Conventional Wisdom



Monkey Island, 1908

John invited me to help out with an 014 stand at the 2011 7mm Narrow Gauge Association Convention and AGM at Burton on Trent last weekend. We had much interest: he at his end of the table with his DCC-operated L&B couplings and a 'garnet' or 'gaggle' of Garrat K1 engines, and me at my end with my expletive-ridden attempts at making plain track.

K1 Appreciation

I took along a diorama of Monkey Island, Barnstaple, which I’d made for the purpose. As the track base I was making slots in to a channel, there were a few comments about the canal scene! The trees on the model are rescued from the 0-16,5 Barnstaple Town that Steve and I had ... so were out in public for the first time in 17 years.

Some visitors to our stand were just getting into, or returning to, the hobby. These are good targets for persuading to model in 014, as they usually don’t carry any baggage – such as a hundreds of pounds worth of 0-16,5 motive power they don't want to re-wheel.

My track-building was so-so, but I learned a lot. A diarama is better for learning on than a full-fledged layout.

We were invited to return to the 2012 Convention, although we suggested that every other year would work better. Maybe next time I’ll actually have a layout rather than a diorama to display.

Ah well, back to the Weidknecht Decauville ...