Easter Fun and Frolics!

So Why on earth did we choose to spend the 4 days of Easter in a windy, dusty dirty loco yard?  Some say because we are daft, all we know is we had a good time!

The Project 27 sales and information stand at Sheffield Park during the Flying Scotsman Gala

We had a good 4 days over the Easter weekend chatting to people, selling them quality items and receiving their donations towards the restoration of SECR Loco No.27. We were Clive, Claire and Stuart B and assisted, on occasions by Stuart M and Matt.  We enjoyed the PR side of the job (and of course the selling of the quality items) and it was a good experience to enjoy the excitement that many of the visitors had of not only seeing what P27 are up to but also enjoying the visiting loco!

Flying Scotsman with a "The Flying Scotsman" headboard

It can't have been too bad a weekend as we took 8 empty boxes away with us, even after restocking!  The new 75H badges seemed to go down well as did the new "Can I have a P please?" pens and notebooks! We also had a new line in water bottles with the same logo!

During Easter Saturday Matt even had chance to paint another wheel into green undercoat as well as painting the front axle into red undercoat! The wheels are starting to look good.

We had on display a number of items that are waiting to be restored, being restored and have been restored. Some of these can be seen in the picture below and hopefully gives some idea of what we are up against and how good they are when they have been painstakingly cleaned, prepared and painted, all by hand.

Before, during and after

The wheels and front axle following an application of undercoat

Following on from our attendance at the Flying Scotsman Gala we had a sales stand at the Wealden Railways Group Exhibition on the 22nd which was at the other end of the visitor numbers spectrum, however we did have a good day chatting and looking at various layouts and demonstrations. We also released another couple of new lines.  We had some stainless steel thermal mugs with the "Can I have a P please?" logo and a new line in Button Badges for sale.  Both seem as though they will be popular.

The sales and information stand at the Wealden Railway Group exhibition

Our next sales stand will be on Platform 1 during Branch Line weekend (May 13th & 14th) we will be back to our usual site outside the bookshop. Hopefully we will see you there!

LB&SCR First World War Service Badge

an original War Service Badge

We are close to taking delivery of replica LB&SCR 1st World War Service Badges. these will be a numbered and boxed limited edition of 100 pieces. They will differ from the original item only by having a broach fastening as opposed to the half moon button hole fixing and will have the words "Fenchurch Fund Replica" on the reverse.   The badges will be made using vitreous enamel as per the original and will have bright metal lettering etc.  The price has not yet been fixed but is likely to be in the £12 to £20 range.