As Wessex NGM Exhibition Manager for NG South said in the Complimentary Show Guide: "Welcome Back"! 4 long years since the last Biennial NGS was held in 2018, and coming out of the Covid Lockdowns, it was a huge challenge to not only put on a great show and to round up top class layouts, but also to convince a nervous population that it was now safe to attend a big show like this. Although numbers were not surprisingly a bit short of target, there were still enough enthusiasts prepared to travel and come to the show to make it a very worthwhile and viable reward for the enormous amount of effort put in by Tim Couling and his small team of volunteers.
In my introduction text to the report on the last NG South, back in pre-lockdown 2018, I referred to it as the 14th biennial Narrow Gauge South so I started my first draft for this report as a welcome to the 15th NGS. A bit of a surprise therefore to find in the show guide for the next NGS, ie this one in 2022(!) that it started with a welcome to "the 20th" NGS. Not to worry, one of us is 6 shows out of sync, and I'm sure that history will determine who got it right, but it doesn't really matter, as the main thing is to celebrate that it has returned, despite the restrictions that we have all had to bear during the Covid crisis period!
NGS has been run every 2 years (except for 2020!) since 1982 and is now the largest and longest-running specialist narrow gauge model railway show in the UK. Indeed, since the retirements of Expo NG and NG Southwest it can be said that it is one of only two of these large events left - good to see that NG North is still going to continue, following the tragic loss of Andrew Kirkby.
So, on with the show as they say, and how to present the best representation that I can of this momentous occasion! As with previous large reports, and in order to cover as much of the show as possible, I have decided to split the report into no less than 4 parts. Access them in the usual way by clicking on the link text under each of the 4 photos below to open up individual albums for them.
I hope you enjoy the report!
PART 1
Well Part 1 got us about a third of the way around the main hall and took me about an hour and a half to get round, so it's time for a coffee break and on the way back from the college restaurant was a good opportunity to dive into the adjacent Nobel Hall where quite a large number of layouts that wouldn't fit into the main hall had been placed.
PART 2
Moving on, still loads more to see. We're back in the main hall again and after a hearty lunch ready to resume the marathon!
PART 3
We've now seen every layout that was present at this huge show except for one, which I have saved for the last section of the report. Dick Wyatt's Dovey Valley 009 layout was built in 1976, was first published in Railway Modeller magazine in 1979 and has appeared in well over 150 model railway exhibitions in the ensuing 46 years. Due to his own health reasons, Dick made the decision to retire the layout a while ago and so it was by great good fortune that exhibition manager Tim Couling managed to get Dick to agree to bring the layout out for one last time to Narrow Gauge South 2022. it seems only fitting therefore that I should allocate "star status" and provide an extended report for this superb layout that has appeared all over the country, a number of articles in modelling magazines and even an appearance in a Two Ronnies TV show. I am also very grateful to Paul Steedman who came to the rescue when I discovered that I had taken a large number of close up photos of parts of the layout and its stock, but very few of the overall layout itself. So Paul has kindly let me use a dozen or so of his own images which provide a good selection of overall views before we get down into the weeds as it were.
I do hope that you have enjoyed this big report - only the third one of this size that I have done, and although I managed to get a 2 part report submitted to 009 News shortly after the show, I very much apologise for the fact that, because of a number of distractions in my life, including family health matters, I have not been able to get this published until 15 months after the event! I was going to just let my blog fade away actually but because a number of people in the hobby have told me that, with some 14 years worth of events visited and reported on, the blog has become quite an historical archive of illustrated reports on narrow gauge modelling events for people to visit and enjoy, I have got myself together and intend to attempt to get back up to date. Please let me know if you spot any errors or howlers and I can then get them put right, in the meantime, please carry on and visit Part 4!
PART 4
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