Today saw the first day of the Gresley and Wychnor Model Railway Group's two day Easter show. This is more of a club open day than a full scale exhibition as it takes place in the club's own premises. That being said the club have certainly maximised their space to produce a decent event and a visit is well recommended. Since my last visit the premises seem to have been extended with a new room, "The Sir Nigel Gresley Room" now open at the front of the venue. In here there were two layouts. Burd
After a couple of false starts I made it to the Nottingham show just before mid-day. This year the event has returned to the Harvey Haddon Sports Centre meaning that the show is back to being all in one room, rather than spread out around many rooms in a school. I had thought that this change would make the show extremely crowded as there was less room for the crowd to be dispersed. Certainly my previous experience of shows at Harvey Haddon have been like this, with large crowds in front of the
Last week I had an enjoyable visit to the Sileby model railway show. Due to a busy working week I have been unable to find time to write a blog entry for that particular event. Today saw me head to the Ilkeston Woodside Railway Club's annual exhibition which takes place at nearby Trowell. The show is always a small and friendly event that attracts a decent crowd. Today's event was no different as the hall was very busy when I arrived shortly after the 10am opening time, and remained busy throu
After a busy weekend I have finally managed to settle down to pen / type my thoughts about this year's Stafford Show. After missing last year's event I was very much looking forward to this year's show. Firstly I have to say it did not disappoint. Once again it featured three large halls of layouts in various gauges and a multitude of trade stands. All of this for £9.00 admission - representing very good value in my opinion, especially when combined with free parking and a free bus service to an
My blogs of my 2015 show visits never really got off the ground last year. Although I visited many events throughout the year I often did not get around to writing my comments. Perhaps some people are quite pleased about that!
Anyway I am hoping to be a bit more consistent with my blogging this year.
My show visits got off to an early start this year as I made my first ever visit to the 7mm Narrow Gauge event at the Mickleover Community Centre. Although this is advertised more as a club
Another weekend and another model railway event. I stumbled on the Sileby show by accident a few years ago when I was idling my way through the show diary in the "Hornby Magazine". My first visit was very enjoyable and I have returned every year since, always enjoying my visits.
Last year I was a little bit critical of the show due to the lack of 00 gauge steam layouts and the concentration of more modern based layouts. There can be no such complaints this time around. This year's event had a
It has been a bit of a late start to my show visits for 2015. Sadly, due to my wife and daughter being ill, I missed the much anticipated Stafford show at the start of the month. As a result my visits for the year began with a much smaller show. This Allestree event has been around a long time having been organised by members of the church to raise money for church funds. Last year the event was taken over by the Famous Trains charity although, as I understand, the proceeds still go to the churc
Today was the day of the annual Burton Model Railex, the exhibition organised by members of the Burton Railway Society. For the third year the event was held at the National Brewery Centre (former Bass Museum) site. The show is split between the museum's event marquee and the Worthington Suite in one of the buildings. The admission price also allows visitors access to the museum which includes heavy horses, fire brigade vehicles and some full size railway exhibits. If thirsty there is also the "
It has been a fair few months since I have added an entry to this blog. That is not because of a lack of show visits. I have visited several over the last few months including Derby, Mickleover, Butterley, Bakewall and more. Many of my comments have been posted on the show's own pages. Sadly some of my comments have led to some criticism from some of the argumentative members of this site! As a result I would like to issue a safety warning. The views on here are my opinions only, and any critici
Another weekend and another show. After Allestree and Sileby last week I headed off, with daughter in tow, to the 12th annual show at Trowell. This is run by the Ilkeston Woodside Model Railway club and is always an enjoyable event.
With 10 layouts, 7 trade stands and a couple of demonstrations the show is a nice size. It can all be seen in an hour, but has plenty to keep people there for a lot longer. It certainly seems popular and there was a good crowd throughout the time I was there. This
Last weekend my wife Sarah had a little moan about how she had not had much of a break recently. With my school workload and the recent house move pressures she was becoming very tired due to constantly looking after our 2 year old girl. She, quite clearly, needed a break - a few hours on her own to wind down and have some peace and quiet.
After breaking up for the half term holiday yesterday I promised to take the little one out for a "daddy and daughter" day today. As it happened this weeken
The first weekend of February has produced my first model railway exhibition visit of the new year. I have been looking forward to the Stafford event all week as it is one of my favourite events of the whole year. It guarentees three large halls of exhibits with a host of large and impressive layouts to enjoy and plenty of trade to try and part me from my cash. Once again it did not disappoint. The show was excellent!
My dad and I arrived at around 10.20, just twenty minutes after opening,
This year was the third year of Butterley's Midland Rail-ex event. I have been fortunate enough to visit the last two shows and was very much looking forward to this year's event. I had read a one or two concerned comments from people on RMWeb, with these worried about parking and signage at the event. I wondered whether these would be an issue this year.
