Exhibition Memories

[David Holman]

Over the last few years, I've average around ten shows annually - until now. Managed a couple of shows at the start of the year,  but of course nothing since March with Alexandra Palace, Nailsea, Salisbury, Bexhill, Milton Keynes, Faversham, Uckfield, Tolworth and Cultra all falling by the wayside. All but Uckfield were for Fintonagh, with Belmullet supposed to be making its debut at the last mentioned. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with shows, as I very much enjoy the camaraderie, but am less enthusiastic about loading everything back in the car at the end, especially if the weather is bad. Last year, I clocked up my 100th show with one of my own layouts, though helping others and being part of the team that organised the Chatham Show probably adds half as many again. Therefore thought it might be interesting to start a thread of exhibition memories, which others could add to over time in the hope that we'll eventually be able to get out and about again.

The Chatham Show

 For me, the best place to start. It was my first ever exhibition, in 1987 - a year that saw the Chatham & District Model Railway Club begin its relationship with the Historic Dockyard Museum. The naval dockyard had not long closed, with much of it being sold off for commercial and residential use, but the historic core was reserved to eventually become a world class museum. The club had previously used the Town Hall in Chatham for its exhibitions and am not sure how the Dockyard first became the venue, as this was the year I joined, but somehow, what is known as the Fitted Rigging House was procured. The building itself is VAST - a thousand feet long and over five stories. The bit we hired was just one section, with a newly carpeted ground floor for the show and a totally bare section of the first floor for exhibitors catering.

 We must have been mad in those days, for pretty much everything was done 'in house'. For catering, all we had was a cold tap, but members loaned/donated cookers and the kitchen sinks too, while wives and girlfriends took on all the cooking. The exhibition halls were a forest of pillars holding up a Georgian warehouse, so fitting everything in was a bit of a Chinese puzzle. To help exhibitors during the show itself, we installed the 'tea run', where mobile trollies did the rounds throughout both days to keep exhibitors well lubricated. Meanwhile, for the first few years, club members were pressed into doing 'bed & breakfast' for many. Thus it was that my wife & I hosted Barry Norman and his wife Jill in the first year, Les Darbyshire [esteemed historian of all things Colonel Stephens] the next and finally Gordon & Maggie Gravett - the latter firm friends ever since.

 The exhibiton manager is those days was the redoubtable Graham Baseden, whose mission was to get all of the best that was available. To that end, he reckons he racked up around 2-3000 miles a year, visiting shows all round the country and beyond - so much so that many exhibition managers used to come to Chatham rather than pound round motorway network themselves. Graham certainly got us some start attractions. Barry Norman brought Petherick, the EM gauge layout with lifted scenery several levels at the time. Gordon & Maggie brought Ditchling Green. Over the 12 years were used the Fitted Rigging House, around 300 layouts visited. One of my favourites was Wenford Bridge - an early 2mmFS layout with a working gantry crane. Graham also made a point of gathering together the very best of trade support at the time. Hence we had a range of what were mainly 'cottage industry' stands, but which covered etched kits, specialist suppliers of bits and pieces along with the best of local model shops.

 I'll need to delve into my journals [have kept a modelling diary for years], to pick out other names, but what certainly stands out from those days were the characters we met. When the Pontefract club brought their circular 0 gauge layout, based on Robin Hood's Bay, it wouldn't fit inside the many pillars around their allotted space. Their remedy was to saw a bit off to make it fit, while the crate of light ale we provided as compensation went done well. We had a club dinner on the Saturday and they turned up with dickie bow ties, flat caps and such Yorkshire accoutrements as a stuffed pigeon on one shoulder, an invisible whippet on a lead and it was rumoured, a ferret down someone's trousers!  A great bunch - though it took a while to get used to the rich accents of the rhubarb and liquorice triangle they hailed from.

 Barry Norman's Petherick was memorable for various reasons and not just the scenic excellence which was years ahead of its time. The baseboards were five feet deep and only three feet wide - hence the railway ran through the scenery. Goodness they were heavy though! Helping to dismantle at the end of the show showed how robust the boards were - frames made of a sandwich of 9mm ply and one inch softwood did not make for easy manoeuvring.

