24 March 2012, Cornish NG Expo, Threemilestone near Truro

To Kernow and The West! As 009 Society Sales Officer Brian Guilmant was unable to travel to the Cornish NG Expo at Threemilestone near Truro on 24 March I was asked if I could take the sales stock on his behalf. Well what's a 17 hour 400 mile round trip, and reveille at 0400 when there is a promise of not only a bacon butty for breakfast but a genuine Cornish Pasty for lunch? A splendid little group do was held, very well hosted by Tom and Lyn Snook, and of course the Cornish NG Railway Modellers. I would especially mention Bob Ayers who came all the way from Gloucestershire to spend the whole day on the sales table with me, plus Marion Blair who also stepped into the sales team. Thanks to you both for your sterling work and enabling me to "swan off with my camera" for an hour or so to grab some snaps of the delights on offer! Although the hall seemed quiet at times, I believe the day was very successful and Tom reported that there were 165 through the door - very good for a group event of this type. I certainly enjoyed the experience and of course the 5 star catering, which is of course illustrated here to show those that thought the far south west to be beyond their travelling range what they missed!

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10 March 2012, Narrow Gauge North, Rawdon, Leeds

To The North! Despite living in Yorkshire for many years of my earlier life, I never got to NG North, so this year I thought that it was high time that I made another trip beyond the Watford Gap from my home in Dorset. I duly set off into the pre-dawn gloom very early on Saturday 10 March, and arrived in what is regarded by southern softies as "the frozen north" in Leeds some 5 hours later to find sunshine, lots of cheerful people and lots of trains, even if some of the people were difficult to understand! A very good day out, good to renew acquaintances with friends that I don't often get the opportunity to meet face to face as it were and well worth the expense and long hours to get there and back. Must do it again next year! There were around 20 layouts in the show, which is supported by all the major societies, so obviously there were also a wide range of scales represented in the layouts, plus a 7¼” gauge passenger carrying line set up by the 7¼ Society along one of the corridors!

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3-4 March 2012, Strabane at the Romsey Model Railway Exhibition

On Sunday 4^th March I had a “2 hour window” in the morning so decided to visit the Romsey Model Railway Exhibition, organised by the local railway modellers society. This is a fairly small show, normally about a dozen layouts, of a variety of scales and types and always good quality. This year there were 3 narrow gauge layouts: Feltwell Road in 009 from Stuart Reeve and sons, John Thorne with his 009 Purbeck and Andy Cundick with his 00n3 work in progress: Strabane. I have photographed Purbeck and Feltwell Road several times before so as time was tight, I concentrated on Strabane, as it is a while since I last saw the layout and the work has progressed a great deal since then. So this short report is entirely for County Donegal Railways fans! More of Andy’s superb Irish models are in the Donegal and Bradford-on-Avon reports from 2009.

One of Andy Cundick’s information notices at the front of the layout states that Strabane is “the fourth in my trilogy of County Donegal layouts” – and there is a bit of Irish for you! Previous 00n3 layouts in the “series” were: Donegal Town, Castlefin and Letterkenny. Andy has also exhibited another Irish narrow gauge layout showing the Londonderry & Lough Swilly border station Bridge End, just outside Londonderry on the Swilly line to Buncrana and Burtonport.

Photos of Strabane, showing just how far this ambitious layout has progressed since its first outing can be seen in my reports from: Narrow Gauge South West 2009 and Narrow Gauge South 2010. And there’s more to come! So far Andy has modelled just the northern end of the narrow gauge part of Strabane station, as far as the footbridge, for those that are familiar with the location. He intends to add a further 8ft beyond the bridge, and was also telling me of tentative plans to extend the width of the station boards to show at least part of the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) broad gauge station. Ambitious indeed and I very much look forward to seeing further progress of this project.

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18 February 2012, Narrow Gauge South West, Shepton Mallet

This year's "Small & Delightful" NG South West on 18th February was most definitely NOT small as to celebrate the 20th NGSW, it had been decided to make it a really BIG one and with 51 layouts counted, not including society demo layouts etc, it most certainly was that! Despite some very late trade stand cancellations and only discovering that several of the planned rooms were no longer available the night before the show, the organising team still managed to put on what was almost certainly the biggest NG specialist one day show we've ever seen, and in many people's opinion's including my own it was one of the best as well. With over 50 layouts, there can only be a brief glimpse of each one, but I have tried hard to include at least one photo of every layout and something of the flavour of NGSW as well!

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22 January 2012, Beds & Bucks NG Modellers Members Open Day, Barton Le Clay

The 7^th annual Beds & Bucks NG Modellers open day was another very successful event for Mark Howe and his colleagues with no less than 14 layouts present, several traders attending, 009 Society sales kept busy all day; and catering manager Terri Howe reported no less than 150 sausage bap kits constructed and then consumed – as well as a host of other super eats. It was an easy decision for the travelling culinary assessor to award not only 5 stars but the rare honour of golden frying pan as well………………

It was good to again see junior narrow gauge modellers being actively encouraged and all in all I experienced a very friendly, informal and inspiring day out that made the 300 mile round trip for me well worth the expense and time.  Once again, congratulations are in order to the Beds & Bucks NG modellers for their hard work in laying on a splendid event.

