The Guildford MES annual Rally and Exhibition has been a favourite in the calendar for going on for 50 years. Not just with model engineers but with local families. It is part of the summer festivities for the Surrey county town. The event has a lot going for it. An active local club and a great location at one end of Stoke Park, which doubles as a car park for visitors. For railway buffs of all ages it has great ground level and raised tracks plus live steam in Gauge 1 and 16mm. Activity on all the tracks is non-stop throughout the weekend. Add to all that a couple of pools for model boats and a huge marquee for static displays of models of all types and, given good weather, is deservedly popular for a club event.

This year visitors were treated to many new models, including several from Jason Ballamy, like the Jowitt Mk II Poppit valve engine completed in just four weeks and entirely fabricated  apart from the flywheel, as is his new Tidman organ engine built to 2:3 scale. The prolific Jason also showed an Allman vertical gas engine in 1:3 scale recently built from a commercial casting set,  and a scratch built Stuart lightweight marine two-stroke complete but waiting to have the carburettor added. Jo Thoms showed three Stuart Triple engines which started when she acquired a set of iron castings for one engine. Later a search for the gunmetal castings to go with them was successful via local networking and one thing led to another and the triple treble display at Guildford built at a tiny fraction of new Stuart casting costs.

Visitors were greeted at the entrance by a huge model under construction. The Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad no 24 is a Baldwin 2-6-2 tender loco in 10.25” gauge  by  is well on the way to completion by Alan Campling. The railroad was a narrow gauge line that ran for 112 miles in Maine. A section has been preserved.

At the other end of the scale were some of the fine models by Anthony Boxell built to Anthony Mount designs - but fabricated in half size.

A special mention for Peter Elford who displayed his first ever model a good looking Peter Southworth designed Weir pump.

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