 How did I end up exhibiting amongst such excellence? As with most shows, club members who had layouts available always got an invite, provided you met Graham's criteria of reliable running, good presentation and [preferably] a back scene. I'd created a small EM gauge layout called Oare, that was based on the Davington Light Railway - a short lived line to some gunpowder works near Faversham. Eventually, I worked it up to a reasonable layout, but that first show was not without incident. My K's Terrier was far from being a good runner, though at least it didn't catch fire like the Adam's Radial from the same stable! My Wrenn R1 0-6-0T did most of the work that year, though as I gained experience a few reliable commercial locos were converted to EM like the Dapol Austerity, while I also built the Taurgem kit of a pair of Ford railcars and scratch built the Muir Hill tractor from the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway. The following year, I got invited back, because someone had dropped out and things must have gone better because I got invited to Expo EM.    That show was actually held in Bletchley Park, which was certainly an interesting venue, this being well before it became a museum. 

 Next time, I'll go share some experiences of other venues I've visited over the years - the good, the bad and the interesting, but if others have tales of exhibitions they've attended, either as paying guests, or operating a layout, then it would be nice to share and maybe help fill the gap until we can meet up at shows again.

 

[Mayner]

The Chatham Show brings back memories, I had recently moved to the UK and for the 1st couple of years spent most weekends visiting exhibitions and preserved railways in the South and East Midlands. Taking the train from Victoria to Chatham in an early Southern Region EMU (4EPB?) was quite an adventure compared to the more modern stock used North of The Thames.

At one stage I was a member of the Milton Keynes Model Railway club who kindly stored my layouts in Bletchley Park as I went gallivanting around Scotland and Ireland until Denis Lovett (MKMRS Treasurer) asked Kevin Thornbury (MRSI President) to remind me to collect my layouts while Kevin was visiting Bletchley Park. I eventually collected and almost completed one of the layouts (EM min space mineral railway), it appeared at a number of Irish Exhibitions about 20 years ago and was exhibited at Warley in 2004/5 connected to Frank Davis's Western Region layout though I was 12,000 miles away at the time.

I got involved in the exhibition scene following my return to Ireland in the Mid 1990s acting as Roadie for the late Frank Davis helping to set up an operate his EM gauge Wentworth layout at exhibitions throughout Ireland, the Bangor Model Railway Club was notable for its hospitality to exhibitors with its excellent Saturday Night dinners.

New Zealand tends to follow American influence with a greater focus on conventions rather than exhibitions with convention delegates visiting layouts on layout tours, though there is an exhibition circuit based on a small number of regional shows. My garden railway was included in layout tours at two conventions and my 3' gauge Irish layout Keadue was included at the last minute in the 2014 National Convention. Heavy rail was forecast during the weekend of the convention with Sunday a wash out, we quickly moved the layout from the house to the workshop where it provided a useful diversion for visitors sheltering from the rain.

The Association of American Modelers of Australasia (AMRA) is considering a mini-convention in Hamilton in October but all bets are off in the current uncertain situation, though Keadue has had a dust off just in case the weather turns bad.

[Robert Shrives]

Hi 

Well hopefully to add thread value I have been involved in the little local show run by the Warley Club in Birmingham.  We use hall 5 the largest indivisble hall which just fits out club layouts and some friends with theirs, I started in 2003 as a humpa lumpa but have ended up as the Construction Design manager - which is a humpa lumpa everybody loves to hate as I am responsible for construction site mangement - not the safety role but everything else. 

I recall a few years ago some chaps rolled up from Dublin with a bit of a stand - lovely guys all round !  Due to Safety and the clock rolling on I ended up putting barrier tape around the stand and at the 11th hour legging round the hall for white spirit. But it was ok on the day.  I have moved engines around the hall - well controlled the movement which means an early start in the first few shows but now its lunchtime on the Thursday. Even had Brummie Double deck buses in the hall.