If you didn’t go, but decided to visit one of the several “mainstream” model railway exhibitions that were scattered throughout the country on the same date, then not only did you spend a lot more money in entrance than you would have done getting in to this event, but you missed a grand day amongst like-minded enthusiasts that had all the qualities that make narrow gauge modelling stand out from the other strands of the model railway hobby.

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14 January 2012 - SWOONS Members Open Day, Ilton, Somerset

Another splendid start to a new year as the South West Area Group of the 009 Society (SWOONS) held their 6th Members Open Day at the Merryfield Hall in the small village of Ilton, between Yeovil and Taunton in Somerset  As usual, a good selection of layouts were provided by both the members of the group and some invited guests.

This is a small, informal and friendly members open day and attendances are never going to be counted in the several hundreds, but those who make the effort to travel to the depths of rural Somerset know that it is well worth braving the winter in order to have a good day amongst some very skilled modellers, plus of course a golden opportunity to have an in depth rummage through the whole extent of the fabulous 009 Society sales stock without being pressured or jostled by the 3 deep crowds that lay siege to the treasure trove at larger events. Congratulations to all the SWOONS members who worked hard to lay on an excellent little event and to the new catering team of Maria and Matt who worked hard all day, keeping everyone’s victualling requirements more than amply satisfied. Another 5 star award – well I couldn’t really drop the culinary assessment after it being featured as a star attraction on the front page of the programme could I!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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13 August 2011, Wiltshire Group 009 Society Members Day and MOMING 11, Pewsey

If you don't know what a proper lardy cake is, then you really need to put the biennial Wiltshire Group bunfight in Pewsey firmly in your diary, for there you will find the stickiest and sweetest example of this Wessex speciality delicacy (I say Wessex because I know at least 3 counties in the region claim it as their own!). In addition to the lardy cake there were 10 009 and 2 HOe layouts, a further 10 MOMING ones (Modelling the Minimum Gauge) in various scales, coordinated by Christopher Payne and no less than 9 traders/society stands, including Brian Guilmant’s  009 Society Sales (of course!) plus Neville Kent with N Drive and Andrew and Rachael Hastie with Parkside Dundas, all the way from Scotland; and Allen Doherty with Worsley Works from Manchester. If traders are prepared to travel up to 500 miles each way to spend a Saturday sitting in a village hall in rural Wiltshire, then there can't be much wrong with the hobby can there? The 150 or so paying visitors and about 50 who participated certainly agreed! I'm not sure if Pewsey was the pioneer of the regular 009 Society Group members day events, but this was their 13th, so 26 years of doing it must mean their recipe works. Another splendid informal and friendly day amongst some top class modellers and their layouts. Great stuff and much appreciation to both the Wiltshire Group and Christopher Payne once again!

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16 July 2011, Narrow Gauge Midlands & 009 Society EGM, Water Orton

To host only the 3^rd Extraordinary General Meeting called in the 009 Society’s long history, the West Midlands Group organised Narrow Gauge Midlands, a super friendly and informal members day at the Water Orton Community Venue near Birmingham and despite the necessary formalities of the EGM, which Chairman / Director General, David Gander kept mercifully short, all 68 or so members who made the effort to travel considerable distances in torrential rain in some cases that I spoke to thought that the venue was good, the refreshments were outsdanding (well done again ladies!) and the friendly ambience amongst some top quality modelling was just the job for a really good little event. I understand that discussions are already under way for a repeat performance (without an EGM) at the same venue sometime next year - see you there!

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28 May 2011, Sussex Downs 009 Group Open Day, Wivelsfield

Just a week after the Wessex NG Modellers Dorset members open day, the Sussex Downs 009 Group laid on their third open day in rural mid-Sussex, with 8 x 009 layouts, plus one of each 006.5, 016.5, an 00 tram layout, trade support from Meridian Models, Rodney Stenning, Narrow Planet and of course the 009 Society sales stand. Unfortunately visitor numbers were somewhat lower than either expected or deserved, perhaps due to it being a bank holiday weekend. Nevertheless, those who did manage to make the effort to join the participants, enjoyed another of those superb informal, relaxed and friendly days, with some really top class modelling to admire and an absolutely outstanding refreshments service. Much appreciation to all the Sussex Downs lads and ladies for laying on such a super day and as I said in my report of the 2009 event: "looking forward to the next one already"!

