GAUGE O GUILD

Introducing another New O Gauge Show as requested by members.

We were asked to space our four events across the year and have one in Spring, one in Summer, Guildex in autumn and a new show in Winter.

With the loss of the Leigh O gauge show and the Wigan Finescale Show, we were asked to make the new show accessible for members in the North West and Yorkshire.

This venue (previously used for the Wigan Finescale Show) fits the bill nicely:

We will be using two halls. Both the Sports Hall (Top image) and the Tennis Hall. (Bottom image).

Getting to the Show

Driving
10 minutes from the M6.

15 minutes from M61.

The Leisure Centre and Arena Car Parks hold 350 cars for £4.50 per day.

Wigan Athletic Overspill car park is £5.00 per day.

All the car parks charge to prevent people using them for the shopping centre.

Public Transport
15 - 20 minutes walk from Wigan Railway Stations.

Frequent buses to the venue from Wigan Railway Stations.

If you look at a map you will see the venue is near to the large Robin Park Retail Park so somewhere for wives or partners to visit too.

Layouts

L1 Test Track
Nelson Keen and the East Midlands Group
Come and exercise your locos or try out your purchases on the test track which caters for most wheel standards (except S7 or coarse scale) employing 12v or 24v either DC or DCC operation. Live Steam running will be a feature on this track. Clearances between the lines also permit 16mm scale running on 32mm track.

L2 Alexandra Sidings
Dave Hampson
Alexandra Sidings is a 7mm scale layout which represents a small fictional station and parcels depot in North West England. The layout is split level, with the lower level comprising a station and a separate upper level with an urban parcels concentration depot. The period set is the BR blue era in the mid to late 1970s. Passenger services are provided through a range of DMU classes, together with a class 504 Bury EMU. Engineers trains are frequent visitors, with a fully working 76 ton crane occasionally to be seen.

L3 Penrhyn Quarries
Bill Ferguson
Penrhyn Quarry captures Welsh Slate quarry workings in 10mm scale. This narrow gauge layout set on standard gauge 16.5mm track features slate buildings inspired by historic Caernarvonshire railways. A striking winter scene includes a track running past a frozen waterfall and through snow covered landscapes.

L4 Test Track
David Ellis and the Liverpool and West Lancs Group
The test track is available for visitors to bring locomotives and stock for testing and running purposes. There are four continuous loops, one of which can be switched between 2-rail and 3- rail. All four tracks can be powered with DC and any one of those can optionally be changed over to a DCC controller.

L5 Ballan Road
David Forshaw and the Liverpool and West Lancs Group
Ballan Road is set in a fictitious village on the Cumbrian coast line during the late 1950’s to early 1960’s. The nearby station has remained open mainly to allow workers to reach the local chemical works, which also provides some freight traffic. The engine shed is still operational to provide shunters for the works. Some modernisation has appeared in form of diesel traction, but otherwise it is a scene unchanged in many years.

L6 Hillport Goods
Steve Farmer
The layout is set in North Staffordshire in the period of the late 70s and represents a small urban yard of the type that was soon to disappear. The yard handles mainly commodities and sundries traffic in vans and open wagons which are bought in on trip workings. Also to be seen is domestic coal traffic along with tanks of heating oil to the Knype fuels siding. Traffic to Midland steel and Albion cement terminal also come into the yard to run round or drop wagons off to be shunted out.

L7 Bury, Thorn and Sons
Joshua Haworth
Bury, Thorn & Sons represents a small portion of a fictitious tar distillery set somewhere in the West Riding of Yorkshire in the late 1950's to early 1960's, with the rest of the works and the British Rail exchange sidings being located 'off scene'. Traffic consists of inbound tar in square tank wagons, with the refined products leaving in Class A & B tanks. General merchandise and barrels are also transhipped in the large warehouse and workshop units along the front of the layout.