As a local show we managed around 15,000- 17,000 for most years with just a bit of growth. year on year .  When we had the fun TV show challenge show building model railways a big uplift of hungry new faces -which was good. One layout the futuristic scene with track on clear perspex  was added to the Bachmann stand- it became clear it would not fit  sticking out just too far for all concerned as as befits a model railway crafted before the camera  out came the rip saw ... fitted with just one cut and nobody noticed, all in a days work.

 The little show consumes over 1200 chairs  and 650 tables on weekend hire and as the mug responsible I get to hand an almost empty hall back 4 hours after the public have legged it and my tables and stand contractors are off home   A sea of rubbish meets the eye - but is it all rubbish?  Well one year I gently kicked an empty box to discover prototype models from a leading trader - for a few  days I had the pleasure of being keeper of engineering one offs in N, 00 and O. These were returned and no ransom claimed but so close to being skipped it make be chill thinking about it. 

Absolutely cream crackered by 11.00 Sunday but ready to go with next show planning after review - but of course not this year.  Still hopefully 2021 will be blast. 

Robert         

Edited September 3, 2020 by Robert Shrives

[David Holman]

Excellent stuff - many thanks Robert and John. Must have crossed paths with both of you at some point, but when you are exhibiting or organising, you have a sea of faces many of whom know you, but not necessarily the other way round! Only did Warley once, but having helped run the Chatham Show [100+ stands] am in awe of what you guys achieve. Remember there were a few grumblings when I was there, but the fact is you can't please all of the people all of the time and the perfect exhibition hall has yet to be invented, not least because different people want different things.

 When Chatham stopped using the Dockyard loads of people wanted us to go back, but the Fitted Rigging House was no longer available and though visitors seemed to like its replacement, the Number 5 Covered Slip, exhibitors did not. For one thing it was essentially a Dutch barn - open at the ends and even in June the wind whistled through. If it rained, the roof often leaked, while at very high tides, water could come up through the floor. Pigeons roosted there too, with the inevitable calling cards. The floor was uneven, unsealed concrete, so you feet were black by the end of the weekend and levelling baseboards was more often achieved via house bricks rather than beer mats... The public loved its atmosphere, but many layout owners declined to risk their pride and joy. Add in the fact that it cost around £6000 in todays money to hire it and we also had to hire in portaloos and it is easty to see why we went elsewhere. As a small aside, I once asked Nick Freezer [son of the great Cyril] how much it cost The Model Railway Club to hire Alexandra  Palace. His reply was that not only did he not know, he was afraid to ask! Allypally is underwritten by Warners Magazines [BRM amongst them], which is probably the only way it can happen.

 Speaking of Allypally, the setting is quite magnificent, while access is significantly helped by the fact that you can drive your vehicle right up to your allocated space. Great at the start, but less good at the end when you can often be waiting around for ages while other folk knock down their displays. For the exhibitor, good access is paramount, which is why sports halls can work so well and anything with stairs is a complete pain. The original Expo Narrow Gauge show was held in Greenwich library where access for some was via an external fire escape. Yes really. The Folkestone show is still held in the Leascliff Halls, where if you are unfortunate to be in the Channel Restaurant, you are faced with 87 steps from the road above. There is a narrow access track, but it is one vehicle at a time, so doing the stairs is often the only option, especially as the lift is very small too. You did get to see Dave the dolphin though and the hospitality is great.

 Have done a few churches and church halls too. Beckenham is one that springs to mind. Their main show is in October, when the church itself can be decidedly cold, while the attached halls are very warm. You can soon tell who is where by the layers of clothing! However, two places  are memorable for all the wrong reasons. One was Bexley, where we were in an unheated sports hall, next to the outside door, which was open the whole weekend, in December. It had been snowing and we'd unloaded the layout from the car and sackbarrowed the boards through 50 yards of slush. Chatham's Covered Slipway gets the award for coldest though. The club was supporting the Museum's Steam and Transport weekend. It was an early Easter and the mercury never rose much above freezing the whole weekend, added to which there was a stiff breeze blowing through. Operating Chatham Dock, the club's 0 gauge shunting layout, was a trial of endurance even Amundsen might have baulked at. In the end we simply ran trains non-stop - shunting with three link couplings while wearing gloves and five layers of clothing simply wasn't an option.

