Shed Notices

After many requests I’m pleased to announce that we have a new stock of the plastic 16mm Scale rulers originally produced as part of the 40th Anniversary.

These are priced at £4.00 each and will first be available from the Association stand at the Llanfair Garden Railway Show this coming Saturday 30th August, where we will also have the last of the enamel mugs, the last of the jute shopping bags, and the last of the umbrellas!

I expect to have the rulers at the Yorkshire Area show at Barrow Hill on 27th September, and at the National Festival of Railway Modelling at the NEC Nov. 22 & 23rd.  However this is a limited run, so don’t leave it too late if you want one!

Rod Nipper, Marketing and Publicity

Our IT guru Richard Huss has spent a considerable amount of time recently updating the suppliers and useful links on our website along with the company secretary, Andrew Mountfield who reviewed the list and made a number of suggested alterations, with the aim of giving all of our members a better experience. On behalf of the board and all of you, we thank Richard and Andrew for carrying out this much needed piece of work. We hope this makes it easier for you to find what you’re looking for. There’s quite a few new entries so do please take a look.

If you have any suggestions for additional links you think might be useful for the general membership, then please go to the Suggest a Link page on the website.

Alan Finch, Chairman

The Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers is delighted to have been invited to Alstom’s festival celebrating 200 years of train travel at the iconic Derby Litchurch Lane rolling stock works between 1st and 3rd August.

This site was opened by the Midland Railway in 1878 and this will be the first time in almost 50 years that it will be open to the public with a three day event celebrating the past, present and future of UK railways. The Association will have both our promotional stand and Mike Riley’s Llantaliog Valley Railway running a variety of 16mm steam and battery powered trains

The Llantaliog Valley Railway is built to 16mm Scale on 32mm Track. It runs a combination of live steam gas powered locomotives and battery driven diesel outline locomotives; some are radio-controlled others free running. The layout is a single-track oval, with a loop and three-track fiddle yard and two short sidings. It is based upon a fictitious Welsh heritage railway with a small slate museum. The layout is circa 4.80m by 1.83m by 0.76m high (16 feet by 6 feet by 2 feet 6 inches high) and is scenic other than one long side which is a fiddle yard.

The Association’s stand will include various displays and a small selection of merchandise, subject to availability!

The festival will feature over 50 full size vehicles including famous steam, diesel and electric locomotives along with rolling stock and a variety of model displays. Unfortunately the event is already sold out, with a potential 10,000 visitors each day, but if you have been lucky enough to get one of those tickets we look forward to seeing you, as well as talking to all the other visitors to the show who may not realise that it is perfectly possible to run real steam trains in their garden!

What is Rail 200?

Although born in Great Britain, rail quickly spread across the globe.  Railway 200  will showcase how the railway shaped and continues to shape our lives. A  wide variety of activities and events – across the UK and around the world – are being planned to celebrate rail’s remarkable past, its role today and its importance to a sustainable future. So with a worldwide membership the Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers is pleased to be part of it.

Rod Nipper, Marketing and Publicity

The Association will once again be supporting the Llangollen Garden Railway Festival with our promotional stand offering a small selection of 16mm merchandise as well as encouraging show visitors who are not already part of our worldwide membership to join us!

We are Stand PT16 (hopefully not on so much of a slope as last year!)  This year the Festival is on Saturday 7th June 10:00am till 4:30pm with full details on the festival website.

There are several familiar 16mm layouts attending along with G3 and G1, and a selection of traders – full listings on the website.  Hope to see you there!

Rod Nipper, Marketing and Publicity

The Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers is delighted to announce that they have entered in to a partnership with Warners Group Publications to promote and develop the National Garden Railway Show.

The 2026 show will once again be held at Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire on Saturday 25^th April.

Alan Finch, Chairman of the Association, said that “he was delighted to enter in to a new era of partnership with Warners Group Publications to continue to develop the National Garden Railway Show as Europe’s premier event of its kind”

For several years the Association has been exploring the opportunities to obtain support for the show, something that many of the small scale exhibitions have benefitted from for some time. Warners Group Publications who produce titles such as Garden Rail and Narrow Gauge World as well as hosting RMweb and other online resources, and running their own shows, will bring financial support as well as a wealth of experience in marketing and the ability to support the show with, for example, entry scanning of electronic tickets, and staff dedicated to trade space sales and developing the visitor experience, which have been beyond the Association’s resources.

The National Garden Railway Show has been described as “the largest event of its kind in Europe” and attracts specialist garden railway traders to announce their new products, as well as a wide range of layouts in garden scales, many running live steam models throughout the day. Visitors already come from across the UK, Europe and from as far away as the USA, Canada, Australia and Japan to attend the show and with the addition of Warners expertise in online marketing the Association expects the audience to grow significantly as well as broadening the show’s appeal to families and the wider railway modelling community.

The May mailing of SMT and Bulletin is scheduled for collection from Warners in Bourne later this week. The Association is using a new mail company from this mailing, Whistl, and the entire mailing to both UK and overseas members will continue to be collected at the same time. Mailings can be expected to begin arriving with members a few days after mailing.

SMT and Bulletin will be available on our Members Site from 09:00 on Saturday 10^th 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; Greg Moir for SMT and Harry Jones and Jonathan Mead 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