Abrail (at Abingdon, Oxfordshire)

[leslie10646]

This note is no use to you guys on the Little Island, but I had to comment that I can't over-praise this exhibition which was on yesterday and today.

Fifty-ish layouts, a lot of traders, although NOT Squires, which is a shame

A few videos / piccies to let you see what I mean. The videos are slow to load, but you've loaded it you can look a few times at top speed.

"Grantham - The Streamliner Years" was remarkable. Huge layout, constant action. The reason I went and how glad I was that I did.

First an overall look down the layout from the "North" end with turntable, loco depot on right and platforms, including a Northern Bay platforms. Quite a few trains used to change locos here and this was faithfully recreated as the ends of the rakes of coaches or wagons had KayDee couplers which allowed the changes to take place seamlessly. The charts which you see hanging on left told viewers what was happening - shunting went on at both ends while trains ran through. The layout faithfully reproduces the real sequence of trains, speeded up a little. The "Streamliners" were run through two or three times so that eveyone could enjoy them fully. Everything else took a single bow!

First those streamliners - the Headline-catching fast trains of the 1930s - The Silver Jubilee, The West Rising Limited and The Coronation - each with correctly liveried loco and set of coaches. It was like "trainspotting" about 1938!

So first The Silver Jubilee which would have been racing like this - it was about to begin the (shorter easier) ascent to Stoke Summit, prior to a 90 - 100mph descent almost every trip - oh for a Time Machine - this comes close!

 Then the southboound West Riding from Leeds to Kings Cross.

And finally the Southbound "Coronation" from Edinburgh. Note the "Beaver tail" Observation car on the rear of the train.

 More tomorrow!

I hope that you enjoy them!

 

 

Edited March 3 by leslie10646

[Signal Post]

Thanks for posting this Leslie, that layout looks super. I had actually been toying with the idea of taking a trip over to Abrail as there were a number of things that I wanted to see there, so keep on posting, especially if you have any footage of Faringdon...

[leslie10646]

13 hours ago, Signal Post said:

Thanks for posting this Leslie, that layout looks super. I had actually been toying with the idea of taking a trip over to Abrail as there were a number of things that I wanted to see there, so keep on posting, especially if you have any footage of Faringdon...

Sorry, SP, I didn't take anything of it.

The exhibition is on about now each year. If you check in UK Model Shops Directory it'll tell what will be there next year (meaning, have a look in January 2026!).

https://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/

[Tullygrainey]

That is truly magnificent. Thanks for sharing it Leslie.

[Signal Post]

Came across some more nice footage of Abrail 2025 on YouTube, some nice commentary on the layouts too. Looks like there were a lot of very impressive layouts at the show.