  My favourite venues don't always have the best access though. Sports halls are ideal in many ways for their flat, level floors, but all too often you spend the entire weekend without knowing what is going on outside because of the lack of windows. Uckfield is a great show to be part of, not least because the standard of exhibits is so high. It's a relatively small show and space is tight and access likewise, but the quality is as good as the hospitality, so it makes for an excellent weekend. York, set in the racecourse grandstand is awkward to access because of all the steps and space at Manchester can be tight - though not as tight as the old St Alban's show, but again quality and hospitality make up for it. Years ago, the Colchester show probably took the crown. The college venue was far from ideal, but the Saturday hospitality more than made up for it. A double decker bus was laid on to take us to a pub restaurant, where a fine and boozy time was had by all. On Sunday morning, a bottle of mineral water and a pack of painkillers was thoughtfully placed on each layout!

 Top of the pops for me though are Derby, which was held in the old Midland Railway roundhouse and Cultra. The former is no longer available, so no more shows will be held there, a great shame as the place simply oozed atmosphere. For me though, Cultra stands head and shoulders above any venue I've exhibited at. The railway hall is just magnificent and when I took Arigna Town there four years ago, to be put on the central turntable, with the County Down Atlantic tank behind me was just the bees knees. This year, Fintonagh was going to be placed between Phoenix and the CVR Railcar [Co Donegal 10], another honour. Hopefully next year. The halls can be a bit chilly and it can be a bit of a yomp from the loading bay entrance to your layout, but in such a setting, who cares?

[David Holman]

Favourite Layouts

 I'm not entirely sure what it is that attracts me to a model railway, but I suppose the simple answer is that it needs to be interesting in some way. I remember once seeing a comment on RMWeb that this particular person was not going to come to the Chatham Show because 'there wasn't much N Gauge'. Well, how narrow minded can you get? Actually, don't answer that, because of course narrow mindedness is probably behind many of the world's ills and not for this forum. What I will say is that anyone who limits themselves to only following a single strand of our wonderful hobby is missing out big time, because there is so much to enjoy. 

 One of my all time favourite layouts was Bramblewick Cove, by Tom Harland. Tom, who sadly is no longer with us, was a professional artist and we persuaded him to bring the layout to Chatham. Beautifully presented, it was in many ways not much more than a diorama, but on a grand scale. It featured a section of the North Eastern Railway near Whitby, I remember standing in front of it, in the company of Gordon Gravett as we marvelled at its scenic beauty and stunning back scene. 'Not a lot going on though, is there?' I said to Gordon. 'No,, it doesn't matter does it?' he replied - and how right he was.

 However, what I will say is that, generally any layout which has little movement on it and especially any layout that doesn't run well [finger poking and derailments in particular] is not going to hold my attention for very long. The Guildford Club's 'Normandy Junction' may not be the most scenic, but for continuous action it is hard to beat. 0 gauge, about 40' x 20', with at least five tracks, there is always something running and they have enough stock between them to make it interesting too. That said, when next to them at Tolworth a few years ago, there were times when it got a bit noisy, especially when a Heljan 33 and eight brass coaches was roaring round! Dainton Bank was another great 'watching the trains go by' layout. Incorporating the prototype's severe gradients, it presents a calvacade of big [0 gauge] trains, often double headed, or with a banker and I remember going back several times to enjoy the spectacle of a 9F and 30 oil tankers, or a King and a Castle on ten pullman coaches. Each train easily worth the thick end of four or five grand and beautifully done.

 The ultimate in this genre for me goes to Stoke Summit. No station, just the double track East Coast mainline, with a slow road for uphill/northbound traffic. Fully signalled and properly run, you regularly saw folk actually trainspotting and writing down loco numbers! With at least 30 roads in the storage loops, there was plenty of variety too.

