Garden Whistle Mar 2012 - Sandman.org.nz

The Garden Whistle - March 2012A conventionis only as goodas its components.So a bigthanks to thosewho opened theirhomes and madetheir railwaysavailable forviewing. Alsothanks to thepeople who offeredclinics anddemos. We evenbroke newground; I don’tbelieve that ademonstration ofa computer controlledGPSguided automaticlawn mower hasever been includedon a garden railway convention before!The weekend was a sad occasion for the Blackridge Lines. It was the final run before beingpulled up because of earthquake damage. The entire suburb of Brooklands has been condemnedby the earthquake authority, and everyone has to move out and all houses will be demolished).I don’t intend to go over everything that happened,and I didn’t even get to see all of it myselfanyway, so I’ll let the photos on the nextfew pages tell most of the story. Thanks to thosewho sent them.But a few more thanks are necessary: To DonEllis for being the tour guide for the weekendand arranging the transport car pools.But the biggest thanks must go to my wifeBrenda, and to Danise Black who arranged andsupplied the food, thereby keeping everyoneelse happy for the weekend. A big job donewell!Thanks to those from outside Christchurchwho took the gamble coming to see what remainsof out battered city. I hope you all had agood time, and look forward to catching up withyou again at the next one in Auckland.Photos from the weekend can be found at:http://www.gscalecentral.co.uk/f/tm.aspx?m=192680&high=I couldn’t get a photo of everyone due to people coming and going, but here are some of the 42 participants.Page 3