10th Narrow Gauge Convention

Yesterday and today I attended the Narrow Gauge Convention at the Workshops Rail Museum at Ipswich. My first job on Saturday morning was to assist Mr Mewes (Lefty to many) a fellow Tuesday Nighter, a fellow Presenter and Curator at the Workshops Rail Museum in booking in all the modelling entries for judging during the day.  There was bedlam there for a while as Dave and myself came to terms with what was required.  Not many entries, but enough to keep us busy for 30 plus minutes solid.  Some very nice models as well as some very nice photographs on show.

A quick perusal of the attendee list, brought up a few surprises.  Two members of my Club that I did not know were attending.  As well as a past member.  A couple of NSW modellers - fancy that at a Narrow Gauge Convention, but then the Victorians piped up, saying standard gauge is narrow gauge.  Quite a few well known shops in attendance as well.  Centre stage were a collection of QR models from some very famous QR modellers from AMRA history as well as a very new kids on the block with their wares.  My camera battery ran out today - Bugger!

There was a good selection of topics to attend, with some sessions repeated during the day so you could make a choice as to what sessions to attend. You could not however, attend all sessions. Some sessions were held by themselves, like a keynote session at a conference, while at other times during the day, there were two and three sessions running concurrently.  It was amazine that there was common themes running through the sessions.

I was second last up on the Saturday afternoon with my Styrene modeling session.

Today, a quick change of the program as attendees were thinning out, and instead of the two sessions in Auditorium 1 and 2 being run twice, an Executive decision was made and they were run one after the other.  That way I could attend Ian Fainges session on Sculpting.  Very Nice.  I ran the last Session of the Convention on Constructing a Dunny in O Scale. Amazingly quite a few turned up to this sessions, with 6 people participating in the building process in the 30 minutes session that ran slightly over time.

Nice people, great food as well as tea/coffee.  Fantastic Organisation, and a great set of notes.  We also got go on a Behind the Scenes tour of the Museum, where the public is not usually shown. Well done everyone.  I understand the next one is in Victoria.