Shed Notices

Overseas members may have noticed that there was no copy of the ‘Bulletin’ newsletter included in the mailing of the August ‘16mm Today’. There was unfortunately a packing error when the magazines came off the printing line and the copy of Bulletin was not included in mailings going outside the UK. We apologise to affected members for this.

We are working with Warners Midlands, the printers of our magazines, to arrange the sending of replacements copies of ‘Bulletin’ to overseas members as soon as possible. We will provide a further Shed Notice when we have progress and updates in resolving this.

We are very sorry that this has happened; we and Warners Midlands will investigate how this happened.

Tom Rowland. Membership Secretary

We have been thinking about new ideas for the 2027 National Garden Railway Show, and having noted the proliferation of “micro-layouts” in the smaller scales, wondered if we should have a “Micro-layout Village” at next year’s Show?

So, although I am looking merely for expressions of interest at this stage, if you have such a layout which ideally should  be less then 2.5 metres in length, and would be suitable for exhibition; and you are available 2^nd / 3^rd April 2027, then please let me know! Emails to show.director@16mm.org.uk

Many thanks in anticipation.

Rick Turnock, Show Director

Did you miss out on some of the exclusive items available from Inglis Works at the National Garden Railway Show? Inglis has now added notebooks, utility pouches, and thermal flasks to their website! Get them while they’re still available!

The video of the actual Annual General Meeting with Directors reports, elections and members questions, is now live:

The May mailing of SMT and Bulletin is scheduled for collection from Warners in Bourne later this week. The mailing will again be by Whistl, with the entire mailing to both UK and overseas members continuing to be collected at the same time. Non-UK mailings are being dispatched in a plastic rather than paper wrap for this mailing. The mailing can be expected to begin arriving with members a few days after the collection date.

SMT and Bulletin will be available on our Members Site from 09:00 on Saturday 23^rd May. If you haven’t received an invitation to activate your account on the site, or can’t find it, please email members.site@16mm.org.uk providing your surname, membership number and post code and we’ll send an invitation as soon as we can.

Many thanks as always go to the editors for both magazines, Jonathan Mead for SMT and Harry Jones for Bulletin. Thanks to them for getting their magazines out on time. Also thanks to all the members who have contributed articles and reports to them. Your input is both welcome and valuable to the editors in being able to present interesting publications. I hope you enjoy reading what I’m sure will again be interesting and quality magazines.

Tom Rowland, Membership Secretary

The new Board met for nearly three hours this morning, the first meeting after the Annual General Meeting at last Saturday’s show.  The first agenda item was to elect a new Chairman.  I’m it.  Newer members may not know that I was Chairman in the past so I know what the role entails and hope to hit the ground running.  Mike Riley was elected Company Secretary at the AGM and created the record of today’s meeting.  Mike also has done this job before and whilst a few things have changed since his last term in office, he also expects to be up to speed quickly.  Andrew Lambert (Treasurer), Andy Belcher (Technical Director) and Mark Rennie (Director and MOTY Organiser) also formally took up their roles at the meeting, all having been elected at the AGM.

The other main business of the meeting was review of the National Show last Saturday, to reflect on what worked well and on what could be improved for 2027.  Show director Rick Turnock and Chris Nobbs (Chief Steward) provided feedback and insight on the show.  Rebecca (Member to Member) has already circulated her notes of the meeting, which list 26 points relating to the show.  This gives us a good foundation for the review meeting we will have with Warners to learn from this year’s show and prepare for the next.  What the Warners event staff have already fed back is how well Association volunteers organised those areas of the show for which we were responsible.  This is a tribute to the many stewards who gave up their time before and after the show to make it a success.

And a success it indeed was!  Footfall was up 26% on 2025, returning the show to 2024 levels at over 1,500 visitors.  The feedback on social media has been overwhelmingly positive.  I wasn’t able to speak to all traders but those I was able to spend time with reported brisk trade.  There are certainly things we and Warners can improve, but overall it was a super show.  So if the date’s not already in your diary, perhaps you’ll want to draw a big fat circle round Saturday 3rd April 2027 at Stoneleigh Park.

Alan Regan, Chairman

If you’re coming to the show tomorrow, and those of us setting it up today hope you are, to accelerate your entry, we’re doubling the capacity of the “Tickets Bought in Advance” queue.  We’ll have two scanners outside the hall, so we can screen visitors as quickly as possible, and tickets on paper or Smart Devices will be scanned electronically, further reducing the effort for everyone.

There’s still time to buy in advance.  Click this link to go the the ticketing site.  Advance tickets will be on sale until 08:30 tomorrow.

This is how the hall looks right now.  I will look very different at this time tomorrow!

Alan & Rick, National Show Team

The annotated show plan has been added to our show web site and can be found here.   The plan itself, the areas within the yellow and blue zones, has been created by Warners.  The annotations have been added by the Association.

If you are an Association member and plan to attend the Annual General Meeting at 14:00 during the show, please note that it has returned to the space used at the 2024 show and is highlighed on the plan.  Access will be from the Foyer, not from the main hall.

A further change for 2026: visitors will not be issued with wristbands on initial entry to the show.  They will be issued wristbands if they wish to leave the show and return later, for example, to take or collect something from their vehicle.

Exhibitor lists in alphabetic and stand number order have also been added to the show web site here.  This is based on the list of exhibitors provided to the Association yesterday by Warners.  We believe the lists to be current, complete and accurate.  However, if any trader or exhibitor is unable to locate themselves they need to address their concern to the Commercial Sales Manager in Warners.

Finally, you will note from the plan that there are separate entry lines, one for those who wish to buy tickets on the day and the other for those who have bought tickets in advance.  Association volunteers will resource this second line and scan tickets, which may be on mobile devices, using scanning equipment provided by Warners.  We anticipate that this will speed entry into the show.  The same airline-style security scanners will be used outside to screen entrants to the show, which is the same as in 2025 and is in the interests of everyone’s safety and security.

Tickets can be bought in advance up until 08:30 on 25th April here.

Rick Turnock, Show Director

The bus will be provided free of charge from the Whythall Transport Museum.  Their insurance prohibits them from accepting payment for the service they’ll provide and this information has only just come to light.  You don’t need a ticket to use the bus, just turn up and get on board.  If you use the bus, you will have the option to make a donation to the museum upon arrival at the show, or online at your convenient.  We’re working with the museum to provide a suitable donation receptacle.  Their online donation page is here.

The timetable is as follows:

Rick Turnock, Show Director