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COPYRIGHT: PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH BEFORE CONTINUING!

All photos in this Blogspot and those accessed in Google Images via the links in each report are my Copyright and may be saved for personal use only. They may not be republished elsewhere without the written permission of the Copyright holder.

Hello and welcome to my twice reinstated and updated photo reports of visits to narrow gauge model railway layouts and events! Following the sudden and untimely cessation of Fotopic in March 2011 and with it the loss of my photo galleries, I started this blog in order to try to keep my "Roving Reports" available to those who enjoy viewing them. I have linked this blogsite to the old galleries which I originally rebuilt and posted in albums in Picasaweb. Once all the old reports had been rebuilt, I have continued to add completely new ones to cover my visits to events from April 2011 onwards.

In August 2016 Google blocked access to Picasaweb in order to force everyone to use their "much better" Google Images, so I had to do the whole exercise again. Thanks! .

Meanwhile......Because of the way this Blogspot works, the most recent postings appear first and the oldest ones last. Each report contains a link to the Google photo album plus captions for that report. The link will take you to the front page of the Google Album for this report. Left click on the first photo and it will open into a manually operated slideshow. A panel should open alongside the image on the right showing the number of the photo and the caption text. If it does not appear, click on the small white disk top right of the photo panel and it will open. Move forward or backwards by clicking the right or left arrows on your keyboard. When you have finished viewing, click the back arrow showing top left of the photo panel and this will take you back to the album opening page.

Close it in the normal way by clicking on the "X" top right or click the return arrow top left of the Windows screen to return to the blog, depending on which browser you use. Once back in the blog, any report can be accessed sequentially from the blog by scrolling downwards and if required, click on the "older posts" link at the bottom of the list, or simply go to the Blog Archive on the right of the window and select any report by simply clicking on the title.

Monday 14 April 2014

05 April 2014, Narrow Gauge South, Sparsholt College, Winchester

PART 1 

For the 12th biennial NGS at Sparsholt College, near Winchester, Alan Rolfe and the hosting Wessex NG Modellers put on another fantastic day that once again proved to be a challenge to get round everything as well as fit in the 009 Society AGM within the available time! 27 layouts plus a further 3 on trade and society stands, amongst a total of 54 stands, there was a feast of top quality layouts and modelling on display, all set in the friendly atmosphere that this do is renowned for. Another overload of shutter clicking from me to the extent that, once again I have had to split my report into 2 instalments in order to provide what I hope is a fair representation of everything that there was to see on the day – I’ve even had to omit the traditional food photos this time (except for one!). I hope you enjoy the selection I have chosen!



PART 2

Part 2 continues in the same room that we completed Part 1 in, where we had just looked at a splendid American 0n30 layout. Immediately opposite was another American narrow gauge layout, this time in HOn30, providing a good contrast and comparison for anyone still confused about size and scale nomenclature! Still only about half way through our tour of the diverse and entertaining selection of narrow gauge layouts that Exhibition Manager Alan Rolfe had invited from near and far, like many others who attended, I found it quite a challenge to get round everything allowing sufficient time to enjoy all that I saw, and like others reported, I very nearly missed out on a couple of rooms, but, having double checked the show programme, I am as confident as I can be that I got at least a glimpse of every layout present !



Wednesday 2 April 2014

15 February 2014, Narrow Gauge South West, Shepton Mallet

For the 22nd Small & Delightful Group's wonderful day out at Shepton Mallet, some 25% of those who normally attend looked at their atlases and worked out that as Shepton Mallet is in Somerset, it must be under 6ft of water, so must be too dangerous to attend. For the other 75% who know enough about geography to know that the flooded Somerset Levels are to the WEST of Glastonbury and Shepton is several miles to the EAST, then they had a bit more room to walk around the halls and enjoy the 25 layouts and loads of traders and societies present in what in many minds is the biggest, best and friendliest annual narrow gauge modelling event of them all. Unfortunately I got called back home on urgent matters at around lunchtime, but I still managed to get some photos of just about everything so here is my record of what was another fantastic trip to Somerset.



Tuesday 1 April 2014

26 January 2014, Beds & Bucks NG Modellers Members Open Day, Barton Le Clay

Barton Le Clay seems to get better every year! This time, the 9th annual open day that Mark Howe and the Beds & Bucks NG Modellers have put on, there were 16 layouts in a variety of scales and despite the bad weather, over 200 people were present in the village hall making it a very snug and friendly event indeed. The 5 star catering team were hard at it all day providing a never ending queue with fried sausage baps and loads of other super goodies whilst Brian Guilmant and his 009 Society sales team were under siege in an adjoining room as usual. This open day has filled the gap for a narrow gauge modelling event that is accessible from all 4 points of the compass that was left when Chilterns NG stopped some years ago and has become one of the top NG specialist events in the calendar. Well Done Indeed Everyone!