Stop Press!
Thanks to Keith Bone for
the information and photos.
Visitors enjoyed
another wonderful "Railway Days" hosted by the lovely Dugher family. The
weather was kind until the late evening.
I understand from
Eric Large that today, Sunday, has been another enjoyable day and
that the weather has again been kind.
Quite a few TCS
members were there and it was very nice to see them again.
There is a lot of
work put in to stage this event and I would like to thank all of those
who spent many hours during the week putting the show together and
especially to the ladies providing the delicious refreshments and meals.
The squirrel is also one of
the delights at the show, seen at close quarters when we are eating out on the
patio, very tame. The indoor railway is Pete Dughers and is fine scale
gauge based on Selby. They hold a club meeting there every Friday evening. The
layout runs through the shed and is very large indeed. There are two operators
and four video cameras are used to monitor the outdoor running tracks and
loops, The operations are viewed on four TV screens.
Click on picture above for full size Poster
The 28th and 29th July 2007
2006 Photos
courtesy Keith Bone
Venue: Glenrst, Alverstone Road, Apse Heath, Sandown, Isle of Wight. PO36 0LE
The
layouts will be open to the public between 11am and 10pm each day.
Entry
is free, but donations are welcomed for local charities.
There
are five main ingredients to the show:
The
Large LGB Layout on the Lawn
The
Playmobil Layout
The
Finescale ‘0’ Gauge running around the garden
The
Indoor Displays.
Children’s
Play Trains
The
automated LGB layout is the first thing that visitors see when they enter the
garden. Over the years it has evolved and expanded, but the changes planned
for 2007 will make quite a significant
improvement both to the appearance and to the operation of the layout.
There
will be up to 10 trains on the move at any one time, but the public will
actually be able to drive three of them as well as operate some other
controls. This feature has been tested and developed over the past two years
and has proved very popular
Other
changes to the layout include a complete revision and upgrade of the control
system and some radical changes to the track layout. These will enable all the
trains to operate in a more realistic way and to enjoy longer runs on a couple
of circuits.
The
layout is lit throughout and is particularly
enjoyable during the evenings when we are open until 10pm each day.
The
Playmobil layout made its debut two years ago and was an instant hit both with
children and adults. No radical changes are planned here although the layout
will be lit and trains will run on it right up until 10pm each day. As on the
upper main layout, the visitors are invited to drive one of the trains.
Work
continues on the construction and fettling of the fine scale ‘0’ Gauge
layout, which is based upon Selby,
Yorkshire
. Some magnificent models will be seen taking turns on the 356 feet long
(2.9 scale miles) double track circuit throughout the weekend, and they are
not all going to be LNER prototypes, although there will some excellent
examples of these too.
Each
year the visiting children are provided with push-along trains to create
layouts with. This enables the kids to explore their imaginations and have
some fun away from the larger displays.
Light
refreshments, hot and cold drinks, including much home made fayre is available
all day every day on payment of a small fee.
There
is no charge for admission, visitors may come and go as they please, and come
back as many times as they wish. All we ask is that they make a donation in
one of the many collecting boxes that they will find around the site. Some can
be found on the trains themselves!
The
venue is approximately three miles west of Sandown, on the
Alverstone Road
around 1/2 mile from the Apse Heath Roundabout Junction on the main
A3056 Newport Road
. It is situated directly adjacent to Winford Hairpin Bend bus stop and
is next to one of the main entrances to National Trust’s Borthwood Copse.
A
map can be found and downloaded on the Railway Days web site www.railwaydays.btinternet.co.uk
which also contains links to public transport operators.
The
event is jointly arranged by the Isle of Wight Group of the Gauge ‘0’
Guild and members of the Train Collectors Society
For
further information please contact Pete Dugher on 01983 402117 railwaydays@btinternet.com
The
Train Collectors Society