 All of the above fall into the fine scale category, but I can get just as much enjoyment from historic stuff. Hornby tinplate and Hornby Dublo never cease to charm and still run well too, as their operators happily sit in the middle of a cloud of ozone. A few years ago the Chatham Club was gifted a collection of American Flyer models. These are S gauge [1/64th] and in many ways somewhat crude. They also need somewhere between 3 and 5 amps of power to run and need a garden railway controller to run them. Despite the steamroller wheels they have a charm all of their own and include some remarkable animation. For example one of the box cars has a brakeman that actually vibrates his way along the roof and a similar strategy enables both cattle and people to move about on platforms! Another favourite is a 2-6-6-2 Mallet, where the boiler is not fixed to the front engine, so when it goes round a sharp curve, it seems like the boiler is carrying straight on for a second before suddenly veering away!

 I quite like some of the fantasy layouts, like 'Wensleydale' in the current RM, with mice and cheese mines, while somehow I find the Lego layouts can be very good - perhaps a throwback to my childhood, Equally many of last year's Great Model Railway Challenge efforts left me cold, I'm afraid. Guess there is a thin line between charming and naff in my head...

 What else deserves a mention? Gordon Gravett's layouts, of course - a peerless mix of art and museum quality modelling. Anything by Iain Rice also works well for me and likewise Barry Norman - probably for the same reasons. Barry's Lydham Heath is an S gauge tour de force of the wonderfully decrepit Bishops Castle Railway Indeed, if I have a favourite scale, it is probably S gauge and if I was starting again, I'd like to think it would be where I'd go. Hence, if I was asked to name my all time favourite, it would be Trevor Nunn's 'East Lynn'. Mixing Great Eastern, with Midland Great Northern, everything on it is scratchbuilt and runs likes a sewing machine. The locos all have working inside valve gear, the track is fully signalled, using miniature lever frames that are a delight to operate - all using rubber band linkage beneath the baseboards. Everything is built to museum standard, so goodness knows what this lifetime's work is worth. Have had the great pleasure of helping operate it a couple of times and working the harbour section is a particular delight because you have to chain shunt. The loco of choice is usually the 50 year old GER tram engine and manual dexterity is essential because you have to work out which bollards to use to get wagons on/off parallel and perpendicular tracks. There's no lever frame here either, you use locally sited ones because, as Trevor says, 'that's how it was on the prototype'. Magic.

 Am sure there are others that deserve a mention, for all sorts of diverse reasons. If any of you have your own favourites, why not share them with us and especially why they do it for you?

[Broithe]

20 minutes ago, David Holman said:

Favourite Layouts

Pempoul.

 

And this one, whose name I forget. Two excavators and a wagon, moving a pile of gravel around. Enthralling to watch.

[warb]

Favourite Layouts

Have to agree with your comment regarding narrow mindness. Three layouts which i would watch and suddenly a few hours are gone by are O Gauge holiday haunts,EM gauge lime street and HO hasselt.

 

 

 

 

[David Holman]

Should have mentioned Giles Flavell. Two layouts, The End of the Line and The Yard. Both significant for their radio controlled, 7mm scale road vehicles. Giles is also into working cranes too.

 As for narrow gauge, Pempoul of course, but Bridport is pretty special.

[Robert Shrives]

Well here goes for 10 penny worth ! I have many favourite layouts  but the rule is can it stand a viewing with nothing running .  I enjoy looking out for animals and examples of the normal .  However I have found over the years I have collected retired layouts - a sort of old peoples home. In N I have  Moorcock junction, Templedean ,  Poldene , a circular layout based on Starcross area of the GW mainline in Devon( and have built and sold on Gould st that was an office layout until Covid 19 struck and it had to go to make room for staff spreading out.) . In 3mm I have 2 triang TT layouts one was shown  at the Train collectors Exhibition in Sandy in the early 2000s.  Rob Brown`s  Chipping Compton sits on a living roof shelf  and boxed up is the wonderful TT layout  Minsterley by  the late Peter Gentle.  The small triang layout and Starcross are the only two not shown at some time .  

