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Trowell 2016


andyram

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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 throughout my visit. The hall is not the biggest venue and so it can get a bit cramped at times. That said it was never uncomfortable (unlike some parts of last week's Sileby show).
On entering the hall, visitors were greeted by David Westwood's N gauge layout "Marsh Chipping". This is a wonderful model of the Western region in the 1960's. There was plenty of passing trains to hold the attention of young and old.
N gauge seemed to dominate the main floor with Marsh Chipping one of 4 N gauge models amongst the 6 main floor exhibits. The other three were all more modern image with Dave Harrison's "Glenellen Castle" making its exhibition debut. This was a stunning depiction of BR blue diesels in Scotland, with a well modelled castle scene, superb river bridge and plenty of flashing lights amongst the motor vehicles on display. It was a stunning model and attracted plenty of favourable comments.
Next to Glenellen Castle was Stephen Sims' model of "Loughborough Derby Road". This layout is a "might have been" depiction of how the former LNWR branch from Coalville to Loughborough may have looked had it survived into the modern era. Those who travel into the town via the A6 will recognise "The Station" public house which is well modelled in its appropriate location. This is another excellent layout and has been out and about a lot on the show circuit over the last few years. It appeared at Sileby only last week and was a visitor to our own Weston event two years ago.
The final N gauge model was another modern image one. "Barton Hill" was a much smaller layout and depicted a Rail Express servicing depot alongside a small portion of passing main line. There were some nice effects on here, especially the attempt to use card pictures built up in a decoupage style to create a 3D back scene in such a small space.
The remaining two layouts in the main hall were both 00 gauge. One of these, Annesley Woodhouse, also fell into the modern image category. This depicted a Robin Hood line station and was also making its exhibition debut.
There was more modern image in the form of 00 gauge "Elveden Road". This featured a modern servicing facility and was situated in the small side room.
Steam era modellers had not been forgotten. In addition to "Marsh Chipping" there was "Ashbrook Dale" which was based on the LMS in 1930' Derbyshire. This is another layout that has appeared at many local shows in recent years. Each time I see it the scenics seem to have been further improved. Now the whole layout has been enhanced with its own lighting rig. The lack of lighting has hampered the model due to some unfortunate locations at some previous shows.
The pick of the steam era layouts was "Ripley", built by another club member. This is a very nice model indeed and another that has developed a lot since its exhibition debut last year. The model was located on the stage, which seemed to be a better organised display than last year. There were less exhibits on the stage and this gave much more room to move around. Last year things were just too cramped.
There was a diverse number of traders with stalls selling scenic items and electricals. The societies own members stand had a good and varied stock of second hand stuff and seemed to be doing a good trade. Regular model traders were Malcs Models and Brickyard Models. Sadly only the latter stocked any new items so the variety of new r-t-r was very limited. Usually you expect to be able to buy new items from Malcs Models too, but today their stall seemed to resemble a car boot sale with various rummage boxes of second hand carriages etc. This was my only disappointment from what was another superb show. As I mentioned previously, it is always very friendly and I bumped into many familiar faces and ended up spending much more time at the show than I intended.

 

And so to finish - here are my "light hearted" awards.

 

BEST IN SHOW:
Glenellen Castle - a truly stunning model.

 

BEST MODEL
Jim Read's card Y7 model on the "Moxley" 0 gauge layout.

 

Finally here are some pictures from the show:
(starting with two shots of Glenellen Castle, followed by Annesley Woodhouse, Ashbrook Dale, Marsh Chipping and Ripley)

8 Comments


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I don't suppose that the Hornby dublo 3 rail shop demonstration model, the Hampshire Hills H0 gauge Tramway layout or the fantastic hands on demonstration and models by Pete Greaves were worth a mention. what a pity.

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Yes the Hornby Dublo layout was excellent, as were the demonstrators. I did not look at the tramway layout much I am afraid. I only picked out some of my key highlights as the blog was written very late.

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Andy thanks for the excellent report on this show. I normally go to the Trowell show as it is only 5 mins from my house. The reason I didn't is that it's a small venue and last year it got really busy. I decided to go to the Lincoln show ground one instead and was really pleased that I did. You should try it next year, spacious and not very crowded. It did get busy over lunch but eased in the afternoon. It's the first time I've been there and will definitely go again. Keep up the good work as I enjoy reading your reports.

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Thanks bynackmor. I have never been to the Lincoln show and may give it a try next year if I can go on the Saturday. Glad you like reading the blogs. I know they don't always please everyone, but that is life I suppose. As mentioned, I went to Sileby the previous week but had no time to write a blog entry.

I am hoping to make the Mansfield show on Sunday so you never know I may manage a blog about the visit.

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Our paths keep crossing I went to the Sileby show on the Saturday as well, I thought it was excellent. I've not seen the Mansfield show advertised can you let me know where it's being held at please Andy I'll try and get over on Sat morning if the two on over 2 days.

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I thought Sileby was a good show, but a bit cramped in the two halls. Lots of nice steam era layouts, not sure modern image fans were so well catered for. One layout never ran at any point during my visit with two operators just sat around looking at their computer.

Had a nice visit though and followed it up with a trip on the G.c in the afternoon as my little daughter insisted on visiting (and who was I to argue).

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It was really busy in the morning, I didn't see the two guys on the computer I may have missed them. I'm not a n gauge fan but thought the layout along the Dawlsh/Teignmouth coastline with warships and westerners running brought back a lot of happy memories for me. Pity it wasn't in oo gauge I'd have been over the moon. Hope you enjoy the Mansfield show on Sunday.

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