October 2026 Beckingham workshop

A trio of Forth and Clyde regulars made the trip south to Beckingham village hall, near Doncaster, for the two-day Autumn Workshop organised by the 2mmSA Events team and Laurie Adams' North Mercia area group. As expected it was a great success, with participants from home and abroad, and several acknowledged experts on hand to offer advice.

Each participant got a decent working area with power and the hall lighting was very effective, as you can see below. We were organised into three sections - locos, carriage-and-wagon, and track - and we got our heads down for two uninterrupted days of model-making. It was also a chance to put faces to names and learn from everyone else's experience.

Loco table:

The Australians punched above their weight - so that's quite a lot of punching - supplying several loquacious participants who kept the Poms on their toes for the whole weekend. They even brought their own wheels. Here's Bruce from Oz turning flanges off the intermediate and driving (I think) wheels for his 5'3" gauge Victorian Railways "A" class Baldwin 2-8-0, which he's building from his own etches. 

C&W table:

Track table, with the Central Shop in the background:

A close-up of Laurie's "portable" workbench, which seemed to lacked only hot and cold running water. Maybe not even that.

A series of delicious cakes were consumed over the weekend, as well as two finger-lickin'-good buffet lunches, supervised by Caroline with her customary calm efficiency. It is fair to say we were completely spoiled. Our grateful thanks to all the organisers, experts, and participants who made the weekend so rewarding. A good time really was had by all.