Au revoir to the Isle of Stoner…

I first visited John Wooden’s wonderful 009 model railway, the Isle of Stoner in 2019. I think it feels as if it was longer as I was familiar with John’s modelling from 2016, when I started modelling in the scale and joined NGRM. John used to update a blog himself, sadly not for a couple of years…Always a pleasure to see him, and he mentioned at the Porthmadog show when we caught up there that he had sold his house so a final visit became more pressing. I am honoured to be the last visitor, and despite some of the layout already having been removed it was a great deal of fun to run a service from Upper Bay to Underhill. John’s layout was inspired by layouts like Dick Wyatt’s Dovey Valley (another friends defunct blog shows some photos). It is deeply enjoyable to run trains between two places, through scenery… even nicer in good company, with warm conversation and rather lovely and characterful modelling.For whilst it isn’t hyper realistic, it is all consistent. The locomotives , the…