World Wide area group
The NGS WorldWide Group has a dedicated website with a members only area containing a number of useful reference documents:
- Railways in Germany – History and Epochs
A document listing some of the history and development and epochs of German Railways - German Steam Loco Record
A complete and detailed listing of all German Steam Locomotives. - Bahn Glossary
A listing of German railway words grouped by type and their English meaning. - Railways in Austria – A “Short” History
A 40 page booklet of the history of all branch lines in Austria, and their combination into a network. - Modelling USA Railroads
A guide for the beginner wanting to model American Railroads. - A Guide to Scale Colour
Scale and colour advice from a renowned artist and modeller. - Weathering Masterclass
A guide to weathering American Boxcars with wider application - A guide to ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System).
A guide to the real thing for the more technically minded.
As well as these useful reference documents there is also a library of past issues of our Globe newsletter, with indexes and the monthly Globe Supplements from Issue 1. The bi-monthly Globe deals with modelling issues, members layouts, new products, prototype information, travelogues. Society News and more. The monthly Supplement contains pictures, both current and historical, and news from real railway and tram systems all over the World.
Our Members Only area is on the WorldWide Group website.
WWG Annual Convention
Our 2011 convention was held at St Albans in St Stephens Church Hall.
By 10am most things were ready for visitors and there was a steady stream throughout the day—both NGS members and general visitors. Sadly, very sadly, there were very few WorldWide members who visited the Convention—never mind attended the AGM. We did however recruit 3 new members to the N Gauge Society and 6 new members to the WWG so a reasonable result on that front.
WWG members Dave and Iris Guscott and Roger Sant had both brought good size layouts and put a lot of work into setting those up. Graham Elliott also had his American layout Evelyn Harbour (see Globes February and April 2011) and Piers Milne brought his newest German layout Oberdorf II. At the other extreme of portability Kevin Player’s wonderful layout of Furth DB museum built into a guitar case was also on display. The centre of the floor in the main hall was taken up with the local area group’s British layout Dudley Frey. Sadly the other American layout, Le High Valley, failed to appear.
The NGS shop was well stocked and carried a large selection of items. They did quite a steady trade throughout the day and even your Chairman was persuaded to part with money.
To the left is a scene from Oberdorf II which is Piers Milne’s latest N gauge layout. Piers is well known for his modelling skills and produces well finished and interesting layouts. Although not actually a group member, Piers did support the Convention as a Subscriber to The Globe. We do actually need more members to support events!
Roger Sant's German layout Wiesmühl (right) has grown significantly since we last saw it at Harpenden two years ago. Roger has clearly been working very hard on his pride and joy and is right to be proud of it. I didn’t get a chance to speak to Roger about his plans for further extensions. We shall have to wait and see what space he asks for at the 2013 Convention. Roger’s excellent model of Kitzbühel-Hannenkamm station building (as detailed later in this issue) was also on display as part of the modelling competition.
David & Iris Guscott brought their German layout Neubrückenbahn, a very impressive layout with a fascinating array of 9 bridges, 10 tunnels, spirals plus a cable car and a funicular railway. A feat of engineering just getting it into the car. This layout can be seen at Plymouth on 13/14 August or Leamington Spa on 10/11th Sept. Well worth a look and say Hi to Dave and Iris.
World Wide Modelling Competition
Sadly there were only two entries this year but it wasn’t an easy decision for the three judges: Tim Hitch, Stephen Hansen and Chris Timony from A&H Models. The 2 entries were Roger Sant’s excellent reproduction of Kitzbühl station (right) and Kevin Player’s depiction of Furth DB Museum (below). Roger’s station building is featured to the right, whilst Kevin’s model is below. This model is built into a guitar case so is extremely portable yet offers a lot of interest and is very well detailed and completed. Even some of the steam engines can actually “steam” as evidenced by the Bavarian Pacific on the turntable. And the whole layout is equipped with sound. The winner this year was Kevin Player. 
Thanks to the South West Group
The convention was very well supported by members of the South West Herts group who kept coming and going throughout the day with a major shift change around mid day. Their 16 foot long British layout “Dudley Frey” appeared to run very well when I saw it and it was a very interesting layout which was well detailed and full of bits to look at. It certainly seemed to keep visitors entertained. More details here . We are very grateful for the support from South West Herts without whom the atmosphere would have been much more subdued. And I think they enjoyed the day—despite being surrounded by foreign models!. So good day was had by all who attended.
So thoughts now turn to the 2012 Annual Convention in Retford next June.
A 9 min+ video of 3 of the layouts at the Convention is on YouTube posted by REFaust. Layouts are Dudley Frey (about 6min), Neunbruckenbahn & Wiesmuhl (about 2 min each).
Apologies for the lack of train action on my layout said Roger Sant but I was running a prototypical timetable - 1 train every 1/2 hour! Actually, I look like I'm changing some stock over behind the scenes.
Put 'n gauge worldwide st albans' into Google & you'll find it. It's also on the NGaugeForum website under shows / exhibitions.