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Bumper evening this evening – 11 members present!  The Treasurer was beside himself!!!  Here we have the usual suspects, some showing how not to do social distancing.

And with lots of members came lots of trains, including….

Great Western splendour and Channel Tunnel maintenance from Derek Atfield.  The Channel Tunnel didn’t seem to be running too well; Derek then realised that it was a dummy loco…..

More pre-grouping splendour…..

Japanese passenger trains, old and new……

Modern UK.  The HST special editions look especially good…..

American goods, together with a realistic looking crash. (Simon had just put the gondola there, but it looked as if it had fallen down the embankment.)

And more wise words from Paul….

Another East Surrey N Gauge Group meeting this evening with lots of attendees. I took another varied selection of trains. The JR West 500-7000 Series ‘Plarail’, the EF81 with the Type 14 coach set in Rainbow livery, a D51 with mail coach set, 2 x 3 car JR Central 373 and a 12 coach JR Central 300 Series Shinkansen. All ran perfectly!

I didn’t get to this afternoon’s meeting, and Brian was also missing, so no epic video this time.  But Paul gave his usual summary on Facebook…..

Back from an enjoyable afternoon playing trains with the East Surrey N Gauge Group. All went well until an American troop train clashed with a French TGV on a rather tight bend causing a serious derailment. The Japanese and British trains also running at the time were unaffected. I had a mixture of stock running including a Nankai Rapi’t set, 2 x DF200 on the inspection special, Thomas The Tank Japanese style the JR West 285 sleeper set and the production version of the JR Central N700S.

Why was I missing?  We had a delightful surprise visit from from Berlin by our eldest daughter.  Maxine knew nothing about it, and was totally shocked having been lured out to breakfast to celebrate Michael’s birthday of a couple of weeks ago……

I’d received a one-time guess pass from the National Trust, so in the afternoon we drove over to Sir Winston Churchill’s house, Chartwell.  Ruth, the artistic one, appreciated his studio, and then did a little scrumping of Sir Winston’s apples.

More eating in the evening.  Only The Ruth Bartlett can blag a plate off her favourite Indian restaurant!

More fun and games today. We passed on another breakfast after overeating yesterday. We collected Ruth after church and met up with Chelle for dim sum in Croydon. Ruth attacked this with some enthusiasm – you can’t get dim sum this good (or cheap) in Germany.

I have a picture of Maxine and Chelle, but it’s not a good one (Maxine is eating her birthday treat chicken’s feet) and I shall be in big trouble if I post it……  After lunch Chelle put Ruth on a train at East Croydon to go and surprise a few more friends in Hackney. 

All in all, a delightful weekend.

Sorry, I’ve missed a few days blogging – all well in the household, but it seems to have been rather busy.  Too many breakfasts out, I think.  This is Redhill aerodrome on a cold, misty, autumnal morning.

But on Wednesday evening, it was time for the usual ESNG meeting.  Just the five members attended, but we had a pleasant and relaxed evening running trains.

The usual Japanese selection from Paul.  Thomas-san also made an appearance, but he’s had quite enough media coverage on this blog recently…

Multiple units old and new…..

The Farish Blue Pullman is certainly one of their best models.  I wonder how long it will be before someone brings out the HST version?

NSE and Railtrack…..

To finish, here’s how to travel south, 1930’s style….

Seven members turned out on a autumnal Sunday afternoon to play trains.  A fun afternoon with good company, and cakes provided by the Cha(i)rman – Christmas cupcakes with a sell-by date of 27/10/2021.  We have to record that they failed to get to the 27th….

The regulars…..

An interesting 3D printed early Santa Fe diesel from Simon….

Passenger and freight, Japanese style, from Paul….

Allan was somewhere in Germany….

Brian with trains from the UK and the Netherlands….

And Brian recorded the highlights for us…..

The day before Brian had filmed the prototype for his Class 73 over at Tonbridge….