Saturday 19^th September was the date set for the Autumn Rally of 2009 and we, the City of Oxfordf S.M.E. were proud to have been asked to host the event at our track site in Cutteslowe Park, Oxford.

As I arrived at the track mid morning on Friday, work was already well underway getting things ready and the site looked really tidy, (as always), apart from a few leaves that had come off the trees, well, it is the Autumn rally.

Now the worries when you hold an event like this are,
(1) Will anyone turn up?
(2) Will we be able to cope?
                and the biggest,
(3) What will the weather be like?

The arrival of the first visitors was around midday. Stephen and George Danby from the Polegate Society, soon assured us that at least someone had turned up. From there a steady flow of caravans and motor homes bringing visitors new and old arrived in the glorious September sunshine. Worry number 1 over.

Very soon locomotives of all shapes and sizes were being unloaded and put away for the night and as the light faded some went off to their beds whilst we made for the marquee to sample a pint of West Berkshire Brewery's "Good Old Boy" and put the world to rights until the early hours of the morning.

As Saturday broke to another superb sunny day, worry number 3 over, more visitors were starting to arrive and soon our rather cramped steaming bays were beginning to fill up as visitors took advantage of the refreshments available, be it just a brew or a full breakfast roll, who can resist the smell of cooking bacon?

Gradually locos took to the two tracks and it was decided that rather than allocate time slots, something we are always against, we would let people run for as long as they liked, in fact some ran on the raised track for a while before dropping on to the ground level. Very soon all was running smoothly.

We had visitors from as far afield as Romney Marsh and Leeds, in fact from all over the country. Some were regulars who attend our Dreaming Spires Rally each year; some were new with a wide range of locomotives in all gauges, trams and road vehicles as well.

One special visitor was Barry Glover, President of the Australian Association of Live Steamers who was in attendance to present their annual trophy, (thanks for bringing the weather Barry), and this was being judged throughout the day. It was awarded to Richard Linkins from the Romney Marsh MES for his very nice 5" gauge B.R. 2-6-0 Locomotive. Richard was also presented with a clock by the host society for the person who travelled the furthest and steamed a loco. COSME were presented with a certificate to commemorate the event by Brian Thompson of the Southern Federation.

All too soon the day began to draw to a close as visitors with long distances to travel started to make their way home, whilst I made my way to the local chip shop to collect the 70 or so portions of fish and chips which, followed by fruit salad and cream with a glass of wine or beer, made a very enjoyable evening meal. As the sun continued to shine some of our members and guests raised steam for an evening run well into the night.

Sunday morning broke bright and sunny again and we were about to enter new territory for our society as we have never had a rally on a public running day. Soon those who did not want to run for the public were out on the tracks getting in some more laps before our scheduled opening time of 13-30 hours and as the time approached we started to take down the marquee and all bits and pieces from inside the public area.

I did warn those who wanted to pull passengers that we could get very busy but little did we know that that afternoon was going to be our busiest of the season, with around 1200 passenger rides given. We must thank Stephen Danby and Dave Holland along with our members for their sterling work throughout the afternoon; I think they enjoyed it really.

Anyway, here are a few facts about the weekend,

We had,	19 locomotives book in and run.
	2 Trams.
	2 Steam Lorries.

I would like to thank all the visitors for coming and making such an enjoyable event, Brian Thompson and all from the Southern Federation for asking us to hold the rally and for being there, Fred and John the shiny metal men for supporting the event and, not forgetting, all the members of COSME, especially the ladies, for making it such a successful weekend, worry number 2 out of the way.

If you enjoyed it why not come to our Dreaming Spires Rally next year, you will be made most welcome.