On the right track...

Inspired by my late buddy Jack Wardrop and his pal David Muir, I had an itch to make a wee film about the local community. Something that was fairly unique. Maybe something that was slightly quirky. Maybe something that might - like Jacks Ferguslie film - become a social document in time. A lot of what I shoot has a limited shelf-life.. it's to do with a unique event or occasion, commissioned specifically to report on a certain funded project, raise some money to a certain end etc.. So you think what might have a worth in the future. I dropped the guys at Paisley Society of Model Engineers a wee line to see if i could come along for a chat one running day, which I did, I explained what I wanted to do, and they were quite up for it! The society has a couple of interlinked problems.. an aging membership ("When somebody new joins the average age usually goes up!" secretary Stewart Procter joked with me) and a collapse of engineering skills in the workplace or in schools.. there just aren't the numbers of people with the skills anymore. I address this in the film, in a fairly soft way, but hopefully it also captures the joy that the railway brings to members volunteers and the families that hop on board in the nice weather. It runs most Saturday afternoons in the nice weather, and is very busy on the Barshaw Park Gala Day (Sat 22nd June this year) so pop along and get steam hauled round their track! This film will also be shown as part of a suite of local films I'm screening at the upcoming 'Renfrew on Film' night, on June 6th.