Shows & Events

2012 NZ Garden Railway Convention Visits AFR!

The Ashburton Forks Railway was lucky enough to host the 2012 NZ Garden Railway Convention as a layout visit, we planned to run Scratch Built & Freelance for the afternoon. We were lucky with the weather a sunny day of 26 degrees one of the warmest this summer!! Visitors arrived about 3.30-ish, once everyone arrived a welcome & history of the railway talk was given, then the trains were run.

Above Left; The welcome talk, visitors came from far North as Auckland & South as Mosgiel. One Chap bought a electronic measuring device which he tow behind a loco, so the offical distance of the line is 110.6 metres!! Above Right & Below Left; Wellington modeller John Robinson bought his Dubs A down, so the Dubs A's meet again!! Below Right; Rogers Q17 is seen here on the mainline following the Dubs A Special.

I must thank Glen Anthony & John Robinson for the Convention photos, as I forgot to take pictures yet again!! 

The Plains Railway 40th Anniversary!

The AFR was approached by the Plains to put on a working display featuring of course Thomas & Friends for their big weekend. With help from Andy & borrowing a bit more track to fill the area I think we succeeded. We had a double track oval with a passing loop on each track, the outer was longer on which we ran NZR & USA trains with the inner being Thomas all weekend. We also had a small radius oval down one end which ran 0-4-0's & small wheel based stock. Andy used his Life-Like Rail-Road crossing with operating lights & crossing arms, this proved a hit with the kids, with them just laying there watching them go up & down! The Palmers also gave us some scratch built signals & station a platform to use on the weekend. It was a great turn out, with everyone showing a great deal of interest for the size of the trains & of course that blue engine & friends!!! Thanks to all those that helped us put on a good display.

Above Left; Looking towards 1 of the entrances where at the far end was a display table with NZR models on, work table to the right in the middle & another display table with European-USA models on. Note the crossing in the foreground first time I had ever seen one working & was impressed by it & so were the kids! Above Right; Looking the other way with the station being the point of interest in the middle! You may also note the people-barriers which AFR had constructed previous month!! 

Christchurch Train Show October 2011

On the 8th & 9th of October AFR was on the move once again this time North to Christchurch the car was full with the Thomas Range to keep the kids amused & A62 with NZR snow plow. It was a similar set up to Timaru but a passing loop & siding was added to the inner Thomas track. As usual Thomas stole the attention of the younger generation hopefully attracting a few more to the hobby!

Above; The two A's unite!! John Robinson looks on at the locos.

The highlight for me was meeting up with another Dubs A maker who hails from Wellington, he has made a great job of this loco in the style of New Zealand bush tram way/logging! More on this meet up in the  {Picture Gallery} section. 

Above Left; Thomas passing James with a USA Trains GP-30 in the background. Above Right; Myself & John comparing building methods used in constructing our A locos!

Timaru Train Show July 2011

On the 30th & 31st of July some of AFRs rolling stock headed south to Timaru for there Biannual Train show. I was running as part of the Christchurch Garden Railway Society display, Ab730 & F72 with a train of NZR rolling stock were displayed (Ran for an hour before the doors opened) but the main attraction as far as the kids go was Thomas, Percy & James. Members of the club ran double track circuit with there trains & Thomas & Friends were running on a seperate one insde the double circuit. One wee boy & her mother were sitting watching for at least 4 hours, was great to see all the young ones taking an interest.

Above Left; Saturday 30th. Selection of rolling stock on display & running form club & AFR. Above Right; Hopefully some up & comming modellers to the hobby looking on!!

Above Left; Sunday 31st. A special 1 hour run before the doors opened, F72 at the head of her train passing Ab730 getting ready for her run.  Above Right; Ab & F double heading for a photo run by. What these pictures don't show is the 4 or 5 other exhibitors laying on the floor getting pictures & saying "run these all day & leave Thomas in the siding!" but we have to listen to our up & comming modellers, the Kids.

Above; Here is an unusual shot of my 1:24 Ab730 & sitting on her running board is 5 coaches in T Gauge, I believe it is half the size of Z gauge. This small stuff if fully functional & runs on track with a gauge of 3mm between the rails compared to my 45mm, simply amazing.