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21 May 2011, Wessex NG Modellers Dorset Open Day, Colehill

For some time now, 009 Society Sales Officer Brian Guilmant has been aware that there are a healthy number of narrow gauge modellers living within a reasonable hailing distance of his home in Colehill, near Wimborne in Dorset. Brian had an aspiration to organise a local open day and to bring together as many as possible of the narrow gauge enthusiasts that live within an hour or so of Wimborne for an informal and fun open day where everyone could have a pleasant day amongst like minded people and enjoy the layouts that attended.

And what a super day out this turned out to be! Brian requisitioned the Colehill Memorial Hall, just 200 yards from his home and rounded up a dozen layouts mainly from the Dorset area, and slightly over the border into Somerset and Wiltshire in 3 cases. About 100 enlightened people got their priorities right, some travelling considerable distances to be there and enjoyed an absolutely splendid, friendly and fun day! This is what the hobby is all about and from visitor feedback it was clear that a number of new narrow gauge modelling enthusiasts had been attracted as a result. Much appreciation to everyone who contributed to the success of the day and especially to Brian and Muriel Guilmant for the many hours of hard work they put in both before and during the day. Let's have more open days like this one!

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9 April 2011, 009 Society AGM, Rainford, Merseyside

Very suitable that the first completely new Roving Report to be posted in this new Blogsite is for an event as important as the 009 Society AGM, and it was very much a “last minute” chance that I managed to get to it at all this year. Was it the Call of Duty or just outright insanity? Due to a family illness, I had already reconciled myself that I wasn't going to be able to get to the AGM this year; Hon Ed 009 News had been notified and official apologies had already been submitted to Hon Chair and Hon Sec. And as at 0200 hours Friday night/Saturday morning that was still the case. However the call to the colours was too strong to resist and an hour later, at 0300 the Nissan had been fired up and my son and I were on the road heading north. A pre-dawn fried breakfast at Knutsford Services on the M6 got us sufficiently woken up and ready to tackle the anticipated bacon butties when we arrived at the "do" and we were not disappointed when we pulled into Rainford at 0830!

A pleasant morning was spent with modelling friends and acquaintances and luckily I took a number of snaps on the "first lap" around the layouts before lunch, because unfortunately at midday I got a recall, had to abort the day and take my leave. So, no sleep, 550 miles round trip and just over 3 hours at the venue, but how else were you going to see photos of the day?

A brief stay for me, but sufficient to see that it was an excellently organised do by Roger Christian and Stan Williams; and of course the superb layouts that were presented for everyone to enjoy. The good news of course is that I wasn't present for the formal part of the AGM, so I expect it was quite a lot shorter than usual!

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Target Achieved - Ex-Fotopic Roving Reports Reinstated!

When Fotopic suddenly disappeared on 9 March along with everybody's photo galleries, I thought it might take 6 months to rebuild all of my photo reports posted there. It wasn't the photos as I had the originals safe anyway, it was the texts and captions that were the problem.
 Anyhow, with the Shepton Mallet 2011 report that appears immediately below this posting, I am happy to announce that I have completed the rebuilding and reposting of all the reports previously on Fotopic all the way back to January 2008 and any or all of these can now be accessed through the links that appear in the postings below. It only took just over a month to do it, and using Picasaweb to hold the albums and this Blog as the access point, it has been a much more straightforward exercise than I imagined it would be.

Time to find a bacon butty and have a break I think!

That's better. I hope you enjoy the reports and the effort of the past month or so proves to have been worth it!

When I started rebuilding my reports, I made the decision to restart the albums/galleries from January 2008. I apologise if anyone was expecting to see the original 2007 galleries that I started with, but I'm afraid the captions and intro texts etc for all of these were lost as in the early days I used to type them in directly online without thinking of how much better and safer it would have been to compile them as Word documents and therefore have them saved for future use. All of the photos that were in these earlier reports and very much more are featured in my Roving Reporter Photo CDs with photo coverage going all the way back to 1997 anyway (further details about these and how to obtain them can be found in the 009 Society Website

The photo of me doing a culinary assessment on a bacon roll by the way was taken at the fondly remembered and much missed Chilterns Narrow Gauge which used to be held annually in June at Luton. A super show in a good central location, but very sadly not supported sufficiently well for the hard working organising team to be able to continue to run it. There's a clear message there - if you are able to get to one of the specialist events that I take nearly all of my photos at, please do make the effort to get there. The success of these events depends entirely upon the hardwork of usually a small team of enthusiasts, and the support of those who will come and enjoy the show.

FINALLY, just to explain the structure that I have standardised for all the reports:

There is a Title and Date; the introductory text usually unaltered from the original Fotopic gallery report; a copy of the album "cover photo" for the event and a LINK which is defaulted to take you to the opening slide of a slideshow that is configured to run automatically at 3 second intervals through the complete set of photos for that report. This appears to have confused a few people so a short explanation:

1. You can adjust the time delay between slides simply by clicking on the + or - symbols next to the time shown.

2. You can stop the automatic slideshow and go "manual" and then revert back to automatic as desired simply by clicking on the central II or > symbol between the blue arrows

3. If you prefer to see the album contents list in thumbnails and then select individual photos to view, then click on the large X symbol at the right of the slide controls. This will then stop the slideshow and take you to the album thumbnails. Click on a thumbnail to open up that photo and then you can either go back to the album contents or use the arrows to scroll forwards or backwards.

