Mostly showing off

Well, the motor from Germany duly arrived but was the wrong one, only by a very small margin but wrong nonetheless. I put out a call on the NRGRM forum and a solution was found. Stand and Bill of the 009 Society were coming to exhibit at the Borth y Gest show and Bill has a plentiful supply. A deal was struck and Lucy B. ran nicely all weekend. So a big thanks to the chaps.

My three green and lined locos

This week at work we had stock of some of the new Bachmann 009 models so I took the opportunity to bring one of each home to take some pictures. So far we have the two sets of slate wagons which are very nice but very pricey in my opinion and two ambulance wagons and two D class opens in a variety of very well applied liveries.

I think I prefer the weathered, grey ones but with a bit of weathering the red ones will look nice too.

Stan and Bill, saviours of Lucy B. with their display next to Arnold Lane

On the Saturday of the show we had an honoured guest in the person of Mr Hiroshi Kato president of Japanese model making giants of the same name. He spent a long while at the show and paid great attention to all of our models; he also had with him working early prototypes of the forthcoming Englands and Fairlies. The body work was only a very rough 3d print outline and the chassis were a couple of experimental versions but they ran superbly and really whetted everyones appetites. It was very good of him to let us play with them.

 

Here they are on the 009 test tracks which they proceeded to stroll round with great ease

Here is one of them down at the wharf

Later on in the weekend we also had a visit from the Alpha of RTR 009, it didn't run quite as well

Paul Holmes had his Borth y Gest layout at the show and Mr Kato showed great interest in Paul's scratchbuilt locos. Fair enough, they are astonishing.

The show was a great success with over twice as many people as usual attending over the two days. The 009 boys and I were in a side room along with Tomos and the F&WHR sales stand and I had a very enjoyable time playing trains and nattering, so a big thanks to everyone involved. I'm sure we'll be back next year about the same time. The refurbished hall made for a much more pleasant experience too and I wasn't frightened to go to the toilet!

You'd think I would have had enough of 009 after spending two days solid at it but being the odd bloke I am I came home and built the three kits I bought at the show. Two 009 society three planked wagons and a Chivers wooden open too. All went together very nicely and just need painting now...