We left the layout with construction just starting up again in May. Here are Doug and Gordon working on the new staging yard baseboards – plywood top and softwood bracing. I’m helping by taking photographs. We used ‘EM-gauge society’ baseboard locators – metal pin and holes that screw to the ends of baseboards; These are visible in the third picture where we are weighing down the cork with anything to hand. The fourth picture shows an unusually summery set of modellers and below that are some shots of the layout in July.

Also in July, we completed purchase of the clubhouse from our local council and that meant that the plans to move into the main hall, with more room for our extension, became possible.

As some of you will know, we were very sad to lose Chris Bennett at the end of August – he had prostate cancer and had been in hospital and then a nursing home since the spring. His modelling prowess is evident in so many of the structures on our model of Mauch Chunk, as well as in the overall construction. He is sadly missed.

Over the Autumn (= the Fall) we finished the baseboards while one of the other groups modified the new annex building that we had acquired on the site. This would mean they could move there out of the main hall making room for us. After the end-October exhibition, which their layout attended, they duly moved into the annex. We cleared the space left and in January moved Mauch Chunk through into the main hall. We were delighted that even with inexperienced modellers we dismantled it in a couple of hours and then re-erected it (see photos above) in another couple. At the end of this we had stock running! A testament to Chris and Paul’s construction and wiring.