Report on the 2007 AGM & Show held at Biggleswade on 31st March 2007
Words by Bob Leggett, photos by Keith Bone
All photos may be enlarged by clicking or tapping on them. Best viewed full screen!
A bright sunny morning and 100 miles on a clear road including the M25(!) and Les Martin, Neil Bowsher and I arrived at the second AGM to be held at the Waverley Centre, it still seemed strange not turning off for Langford. However the new venue is better all round for the society meet.
As we arrived we were met as usual by James Day who resembled a Hobo who travels the US railways rather than the outgoing membership secretary (more later). Later on Tony Stanford was also on the door meeting and greeting members.
The entrance hall had the club bring and buy stall which was manned by Ian Ramsey Connell and Malcolm Pugh, items for sale included a Trix Peppercorn, Scalecraft road/ rail set which sold for £20, some boxes of Playcraft, Meccano magazines and plenty of more items which kept appearing during the day. Probably the most expensive item ever on the stall was a Bassett Lowke Princess which was priced at £775.
The theme for this event was tank engines and members did not disappoint as the club stand was almost full with over 150 various types of tank engines. One of the largest was a Marklin Gauge 1 0-6-0 DB Class 80, there were two interesting 0-4-4 which were converted Tri-ang Jinty's, a couple of Meccano Percy's. It was an excellent display from the members and proves when the theme is right we can fill the stand.
Dave Angel also carried on the club theme with his huge collection of mainly Tri-ang and Tri-ang Hornby tanks engines singly and in boxed sets. I joked as I passed there was no Tri-ang Wild West set however an hour later one appeared!. I particularly like the Tri-ang Hornby Double set with a Jinty and Nellie.
I also notice a late addition to the club display on the floor was a boxed Leeds Tank goods set and the same by Bassett Lowke.
The main hall can accommodate all the layouts and traders . I will describe the exhibits which are placed around the outside with the traders like a wagon train being attacked by Indians in the middle!
The first display was by Clive Gehle with a small selection of streamlined locos some by lesser know and smaller manufacturers including Crescent and Lone Star as well as some unusual plastic examples and Hong Kong copies.
Next to Clive, Mike Fowler was showing his trailer of the three DVD's he has produced on the history of Tri-ang and Hornby Dublo. The trailer almost seems worth buying!
On the side Paul and Jennifer Brookes were display a large collection of Bradshaw wooden buildings including stations, Signal boxes and engine sheds as well as selling a variety of Master Models and other items. I was particularly taken with a lovely Canopy Station produced in the 30's and would still look good on any layout today.
Roger White had a neat almost scenic Hornby Dublo 3 rail layout which ran well all day and a Silver King with a rake of Pullmans was doing its turn when I came by.
Alongside Brian Barnes had a Marklin Gauge I set up with old and new locos taking the limelight. I also noted at least three styles of the Stoniberg Station.
Dave and Karen White were running a Tri-ang super 4 layout with Minic Motorway as well as plenty of Model Land buildings.
Geoff Spriggs had a 6 x 4 O gauge layout and was running mainly Bassett-Lowke , at the time I was there a 1927 Duke of York was sharing duties with a 1950s Prince Charles. Also noted was a Carette 4-4-0 and a Bing Station.
Peter Berry with help from Keith Jones who was over from America for a month were running Trix including a working conveyor system although I noted more was going on the board than in the truck!
Geoff Walker had a small TT layout with an operating turntable.
Reg Harman had a running display of early Trackmaster, Rovex and Tri-ang.
Pat Hammond had a large display of Hornby private owners wagons from 1971-2007.
Martin Bennett was displaying a full collection of Dublo Dinky toys and was delighted to hear of another variation to the Shell BP tanker.
I t was also nice to see Michael Foster who after a tough six months was back showing the latest ETS models.
There was an excellent selection of traders selling a huge variety of stock, some items caught my eye, John Neale had a Bing Gauge 2 LNER4-6-2 tank for £850 and Colin Toten a lovely Hornby L1 for £2350. Richard Elkan sold a nice Monorail set to Bryan Pentland so watch out for that at Alresford on June 16th(sorry about the plug!)
Ah yes the Tri-ang Wild West set, Tony Penn was having a clear out of Tri-ang sets and yes that included the rare Wild West set so Dave Angel could not resist this purchase to complete his display.
The refreshments including the best value lunch in the country was run by Amalia Ramsey, Jan Carpenter and Jackie Hall who did a superb job all day. Considering they usually have five on board they did extremely well and were well thanked later on.
The AGM commenced at 1.30pm (ish) and lasted just over an hour. Although I will not record the full details there are some important point. Two members of the committee have stepped down, James Day (who has just recovered from Chicken pox-hence the hobo look) and Jeff Carpenter. David Ramsey thanked both of them for their excellent work in the TCS over the last 8 years which has seen the membership grow from 120-to 550 and the Magazine move from Black and white to colour as well as the introduction of the excellent Calendar. David also welcomed Andrew and Elaine Hyelman who will be joint membership secretary's and Pat Hammond who is now Magazine editor and has been responsible for the new look magazine. David also thanked Dave McCarthy who was absent for family reasons for the excellent work on the TCS website and the membership this brings in.
Many other members were also thanked for various help they have given the club. I'm sorry if I have missed anyone out from this report however it was a good day out enjoyed by all.
Bob Leggett
Return to main Event Reports page