4. You can revert back to the slideshow at any time by clicking on the "view slideshow" link top left of the album contents pane.

WARNING. If you keep to the default slideshow, either auto or manual, you can immediately get back to the Blogsite by clicking on the "back" arrow top left (in Internet Explorer). However if you decide to view the albums through the album contents thumbnails, you will have to sequentially click the back arrow as many times as you have viewed photos in order to return to the blogsite and subsequently go to the next report to view. Additionally, the album presentation only allows for a truncated (150 words) introduction text to the album, which is why it is recommended that all access and/or saving into "Favourites" for future access is done via the Blogsite URL and NOT through my Picasaweb account URL

19 February 2011, Narrow Gauge South West, Shepton Mallet

Just 6 weeks before the 19^th NG Southwest was due there was some doubt that it was even going to happen. Howard Martin, exhibition manager had been seriously ill, and only 4 confirmed layout bookings were known. But little things like that don’t put the robust Small & Delightful Group off and after a “call to arms” was sent out to a number of layout owners at short notice, a splendid selection of layouts were eventually assembled, I counted no less than 28, in scales between HOe up to G and SM32. As ever, good quality layouts and some superb examples of narrow gauge railway modelling at the highest level all presented in the informal friendly and fun atmosphere that all those who regularly attend NG Southwest know so well.

If you haven’t been to NG Southwest then you really should put it into your diary as a “must” to do next year!

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23 January 2011, Beds & Bucks NG Modellers Members Open Day, Barton Le Clay

By my reckoning this was the 6^th annual Beds & Bucks NG Modellers open day and the 5^th that I have attended. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” and Mark Howe and his hard working colleagues followed their established successful formula by laying on a feast of narrow gauge modelling across a broad spectrum of scales and integrating novice modellers and layouts “under construction” right through to “premier league” famous layouts, complete with “As Seen in Railway Modeller” stickers in total equality and without any elitism.

Along with the tempting aroma of sausages sizzling away throughout the day, the scene was set for another of the friendly, informal, inspiring and hugely enjoyable days that more and more are agreeing is where the healthy heart of the hobby lies. It was particularly encouraging to see active participation by several junior narrow gauge modellers.

I still cannot understand why some people with like-minded narrow gauge interests do not bother to attend these sort of events yet appear to prefer to spend small fortunes in entrance fees and travel across the country to go to the big mainstream model railway shows, where if they are lucky they may see two or three NG layouts, normally jostling amongst a crowd of “non NG-aware” spectators, and with the layout operators usually working under considerable stress, no time to stop, chat and show a particular new model; and often displaying significant sense of humour malfunctions……

I know where I prefer to spend my money! Huge appreciation to the Beds & Bucks NG Modellers for laying on another Grand Day Out

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15 January 2011, SWOONS Members Open Day, Ilton

The South West Area Group of the 009 Society (SWOONS) held their 5th Members Open Day at the Merryfield Hall in the small village of Ilton, between Yeovil and Taunton in Somerset  and for a change, there was neither snow nor floods to deter those who like their model railway events to be of the narrow, friendly and informal genre. A good selection of layouts were provided by both the members of the group and some invited guests who had travelled considerable distances in some cases to give their trains a run after the winter hibernation.

The word had obviously been passed around about what a good day out this one is, as the hall was packed out in the morning, and overall I estimate that there were about twice the number of visitors compared to previous years. I spotted many 009 Society members who had travelled over 100 and in some cases 200 miles each way in order to attend. If enthusiasts are prepared to travel considerable distances despite the extortionate fuel costs prevailing to be at a small village hall in the depths of winter, then the hobby is certainly healthy and those who could have come but decided that it was “too far” are certainly the ones who missed out on both a superbly organised, friendly, informal and enjoyable day, but also some exciting and not to be repeated bargains on the 009 Sales stand! Once they’re gone, they’re gone as they say!

Appreciation is extended to all the SWOONS members who worked hard to lay on an excellent little event and in particular to Moreen, Hilary and Rita who maintained steam pressure in the  kettle and kept the hungry train people refreshed all day long. Another 5 star rating awarded by the catering assessor!

