9 May 2009 - 009 Society AGM & Members Day, Edlington, South Yorkshire

For some reason the 9th of May was a particularly popular one in the narrow gauge calendar, with the NG Railway Society and the 7mm NGA also having their AGM's. However about 100 009 Society members put these distractions to one side and found their way to the outskirts of Doncaster and enjoyed a really splendid informal, very well organised and friendly event - despite having to stop the main business of the day for 90 minutes whilst the formal proceedings of the AGM took place.

After several years of 009 Society AGM's not making it further north than Birmingham, it was a pleasure to be back in Yorkshire this year (and I remembered to pack an extra jumper and snow chains just in case.....). I noticed that I was not the only lunatic to have vacated my warm bed in Dorset at 3 AM in order to be there, as I spotted fellow members from Exeter, Bristol, Somerset and Croydon as well as those from north of the Watford Gap who had easier journeys and didn't have to worry about having their visas validated at M1 junction 15A "gateway to the frozen north".

10 layouts were assembled by the co-hosting South Yorkshire and Lampoons (Leeds & Morley) Groups, from east and west of the Pennines and Tyneside, plus a special guest appearance of Ted Polet and his brother Marcel, who had brought the Rae Bridge module of Ted's famous Craigcorrie & Dunalistair Railway across from Leiden in Holland. It was very fitting that at the AGM, Ted was awarded Honorary Life Membership of the 009 Society in recognition of the outstanding contribution he has made to the 009 Society and narrow gauge modelling in general over many years. A very worthy and popular accolade.

The only problem encountered on the day, besides the little one of staying awake on the homeward drive, was the bright sunlight coming through the large windows of the school hall venue, causing some challenges to photography - well that was my excuse for some of the very grainy and washed out images that were the best that I could achieve from the almost silhouette starkness of the originals! Nevertheless, I hope that I have managed to salvage a reasonable selection here to give a fair impression of what was a really grand day

Click Here to see the Photo Album for this Report