Thursday, 16 February 2017
14 January 2017 - SWOONS Members Open Day, Ilton, Somerset
2017 got itself off to the
now traditional great narrow gauge start to the year with the 11th
annual South West 009 Society’s (SWOONS) members open day in the Merryfield
Hall at Ilton, between Yeovil and Taunton in Somerset East
Sussex with Narrow Planet and a new trading attender in the form
of Attwood Aggregates ballast and scenic dust also attended. As always, a great
day amongst like minded friends and narrow gauge enthusiasts. Huge appreciation
to Geoff Bowyer and the SWOONS team for a really excellent day!
31 December 2016 - Garry’s Railcars – 2016 bonus album!
Almost everyone who is familiar with 009 will
either know, or know of, Garry Whiting. One of the 15 founder members of the
009 Society in 1973, twice chairman and a very familiar face at just about
every narrow gauge modelling show and regional ng modelling group members and
open days throughout the country, either working with the Society sales team or
manning (and often providing most of the models) a Society publicity display
case. I have known Garry as a Society colleague and very good friend for some
35 years, since the early 1980’s and have always been impressed by his very
extensive range of home built, detailed Windle models and more recently
Japanese imports and for a very long time have been meaning to try to gather
together photos I’ve taken over the past 20 years since digital cameras came
into my life. I haven’t quite managed to put a set together covering everything
yet, maybe one of these days, but have found an attractive and eclectic variety
of railcars that have either been built by or detailed by Garry over the past 6
or 7 years which I think may be of interest to all, so as an “extra” to end one
year and start the next, here are some of Garry’s railcars!
03 December 2016 - Dorset Narrow Gauge open day, Colehill, near Wimborne
This was the 5th of these super little end of year events
that Brian Guilmant and members of the Wessex NG Modellers have put on, This
time there was a challenge due to the hall heating breaking down a couple of
days before the event, but an industrial blower heater and bacon rolls
soon got the icicles off the early birds and the hall was nicely warmed up
by the time the first visitors came through the door. Another splendid day with
all that is best in this type of event - friendly, informal, good layouts, good
refreshments and great to meet up with many people who had travelled
considerable distances in some cases to join in the fun. Simon Hargraves came
130 miles from Hastings
by train and suffered weekend signal delays etc etc, making for a 6 hour
journey - 2 hours longer than it took him to get to Merseyside the week before!
29 October 2016 - Expo Narrow Gauge, Swanley
Autumn is upon us, weather has turned, the
clocks are going back to herald the months of dark miserable evenings, but
Expong is with us to fortify ourselves with motivation and inspiration over the
winter! Dark rumours of the impending demise of Expong as we know it were put
to bed and the goodly number of enthusiasts from near, far and very far in some
cases got down to enjoying all that was presented for their delight and
delectation. The usual recipe of “hunt the layouts” amongst the trade stands in
the main hall revealed some gems amongst the 15 layouts tucked away amidst 3
times that number of trade and association/society stands. Huge supplement
however in the best supported Dave Brewer Challenge entries yet seen with no
less than 18 “tuning fork” little layouts – one point and 3 sidings that were
presented. Another great day was had by all!
Click Here to View the Photo Album for this Report
Click Here to View the Photo Album for this Report