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30 October 2010, Expo Narrow Gauge, Swanley

Expong this year followed the usual recipe for the event – a huge total number of stands – 72 according to the  programme, with trade and association/societies being present in force, and 18 layouts tucked away between them all. However, despite some concerns voiced in some quarters before the event, that there were insufficient  layouts booked and half of them could be described as “micro” layouts to boot, I think that everyone who attended, including myself, thought that it was a really splendid show and the quality of most of the layouts that were present was very high indeed. Added to all that is what may be described as “The Expong Experience” – you really have to go there and join in to understand that I suppose. As I’ve said before, it is without doubt the undisputed magnet for those who are involved with or a supporter of narrow gauge modelling in all scales to meet up for both a social gathering and renewing of acquaintances, to enjoy seeing the top quality modelling present and being able to talk to the layout builders in an enlightened environment that is simply not present at “mainstream shows”; and of course to spend lots of money at the full range of narrow gauge modelling specialities on offer from the traders and societies.

I travelled on the Friday with the 009 Society Sales stand and therefore was present for the whole time from “doors opening” at 8pm Friday through to the Le Mans style rush to vacate the hall and get out of the carpark after closure at 5.30pm Saturday (but we did actually vacate the leisure centre in order to sleep between 11pm Friday and 7.30am Saturday (!)), so I saw first hand the tremendous amount of work put in by Hazel Brewer and her Greenwich & District NG Society colleagues, particularly on Friday night, to try to ensure that everyone was properly accounted for, booked in, looked after and settled into their designated “patches” despite the efforts of the leisure centre staff to not provide access to all the halls, in the case of the small gym until 10pm!

One occasionally reads negative feedback after a show, I have only seen positive feedback from those who participated and from visitors about this event (notwithstanding impressions about the refreshment service provided by the leisure centre!). In my own personal opinion, I share the positive impression – it was a great event and once again was a super way to complete the specialist narrow gauge show “season” for 2010.

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25 September 2010, Small & Delightful Railway Group Open Day, Walton

The Small & Delightful Railway Group, who organise the superb NG Southwest at Shepton Mallet every February, held their biennial open day at Walton, near Street in Somerset on 25 September, which is where they are able to get their own layouts set up, together with some invited layouts to produce a relaxed and friendly little event that has become very popular amongst those “in the know”, attracting attendance from all over the country.

Despite chief layout organiser Howard Martin being unable to participate due to illness, Barry Baker and the team still managed to put on another very enjoyable day of informal friendship amidst some excellent NG layouts ranging from 009, through 016.5 and 09 via Gn9 and Gn15 all the way up to 16mm scales. Both 009 Society and 7mm NGA sales teams were present with the full range of goodies on offer and Steve Bennett catered for the larger scale fans with his Gn15, G9 and 09 resin kit ranges. Splendid refreshments from the Glastonbury Lions rounded off a super day out for all who managed to attend. I hope my selection of photos provides something of an overall impression of this excellent day out in deepest Zummerzet.

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11/12 September 2010, Nationale Smalspoormuseum Modelbouwdagen, Valkenburgse Meer near Leiden, Netherlands

After a gap of 5 years since I last attended Valkenburg, a very late opportunity to fill a vacant seat in Lee Bryant's car arose and at 0300 on Friday 10 September I duly left home on a memorable expedition to the Netherlands that finished 72 hours and 10 minutes later when I returned to my bed at 0310 the following Monday!

It was great to meet up again with many of my good friends in the Dutch 009 Group on their own “home turf”, as well as several other fellow narrow gauge modellers from both Holland and Germany, plus of course the British contingent of Lee Bryant with Coil End Lane; Tom Dauben and Chris Matthews with Tom’s Dunbracken; Don and Val Sibley with their 1:100 scale (almost TTn3!) Belgian Country Tramway; and Andrew Burnham and Heather Scott from Peco who joined us on the Saturday.

I very much enjoyed all aspects of the weekend, which anyone who has ever attended will confirm, is so much more than simply taking part in a model railway exhibition. I was particularly impressed by and grateful for the superb welcome and hospitality provided throughout the weekend by the hosts from the Valkenburg Museum. Fantastic! An added bonus was Ted and Henriette Polet’s very kind invitation to Lee, Tom, Chris and myself to visit their home for an evening meal, and of course to climb that famous near-vertical staircase to see the Craigcorrie & Dunalistair in all its glory (Minus Dunalistair Harbour, but we caught up with that at the museum as Ted had extracted it for the exhibition). It was my own 4^th ascent of the stairs to visit  the C&DR , but a first for the others and a highlight of what was a superb, friendly and inspiring weekend for us all.

My set of photos starts with some impressions of the visit to the C&DR – which in my opinion is easily the premier model of a complete operating railway system, narrow gauge or otherwise that exists; then we travel across the city of Leiden from Ted’s home to the Valkenburg Museum and I have tried to compress a reasonably comprehensive overall summary of all the attractions to be seen, both model and full sized. A brief glimpse of the superb BBQ and special train that the organisers laid on for participants on the Saturday night, and finishing with some photos of the attending layouts – with no apologies made for featuring Dunalistair as the main attraction (complete with some of my own visiting Mull & Iona Railway stock!). I do hope you enjoy this report, which for me was the highlight of 2010.

