OVER 300 railway enthusiasts attended Westbury’s 17th annual Model Railway Show last month, some coming from as far as America.
During the show, Rod Towler was presented with The Gauge 0 Guild’s Order of Merit. This was presented by Gauge 0 Guild Vice President Lionel Hooper and the Guild’s local area representative Fred Lewis. They both thanked Rod for all the hard word he has carried out on behalf of the Guild.
Organiser Rod Towler said, “The format of the show has evolved through out the year with some layouts dropping out, mainly through illness, to be replaced by last minute requests for a table or even tables.
“This year there was a total of 12 layouts, some new, some old. My particular favourite was End of the Line – a small quarry layout with a junction to the mainline. The radio controlled lorries and self tipping skip wagons were a delight.
“Marshwood Road in 4mm a fine model layout depicted the Southern Region era around 1960.
“East Quay Chapel Pill in 009, is a fictitious little Forest of Dean port on the upper reaches of the Bristol Channel complete with small sailing craft. It was a real delight, as was Burford a GWR branch terminus station in N Gauge built by Colin Grout and shown by his son Phil.
“Fortunately for me there were enough people in the room to absorb the sound from one or two of the DCC sound controlled layouts.
“Tom’s Wharf in 5.5mm scale a finely detailed model depicting another quayside scene complete with windmill, Jim and Mike with their 0 and 00 Hornby layouts let us indulge our nostalgia and Ashley and Verity returned with their high speed Scalextric layout.
“Dave, Kim and Rachel from The Gas Cupboard in Trowbridge were there as usual. Thanks to Dave for the raffle prizes. This was most successful.
“Light refreshments were again organised by our own version of The Great British Bake Off. Angela and Paul Berry, together with Mel and Sue produced lots of lovely goodies for us all to eat. Everywhere I went, there were people eating Jenny’s bread pudding which sadly I missed out on again.
“My thanks to Andy and Roxi of AM Print and Copy Court Street Trowbridge for producing the wonderful show guide and leaflets. I would like to thank John Drago for the wonderfully inspirational cover photograph.
“My grateful thanks to all our visitors and to the members of the Wiltshire Gauge 0 Group for all their hard work. I would also like to thank the Westbury Labour Club for their kindness and help.”
