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Every so often, a special event occurs that brings some
of the Sodor Island Forum members together...
Where and When Did It All Begin?
It began in early 2005, with three of the Australian members of
SiF who lived in Sydney - TheHalford, Jim522 and Jarrah White - arranging to meet up in Sydney and make SiF history by
holding the first ever SiF Members Meeting. At the time, this type of thing was largely an unheard of occurance.
Sodor Island Forums were at the time, a place where people came to talk about Thomas the Tank Engine, that was the main draw,
and while majority were happy to talk to one another via mediums such as MSN, Yahoo and AOL Messenger services, as
well as e-mail, the idea of meeting in person was, to be fair, a bit out of the ordinary! Several other Australian
meetings followed, with members such as Gonzorelli and tm85 joining in the fun. These were the seeds that sewed
the idea of having a similar function over the other side of the equator.
2005 - The Beginnings
Earlier in 2005, three of the Australian members from Sydney had got together,
and shown us in essence that Member Meetings could be a potentially good idea, with all three providing positive feedback
from the experience as a whole.
A similar idea was proposed for the UK members - which would be based at the
East Lancashire Railway at Bury, during their Day Out With Thomas event that August. Whoever
would have thought it would have led on to what was to be a few years on...
2006 - Bigger and Better
Following up the 2005 Meet-Up we decided to opt for a new venue
for 2006's one - at the National Railway Museum in York. Having shown that these could be done successfully on a national
level, more members from further afield agreed to make the trek from their respective homes for the day and come up or down
to York to meet up with the seven other members.
The National Railway Museum had a plethora of exhibits and activities,
so there were plenty to engage the group in, and so bonded us to a point where we actually felt comfortable with one another
very quickly and by the end of the day, sorry that the whole experience had ended. However, it had also given us the
incentive to do it again in 2007 - and in turn, do it again for longer when it was proposed on the forum... even to the point
where it began to look like it may well end up on an international scale meeting...!
2007 - Time Well Spent
2007 began to set the trend for future meet ups. We'd end up
throwing off the shackles of doing one day out per year, and instead do a lot more instead to spread the fun. The first
of the year's meets was to take place in the Spring, appropriately at a Railway Series inspired location, The Ravenglass
and Eskdale Railway, where Ryan, Alaric, Loey Machan, TL Rhodri, Eliot and Truro met up for a day spent with the "verra
wee engines".
The Pre-Wales Meets continued on with a trip down the Bluebell Railway for Ryan,
Chris The Xelent and Davey as they organised a day out together for the fun of it.
But then, August rolled around at long last and greeted us with what we had
all been waiting for - a trip to Wales for a week to visit all the narrow gauge railways that had inspired the Reverend Awdry
to develop the Railway Series, and the Island of Sodor itself as a whole. Apart from a rainy trip on the Vale of Rheidol,
the sun shone in the sky and it's warmth was with us all the week long and making the Welsh countryside look it's best.
We came, we saw, and less than a month later, we'd made arrangements to come back again the following year...!
2008 - More, More, More!
2008 saw the latest spate of Meetings begin in February with a trip to the Keighley
and Worth Valley Railway to see their Winter Steam Gala. It was a day where engines of all colours were in action
- so long as they were black! This was followed up by a long weekend in Lancaster with two railways being visited -
The East Lancashire Railway, and the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, forming the Wild Weekender.
But it didn't end there, with 2008 holding the record for the most SiF Meetings
in the UK so far, and the first ever one in Scotland at the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway - and the biggest day meeting
of all held at Didcot Railway Centre where we marvelled at the Great Western splendour.
And finally, the annual trip to Wales in August rounded it all off just nicely,
however, despite the weather leaving a lot to be desired, and the group being minus a valued member, we made the most of it
and had a fantastic week away.
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