A History of OxNGM, this is a summary of reports in '009 News', the magazine of the 009 Society
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Issue of '009 News' |
Pages | |
| 18th March 2009 was the auspicious day when two members of the 009 Society who lived in Oxfordshire met to investigate the possibility of forming a new area group of the 009 Society (009 News, April 2009 p2). | ||
| Six 009 society members are interested in the group: Richard Holder, John Wilkes, Brian Benson, Keith Hicks, Ian Sargent and Stuart Taylor. Two of those visited Statfold Barn Railway and met with members from the Beds & Bucks Group. | Jul 2009 | |
| The inaugural meeting was held in Abingdon on 4 July 2009. | ||
| A visit is planned to the Leighton Buzzard Railway in Sept 2009, with a meeting at a member's home in October. | Aug 2009 | |
| There are now eleven members in the group there's a visit to Amberley Working Museum in July and a trip to the railways at Toddington near Cheltenham in September. | Aug 2010 | |
| Richard Holder, leading the group, reports seven members of the 009 Society are interested in the group and he and John Wilkes are both building layouts (Clydach Railway and Coleford respectively) which are booked to appear at Narrow Gauge South at Sparsholt College on 10 April 2010, and both were completely novice exhibitors at the time. | Nov 2009 | p2 |
| Four members of the group went to the Beds & Bucks Open Day at Barton-le-Clay, where Stuart Taylor was exhibiting his layout 'Mospick Halt'. The meeting in March at Richard's home was to learn how to operate Clydach in preparation for Narrow Gauge South. | Feb 2010 | |
| There are now regular meetings aexh month and a stated intention to start on a compact group layout. | Mar 2011 | |
| In February Paul Spray brought his NGG16 Garratt to his first meeting with the group where it was found the Garratt didn't like the curves on Clydach. A track plan has been agreed so baseboard building for the group layout will start in March. 'Clydach' will be exhibited at the Abingdon Model Railway show (ABRail) in March 2011. | April 2011 | |
| Track laying on the group layout to start in April. | May 2011 | |
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Point motors were fitted on the group layout at the May meeting. |
June 2011 | |
| June meeting aims to complete track and point laying | July 2011 | |
| The June meeting was successful, the point motors were fitted and two test trains had run. Point motor wiring for the September meeting. | Aug 2011 | |
| The point motors were all wired at the July meeting by just Richard and Keith, so there was plenty of cake to share. Running sequences on Clydach were tested in preparation for the Wiltshire Group open day at Pewsey in August. | Sept 2011 | |
| Six members met at Richard's home and completed the electrics on the group layout. Planning started for the group's first Open Day in 2012. Richard showed progress on his new layout, 'Wantage Tramway'. | Nov 2011 | |
| Four members met in October to ballast track and fit the station platforms, but the theme of the layout is still undecided. A trip to the Northampton and District Group's Open Day is planned for November. | Dec 2011 | |
| Five members met in December to start the foundations of the group layout scenery and tested some new locos. John Wilkes will be exhibiting 'Coleford' at the Beds & Bucks Open Day in January. Clydach will be at Narrow Gauge South West at Shepton Mallet in February. | Feb 2012 | |
| Five members met in January and built a Metcalfe Warehouse kit which will become Greystock Mill, the centre piece of the group layout. | Mar 2012 | |
| Six members met at Richard's house, some brought their completed buildings for the group layout and more landscaping done. | Apr 2012 | |
| Six members met at Richard's house, including a new junior member. More scenery is developed on the group layout, newly named 'Greystock Mill'. | May 2012 | |
| No report from Richard this month, but there is a large advert for the "1st Members Open Day" at Steventon. Entry for 009 Society members is £3.00, non-members £4.00 | Jun 2012 | |
| Eight members come to the meeting in May and watched Richard's home video of a recent visit to the FR & WHR. More scenic work on the group layout was progressed including the backscene, an overbridge, polystyrene glue and paper hills, and trees brought by Keith. | Jul 2012 | |
| Richard reports there are now fourteen members of the group with the Open Day yet to take place (due to magazine lead time). "Greystock Mill" is readied to be exhibited. | Aug 2012 | |
| Mick Thornton's three page photo spread about the June 2012 Open Day. | Sep 2012 | |
| There were 14 layouts with 53 exhibitors/operators and 182 visitors including 24 children, 72 009 Society members and 86 non-members. Seven members attended the July meeting at Stuart's house where he demonstrated DCC control on his 'Mospick Halt' layout with a handheld controller, a laptop and a mobile phone. The next get-together will be in September at the Leighton Buzzard Railway for their Welsh Steam-up weekend. | Sep 2012 | |
| At the November meeeting it was decided to do another group project to be shown at the next Open day in 2014 | Jan 2013 | |
| Richard reports more track has been laid on the new group layout. | Apr 2013 | |
| 40th Anniversary Convention 27-29 September 2013 | Nov 2013 | |
| Richard reports that meetings will be held on 1st Saturday and third Sunday of each month with the aim of makingg substantial progress on the new group layout in time for the 2nd Open Day in June 2014. | Jan 2014 | |
| In January 'Greystock Mill' was exhibited at the Beds & Bucks Open Day at Barton-le-Clay. | Mar 2014 | |
| Roving Reporter - OxNGM Open Day 28 June 2014 by Mick Thornton pp8-10 | Sep 2014 | |
| Richard reports the Open Day made a small loss covered by existing funds. Numbers were down 17% in part due to the competing East Midlands Group event at Mansfield. | Sep 2014 | |