L8 Hassell Harbour Bridge Mk2
Iain Chippendale and Alsager Railway Association
Hassell Harbour Bridge is based on a large bow arched steel bridge, the inspiration was the bridge over the River Wear at Sunderland. The model bridge was originally built in 2005 and was part of a bigger layout now scrapped, it has been saved and incorporated into a new compact continuous run 0 gauge exhibition layout. One aim has been to demonstrate space saving 0 gauge running on 4 foot 6 inch radius curves. We run trains from different eras, so we can mix diesel and steam, also you can see a working wagon incline and shunting on the dockside.

L9 Jennings’ Works and Sidings
Keith Hayward
Jennings’ Works and Sidings is a small industrial railway set in the south Midlands. All the major structures are scratch built, largely as free-lance buildings loosely based on real places. The stone clad buildings are card and Polyfilla coated, with the stone etched by hand and painted with water colours. The large wagon repair shed, and the engine shed are also constructed from card, clad with wooden sleeper strips and plastic brick sheet. Many of the key structures have fully detailed interiors and are illuminated.

L10 Shunters Rode
Michael Taylor
The track is purely fictitious but we like to think it's part of the Somerset and Dorset. There is a lot going on, such as the dairy, the agriculture yard, the goods shed and cattle dock which gives rise to quite a bit of shunting to do. All main signals are fully operational and are hand built by my good friend Tony who also created the man doing the welding. The track control is analogue DC.

( All taken from the showguide which will soon be going into print )
 

Demonstrations

In addition we have demonstrators to “show you how....”

• Nick Dunhill - on building locos and scratchbuilding
• Rob Bishop - unlocking the mysteries of soldering
• Robin Taylor - on cottages and scenic modelling
• Andy Small - how to weather locos and rolling stock
• Dan Evason - showing how to paint figures
• Fiona Forty - showing how to fit your locos for DCC
   

Traders so far (14/11/2024)

1039 Models
AirFramed Display cases 
Allan Lewis - sale of personal collection
Amberly Components
Bill Hudson Transport Books
Brushes 4 Models
Buzz Models
C & L Finescale Track Building Systems Ltd
Carl Worthington - sale of estate items
Connoisseur Models
Craft Lighting (New Trader)
Dapol
Decor Fab
Duncan Models
EBMA Hobby & Craft
Ellis Clark 
Fine Scale Brass (UK)
Footplate Models
Gladiator
Gloforce
Greenwood Railway Products
Haywood Railway
HMRS
James Green Artist
JSModels
Lanky Kits
LCUT Creative
Metalsmith (Leeds) Ltd
MMM (Made in Manchester Models)
MMR Models
Nick Tozer Railway Books
North Western Models (New Trader) 
Northumbrian Painting Service
P.R.Model Railway Products
Peter Clark Models
Poppy's Woodtech
Premier Components
Ragstone Models
Ron Connor Totem Signs
Sanspareil ICS
SBT Developments
Scorpio Models
Simon's Sort Out 
Skytrex Ltd
Slaters Plastikard
Squires Model and Craft Tools
Steamline Ltd.
Torri Laser
Tower Collection Blackpool
Tower Models
Trainsporters
Walsworth Models
White Rose Modelworks

Societies / Clubs

Further details will be announced in due course

Getting to the Show

Driving
The Showground is situated on the A518 Stafford to Uttoxeter road some 4 miles from Stafford. Drivers from either the North or South using the M6 motorway should exit at junction 14 and follow the signs for the County Showground.

Distances in Miles
Birmingham    32    Newcastle    173
Bristol    116    Norwich    194
Edinburgh    265    Nottingham    64
Liverpool    72    Oxford    95
London    145    Shrewsbury    32
Manchester    60    York    106

Public Transport
The Showground is just 4 miles from Stafford Railway Station. The station is situated on the West Coast Main Line offering a direct service to London Euston with a journey time of approximately one hour and twenty minutes. It also offers direct services to Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Manchester and Liverpool.

Airports - Birmingham International and East Midlands airports are both a 50 minute drive from the Showground whilst Manchester Airport can be reached in little more than an hour.