After driving through the fog on Saturday morning the QCD crew got to Maidstone in plenty of time to get the layout set up and running. After the obligatory teas and coffees and mince pies had been taken on board, we prepared ourselves for the onrush of spectators.Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best attended of shows […]
News
Wednesday 18th December 2024
Today was the long awaited Christmas Quiz hosted by this year’s Quizmaster John D.After weeks of making us all believe that he hadn’t really got anything John produced an excellent quiz which challenged us all without being too esoteric or obscure.After splitting into teams of three we worked diligently through the question sheets despite being […]
Wednesday 4th December 2024
Today on the circuit we were looking at Vans. The circuit was quickly put up and we soon got cracking. Roger having run a long train two meetings ago repeated the trick this time, running his Class 47 diesel with a long train of vans. Rather more modestly I ran my ex- SECR R Class […]
Saturday 30th November 2024
Heritage line stock was our loosely observed theme today at Badlesmere. Among those taking part were John B with his terrier “Fenchurch” pulling two coaches and Tim with his Jinty and the very nicely weathered Third Class bogie coach he has recently acquired.Later Tim also ran his pannier tank in London Transport livery.Bill brought in […]
Wednesday 20th November 2024
Our theme at Badlesmere today was on anything not Southern related and after setting up the circuit a whole host of locos appeared.David Gr made up for missing out on our diesel day the previous meeting and ran his Class 21 Diesel hauling his ex LNER coaches. Fred ran a BR Riddles 2MT 2-6-2T pulling […]
Wednesday 6th November 2024
Today at Badlesmere we focussed on Diesels and despite a few Diesel fans being absent we had a pretty good showing of them on the circuit. John D ran the D08 which he had recently acquired from Roger who being absent today with a heavy cold was thus at least present in spirit. Fred brought […]
QCD at the Gravesend Show 2024
Arriving early on Saturday at Northfleet School for Girls for the Gravesend club annual show we quickly unloaded and set up our stand and Queen Charlotte Dock and had the layout running well in time for the show opening time. This was just as well as with a queue of visitors lining up outside in […]
Annual Modelling Competition 2024
The much anticipated Annual Modelling Competition took place today with more than twenty entries over all four categories. After placing the entries on the relevant table for each category (a task more difficult than you might imagine) the Secretary handed out the voting slips and we got down to the serious business of considering the […]
Wednesday 16 October 2024
Today’s focus on the circuit was on 0-6-0 engines and a goodly selection was soon seen running round. First on the track was Roger’s ex-SECR O1 hauling a coal train. Although I say hauling, it was double headed with an ex-SECR R1, so I’m not sure who was pulling and who was pushing. During the […]
Wednesday 2 October 2024
With the circuit up we ran a large selection of our favourite freight wagons. Paul and Stuart C both ran a large selection of wagons including several interesting Private Owner wagons. Stuart ran a large train of his wagons pulled around the circuit by his S&DJR Jinty and Paul’s wagons with agricultural machinery loads were […]
Saturday 28 September 2024
Rob gave his long anticipated talk on his youthful reminiscences of steam in the outhampton area. Rob’s talk was illustrated by his own photos and maps and photos from the Southern Counties Railway Society. Hampshire apparently according to various advertising hoardings is “The Strong Country” and while that may be open to doubt Southampton was […]
Wednesday 18 September 2024
Today our focus was on Southern Green coaches and as is often the case with our focus was more honoured in the breach than the observance. However, we did have Sean running his EMU set, John B running his two recently constructed four wheel coaches, Ross’s parcels van and Rob with a very nice K&ESR […]
Wednesday 4 September 2024
Today’s focus was on problem locos and with plenty in evidence the circuit was quickly set up and running but only after making the astounding discovery that nothing would run on it if we didn’t plug in the electrical connecting loops between the various sections.First up was my SECR E Class 4-4-0 which stuttered a […]
Saturday 24 August 2024
With our numbers still depleted by people skiving off on holidays etc seven of us spent a very enjoyable afternoon at Badlesmere.Despite the low numbers quite a bit of modelling went on with David Ha working on his LSWR Class 380 4-4-0, Tim with PLA 0-6-0 tank and Bill with his ABS wagon kit while […]
Wednesday 21 August 2024
With at least eight members away on holiday our numbers were necessarily somewhat depleted although Geoff Eaton visiting from the Guildford O Gauge Group and new member Stuart C joining helped to swell the numbers.Geoff came to drop off a print of Battle of Britain Class “Manston” pulling the Kentish Belle up the slope at […]
Wednesday 7 August 2024
After negotiating the closure of the Ashford Road between Faversham and Badlesmere eighteen of us eventually made it through the highways and by-ways of deepest Kent to EKOGG HQ although possibly others got lost never to be seen again. When the circuit was finally set up we were able to concentrate on today’s focus on […]
Saturday 27 July 2024
Today’s focus on post 1960’s freight quickly melted away as it was decided there wasn’t enough people with trains to run to warrant getting the circuit out. Instead, we settled down to a very pleasant afternoon of modelling and chatting. While we put the world to rights David Ha fettled away on a Ford rail […]
Chatham Show 2024
Arriving early on Saturday morning we drove the cars into the venue to our allotted plot and unloaded the layout before driving off to park up about half a mile away. Returning to the venue we quickly set up Queen Charlotte Dock ready for operation before the public came in. The venue was unusually spacious […]
Wednesday 17 July 2024
Today’s focus on the circuit was on railcars, dmus, demus and emus. All a bit of a mystery to your poor scribe but apparently, they are mainly green and don’t have a steam engine to pull them along. Anyway, there were lots of them in many different shapes and sizes running round the circuit and […]
