East Anglia Area Group Report November 2024

S7 members have had two shows where we’ve had the chance to catch-up with each other. They have been the East Anglian O Gauge meeting at the Sugar Beet Factory Sports and Social Club in Bury St Edmunds and the Bury St Edmunds MRC 75th Anniversary held in the cathedral in Bury St Edmunds.

The East Anglian O Gauge meeting is a lower key event organised by Guild members. There was a good selection of layouts, demonstrations and traders plus a very good bring and buy stall. This meeting is always a very sociable occasion helped by the large bar area which provides loads of seating together with a great selection of food and drink.

Bury St Edmunds MRC 75th anniversary was a great success with two Scale 7 layouts amongst the many others. These were Cratfield and Cobbolds Wharf. The location in the cathedral was a huge success with an enormous mix of layouts and scales. The superb catering from The Pilgrims Kitchen is also worth mentioning.

Many will remember Cratfield as the layout built by our much missed member John Watson, based on the Mid Suffolk Light Railway. It has been acquired by one of our EA members who presented it superbly. Cobbolds Wharf is the excellent layout based on Ipswich docks built by the Bury St Edmunds MRC.

On my visit to the Mark show I visited Peter Hunt our host of many years at his meetings in Sudbury. Peter has moved to Minehead living very close to the town with views of the steam railway. He is in excellent health and welcomes anyone who is in the area to call by. Please contact me if you would like his contact details. He has joined the local model railway club which is principally an OO group and very orientated towards RTR modelling although Peter says that he doesn’t say a great deal about that. Those who know Peter will be surprised to hear that he is not saying much!