gordon.

B2 Rob Lougher

Stan Smiths Diesel.

Narara Valley Logging No.s 5 Mack Ute and 4 the Clyshay Leon Brack.

The Trike Leal Brack.

The running day was not without some problems caused by a combination of some early poor weather, some minor mechanical problems, flat batteries all of which were over come with a sense of fun and some ingenuity.

The clubs 41 class was noted banking Mick Farrell’s 985 up from down the back hauling its own train as well as assisting 985’s this was explained by the crews as being caused by a lack of early morning sunlight resulting in 985’s bad steaming prior to the assent of the bank from down the back.

Flat batteries on B2 and minor mechanical problems with Stan’s diesel resulted in B2 assisting the diesel on the party run for a couple of runs to try and see the party through with both locos.

Not to be outdone and aside from the usual push pull arrangement of Allan’s XPT and Johns 421 some of the 5" boys joined the fun with the unusual combination of the Mack Ute assisting Narara Valley Logging’s Clyshay on a couple of turns around the track with a fine array of goods wagons in tow.

To over come the problem of running B2 with flat batteries to the top loading bay to load up, 985 was used to haul it back after the trains had been stowed.

Last but not least Leal Brack’s new two stroke engined 71/4" gauge "Trike" which was under trial was used to assist Stan’s Diesel and train up from down the back after the diesel finally succumbed to gearbox problems this is no mean feat given the difference in engine sizes and weight.

The club has acquired a second hand covered trailer for use around the grounds thanks to John Jarvis for his work in getting this for us.

Progress is continuing on the laying of the blocks down the side of the drain behind the 71/4 steaming bay to allow the bridge pieces to be put in place and the unloading ramp to be put back. Thanks to Keith Lewis and Peter Holt for their help with this project.

On the subject of the drain we recently had a storm during the course of the day which dumped around 4 inches of rain in the space of around an hour over parts of the Central Coast and while the drain handled a great percentage of the water we still suffered from some minor flooding thanks to the efforts of Keith Lewis this was recorded on film I will publish some of the photos this in a later newsletter.

Our club secretary, Peter Holt has recently been into the workshops for a tone up to a troublesome Bigend and Bearing (In laymans terms he’s had a hip replacement.) He has since been returned to traffic but is still confined to loco until the bigend is run in.

We all wish him well in his recovery and I sure he would appreciate a call from time to time.

The Clubs new Web Site or Page is up and running and can be found at the following web address www.narara.cjb.net many thanks to Tom Fink with his help in setting this up.

It certainly makes you stop and think about how diversified our hobby is when you think that we build steam engines based on technology hundreds of years old and now exchange photos and ideas about the same machines using technology that operates in the blink of an eye so to speak.

If anyone wants to contribute to the web site they can do so by using the email address on the site or contact Rob Lougher and I will forward it on.

This is only a short newsletter this time round as my time at the moment is a little bit limited but all things being equal there should be a bumper issue of Short North next issue.

If you do any work around the club put it in the diary and then I can put it in the newsletter.

Well we’re well and truly inside Australia Posts loading gauge this time round on behalf of the board of the Central Coast Steam Model Co-op we wish everyone a happy and safe Easter.