Arriving at Butterley shortly after 9am on Sunday parking was certainly not a problem. There was plenty of space in the car park, and there
A free Saturday gave me the chance to visit the Ruddington show today. This show, like the Midland Rail-ex at Butterley, spreads its exhibits around several buildings on the Nottingham Heritage Centre site. The main exhibition takes place inside the loco shed, with the layouts and traders tucked inbetween the various items of rolling stock. Space is certainly limited. Inside the shed there were 4 traders and 7 layouts. The best of these was the 0 gauge "Camden" shed model which I saw at the Derb
The need to get leaflets out to promote our own show at Weston has sent me off to some events this year which I would not normally have attended. As someone whose railway interest is very much preserved steam (with my model railways falling into the same category), a pure diesel and electric event is not one which would normally interest me. That does not mean I have anything against those who model these forms of railway - everyone is entitled to their own opinion and their own interest! I just
Yesterday I spent an enjoyable few hours at the Peak Model Railway Show at Bakewell. I visited the show for the first time last year, and was looking forward to this year's event.
The venue is very nice - a spacious and well lit hall with plenty of room to walk round and view the exhibits. There is a well priced cafe too with some very nice bacon rolls!
This year's event featured a number of impressive layouts. The Lancashire and Yorkshire layout "Calderwood" has a number of impressive ca
It has long been a tradition that my Dad and I always visit the Derby show on the Saturday. We have done so right back to the days of the Assembly Rooms, and the late opening until around 7pm. We always used to do the Darwin Suite first to get the foreign stuff "out of the way" (it is not our thing!). Then we would do the balcony, great hall and finish off in the foyer at the top of the stairs before a spot of lunch and a pint (when I was old enough) before going around our favourite exhibits ag
I wonder how many small villages can boast two different model railway exhibitions a year, in two different locations, organised by two different groups of people. I doubt there are many. In fact Weston-on-Trent in South Derbyshire may just be unique in that sense.
Last year I organised our first ever exhibition, located in the village school. This was successful enough for a repeat to be planned for this year (Saturday 16th November). This weekend sees another event in the village. WestonRail
Ok, it was not at Harvey Haddon and the show was spread out over a number of locations. Ok, if you hadn't purchased a show guide you may have struggled to find everything, and ok there may have been parking problems. But Nottingham 2013 was a great show and great credit should go to those who organised the event in a relatively short space of time. It is not their fault the previous venue was unavailable, and it was not their fault that the weather caused some of the parking problems. (I remembe
If you are free tomorrow (Sunday 3rd March) I recommend you get over to Mansfield for the second day of this show. I am sure you will not be disappointed!
I first visited the Mansfield show last year and found it to be a very friendly show. This year's visit was the same. I only expected to stay for about an hour, but ended up staying for over three. So many of the exhibitors and visitors to this show are friendly and are willing to chat. Of course it helps that many are RMWeb members.
I
My half term break ended as it began with a visit to a model railway exhibition. Like Sileby last week, the Trowell show packs a lot into a relatively small venue. It is always a good show and this year's was no different. I had been looking forward to the event all week, and it looks like I was not the only one. Throughout the morning the show was packed with a very good crowd.
The show featured three very large layouts. The Ilkeston group's own layout "Kimberley" was on display on the stage.
After a particularly long and frustrating INSET day I have broken up for the much needed half term holiday and what better way to celebrate than by visiting a model railway event.
This is the third successive year I have visited the Sileby event and I have always enjoyed it - this year was no exception. For a relatively small location, the Syston Model Railway society always manage to pack in lots to see, and there is always some excellent layouts on show. This year the stand out layout was th
And so it begins! The Stafford exhibition begins my model railway show expeditions for this year. Stafford is always one of my favourite events and I have been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks now. It always promises to be a big event with three halls packed full of impressive layouts and trade stands.In many ways it did not disappoint again this year. There were many large and impressive layouts to view. Just a shame my digital camera has decided to have a mood and won't let me downl
Another blog entry!
It has been a few weeks since I last posted in the "show visits" blog. Last week I visited the Loughborough show, thoroughly enjoyed it, but never got the chance to write an entry. This weekend saw me visit the Mickleover show. This is one of my local shows, held at the Mickleover Community Centre, home of the club that runs this and the Moorways show.
My visit spanned both the Saturday and Sunday. On the first day I managed a brief visit to drop some leaflets off
This is another show I have been looking forward to. I visited the first Midland Railex show last year and thoroughly enjoyed it with the chance to ride on the full sized trains as well as seeing the model ones aswell.
This year the model railway show did not disappoint. There were lots of excellent layouts, many seen in the modelling press in recent months. Derek Gelsthorpe's "Idle Way" is a superb shunting layout in such a small space. I had seen this featured in its original form in the
