07 August 2021, Pewsey, 18th Wiltshire 009 Group Open Day - Catching Up Late Report 15 of 15

 “The Day After Tomorrow” – or more accurately, 19 months since, for me, the last opportunity to attend a model railway event, since January 2020 at the SWOONS open day in Ilton, so when The Wiltshire 009 Society Group announced that they were going ahead with their 2021 biennial open day in Pewsey, but tentatively dipping their toes into the post-lockdown era with a low-profile meet up, I along with others who have been starved of like-minded fellowship for such a long time, decided that even if I have moved house during the lockdown and now live over 100 miles from Pewsey, the lure of Marshall’s Bakery extra sticky Lardy Cake and a day out amongst Andy Cundick’s happy band of modellers was too much to resist! I was very glad that I made the effort as it was a very well organised little event, smaller than usual admittedly, but this made it more enjoyable in its own way as there were no problems maintaining sensible social distancing and enjoying the day catching up with friends and acquaintances in a safe and common-sense atmosphere. Big appreciation all round to the Wiltshire Group and I hope that this event has pioneered the way ahead and a return to some sort of normality once we get into 2022!

This now completes my mammoth “catch up” job in finally managing to get round to compiling and uploading 4 years worth of reports on the blog of my visits to NG modelling events since mid 2017, when home circumstances caused me to fall behind and then eventually to get so far behind that I wondered if it was worth doing it any more.

So, many thanks and much appreciation to all those who have provided encouragement and got me going again. There are signs that some degree of normality is starting to resume and if we all manage to get through this winter, keep the social distancing sensible, keep away from packed night clubs and football stadiums, refrain from glueing ourselves to roads and act with some common sense, then maybe 2022 will enable us all to resume enjoying mutual fellowship at our sort of events now they are slowly starting to gather momentum again. Best wishes to all and I hope to meet up with many friends and like minded ng model enthusiasts again somewhere soon!

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11 January 2020, Ilton, SWOONS 14th Members Open Day. Catching Up Late Report 14 of 15

Well we all managed to get to the start of 2020 and were looking forward to another year of excellent and regular events with a narrow gauge flavour large and small throughout the land! Maybe this was an early forecast of what was to come however as the annual South West 009 Society group (SWOONS) starter for the year in Ilton, Somerset, very nearly didn’t happen due to a number of late withdrawals leaving Geoff Bowyer and his hard working team with a lot of effort and work to find sufficient replacements to make running the event viable. They ended up with eight layouts, from group members and 4 invited from as far afield as Cheshire as well as Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset to help to fill the gaps. In the circumstances, although a smaller number of layouts and traders than usual, it was still a great day to start the year, the 009 Soc sales was present in full, Matt and Maria’s pasties were as good as ever and everyone agreed that it was another splendidly successful day! How were we to know that for many, including me, this would be the last opportunity to attend a show for nearly two years!

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07 December 2019, Colehill near Wimborne, Wessex NG Modellers Open Day. Catching Up Late Report 13 of 15

The 8^th annual gathering of the like-minded in Colehill, near Wimborne in Dorset was very much what the regular attenders had come to expect, with around 100 or so enthusiasts travelling from near and far to enjoy another informal and friendly day and a chance to do some Christmas shopping at the 009 Society sales stand, which was laden with goodies as ever. We didn’t know it at the time, but this gathering was the last time we would all be able to get together for this little event for 2 years, due to the Covid restrictions of 2020 and most of 2021 and the last one that we would be in the company of Brian Guilmant who had organised these Colehill gatherings, just 200 yards away from his home, but sadly passed away after a very long battle against cancer on the 24^th of July 2020.

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