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5 June 2010, Narrow Gauge at the Exeter Model Railway Exhibition

I don’t often attend “mainstream” model railway exhibitions, but as there were no specialist narrow gauge model railway events or 009 Society area group members days in my diary at all during June, I decided to put a set of batteries into the Roving Reporter camera, fire up the Nissan and join the traffic queues heading into Devonshire to pay a visit to the Exe Model Railway Society’s annual exhibition in Exeter on Saturday the 5^th of June. This turned out to be a good decision as the SWOONS (South West 009 Modellers) Group were there in force with a very professionally presented publicity display plus 5 of their own Group member’s layouts and 3 more provided by fellow 009 Society members from out of area.

An added bonus for me was that amongst the 40 layouts in the main part of the exhibition, I came across David Taylor’s superb 0-16.5 7mm scale Bridport Town, one of my own favourites and acknowledged as one of the best narrow gauge layouts in any scale currently on the exhibition circuit.

A great model railway event in a superb venue with lots of space, good facilities and a friendly organising team; overall it was a splendid way to spend a summer Saturday!

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1 May 2010, Narrow Gauge Midlands, Wolverley near Kidderminster

The West Midlands Narrow Gauge Group held their members open day for 2010 at the Wolverley Memorial Hall just outside Kidderminster, on Saturday 1^st May 2010.

Despite it being the May bank holiday weekend, and there being several concurrent narrow gauge distractions around the country (Porthmadog, Cleethorpes and Bognor Regis (SWING event) all come immediately to mind), there were still some 60 narrow gauge modellers who had their priorities right, and joined in for a very well organised fun, informal and friendly day. I travelled with Brian Guilmant as escort to the 009 Society salesmobile and Brian reported a very good day’s trading for this type of small event. 7 layouts attended and Allen Doherty brought his Worsley Works sales down from Manchester and additionally ran a soldering workshop that was much appreciated by those that participated.

Stars of the show undoubtedly were Jane Webb and Janet Hill of the 84^th Birmingham Guides, who provided a superb refreshment service all day. All present were so impressed by the standard of sustenance provided that I was asked to re-open the travelling catering assessment column that I used to write for 009 News until the hatemail from supporters of those events that could only aspire to 1 or 2 stars for providing pink sludge filled sausage rolls and sour coffee caused me to go back to reporting on the trainsets exhibited instead. So, by popular request, it gave me great pleasure to award the Birmingham Guides Catering Team 5 stars with a lettuce leaf cluster on their woggles for their super service. Now back to the trains…….!

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10 April 2010, Narrow Gauge South, Sparsholt College, Winchester

What a monster of a day! NGS this year, hosted by the Wessex NGM's and the final one to be organised by our retiring "chef du layout par excellence" Howard Coulson, was simply the biggest and many commented that in their opinion the best, one day narrow gauge show there has ever been. There were a total of 46 narrow gauge layouts, many of which were BIG ones, 33 of which were within the small scale bracket covered by the 009 Society who were concurrently holding their AGM at the venue, and there were no less than 23 trade and society/association stands in support. (which was amazingly described by one commentator on his website as “a smattering of traders”…..). Many of the layouts that attended would have easily been “star attractions” on their own at some lesser mainstream “national” and even “international” events. The fact that they were all gathered together and both celebrity and first time exhibits (of which there were a good number) were given equal standing, without any form of discrimination or elitism, which also occurs in some shows that I have attended, made the day the very friendly and informal one that all who have been to Sparsholt before appreciate so much, and the circumstances of this particular occasion made it a very special day as evidenced by the large number of visitors and participants who took the trouble to personally pay their own compliments at the end of what was a very long day for most who were there, particularly the hosting team!

In order to shoehorn an impression of the day into this gallery, I have had to severely restrict the number of photos that I have allowed for each layout in a quest to provide a photo souvenir for those that came and to show those that couldn’t come what a great variety of layouts there were, to just one or two in most cases. I have however managed (I think!) to include at least one photo of every layout that was present – I am quite pleased with myself at that, even though the pace of the day meant that all photos taken were quick opportunity auto-focus unposed snaps.  It took several days to recover my eyesight and feet from rushing from room to room from 0730 until close of play and viewing the whole show through a camera viewfinder! One of these days I will attend a show without a camera and I might actually get to see the layouts and enjoy the detail in them which you don’t see when trying to line up suitable photographic angles!

I don't know how other ng show organisers are going to match this one in future events, but if you did attend, then you will know that you participated in what will probably go down in the narrow gauge modelling annals as a unique and never to be repeated event! If you could have gone but didn't, or if you did go but only gave some of the rooms a passing glance and didn’t stay long enough to take in the full panoply of the day, then start kicking yourself now, you’ve only got yourself to blame!