All this silly "big game hunting" is due to a desire to avoid layouts being broken up but all seen at shows and have been "Wow" moments for scenery, concept or simply enjoyable to watch trains go by in the countrysdie. 

In 4mm all I have is a shed plank I bought from a lad in Stourbridge junction and bought home on the train and a short bus ride !  If money was no object and many other impossibles lined up like ducks I would love to have Patrick as my neighbour ! and be allowed to operate Glen More....  Perhaps one day I will build an Irish layout but for now I enjoy the building of mine and reading about all the other much better than mine.     

Perhaps in 2021 we will all get a chance to enjoy a show somewhere and as remarked by a friend yesterday over Socially distanced tea and buns - enjoy the interaction with many friends on the circuit and fellow hobbists  paying on the door.     

 

One final exhibition tale - TINGS , The  International N gauge Show  at the Fosse in Leamington , perhaps 15 years ago now  it was the first show and being an N gauger since 1973 I was keen to see a show that headlined the best and got specialist traders under one roof. So having offered my Warley expertise I was in the hall early on the Friday, centre staff were marking the hall - it quickly became apparent that  sizes and hall fixtures were not working out, so I ploughed in and after half hour Chris the hall owner came over and a friendship started after it became clear that his plan was what I had "rubbished" but was also fixing.  Until 2020 fell over  I had been involved if 6 shows a year for Chris around the country as a fixer and humpa lumpa cum floor steward or front of house host. All because I model trains almost too small to see . Chris even has a 12mm Narrow gauge layout of repute - Aireworth in his loft - a classic layout serialised in the Railway modeller in the early  1970s. 

Back to gluing bogie side frames for GSV kits - oh and the lunchtime washing up..

Robert                  

[Robert Shrives]

Thread a bit text rich so two pics  on Templedean and Poldene - this at the Dapol factory openday last year doing some on the fly repairs 

[Mayner]

I tend to be drawn to layouts that feature realistic operation particularly in the larger scales than highly detailed scenic masterpieces like Barry Norman's or Iain Rice' layouts though until recent years I mainly modelled in N & 4mm scale.

My first lightbulb moment was watching the late Harry Connaughton shunting hand built GNR(I) O Gauge locos and stock with 3 link couplers at a model railway exhibition in a Dublin scouts hall in 1973-4. The quality of the models and smoothness of running was far beyond the relatively crude OO gauge rrtr models available at the time.

Another lightbulb moment was watching the Milton Keynes Model Railway Society O gauge Maybank style layout in operation at an exhibition at Welwyn Garden City in the late 1980s with loco hauled passenger trains arriving at and departing from a compact city terminal with light engine and empty stock movements between the terminus, loco shed and carriage siding like a smaller version of Euston.

Stock was a mixture of hand built, kit and some vintage tinplate locos (which did not run very well!) I was disappointed that the club had disposed of the O Gauge end to end layout when I joined several years later, but enjoyed occasionally assisting Chris Lyster with tracklaying on the clubs EM gauge Milton Quays Southern Region layout.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the realistic operation of a very simple N Scale blue diesel era Western Region layout at an exhibition in Surrey or Berkshire, the layout was simplicity itself a small station on a double tracked main line with a running loop to recess freights and slow moving passenger trains clear of the main line fed by a battery of storage sidings, it was one of those layouts where a gricer could sit and take numbers as trains passed by though motive power was mainly restricted to Trix Warships & BRCW Type 2 diesels hauling Minitrix and Peco rolling stock as apart from Minitrix & Peco there were very few decent reliable rtr British outline locos and stock available at the time.

More recently I have been taken by the physical presence and realism modelling of New Zealands 3'6" gauge railways in 9mm Scale particularly the big travelling exhibition layouts and Neil Andrew's "Cape to Kairo" layout with its floor to ceiling modelling of the Central North Island Bush (rain forest) with highly realistic modelling of the unique local  tree species.

