Having been able to set everything up at our preceding meeting on Wednesday and leave them in place we began to arrive from 9.00am onwards to add stock to the layouts and display stands and make any final adjustments to the hall layout. As last year David Ho set up the car parking signs outside while I put our A frame in place at the end of the road to
show people where we were.
At 11.00am we opened the doors to the public just as the rain set in. Unfortunately, this year we were competing not only with the inclement weather but also with road closures, a train strike and England’s football and cricket matches on the television. However, while there were fewer visitors than last year we had visitors from the Faversham, Ashford and
Canterbury clubs as well as from SEGOG and the Beckenham club. Some of these expressed an interest in joining us partly because we are so wonderful but also because there isn’t such a great interest in O gauge in their own clubs. Indeed, at Beckenham, which used to have a very strong O gauge presence, there are now only three O gauge
modellers. Anyway, the more the merrier and we look forward to seeing some new members at our future meetings.
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A lot of interest was shown in our new layout, Queen Charlotte Dock, and also in the micro-layout which was making its operational debut with Tim at the controls. Despite just having flown back from San Francisco Tim put on an impressive DCC demonstration and will be developing this layout further.
As always Edington with David G’s S&DJR stock, manned by David, Paul W, David L and others, impressed visitors with its depiction of 1920’s Somerset. The track work for Lenham was also much admired as was Fred’s display of dioramas while John B and Steve engaged visitors in conversation while showing off their modelling skills on the demonstration tables.
While all this was going on David Ho kept everybody supplied with teas and coffees as Geoff and Roger manned the sales table.
As the afternoon wore on with the rain showing no signs of slackening off and our visitors slowly drifting away, we started to slowly put things away before really getting down to it and shutting the doors at 4.00pm.
So, all in all another successful and enjoyable Open Day due to the hard work of all who took part for which many thanks to them all. Chris
