[kevsmith]

So
Having written at length about my Gauge 1 exhibition layouts over on the American forums I've started to describe to them about the Garden layout Get togethers (GTGs) we had in the North back in the early 1990s
This was when I was running my fleet of G1 live steam locos as well as the battery RC locomotives like the Class 58

For me this was a fun way to spend many weekends mixing with like minded individuals from all walks of life united by a common interest.

The first one I ever I attended was at Bob Symes cottage in Surrey, well known as a TV presenter and producer, his layout was challenging clinging to the hillside

I had traveled down by train with my Aster Schools 4-4-0, which got rather heavy after a while and alighting at the local station realised I had no idea where Bob lived so I went and asked in the local pub. I was rather thrown when the first person I asked turned out to be Bill Pertwee, ARP Warden Hodges out of Dads Army, It seemed everybody knew where Bod lived so the landlord arranged for me to have a lift with the local policeman in his Panda car. The first time I met everybody I arrived in a police car!

A table of Freddy Wrighton locos, well out of my price league sadly

https://i.imgur.com/iF97jgd.jpg

more tomorrow

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

Now the ultimate destination garden railway back in those days was Bob Head's magnificent set-up at Shifnal. Everything was on a grand scale

Want an iconic bridge, first dig your lake. You get an idea of scale when you realise the train dwarfed by the bridge is gauge 1

The brick arch viaduct leading to the house

The main line with one of Paul Forsyth's locos on test

 

[kevsmith]

The three track main line

and the steaming bays

An Aster King on the main line

Dick Moger's P2 'Wolf of Badenoch'

A neat little Brighton line Gladstone 0-4-2

 

[kevsmith]

Most impressive was the fact that if the weather got too inclement there was a 60ft by 40ft indoor layout you could retire to !

 

[kevsmith]

John Tomlinson's layout was in Cheshire and was an elevated track with the structure hidden by carefully trimmed privet

A Duchess traverses the back straight

An pair of Aristocraft PA1s converted to RC head off for a few laps

John throws the point so my RC class 58 can have a run

My 4F (Project design) had a spell where it was happier running tender first, I eventually sorted it by adjusting the slide valve

 

[kevsmith]

Still at John's an Avonside 0-4-0T is prepped for steaming. I think this was made by Brandbright.

My 4f being lit up with the blower fan being powered by the onboard batteries in my Aristocraft FA

 

[kevsmith]

Gerald Hawkesworth lived in West Yorkshire and his layout was more typical of the garden layouts you could achieve behind a typical semi.

A superdetailed version of the Dot Black 5 on test prior to painting

My Black % runs past Dennis Brown's GNR Atlantic and my 58 with the Avonside on the other side

I remember this day very clearly as it was the day Gerald realised that lighting up his loco and leaning over it whilst wearing a polyester tie was a bad idea when it suddenly started to melt!

 

[kevsmith]

Dennis Brown's layout in Gainsborough in Lincolnshire was abit of a trek to get to but worth the effort. He's seen here with his GNR Atlantic

The Black 5 again

An Aster A4 on a run

A Midland Railway Spinner 4-2-2

 

[kevsmith]

My steam fleet was quite varied mainly based on designs by LBSC or Martin Evans

You've already seen the 4F but I did a variant to convert it into a Q1 0-6-0

Lurking behind it is a Midland 2F based on LBSC's Chingford Express 0-6-0-T after its repaint

The 2F in its previous battered condition

more tomorrow

kev