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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 22 August 2011

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!


Wednesday 10 August 2011

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

To host only the 3rd 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!