| Paul Spray reports that Richard Holder and a few members took Clydach to the Warley National show in November 2014 and won the trophy for best narrow gauge layout out of the 20 at the show. Meetings are back to monthly cycle. | Jan 2015 | |
| The group layout is making progress with bushes and undergrowth being added along with an island platform. Paul has started to build baseboards for his new African layout (now known as 'Lesobeng') | Mar 2015 | |
| Richard and members are busy exhibiting Clydach at The Festival of British Railway Modelling and at Cheltenham MRS show and the Wantage Tramway at Narrow Gauge North. Some buildings and scenery have been added to the group layout. Richard Holder is moving away from Abingdon from end of March. | Apr 2015 | |
| Outings were planned for Madder Valley running day at Pendon in June and Irchester Narrow Gauge Museum in September. | Jun 2015 | |
| Electrical problems with the group layout were resolved and more scenery done. Meeting are monthly on Saturdays. | Feb 2016 | |
| The new group layout has been named 'Holmwood' and 'Greystock Mill' was exhibited at Reading. | Apr 2016 | |
| The group will no longer meet at Tony's house due to a house move so the new group layout will be sold 'Holmwood' is 6ft x 4ft with 14 points and servos, the target price £225. | May 2016 | |
| Page 11 'Layout for Sale - Holmwood' | Jun 2016 | |
| Page 7 advert for Open Day 25 June 2016 | June 2016 | |
| Pages 10-11 Mick Thornton's photo report of the OxNGM Open Day on 25th June 2016 | Oct 2016 | |
| John reports meetings now travel to a different members house each month | Dec 2016 | |
| John reports the group met at Michael's house for the April meeting. Michael showed 'Port Hallow' and his scratchbuilt card buildings. John brought his first tree modelled in summer plumage, up to that time he'd always modelled leafless autumnal trees. A visit to the Statfold Barn Railway is planned for June. | Jun 2017 | |
| 8 people came to John's train shed for the first weekday afternoon meeting. There'll be a visit to the Pewsey Open Day in August | Sep 2017 | |
| Photo of eight members at John's house. | Oct 2017 | |
| Five met at Michael's house and ran some new stock on Michael's 'Port Hallow' 4ft x 2ft layout (Photo on page 23) | Feb 2018 | p23 |
| "The Coleford Railway Story by John Wilkes" book review by Chris Ford | May 2018 | |
| 23 June 2018 full page advert for OxNGM Open Day | Jun 2018 | p7 |
| Oxford Group Open Day by John Ralph (photo review) | Sep 2018 | p10 |
| Five met at Ian's house and ran trains on Greystock Mill and discussed John book 'The Coleford Railway Story' and his forthcoming appearance on the "The Great Model Railway Challenge" on Channel 5 TV. | Oct 2018 | |
| photo of John receiving the David Lloyd Memorial Trophy from Andrew Burnham | Dec 2018 | p17 - |
| Nine members at Michaels house, a record attendance. John showed his entry, 'Life of a Line' into the 'Dave Brewer' contest and Coleford won the 'David Lloyd Trophy' for best in show at ExpoNG at Swanley. Michael showed a large collection of Cornish buildings waiting for a new layout. | Jan 2018 | |
| A few members met at Michael's house and discussed John's proposed baseboard configuration, persuading Michael to do another board for his Cornish buildings and planning our 2020 Open Day. | Feb 2020 | |
| Six met at Paul's house in March and discussed constructing a modular layout, and options for the Open Day - should we go ahead or even would we be allowed to... Chris Ford's editorial points out that it was mooted that the 009 Society AGM could be at OxNGM's Open Day at Steventon as Narrow Gauge South had been cancelled. | May 2020 | |
| With the advent of the COVID lockdown we agreed, by email, to have a virtual meeting every two weeks. On 26th March 2020 six members had their first Zoom meeting. It was agreed that now would be an ideal time to start a modular layout. Simon volunteered to research the possibilities, and he presented some proposals at the next meeting on 3rd April based, in part, on the Beds & Bucks modular layout standards. | Jun 2020 | |
| John reports: "We are meeting fortnightly by zoom. John showed us how to make trees with duckweed an essential ingredient. We have a big project - we are each constructing modules in the hope of putting them togetheron 26th June at Steventon. Each of us set their module where they like, so we expect the English midlands to be joined to the Isle of Mann, and thence to South Africa. Never will a Garratt have run so far" | May 2021 | |
| John reports: "We are meeting fortnightly by zoom. John showed us how to make trees with duckweed an essential ingredient. We have a big project - we are each constructing modules in the hope of putting them togetheron 26th June at Steventon. Each of us | Jul 2021 | |
| John reports: "Five of us met at the end of June to connect, for the first time, the modules we have been working on during lockdown. Successfully too, and great fun to get together after all this time. We meet again at the end of July to run some trains on the full length of the modules." | Sep 2021 | |
| John and Simon attended their first show after lockdowns: Farnham and District MRC 009 Open Day to see the Farnham 'Straight and Narrow' modular layout with 10 modules. John also exhibited Coleford | Oct 2021 | |
| John reports 9 members met at Sibford at the end of January to work on our modules and started planning for the Open Day in June. | Mar 2022 | |
| Oxfordshire 009 Modellers Open Day, Steventon by Mick Thornton | Sep 2022 | pp6-7 |
| Feb 2023 - Long Sibford at Reading | ||
| March 2023 - Long Sibford at Abingdon | ||
| April 2023 - Long Sibford at High Wycombe | ||
| Sept 2023 - Long Sibford at Statfold Barn Railway | ||
| OxNGM Open Day June 2024, Steventon - photos by Mick Thornton | Sep 2024 | pp10-12 |
| Aaron and Nigel Matthews take their layout to Wessex NGM Open Day at Romsey and join it to the Freemo009 modular layout | May 2025 |