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7 March 2010, Romsey Model Railway Exhibition

I made a flying morning visit to Romsey on 7 March in order to take the first opportunity of seeing Howard Coulson's new HOe Belgian layout "Beaulieu les Mines". Like his previous well known East African "Eitomo", which clocked up over 100 exhibition attendances before passing to a new owner, the new layout is full of colour and once Howard has populated the busy and narrow streets of the town with figures, it will be a bustling scene that is full of life. Lots of potential and it was a pleasure to see the new layout "in the flesh" after the long months for Howard of getting it to an exhibitable state. A further opportunity to see this new layout will occur on 10 April at Narrow Gauge South.

An added bonus was another brief encounter with Graham Lindley's popular and also very colourful 009 "Lyddbridge", which I have photographed on numerous previous occasions, but there are always new angles to find and new items of stock to capture in the lens!

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20 February 2010, Narrow Gauge South West, Shepton Mallet

Something strange going on down Zummerzet way! Why is it that whatever the weather has decided to do in February, it is always exactly the same on “Small & Delightful” show day? I have never known a Narrow Gauge South West at Shepton Mallet when it hasn't been bitterly cold outside, like a blast furnace inside and with
fiercely strong winter sunshine lancing through the south facing windows doing its upmost to ruin even the best roving reportage photographic efforts - and this year it was exactly the same for the umpteenth year running!

The programme announced that this was the 18th Small & Delightful "do"; not sure about this as last year it was apparently the 16^th and the year before was definitely the 15^th, and the 2007 event was the 14^th! There were a number of other “typos” in the programme, so I think we can safely assume that it was actually the 17^th NGSW! Doesn’t matter really does it!]

The other major change to the “tradition” of Shepton Mallet is that the world famous “Maggie & Flo’s Bistro” has now officially been renamed as “Penny & Flo’s Bistro”. Actually Maggie told me that she had not been involved with the bistro for 2 years now. It’s all academic to me anyway as yet again I didn’t have time to stop by and enjoy the delicious looking goodies on offer, but I know that hundreds of others did!

Above all else NGSW is the annual early spring meeting up of the like-minded afflicted to call the roll of those that made the effort to attend (over 800 including participants), enjoy the range of trade temptations and superb modelling and to catch up on topical gossip! Despite some late cancellations on both the trade and layout fronts, Chairman Alan Eadle, Exhibition Manager and Group Secretary Howard Martin, Car Parking Sergeant Major Barrie Baker and everyone else in the hard working S&D home team managed to put together another super show which covered the whole scale spectrum from "T" up to 16mm. 28 layouts altogether, just enough to wear me out completely trying to get round them all! I’ve tried to keep my photo selection concise but have still need a giant set of over 100 snaps to try to give a representative flavour of another great event and another super day out. If you haven't been to Shepton Mallet for NG South West yet, it's one that you really must do!

 

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17 January 2010, Beds & Bucks NG Modellers Members Open Day, Barton Le Clay

It has now become something of a tradition amongst those who “keep up with the curve” to find themselves halfway through January each year and already have 2 super narrow gauge modelling events under their belts. This year was no different, despite the weather and the cancellation of a couple of large commercial shows due mainly to the reluctance of some layout owners to risk travelling.

A couple of days before the Beds & Bucks NG Group members open day at Barton le Clay in Bedfordshire, organiser Mark Howe feared the worst as several of his own booked layouts cancelled, but the Group showed some good British Dunkirk spirit and rallied to the call-up of the reserves with a vengeance! So much so in fact that the final roll-call on the day found no less than 18 narrow gauge layouts, and not all of them tiny micro’s, being set up in the village hall. That is 2 more layouts than were presented at Expong folks!

Around 100 enthusiasts plus those who were participating made for another superb informal and friendly day out that the affiliated area groups of the 009 Society have become so successful at laying on. Full marks to all of the Beds and Bucks Group and to everyone who enjoyed the day. If you have not yet been to one of these smaller informal events, you really are missing out on enjoying the “core” of the hobby, whatever scale your modelling interests are.

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9 January 2010, SWOONS Members Open Day, Ilton, Somerset

New Year 2010 in the UK started with the coldest spell experienced for over 30 years accompanied by heavy snowfalls and treacherous ice which brought the whole country to a near standstill. They're made of good old fashioned Hardy (excuse the pun) stock down in the South Western counties though and undeterred by a bit of a cold snap, the South West 009 Society (SWOONS) area group made the brave decision to "keep calm and carry on". Although attendance was understandably lower than previous years, there were still some 40 narrow gauge modelling enthusiasts present, and I spotted friends and acquaintances from as far afield as Birmingham.

Another splendid way to start the year off amongst like-minded modellers in a relaxed, informal and friendly spirit. Much appreciation to all the SWOONS members and associates for their efforts in keeping the narrow gauge flag flying so strongly.

