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

Here goes what will hopefully be a bumper issue of Short North.

Those members who visit the club regularly may have noticed the progress that has been made on the two walls on either side of the dish drain behind the bottom steaming bay. These two walls will soon carry the bridge over the dish drain to provide an area for public access as well as the unloading ramp for the steaming bay.

Thanks to Keith Lewis for the brick laying on this project and as well to his many assistants.

Whilst we’re on the subject of progress, the fence along the top of the carriage pipe is progressing at a great rate with a section of fence now completed from near the entry end of the pipe to near the start of the path to the picnic area.

Whilst all this is happening the area behind and below the fence is being cleaned up with some mowing and some concrete with around half a metre being delivered on Saturday the 10^th of May and most of it being used in this area. Aside from being a safe walkway for the public to use when coming from the direction of the bottom steaming bay this area also makes a good area for viewing the days activities on a running day thanks to John Crowhurst, Allan Fogarty and Mick Farrell for there help on this project to date.

If things keep going at the current rate we’ll have an arch on almost every bridge around the track if Allan Fogarty has his way. He’s almost finished an arch over the culvert near the top steaming bay and has already cut the steel for the little bridge over the culvert off the end of the trestle and before anyone asks he has cut enough steel to do both sides of this one after all it is dual gauge.

The Chargemans whistle out list for April and May is below my apologies if I have left anyone out.

It was also good to see another new loco from the Brack workshops undergoing a steam trial at the May running day in the form of Leal’s new 71/4" Gauge 0-4-0 some of us are still trying to figure out why a steam loco needs a 12 volt battery though when it’s moving.

Whilst on the subject of running days the April Running Day was extremely well patronised with a total number of 926 tickets sold and to illustrate the numbers of passengers carried our resident record keeper Allan Fogarty tells us that with the aid of a pencil, paper an odometer and a bit of help from John Gordon and his loco that they completed 15 trips, covered 14km and carried 246 passengers of which around half were adults.

The fact that there was 926 tickets sold and given Allan’s figures above we did pretty well in being able to move this many people when you also take into account the unknown numbers that we carried for the two birthday parties on the day.

The May running day was not with out a few problems the first being the failure of a hydraulic line on the club loco which caused a few early problems including spraying hydraulic oil on both gauges of track in some of the most awkward places.

On top of this we suffered with some minor vandalism with stones being jammed between the rails on some of the dual gauge track and some of the point levers being bent and damaged fortunately the repairs were done immediately and this had very little effect on the running day.

We were also able to make better use out of the trackage through the station by using the dual gauge to its full extent for both gauges and in so doing we were able to provide through running for the party trains in the afternoon.

Almost 12 months ago Bruce Langdon and Rob Lougher started to replace a 12 metre or 36 foot (which ever is politically correct these days) section of track off the end of the trestle that had been effected by the combination of high tides, flooding and some poor drainage that had all combined to cause the rails to rust to the extent that it was causing some problems with wheel wear.

The last section of this track was replaced on Saturday the 10^th of May with most of the preliminary work being done on the previous Monday and at the Thursday working bee the new section being put into position on Saturday.

Thanks again to Bruce, Rob and Keith Lewis for completing this job.

Because of the rain that drowned the Central Coast during the week of the 13^th to 17^th of May the opportunity was taken to have a bit of a clean up around the club and in the van with a lot of rubbish being thrown out and this also resulted in a bit more clear and clean space in some areas around the club and in the van this is not a sign that we need more junk to fill up the vacant space. So before bringing anything to the club check up with a board member first you might be able to save your fuel costs by making two phone calls the first to a board member and the second for a council rubbish pick up.

The Lion’s Club charity run had to be cancelled due to the big wet and members will be advised of the new date as soon as possible.

The following people have been in the workshops for attention Noel Richards for an Intermediate Examination and Tone Up or to put it into Sharon’s terms rest and annoy the wife.

Our Boiler Inspector, Lindsay Brack has had repairs to a troublesome little end (Some knee surgery) he was noted being run in on load trials with 2705 at the May running day.

As a result of the vandalism that took place prior to the May running day and other incidents of graffiti attacks etc. the club has contacted the N.S.W. Police who have agreed to conduct after hour’s patrols for an undefined period of time in an effort to deter the people causing the problems.

The most important thing that we must do is in the event of graffiti or major vandalism we are to contact Senior Constable, Paul Hill, Target Action Group, Brisbane Water Area Command Phone 4323 5648 so that they can photograph the graffiti or if need be examine the area of vandalism.

If Senior Constable Hill is not available leave a message or explain the situation to his colleagues if possible.

We can also help out here by dropping into the club after hours and having a look around this may be as simple as driving in on the way home from work and shining the headlights around the grounds but if any intruders are encountered do not challenge them, ring the police straight away.

On a lighter note our man of money the Treasurer, Norm Browne has asked me to soften the blow to members pockets by reminding them that Annual Membership Subscriptions are about to fall due and the renewals will probably come out in the next newsletter unless the renewals make it into this newsletter. (I’ll try and put the newsletter off as long as I can. Ed.)

The birthday run is coming up in August if any one has any suggestions for this event or wants to help organise the event please contact Rob Lougher.

Two suggestions so far have been a shunting competition and a sandbag trial for the Sunday’s activities.

On the 15^th of June the Central Coast Historic Car Club will be holding its annual Swap Meet at Gosford Showground the gates open at 6am and there’s always something for everybody.

If you do any work around the club put it in the diary and then I can put it in the newsletter if you cant get to the diary or don’t have time to make an entry ring me and I’ll make a note to go in the newsletter.

We’ve managed to stay inside Australia Posts 50 cent loading gauge again until next time, see you later.