SWEET PEA RALLY 2008

In the last issue of our magazine I ended by saying that when the society last hosted the Sweet Pea Rally in 1994 the weather had been sunny for the whole weekend. Now we can look back on another Sweet Pea Rally held at Oxford under similar conditions.

I had also gone begging for members to come along and contribute some time or effort to keep the show on the rails (ouch). The response to this appeal was absolutely magnificent and I can only thank everyone who made the effort to come along and contribute with their time and effort over what was a long and hot weekend. I cannot start to mention individuals for fear of displeasing anyone whom I might inadvertently leave out. That every aspect of the weekend worked so well can only be accounted for by hard working groups of society members, organising themselves into units capable of seeing that all our visitors were well looked after. One member working in the steaming bays offered to me the vision of a swan. Whilst everything above water is calmly sailing along, down below was a mighty scene of fervent paddling. I hope that there was a trace of exaggeration in this description. The final result is that I have not heard a single unfavourable comment concerning the staging of the event and many expressions of thanks. The society deserves a large pat on the back - well done everyone.

Looking at the rally statistics, we had about 65 locomotives attend the rally (including a number under construction) and of which around 55 took to the track, a large number of which were steamed, on both days. Rally visitors totalled around 200 people with the furthest travelled coming from Cape Town (although he didn't bring his Sweet Pea with him). Of the three gauges, we had five 7¼" gauge engines and one 3½" gauge part built, all of the remainder were 5" gauge. On Saturday evening around ninety-eight suppers were consumed, all washed down with beer and wine.

Amongst the visiting locomotives we had in attendance the original 'Sweet Pea' (the old No 1). Owned now by Dr Roger Jackson, it was looked after during the weekend by Phil Owen from Blackgates and was to be seen being driven by a number of different visitors. Another returning locomotive was 'Red Rum' owned by Martin Weeks and winner of the June Drake Award at Oxford back in 1994. The locomotive was immaculately turned out last time and it still looks as good now, 14 years later - a real credit to Martin. Brian and Margaret Remnant are no strangers to Cutteslowe Park with their loco 'Lady Margaret' and although they have never won the top award at a Sweet Pea Rally (they have attended every one of the rallies so far), Brian however won the IMLEC competition at Southport just 4 weeks after this visit to Oxford. Congratulations are well deserved for a superb performance in that competition.

Many of the Sweet Peas are regular attendees at the rally and although rather regrettably there is not a complete list of previous winners, I think that there were probably nine out of the fifteen 'June Drake Award' winners at Cutteslowe this year. Many of the Sweet Pea owners who came with their engines look forward to meeting old friends, often only at this rally, and so before departing everyone is asking where the event will be next year. During the day on Saturday I had the pleasure of entertaining Mick Savage from the Sheffield Society who had come down to Oxford to see how it was done. He was both very impressed with our track-site and arrangements, and has gone away with the information he needs to organise next years rally. I believe the 6th and 7th of June are the dates for your diary next year.

Lastly the awards: