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Another club night – and the expected rain arrived half way through the evening, but without the forecast thunderstorms.  Five of us met, ran trains, and finally settled down for a long chat, leaving my Warship and parcels train doing laps of the layout.

Earlier, Simon ran a long passenger train, that kept uncoupling, Michael ran his British stock, and Derek tested a couple of locomotives.  It was good to see Ian for the first time for a while.

Looking back a meeting, here’s Brian’s video of the occasion….

And new on my bookshelf…..

• Graham Hedges’ new ‘N’ gauge magazine.  Very nicely produced, and if you liked the N Gauge Society when he edited it, it’s more of the same.  Glossy, nice, but slightly predictable and I’m not sure that I’ll buy another one.
• Model Railroader – 25 years of Model Railroad Planning on DVD.  This annual planning magazine is the one essential US purchase of my year, and although it has a good number of basement empires included, there are a lot of good small layout ideas.  I’m pleased to be able to get all these issues in digital form!
• And best of the lot, Locomotives of the IOW Railways.  I’ve got the ancient, smaller and thinner version of this, dating from the 1970’s, but this is expanded with much more information.  It is also up to date, with all locomotion included up to the latest ex-tube stock.  A recommended read!

A boiling hot Sunday afternoon, and England playing their first game in the Euros.  Five of us had a rather more sedate afternoon running trains, and very pleasant it was too.

It didn’t take long to set up the layout.  Dare I say, that it’s easier with less people…..

Chris and I both ran a ‘real’ UK goods train…..

Paul had his usual Japanese contribution…..

Brian was in deepest Europe….

And also filming my IOW Terrier, as Graham’s USA express passed in the background…..

Paul had his usual sage summing up on Facebook…..

An afternoon playing trains. Very enjoyable, nice to have regular club meetings again. Sunday’s only for me until September owing to my early starts at work through the summer.

And we’re back on Wednesday for another meeting.

No Chairman today, as he’s on holiday.  Ron has sent some snaps of a cream tea to me, and I shall have to post them over the next few days.

And to finish, another modelling video from Brian.  No doubt one of this afternoon will follow soon….

Doetinchem – Bijna Maar Niet is a model railway layout in N Gauge.

In real life, Doetinchem is served by rail services from Arnhem to Winterswijk with two stations, one in the city centre – Doetinchem and Doetinchem De Huet lying to the west between the suburbs of De Huet and Dichteren. In 2012, Arriva, took over the rail services.

Most of what you see is from my imagination rather than an accurate film of the location, but I’ve tried to replicate some of the area in my designs.

I tried to obtain a Class E186 in Dutch livery, but they have sold out around the world, so I had one last option – a Lineas branded E186 from Scograil – an excellent model rail shop based in Ipswich, England.

Lineas is a large European freight operation in Benelux countries including The Netherlands.

A quiet evening, as a couple of members had to drop out, and I couldn’t find a replacement.  I wondered whether to cancel the meeting, but everyone seemed keen, so we went ahead and had a very pleasant evening chatting and running trains.

We soon had a small circuit set up….

Chris ran his Sandite unit again, having close-coupled the units.

I ran my Class 31, with its new lighting board, on a suburban service.

Graham had his usual selection of USA stock.  A rather more up to date version of my suburban service!

Superpower from Simon…..

I also give my second-hand Union Mills T9 a run – and it runs perfectly as expected.

No leaves on the track were noted (anyway, Chris’ Sandite unit would have fixed them.)

Till the next time – I’ve a few photos that I’ll post soon, despite my blogging holiday.