Hello to you all.
Yesterday, Saturday 10th of March, I visited the Narrow gauge north show in Leeds. As I live in Rotherham, 45 miles south, this was not a chore and the day realy was an eye opener.
I should point out that this is my first visit to a narrow gauge only show and was a thoroughly nice experience.
My first port of call, after arriving at the venue at 10.15am, was the refreshment area, where a very nice and reasonably priced bacon butty satisfied my needs and fortified me for the pleasures in store.
I wandered around the three exhibition areas with great enthusiasm and saw some very beautiful layouts, my age and memory precludes me from mentioning any layout in particular, but there were none that did not deserve to be there.
My visit to the stage where the 009 goodie stand was positioned was a joy, having elbowed my way to the front, I was confronted with all sorts of things I could have bought at very reasonable prices, especially with our 10% discount, but my first visit was a look see only.
After lunch, again with a good choice of sandwhiches and cakes at good prices and with a smiling service, (well done young ladies), I moved along to the nearby Worsley works stand, stand where I proceeded to torment a very nice gentleman, Allen Doherty, for what must have been an hour or more.
Allen was demonstrating how to build one of his brass etched kits, a County Donegal Railway Railcar No1. This looked interestingas, as the bits of etched fret were laid around his work area, and he had a couple of chairs placed readily to hand. I was feeling a little tired and took the oppertunity to rest awhile.
Now as I said, this was well into the day, and all Allen had got done, was to seperates some of the pieces from the fret and start to assemble them, very slowly, ;D,and I wanted to see the finnished article, preferably some time on the day. I listened politely as he explained about cleaning and soldering, but there was not much action, so I had to keep prodding him into building, It was a bit difficult because of people coming to buy, and people who just wanted to natter to him, but I was determined and kept him concentrating on the job in hand.
Eventually, much to his relief I'm sure, the model was assembled enough for me to visualise what the finnished model would look like, and thought it a very quaint model, and would look good on my Grandsons ;) 009 rabbit layout.
A revisit to the stage to check and aquire what I thought would be a suitable chassis and a return to Allen to purchase a kit. Oh dear, there were none available, thwarted, but no, I offered to buy the part assembled model I had been watching built, money changed hands, and handshake later, I was on my way with the goodies.
Thank you Allen for a good teach in and a very pleasant interlude in good company.
Thank you to the organisers and the catering staff, a thoroughly enjoyable day.
Regards,
Brian.