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8 November 2009 - Northampton & District NG Modellers Open Day, Weedon Bec

Sunday 8^th November and I found myself “on the road” at 0630 in a damp cold and gloomy November morning with Brian Guilmant and his 009 Society salesmobile heading north towards the village of Weedon Bec just off the A5 Watling Street Roman road for the 3^rd biennial Northampton & District Narrow Gauge Modellers “members and friends open day”, another of those small narrow gauge area group organised events that features a variety of narrow gauge layouts where model railway enthusiasts who know what is good get together and enjoy a day of informal and friendly like-minded fellowship.

In this case around 100 people converged from all 4 points of the compass and I spotted fellow modelling acquaintances from central Wales, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Suffolk, Essex, the West Midlands, Hampshire, Dorset in the case of Brian and myself and of course adjoining midland counties! We arrived in good time to set up what was remaining of the sales after the locusts had descended at Expong the weekend before, and managed to devour the most enormous doorstep sausage and bacon sandwich that had been provided by the 5 star catering team of Julie Cope and colleagues. There were 10 ng layouts, 2 Society/Association sales stands, a 16mm scale display and a very good railway artist was also present (apologies for not noting his name – it wasn’t in the programme!). Some modellers wax lyrical about the “major” MRX’s, Warley, York etc, some consider that the only shows worth making the effort to travel to are the major ng shows such as Expong, Shepton Mallet and Sparsholt – which are actually all MUCH better than wasting huge entrance fees on the big mainstream shows, but for many of us, myself included, what the hobby is REALLY all about is the smaller friendly and informal area group members/open days that this one was such as good example of.

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31 October 2009 - Expo Narrow Gauge, Swanley

Following the special circumstances of Expong 2008, this years’ event was always going to be something of an anti-climax from some perspectives, however although it was quite a “light” show with regards to the number of layouts attending: just 15 out of a total of 66 stands, it cannot be disputed that the quality of the layouts that were on show was extremely high. But Expong is not simply about the number of narrow gauge layouts that are exhibited; it is the undisputed magnet for all the specialist traders that support this end of the model railway spectrum and for everyone who is either involved in or a supporter of narrow gauge railways, full size and model, to meet up for both a major social gathering and to empty wallets before the money gets wasted on the family Christmas shopping!

I thoroughly enjoyed the day as I expected to and I would like to express my own appreciation to Hazel Brewer and her fellow Greenwich & District NG Society members for working so hard to both welcome arrivals on Friday night and Saturday morning and to maintain the hard work throughout the actual event to ensure that both participants and paying visitors enjoyed a splendidly organised and smooth running show.

Recently I had a page published in 009 News that included photos of some of the traders who support the hobby rather than the models themselves. This proved to be very popular so I have kept to this theme for the start of this report and have featured as wide a selection as I could showing some of the personalities that support narrow gauge modelling, and because I know that some people like to put faces to names. I hope this proves as popular as the 009 News article was and I apologise if I have inadvertently omitted anyone who should have been included – please let me know and I will try to get you in the lens next time!

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15 August 2009 - Wiltshire Group 009 Society Members Day and MOMING 09, Pewsey

The 12th biennial event organised by the Wiltshire Group of the 009 Society, and the 3rd occasion that they had hosted the "exhibition within an exhibition" "Modelling the Minimum Gauge" (MOMING), ably coordinated by well-known minimum gauge modeller and enthusiast, Christopher Payne.

With 9 009 layouts, 8 "MOMING" in various scales between 09 and 1:22.5, an outstanding display of 15mm scale Irish NG models by John Campbell and Neil Ramsay, a very good presence from the specialist trade support (much appreciated chaps!) covering both 009 and MOMING specialities, and probably the best, stickiest and sweetest lardy cake that I have ever sampled, it all added up to another memorable, friendly, informal and enjoyable day out in deepest Wiltshire - an experience shared by over 200 other narrow gauge modellers who travelled considerable distances in some cases to be there. If you could have gone but didn't bother, you really should put Pewsey in your diary for next time - but you will have to wait until 2011!

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19 July 2009 - More County Donegal Delights at the Bradford on Avon MRX

Although Andy Cundick had announced that his 00n3 County Donegal layout "Letterkenny" was having its final outing before retirement at the Donegal MRX in May (covered in my earlier collection), he decided to give it "just one more showing" at the Bradford on Avon show on 19 July, and as I live within an hour's drive, I just had to make the effort to snap up some of the stuff I had missed before whilst there was still an opportunity to see this super layout!

An added bonus that I discovered on arrival was the presence of 2 more excellent narrow gauge layouts, both in unusual scales: Christopher Payne's 1:34 scale St Pierre et La Rue Perrin and William Loyd's Sn3 (1:64 scale on 14.2mm gauge track) Oro Grande Railroad. Although the primary purpose of my visit to Bradford on Avon was to take a last chance to capture some more photos of Letterkenny, I have also included a small selection of snaps of these 2 layouts - they are both far too good to ignore!

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