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April 21, 2018. Our Thomas the Tank Engine layout, built with the kind donation from the Co-op, is off on its holidays! It has gone to the Beacon Museum in Whitehaven, as party of the Waggonways to Whitehaven exhibition, which is on until June. Thomas, James and Henry are there and the visiting public can drive them around the layout.
April 19, 2017, three members of DRS, Chairman Allan Beck, Secretary Simon Garrod and John Hazlewood attended the Egremont Co-op, to meet local and national members of the Co-op management team. This follows the donation to the Society of £3582 from the Co-op Community Fund. The picture below shows (from L to R), David (Egremont Co-op), John Hazlewood, Allan Beck, Michelle (Egremont Co-op), Gill Gardner (National Council Secretary, Co-op), Simon Garrod.
It is hoped that work will start soon on construction of the Thomas the Tank Engine layout, which is what the Society wanted to do with the money. The Committee will then decide on how the remaining money will be best used.
July 5, 2016. A number of DRS members attended an evening session of the recently opened West Cumberland Railway Museum in St Bees, by kind invitation of Peter Rooke, who owns and runs the museum. There is a fascinating and varied collection of railwayana in the museum, which is well worth a visit. It is located on Main Street in St Bees, just over the road from the village Post Office.
April 8, 2016, a hugely successful sell-out evening at Distington with the showing of the Phoebe Wallace film. This is believed to be one of the only pieces of film showing trains working on the line between Workington, Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith, which closed 50 years ago. Another showing of the film is to be planned for those people who expressed an interest in watching the film, but were unable to make it on the night.
May 11 2015. Seven members attended the memorial to Philip Ashforth, one of our members, who sadly passed away recently. The memorial was held in the Beacon in Whitehaven, and was well attended by other organisations that Philip was linked to - Whitehaven Records Office, The Friends of Whitehaven Museum and the Windermere Christadelphian Church. As a popular and knowledgeable member, he will be missed by everyone in the Society. Our sympathies go out to his widow and sons.
November 15/16 2014: The Society had a stand at the Workington Model Rail Exhibition at its new location at Energus, Lillyhall. A lot of interest was generated by our static display of Whitehaven Bransty Station, made by the late Ron Pattinson, and kindly donated by his wife, Jen. Further interest, especially from younger visitors to the exhibition, was the Touchscreen control of an N gauge layout, operating a DCC system using Hornby's Railmaster system. This allowed visitors to the DRS stand to control trains, points, signals and even station announcements using a simple touch screen mimic system.
September 6/7 2014: We held our 2014 open day, but as an Open Weekend over 2 days. It was an enjoyable but tiring weekend for the members who helped operate layouts, talked to our numerous visitors, and helped sell some items. We hope to have gained some new members from this. Thoughts are already turning towards how we can make the 2015 Open day even better!
Here is the Open Day team, photo courtesy of Neil Hodgson:
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