Yesterday George Williamson and I made a bit of a trek from North Wales to visit the Christmas Model Railway Exhibition in Manchester, hosted by the Manchester Model Railway Club. This was the first show for a few years and was in a new venue which seemed perfect for the event…
I hope they did well, the show was consistently busy whilst we were there, we even queued to get in. A good mix of layouts, but I think a gap was I didn’t see a tail chaser modern image OO layout which would have been a crown pleaser. I did notice that the ‘scale’ layouts didn’t have much running, which was disappointing, I think at an exhibition you should try to keep a train moving, which is much harder when you’ve a massive layout I guess? I’ll share photos of the layouts and caption them below rather than go into depth on each one, but for me the best layouts were Moors View in N, a lovely balanced scene with faultless running of modern Farish models in the snow, very effective (a shame the locomotives weren’t weathered though), Sherton Abbas in O, wonderfully conceived GWR branch terminus and Bron Hebog in 009, lovely to see the Waller’s creation for a second time, I saw it many years ago at Superpower at Dinas. Otherwise a reasonable show, and George and I enjoyed both the journey and the time to plan and scheme for our own joint layout project. Time will tell if that ever sees the light of day, but both agreed it was good ‘to get out’ and a worthwhile trip.
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| Moors View - N |
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| Moors View - N |
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| Drwys y Nant - 2mmFS |
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| Upper Cwmtwych - N |
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| Sherton Abbas - O |
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| Sherton Abbas - O |
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| Sherton Abbas - O |
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| Pen-y-Graig - 5.5mm/ft narrow gauge |
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| Canalside Ironworks - 1/50 9mm gauge narrow gauge |
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| Harlyn Pier - O |
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| Bron Hebog - 009 (not a Bachmann a fairlie in sight!) |
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| Hope under Dinmore - EM |
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| Spirit of Shap - OO (yes, that is Peco foam underlay, I can’t believe I saw this in an exhibition in 2022!] |
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| South Pelaw - EM |
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| Kirkmellington - EM |
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| Ryburn - P4 (nothing moving) |
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| Harkness - EM |
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| Lovely model in the MMRC Competition case, a 7mm narrow gauge W&LLR locomotive built from a Dorset Kits kit. |
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| This clay dry was in the MMRC display case too, wonderful. I love the diggers inside the dry! |
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| Great to see my book on sale at a few stands, not many copies left by the looks of things! |
That is a wrap for now, I hope this whistle stop tour of the exhibition was worth you scrolling through. I enjoyed the show and would definitely attend next year. Until next time, more soon…
Phil parker mentioned hotel prices were high, I know they were when I went to a conference in Manchester around this time of year. How do you think the lack of a tail chaser affected behaviour? At big shows I like them becuase they make looking at other layouts easier.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy a well executed tail chaser, it’s the child in me, Making Tracks 2 is a great example of this ‘art’, and we shouldn’t dismiss them as ‘less’. Spirit of Shap was close, but the modelling wasn’t quite there for me, and the layout was long and with just two tracks meant only two things could be moving. The art of a tail chaser is having a constant stream of trains running, which I’d imagine is quite stressful ‘round the back’.
DeleteAs for the impact on viewing other exhibits, we had to wait a few minutes at a few layouts but it was worth it, and we spent longer at the front then I expect many do! A good show, I’m not sure why you’d get a hotel unless you’re exhibiting and then that’s covered by their expenses… for me the relative beauty of the location was the proximity to Oxford Road, no excuse to not use public transport for many of us in that situation which certainly added to the overall day out experience for me.
Manchester is a long way for some of us, but the allure of one of THE shows means it can be worth the effort - I remember going in around '68...
DeleteI have nothing against a good tail chaser. I do have a thing about people who think they are the only thing to aspire to, along with those layouts that have been endorsed by a magazine article.
One of my favourite exhibition layouts used to be Yatton Junction
I quite enjoyed this show on the Sunday - apparently it was a little quieter so we had very little trouble seeing any of the layouts. I find the modelling at all the shows (even Warley) a bit of a mixed bag; some is truly excellent, a thankfully diminishing share seems thrown onto a baseboard with a "that'll do" attitude. But a rising tide (hopefully) lifts all boats.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the show, George and I enjoyed the overall experience of travelling by train, chatting, talking about what we liked and didn’t about layouts and planning the ‘one day’ joint project. The hobby is getting harder to enjoy with friends when we’re all so disconnected and disparate despite the internet. In future I’ll try and make clear if I’m heading anywhere so others can arrange to meet if travelling alone perhaps? Anyhow, I agree the standard was good. Shame the fine scale layouts which were impressive were being so realistically operated as it did make it a little boring. You can’t please everyone though!
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