Wessex NGM and Dorset members of the 009 Society open day, Colehill, 05 December 2015
Dec 21, 2015 • Public
Photo: 001 View of the hall from the stage. Are you in the photo? .
Photo: 002 Top right of the hall from the same angle as the previous photo, the 009 Society “members sales and recycling service” doing brisk business as usual, with the day’s star attraction, the new Minitrains Baldwin, which arrived from Germany just 48 hours beforehand, disappearing very quickly indeed! .
Photo: 003 The all important 5 star refreshments team, l to r: Lyndsey Bryant, Lyn Snook, Muriel Guildmant. Huge appreciation from me on behalf of everyone who was fed and watered throughout the day .
Photo: 004 Jane came all the way from Birmingham with husband Julien Webb and a convoy of West Midlands Group members, but has become a very experienced “train widow” and quickly set up her Ladies Creche group for a bit of serious crocheting and knitting whilst the boys were playing trains, or just putting the world to rights as the two members of the SWOONS group Ed Florey and Matt Cicquel were doing on the next table .
Photo: 005 As the event was only some 200 yards from Brian Guilmant’s home, an added attraction was guided tours of his superb and impressive 31ft x 15ft Imperial Western Railway in his loft and as reported in 009 News December 2015 issue .
Photo: 006 Impossible to get more than a glimpse of parts of the layout whilst sharing the viewing space with 15 others, so may I direct you to the report I posted on this blog on 29 March 2014 for better uninterrupted views of the whole railway .
Photo: 007 One side of the Imperial Western Railway is an uninterrupted 30 something foot railway passing through wild mountain scenery, inspired by scenes in the Rocky Mountains in Western Canada. Here we catch a glimpse of a works train making its way along this part of the scene .
Photo: 008 The other side of the Railway is more cosmopolitan and harkens back to when Brian first started building his “empire” and the IWR was more akin to Isle of Wight than Imperial Western. It also provides a setting for him to display his other interest in buses – in particular the fondly remembered King Alfred Motor Services from Winchester .
Photo: 009 Just a filler, but an example of a nice bit of modelling Imagineering spotted on the Imperial Western Railway of a standard Roco diesel loco body anglicised with a new cab. I would not like to guess what chassis it is on however! .
Photo: 010 Youngest exhibitor of the day and without doubt the most prolific modeller, Toby Hollins came along with father Peter, with no less than 11 dioramas and micro layouts in several different scales that he has made himself. He appeared in Railway Modeller during 2015 and without doubt we are all going to hear much more about this very talented young man’s modelling exploits in the future .
Photo: 011 Layout by Toby Hollins aged 14 .
Photo: 012 A 7mm scale model of a Guinness Brewery locomotive by 14 year old Toby Hollins .
Photo: 013 An 009 Fayles Tramway diorama featuring Hunslet Russell in the cut down condition that the locomotive was during her working days in Purbeck pre-preservation .
Photo: 014 An 09 terminus diorama by Toby Hollins featuring scratchbuilt, 3D and etched models .
Photo: 015 I’m not sure what this little diorama depicts other than it is in 7mm scale .
Photo: 016 And I don’t recognise this little 7mkm scale loco built by Toby either, can anyone identify it? .
Photo: 017 A little 009 industrial railway diorama. The lower loco is a Ruston & Hornsby LA “Dirty Doris” loco by Rod Allcock, not sure at all about the one on the upper level. Again, identification appreciated! .
Photo: 018 Narrow gauge in a margarine tub by Toby Hollins, giving evidence that everyone has some room for modelling, even if we can’t all have 30ft x 15ft attics! .
Photo: 019 “Conventional 009” for a change from Toby Hollins .
Photo: 020 A very smart little 009 layout in around 1 square foot, with an RT Models Portram powered Listerf on the high level with a smat repainted Egger no.5 on the lower line .
Photo: 021 3 of Toby Hollins’ dioramas in food tubs and jewellery boxes – layouts don’t get any smaller than this – in any scale! .
Photo: 022 The largest scene that Toby presented was this 1st World War one accompanied by a comprehensive illustrated description. Toby built this as a project for his school – I hope he received the accolade that it deserves .
Photo: 023 Moving across the room we find Wessex NGM member Alan Hamer with The Castle Line, a superb model of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang castle that was made by Sue Hamer using Linka moulds, and now has a narrow gauge railway in order to transport the tourist visitors. Alan used this layout to demonstrate the properties of a variety of different types of controllers .
Photo: 024 A “typical” generic 009 train in the form of a Minitrains 0-4-0ST Baldwin hauling one of the 009 Society kits for an open Hudson coach on Alan Hamer’s Castle Line .