BMEG

The Otterburn Festival 2008(19th,20th July)

  Otterburn Mill is the host to a highly successful rally of Vintage Tractors, steam, cars, and vintage commercial vehicles in aid of theNorthumberland Air Ambulance. Ten thousand pounds was raised this year. BMEG put on a demonstration of model engineering in the marquee with contributions by Jimmy Mountjoy, Ken Swan, Adrian Morley , Jim Duncan, Robin Hedley  and John Lambard. A section of the new show stand was used, together with display boards from the Heritage section. The Charlton Collection of historic railway photographs were very popular and members were kept busy with discussion and demonstration.

Look at the links section to see a recent video of Koppel in action

The exhibition on Saturday and Sunday( 14-15th June) was a great success. Over 600 members of the public visited the exhibition, and approximately 100 went round the site. The weather was mainly good. Eddie Ions and his new “Wren” were in great demand. At the same time visitors to BMEG were able go down the rack railway with Mike Lax, Paul Ingham and Ian Spencer being the main drivers. Koppel behaved well as usual. A report  with photos will appear shortly. It remains to thank Jimmy Mountjoy, Jim Duncan and Helen Barker(Heritage cube organiser)  who put in an immense amount of work. In addition thanks to the members who contributed either models or time.  I have already had e-mails commenting on the friendly explanations given by members.

Have a look at the projects page. We were delighted to see yet another “Wren” at Beamish in addition to the one’s made by Wilf Johnson and Ron Soulsby. The new engine named “Nathan “ is the work of Eddie Ions. The engine is finished to a very high standard and ran well on its first outing. The grey paint looks well on an industrial engine. the painted dome looks right rather than the polished brass favored by some people.