New venue, same format for Narrow Gauge South

Last Saturday I went to the Narrow Gauge South exhibition at it's new venue in Eastleigh, which was handier for me than the last one near Winchester. The format was much the same - lots of NG layouts, a leaning towards 009 but with a variety of other scales, a range of specialist traders and groups, plus the 009 Society AGM (although I admit I skipped that to see the layouts, but I did have my son with me). This sort of event is about meeting people as much as seeing layouts, so a good deal of talking was done, plus some browsing of the trade. It was a big day for my son as he bought his first 009 loco (well, an HOe Roco diesel) for a project we're working on.

However I did manage to get some photos, so in no particular order, here are some of my favourites:



Oresome Aggregates (HOf) - Peter Smith. Superb industrial modelling with an array of interesting locos in a convincing scenic setting, yet this is all so tiny. I've been watching this develop on the NGRM forum so it was good to see it for real.



Berger Hall (Gn15) - Bill Corser. Compact, detailed, and different, with a sense of humour. Another NGRM forum layout.



First (009) - Steve Clulow. Or "I can't believe this is your first...". Nicely done, one of those simple "I could build that" layouts but with great scenery and trains, and runs well too. See Steve's blog for more details.



Vale Quarry Preservation Society (009) - John Bruce. Yes I've seen it before, yes it's small, yet always a delight.



Albion Estates (1:12, 32mm gauge) - Bill Bateson. More detailed large-scale but a different sort of estate railway.



Plaxtol Road (O) - Tim Ticknell. One of a handful of standard gauge light railway layouts invited to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Colonel Stevens. Lovely atmosphere.



Bryn-Y-Felyn (009) - Matthew Kean. Another Colonel Stevens layout but quite different, WHR atmosphere and trains in a relatively compact layout.



Ryedown Lane (009) - Patrick Collins. Another layout I've seen before but remains a favourite. Also Colonel Stevens inspired. And a lovely loco that reminds me, I've got one of those to build!

There were loads more layouts I could put here, but too many to put in a post, so see the Flikr album for the rest.