David G gave us an illustrated talk today on the origins and effectiveness of BR Standard Class engines. David told us that when British Railways came into being on 1 January 1948 it employed 648,000 men and women and had around 20,150 locomotives spread across 476 different classes. Many of these locomotives were not in […]
General
Wednesday 21st January 2026
Today’s focus was on industrial and shunting 0-4-0T engines. Once the circuit had been set up several 0-4-0Ts were soon buzzing round the track. John B had his B4 pulling a couple of coaches and Rob had his ex-L&Y 0-4-0ST Pug No. 11247 pulling two private owner wagons. Roger ran a Rushton & Hornsby 48DS […]
Wednesday 7th January 2026
Having recovered sufficiently from the recent festivities we assembled at Badlesmere to parade and consider our recent presents and purchases and with the circuit set up Fred’s pannier was soon running round with an auto-coach and Bill ran his Prairie and brake van.The Prairie was bought by Bill at the recent Guildford show and apparently […]
Wednesday 17th December 2025
Today was the long-awaited Christmas Lunch; this time at a new venue for us, the Gunpowder Mill in Faversham, the change of venue being occasioned by some dissatisfaction last year with our usual Christmas Lunch hostelry the Red Lion in Badlesmere. Accordingly, sixteen assorted gourmands and trenchermen assembled for a 12.30 kick off. Unfortunately, despite […]
Wednesday 3rd December 2025
This year’s Christmas Quiz was held earlier than usual due to our decision to forsake the Red Lion for our Christmas meal in the hope of obtaining better fare elsewhere thus making it impractical to hold both the quiz and the meal on the same day. Having unfortunately failed to avoid finishing on the winning […]
Saturday 29th November 2025
This year’s Modelling Competition took place today with slightly less entries than last year but with an additional category for dioramas. After setting up the tables for each category entry forms were filled out and the entries placed on the relevant tables for inspection by the expectant throng. Following due consideration of the various entries […]
Wednesday 19th November 2025
Our focus today was on tank engines, and we had over thirty items present in all shapes and sizes. These included side tanks, saddle tanks, pannier tanks and others although Steve might have been stretching the definition of tank engines a bit far when he claimed that his BR Class 40 diesel was a tank […]
Wednesday 5th November 2025
Today’s theme was “our favourite engines” with nearly everybody bringing in and running something. Doug was first on the Circuit with the Dapol 08 that he’d picked up cheaply and then Graham set up a long paper train which was hauled firstly by his ex-LNER A3 “Tranquil” in a BR blue livery and then by […]
Saturday 25th October 2025
Today was our nod towards the 200th Anniversary of Railways. Originally, we had intended to celebrate the event with a display of 200 locomotives, but an outbreak of common sense had prevailed when we realised the impracticality of gathering that many locomotives together not to mention the cost of insuring them. So we opted for […]
Wednesday 15th October 2025
Having focussed at our last meeting on open wagons we set our sights today on closed wagons. Well to be more accurate vans and unusual closed wagons. First on the circuit was John B who ran his Hudswell Clarke No.68017 0-6-0ST with some vans and a brake van and then John D ran his Dapol […]
Wednesday 1st October 2025
Our focus today was on Open Wagons and after setting the circuit up John P quickly had his Prairie running round with some of his wagons and a brake van. Fred then followed, first with a BR single unit DMU and then with his Terrier pulling several of his collection of local private owner wagons. […]
Saturday 27th September 2025
Today at Badlesmere Geoff gave his talk on how to go about creating a diorama. Before starting his talk however, we were sad to learn from Geoff that EKOGG member Peter Vickery is very ill with motor neurone disease, and we obviously wish him well in his fight with this. Geoff told us that he […]
Wednesday 17th September 2025
With the circuit set up and running we were looking at our latest acquisitions. Among these were John P’s GWR 14xx and my SECR C Class 0-6-0 and O1 Class 0-6-0. Both of my locos are now fitted with DCC and sound although the O1, having worked perfectly the day before, probably has a wire […]
Wednesday 3rd September 2025
A smaller than usual crowd at today’s meeting, possibly due to the rain or ‘summer’ holidays. Today’s theme was Road Vehicles and there was a good turnout of these including several busses, lorries and steam road vehicles. The circuit was relatively quiet with Steve running an early Hudswell Clarke diesel with four wagons and Tim […]
Saturday 23rd August 2025
Today at Badlesmere we held a loco clinic and bring and buy sale and so on arrival the circuit was quickly set up as were a couple of tables for display of the goods on offer. Doug then ran one of the longest trains we have possibly ever had on the circuit with a Class […]
Wednesday 20th August 2025
Today we were looking at Guards Vans. First on the circuit was John B with a Hudswell Clarke pulling four Guards Vans. Ross then ran his Hudswell Clarke with two Guards Vans and Rob ran his B4 with some Private Owner wagons and an SR guards van. Roger had brought along two LMS Guards Vans […]
Queen Charlotte Dock at Bexhill
After an early start from our respective homes, the team (Chris, David L, Steve, Roger and David Ho) arrived within minutes of each other at the venue. Unfortunately, the space we were allocated in the main hall was either up some steps (front) or down some steps (back). We chose the latter as it was […]
Wednesday 6th August 2025
Our focus on the circuit today was on tank wagons. Fred started proceedings running a mixture of six and four wheel tank wagons pulled along by a very nicely weathered Jinty. This was followed by John D with six Basset Lowke tank wagons also pulled by a Jinty but this time in Irish National Railway […]
Saturday 26th July 2025
Roger gave us a very interesting talk on the history of the South Eastern & Chatham Railway which came about as a result of a cessation in hostilities between the South Eastern Railway and the London Chatham and Dover Railway. Having spent many years in acrimonious disputes and competing with each other, common sense finally […]
Wednesday 16th July 2025
Today we were turning our attention to Diesels and once the circuit was up and running various examples of these strange life forms were soon running round. Martin and Fred ran some BR Class 08s with Fred’s being heavily weathered as were the tank wagons it was pulling. Roger then ran his Network South East […]
