It is with great sadness that I have been informed of the passing of Don Neale, just short of his 97th birthday.
As I am sure most will know, Don was one of the founding fathers of the Gauge O Guild, way back in 1956. It was at a meeting in London, appropriately at Euston Station, where a group of a dozen or so modellers in O gauge decided to form an organisation to promote the manufacture and supply of components for those wishing to build their own models. In those days, the only O gauge available, apart from tinplate, was in the form of ready to run rolling stock and trackwork from the likes of Bassett-Lowke, Mills, Exley and Leeds Model Co.
Little would that early group have knownt that, sixty eight years on, the Gauge O Guild would have grown to the size it is today, with hundreds of traders supplying the needs of thousands of modellers worldwide.
Don's famous garden railway 'Kirtley Branch' featured in many model railway publications over the years, and it was always a popular venue for regular meetings of our local GOG group. Sadly, in recent years it suffered from neglect due to his infirmity and failing eyesight, although we did manage to maintain the track sufficiently to run trains on a couple of occasions recently, to Don's delight. The trackwork sustained major damage a few years ago following a disastrous fire in the roof of the bungalow. The damage was not as a direct result of the fire, but by what Don described as 'big-booted firemen trampling all over it'. The irony here is that Don was a retired control room officer in the local Fire Brigade.
Don is survived by his wife Joan, who supported and encouraged the building of the railway, she being responsible for the beautifully manicured lawns and rockery plants.
If anyone would like to contribute memories or anecdotes about Don to this thread, I will ensure that they are passed on to Joan in due course. I will also advise details of Don's funeral as and when they become available.
Dave Smith
Spring Show Manager
showmanagerspring@gaugeoguild.com
Details of layouts attending the Wigan Show on the 7th December are now available.
To buy tickets and all other information please visit the Wigan Show page.
Here's what we have for your delight and entertainment at the first Guild Winter Show at Wigan -
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 capturesWelsh 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 – 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 Hassle Harbour Bridge Mk2
Iain Chippendale and Alsager Railway Association
Hassell Harbour Bridge is based on large bow arched steel bridges, 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’ Siding and Yard 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. We have a lot going on, there is the dairy, the agriculture yard, the goods shed and cattle dock which gives us quite a bit of shunting to do All main signals are fully operational and are hand built by my good friend Tony also the man doing the welding is Tony's genius. The track control is analog as Jerry the pal who's upstairs room we built the track in didn't like modern technology.
( 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
We are being supported by over 50! traders so there will be lots of opportunities to stock up on those vital Christmas presents!!!!
As usual there will be the Guild's Bring and Buy and the Sales stands along with all membership services.
There will also be a number of society stands, so plenty to keep you interested and inspired all day long.
To keep you fueled for the day there will be catering in each hall, including breakfast rolls before the show opens and the bar in the tennis hall will keep your thirst at bay.......
You the members, asked for a winter show to fill the gap between Guildex and Kettering, so now is the time to come and support it. Lots of layouts, interesting demos and fabulous trade support. Its going to be a cracking show in a really good sized venue with all the facilities for a great time. I really hope to see lots of you there..............
Tony Andrews
Winter Show Manager
Guildex 2024 took place on the 7th and 8th September at the Stafford Showground.
Relive the event with a selection of photos and a highlights video.
View the highlights