John Sutton's pre-Christmas steam event at Rowington might only be a village hall do, but it's rapidly becoming an important event in the large-scale calendar. OK, there are only two layouts, three if you include the Wuppertal monorail, but the trade is impressive.
John Sutton Models, Black Cat Bridges, Chuffed2bits, Garden Rail Ltd, Lineside Hut (their last show before retirement), Bole Laser Craft and Boot Lane Work, were all in attendance. That's a pretty good spread of goodies on offer, just in time for some festive present buying.
My highlight was the chance to give my Peckett a run on the 16mm scale layout.
While it eventually steamed beautifully, a lesson was learned. If you leave a loco in a cold car for a couple of hours, clearing the condensate out of the cylinders is a bit of a job. After dragging it up and down the track, with wheels not moving (and recieving "helpful" advice from an onlooker to do exactly what I was doing, even when it plainly wasn't working) I turned the gas off and rotated the wheels by hand a couple of revolutions. Gas back on, she eventually headed off around the track at a nice, sedate pace. People were actually impressed!
Cake-wise, I had a nasty shock. Chatting to the previously considered lovely people at Bole Laser*, they claimed to have bought the last three slices! To be fair, I was offered one, but declined out of politeness.
Anyway, while steaming up, I sent my Dad off to get some tea. And he played a blinder.
Some delicious "under the counter" chocolate cake! That's a result. The Merlin Mayflower isn't mine by the way, but it has given me some ideas for my own model.
A lovely event with loads of chat. These smaller shows are very freindly, and anyone who only goes to a big bash, is really missing out.
*I have forgiven them as I now have a couple of review builds for Garden Rail.
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