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FIRST LINES FIRST LINES “I’ve yet to find a railway at which members don’t routinely complain about the management and executive...” Photo: Dave McLeod shot this superb picture in the late 1990s at a Javanese sugar mill at Merican. He told us the locos burned dry cane, called bagasse, and a bribe of cigarettes got the crew to turn on the blower resulting in the volcanic eruption of sparks; “Quite appropriate as the Indonesian term for railways is kereta api, fire carriage...” Welcome to NGW191, as we work our way out of a long, cold winter – probably too short for the lines trying to get all their closed-season maintenance done, but definitely too long for a magazine editor on a winter schedule awaiting his next deadline! One of the sadder duties I’ve had to do for this edition is pen a tribute to Paul Towers, who died in January just shy of the very good age of 94. He was known to many as a pioneer of 009 scale narrow gauge modelling, but to me he was most regarded as a friend of the magazine, one of those who would call me up on the most tenuous pretext just to chat narrow gauge. No matter how busy I might be at the time, it was always good to pause and chew the fat for a few minutes on the subject of rails on which run vehicles with short axles. Another who rings me every month or two is Jeffrey Evans. Now I consider Jeff a friend despite the fact I’ve never met him and quite possibly never will – he lives around the corner from the Puffing Billy Railway, and while that’s one line very much on my bucket list the budget of a niche magazine such as NGW is never going to allow a working trip to Australia... Jeff started calling me not long after I first gained the NGW editor’s chair, and once we sorted out some initial confusion over time zones (Rosemary, the long-suffering Mrs C, took a call from him very early Value the Value the enthusiasts...enthusiasts... one morning while I was away...) his calls became legendary at NGW Towers – his typical signoff “tooraloo” has even become a Charman family catchphrase. Jeff is another with a passion for the narrow gauge who loves to talk about it – telling me about the latest happenings on the Puffing Billy and various other Australian lines, on his G-scale model garden railway that he’s clearly very proud of, and asking questions about the narrow gauge in the UK. And again, it doesn’t matter if I am on a deadline, it’s great just to enjoy chatting about something that means so much to both of us. Step one, have fun Bill Jolitz is of that ilk. In the time I’ve been editor NGW’s unofficial US correspondent has attended many a Stateside photo charter and model convention. All are followed by my receiving more photos than I can ever use and a report from which two things always stand out – Bill thoroughly enjoyed the event and was hugely grateful to those who made it possible. It was Bill who recently sent me an email titled ‘COSMIC photo’, saying a friend had posted an image on the social media feed Instagram of a mini-Mallet in Eritrea, “that is one of the very best images I have ever seen in my nearly 80 years.” He insisted that the photographer Dave McLeod send the shot to me, which he did, and Bill was right – turn to page 28 to see what I mean. Normally it would have screamed cover, but I didn’t want to litter it with all the words necessary over photos used on the front of the magazine. Dave also sent me a lot more pictures, one of which is on this page, he’s clearly very skilled. Complaints dept The common thread running through such people is enthusiasm, and it’s a commodity I wish I could bottle. Because let’s face it there is a lot of moaning in the heritage rail world, as I suspect there is in most vocations that rely on volunteers. I’ve yet to find a railway at which members don’t routinely complain about the management and executive, who in turn get frustrated that the members can’t see their point of view, more often than not revolving around the impossibility of financing the changes or projects demanded by the members. The thing is, both sides press their case, and as a result are accused of moaning, for the very same reason – because they want the very best for their particular organisation. Which is a very good reason why we must nurture the enthusiastic enthusiasts – in a world where moaning is the easy action to take (and I’m guilty of this as much as the next person), they remind us just why we they have dedicated so much of our spare time, often our lives to this vocation – simply because it’s something we enjoy. Andrew Charman No 191 – Subscribe at www.narrow-gauge-world.co.uk 05

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