Fairlight Works

Members' Day at Haywards Heath

I had a very enjoyable time yesterday at the Sussex Downs OO9 group’s second Members’ Day. As benefits a friendly, informal occasion there were a range of completed and under construction on display. And of course the OO9 Society Sales Stand, which roams the country to events like these with the objective of parting 4mm narrow gauge modellers from their money.

Awngate, the new layout by my friend and fellow blogger Michael Campbell, looked great and ran well. It is inspired by the well-known Wantage Tramway (hence the name) and has a good selection of tram locos buzzing around.

I spent a while operating the layout during the day, and it gives a lot of possibilities in a small space. The station platform is – as the real Wantage was – also the passing loop headshunt, so it is neccessary to reverse passenger trains out to run round, and also be careful when trying to shunt a goods train at the same time!

Phil Savage brought along part of his under construction Darjeeling Himalayan Railway layout. The section on display represents the climb up from Darjeeling through the Batasia loop (centre) to Ghum station which was the summit of the line. Over ten yards of track is used in just this section! Beyond Ghum a freelance section will descend back to the lower fiddle yard. Photos and books were on display showing the scenes as they should look when complete.

Mark Holland was showing Spirit of Welshpool, based on the interchange between standard and narrow gauge at Welshpool – the original terminus of the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway.

Much Pottering & Flakey Bottom is a Gn15 creation by Laurie Maunder, inspired by the creations of cartoonist and sculptor Rowland Emett. This is a mobile station/train on 61mm gauge track!

Chris O’Donoghue’s Wills’ Walled Nursery – which is 50cm x 30cm of clever micro layout. A concealed sector plate in the shed on the right and a traverser in the greenhouse allow the small industrial locos to shuttle around the nursery site without the need for a load of space-eating turnouts.

The Sussex Downs’ group club layout, Evaleight Light Railway, is a modular affair – or at least there are several different configurations of it. At the show was the ‘loop’, which contains the attractive quarry at Gryndene. You can see more of this large layout in a previous post.

Altogether a great little show. OO9 Society area groups across the country hold Members’ Days regularly, if there’s one near you I recommend visiting it!

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