 

 

[David Holman]

There is something special about large scale layouts when they are done well and that second picture is a stunner. European and American outline examples have taken off here in recent years, the latter especially. The logistics of transport and setting up are quite something though!

 As for floor to ceiling layouts, Richard Chown's French layout was quite something. The deck of the viaduct was about 2 metres off the ground. Never one to shirk a challenge, was Richard.

 

[David Holman]

Being in the middle of a modelling project that involves waiting for paint to dry, thought I'd instead share a few more exhibition memories, focussing this time on the visitors.

 There is no doubt that modellers can be a strange and eclectic bunch, particularly to those who do not share our passion. As a regular exhibitor, I have the privilege, sometimes dubious, of meeting the full range of characters who frequent the shows. Most are really nice people and it is one of the pleasures of exhibiting that you get to talk to so many. The majority are keen to know more about the model railway, with the usual questions of 'Where is that?/What scale do you work in?/Why can you buy such models?' etc etc.

 When told most of the stuff they can see is completely hand built, quite a few will suggest they could never do that sort of thing - so it is nice to be able to explain that a lot of techniques are really quite simple & it is more about time and patience than anything else. The ones I especially like are those who like to share their own knowledge and quite often a real exchange of ideas results, so it is a good job my friendly operator John can keep things going while I talk to the punters.

 You learn so much too, not least in the case of Galteemore, of this parish, who has given me several lessons on the correct pronunciations of Irish place names! Prototype information is always appreciated and I've acquired various drawings and photos from folk I've met. Most people are very positive, though there was one instance when a gent asked what period my Fintonagh layout was meant to represent. When I told him it was the late 1930s, he sniffed and said it couldn't be because my Guinness advert was later than that, before wandering off. Feel sure there are better ways of offering advice!

 On the other hand, many years ago now, was helping operate a layout called Groombridge, owned by our then club chairman Alan. He was a fine modeller and Groombridge was a scale model of the actual station. However, on this particular morning, a gentleman also asked the question about period and actual time of year. When told it was summer mid 1930s, he gently pointed out that the area behind the signal box was incorrect. His father had been signalman at the time and always grew runner beans by the line side. Alan took great delight in making sure  there was a small addition to the scenery next time it went out - much to our visitor's approval.

 You get a few characters, such as the ones who delight in trainspotting and actually note all the numbers of the locos on show. Children can be great fun, though not the ones who like to poke and touch everything. Most are just as interested as the adults though. Remember talking to one dad and asked his son if he had a model railway. No came the reply, but 0 gauge was being built for him in the loft, with Gauge 1 for dad in the garden. Nice! Then there was the chap sporting an Aston Martin wind cheater. When I casually enquired if he has come to the show in it, his reply was to the positive - though he did alternate it with his Bentley!

[Broithe]

1 hour ago, David Holman said:

On the other hand, many years ago now, was helping operate a layout called Groombridge, owned by our then club chairman Alan. He was a fine modeller and Groombridge was a scale model of the actual station. However, on this particular morning, a gentleman also asked the question about period and actual time of year. When told it was summer mid 1930s, he gently pointed out that the area behind the signal box was incorrect. His father had been signalman at the time and always grew runner beans by the line side. Alan took great delight in making sure  there was a small addition to the scenery next time it went out - much to our visitor's approval.

When I had a proper job, there was a chap in the factory, which backed onto the WCML, who had come over as a child during the Spanish Civil War. Sidro, as he was known, was a very interesting character in a great many ways, but one of his major interests was his allotment, which bordered the other side of the track, about half a mile away.

Over the years, the odd plant had 'escaped' over the fence and the 'additional area in use' eventually reached right to the edge of the ballast. One day, a driver I knew, who lived about twenty miles away, just happened to mention that he would be weedkilling through the town in a couple of night's time. I asked him if he knew about Sidro's allotment, as it was around this time of year and there was a harvest to lose. He told me that he'd done that route a few times and there was a "pencilled note in the book" about it and everybody was very careful to miss it.

 

I look forward to criticising a layout one day.