Monday, 26 December 2011
10 December 2011, Narrow Gauge (and a few ships!) at the Wigan Model Railway Exhibition
I don't often go to the big "mainstream" model railway shows - expensive to get in and too many people in front of the layouts to be able to get good views and photo opportunities are two of the reasons, but I have intended to make the long trip from Dorset to Wigan for several years, enticed by the consistently good reports about the show, so this year with some really top notch narrow gauge layouts amongst the 30+ layouts, and weekly emails encouraging me to come from Stan Williams I decided to make the effort. Unfortunately I was only able to attend for one day, when a show this size really needs the full weekend to take everything in, but I did manage to have a good look at the narrow gauge side of things and to meet many narrow gauge modelling friends and acquaintances who were present either exhibiting or as visitors, which alone was more than enough to justify the expense of a 550 mile round trip and a small mortgage on the entrance fee for me. An excellent day all round and an absolutely outstanding 009 Society publicity and modelling demo display - easily the best Society/Association stand in the show and full congratulations from me to fellow friends and members who both organised it and manned it.
Sunday, 11 December 2011
13 November 2011, Northampton & District NG Modellers Open Day, Weedon Bec
The fourth biennial Northampton Group event and once again it was a splendid late autumn day out with all the ingredients that we've come to expect - good informal company, Brian's 009 Sales emporium, a good range of layouts in 009, 7mm and Gn15 and 5 star refreshments from Julie Cope's catering team! In fact the double sausage bap (with onions, mushroom and tomatoes) that I was served at lunchtime was so good that I have recommended to the Committee that for the 2013 event the catering dept are awarded the rare honour of having "By Appointment The 009 Culinary Awards Committee" annotated in the programme. The layouts were of course well worth travelling half the length of the country to see as well, which a good number of people did - from all points of the compass.
Saturday, 3 December 2011
29 October 2011, Expo Narrow Gauge, Swanley
End of October again - another Expong, the clocks have gone back and winter is upon us already! Unfortunately, since the Pewsey report in August I had to cancel visits to 3 narrow gauge modelling group events around the country due to unavoidable pressures on my time which is also the reason for the very late posting of this report, but better late than never! I thought that this year Expong was the best one I have attended for several years, with all the main specialist traders, 17 layouts (not counting those that were on trade stands) in a variety of scales, plus an additional 11 "filebox" layouts entered for the David Brewer Challenge. As usual the “Expong Experience” is about meeting up with fellow like-minded NG enthusiasts and enjoying a very friendly day out. Overall another outstanding event and well worth the effort taken by many enthusiasts to get there. My appreciation is offered to Hazel Brewer and all the members of The Greenwich & District NG Society for their sterling efforts.
