*** Our 20th Year ***
As the revised header indicates, 2002 is the 20th anniversary year of the formation of the Buffers. On an April weekend in 1982, the London Model Railroad Club had its open house. One of the layouts open to the public was that of our late founder, Les Torrens. Les left a note pad at the door of his layout, with a request that any person interested in belonging to a club specializing in British railway modelling should leave their name and telephone number. A number of people did just that and around September received a phone call from Les. Susequently, the first meeting of The Buffers, (a name chosen by him) was held at his Vesta Street home.
At our December meeting, Richard Hobby provided an historic and interesting slide show featuring railways, aircraft and shipping. the sides featured locations such as airports in Great Britain, the Middle East and a GWR single running through Flaxburton Somerset.
Les Norris brought in his scratch built Scammell tank transporter for display and provided details of the Chieftan tank featured on the trailer.
David Foster and David Edwards gave their impressions of the Toronto Christmas train Show held on November 24th and 25th. A number of our members attended.
Dennis Littler presented two videos, one of which was an extended news item screened a few weeks ago on the CBC featuring the Cardiff to Glasgow mail train. Intersprersed within hte video were video shots taken from a promotional film produced by the General Post Office circa 1936 to publicize the then substantial rail mail traffic. During the first half of the 20th Century about 130 mail trains criss-crossed the country day and night. W H Auden wrote a poem for the film. Click HERE to read the lyrics. The news report indicated that the Cardiff to Glasgow train was one of only 15 mail trains remaining on the British Railway system.
Members of long standing may remember the film Night Mail was presented many years ago by Joe Chiasson at a Buffers meeting.
The second video presented by Dennis dealt with track maintenance on the CP/CN rail system.
We have been particularly lucky over the past few months with the input at meetings from members whcih has included slide and video presentations, many discussions of both models and their prototypes and even a live steam display !
Membership dues for the 2002 year are now due in the amount of $20.00. Our treasurer will be accepting dues at the January meeting.
A special thank you to David and Pat Foster of the British Connection for a generous donation of postage stamps. This will considerably reduce our mailing costs for this year.
Our January meeting will be held at the usual 83 Elliot Street location on the 19th of the month. Starting at 13:00 and running to around 16:30. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be served as usual.
at the Jim Archdekin Recreation Centre, 292 Conestoga Drive, Brampton Ontario.
Saturday 10:00am-5:00pm
Sunday 10:00am-4:00pm
March 23, 24 -Toronto - Model train show, Congress Centre 650 Dixon Road.
April 27 & 28 - Brampton - Great British Train Show.
Members wishing to view back issues of the online newsletter can click on the link below for over 12 months of the online version, including the excellent reproduction of Geoff's fine pictures
.Please E-mail me your comments.