One of the special features at Scaleforum in our 40th anniversary year will be the historical display of models and literature that is being assembled by Iain Rice. Iain has recently sent me an update of what he hopes to have available ....
"A selection of showcase models including work by Alex Jackson, Sid Stubbs and John Langham (EEM locos and stock from the Manchester Club collection) plus the Sid Stubbs wheel-making demo/display. We've also got historic P4 locos from Alan Goodwillie, Tony Miles/Adavoyle , Mike Gilgannon and Gareth Floyd and example locomotives and rolling stock from 'Dubbieside', Calder Bank, the North Cornwall Minerals Railway, Heckmondwke, Denyden and the East Suffolk Light Railway, plus odd items of stock using various compensation systems and vintage components.
One board of the late Nigel Hunt's 'Swaveny' layout, rescued by DRAG. It''s also a generation on from the 'pioneering' stage of P4, of which Swaveny is a true representative.
A table-top display of original/vintage P4 components, tools/gauges, templates and so on, plus some vintage part-built models/chassis and examples of original ply-and-rivet/Kings Cross P4 track.
A further table-top display concentrating on the literature of Protofour, including the seminal magazine articles leading up to P4, the promulgation of standards, the early P4 magazine articles and the Protofour Manual, plus monitors to display PowerPoint slideshows of early P4 layouts/models and archive material in scanned form.
A display of photographs, documents and ephemera from the Scalefour Society archive, curated by Rod Cameron, and from Alan Goodwillie"
Iain and other long standing members of the Society will be staffing the display and will be on hand to talk about what can be seen. This will be a unique opportunity to see what "fine scale" modelling was like when dinosaurs ruled the earth (
) - or at least when many of us were a lot younger. The display will be set out so there is space to look at things and to talk to these staffing it and generally gossip about days gone by and perhaps even what the future holds.
Terry Bendall