The Astolat Model Railway Circle Annual Exhibition on Saturday 15 Jan went very well indeed after a quick set up of only 17 mins from getting out of the car to running a loco. Much to my surprise the layout performed admirably as it did at its last outing at Railex in May 09, with the only 2 derailments of the whole day being caused by not placing stock properly onto the fiddle yard tracks in the first place - duh!The newly installed working level crossing gates went down a treat with the audience, that and the sunflowers growing in the crossing keeper's garden (why bother with the trains?). A special thank you must go to Dave Renshaw who kindly gave up his day to assist running trains - I hope it wasn't too stressful!
The tweeded gent to the left isn't an escapee from a society finescale railway modelling gathering, but the charming Bob Symes who may be familiar to those who remember 1960's & 70's TV - Model World and Tomorrow's World. Amongst other things he also hosted 'Bob's Your Uncle' (Childrens Channel) in the late 1980's.Enough from me, even though Dave R did all the work running the trains, it's now time for a pint. Next? Full steam ahead with Brewhouse Quay! Toot toot!
It's wonderful to know that Bob Symes is still with us. It was him and his Model World TV show that was one of the reasons why I got into the hobby in the first place. Didn't the show feature the construction of a model of Horsted Keynes station?
ReplyDeleteHi Trainspotter, yes the Programmes in the early days certainly did include a model of Horsted Keynes. Bob Symes was instrumental in rekindling my fire too, and I am still at it, 40 years later! ~Very happy memories of those early TV programmes.
DeleteI met Robert Alexander Baron Schutzmann von Schutzmansdorff (to use his full name according to Wikipedia) in Brighton show while exhibiting Hellingly. We had a bit of a chat and he managed to know more about the subject than I did despite my research !
ReplyDeleteTop bloke who will be back on the telly the moment I get to be controller of BBC 1.