More details on the Weston-on-Trent, South Derbyshire model railway show!

Here we go again!!!!

2012 did not exactly have the most optomistic of starts. I saw the year in, practically on my own, whilst watching the BBC's "New Year Live" coverage on the lowest possible volume setting in order to avoid awaking my sleeping wife. My 2 week old daughter sucked away on her late night bottle before bed and I made do with a small glass of celebratory wine. I did wonder how much time I would find to indulge in railway modelling. At the time I thought that there would not be much.

How wrong I was!

During 2012 I managed to visit approximately 15 model railway exhibitions, built my first ever exhibition layout and displayed it for the first time at Weston-on-Trent model railway show. This was an event I suggested to my school's headteacher as a fundraising idea and promptly landed the job of organising it. Having had no previous experience of organising a show - no wonder I titled this blog "What have I let myself in for?"

Well guess what?

It is happening again! The Weston-on-Trent show will take place on Saturday 16th November 2013 and I have the organising role again and so here we go once again!

The show

As mentioned above, the date for the show will be Saturday 16th November (10.30 - 4,30). I have begun the search for layouts once again. Last year I did not start the planning until February, this time I have something of a head start. Several of the trade stands who attended in 2012 have rebooked for this year. One trader is not returning so I will be on the look out for a replacement. I have an idea, but need to check their availability.

A number of exhibitors from 2012 own more than one layout and several have already confirmed that they will attend this year with something different. At the last count I have 6 layouts booked with four more in the pipeline. Last year we had 17 layouts attend and I hope to reach that total again. Once again I am appealing for help. If any local RMWeb user has a layout they would be interested in bringing to the Weston show then please do get in touch. The event is being held to raise funds for the school so we are looking to keep our expenses down as much as we can but we can pay small amounts in some cases as we did last year. I am keeping my fingers crossed!!!

Skaleby West

Skaleby West is the name of my exhibition layout. It has a scenic section of four feet x one foot with a fiddle yard of equal length. This was built from February 2012 and debuted at the Weston show last year. Technically it is available for other exhibitions and I am planning to exhibit at the Weston 2013 show again and so I plan to further develop the layout during the year. But what is there to do?

I outlined in an earlier entry that there are a few jobs to finish on the original scenic section. This includes wiring the points, hiding the underneath of the cutting by adding a front to the layout, replacing the goods shed and undertaking some repair work. With the latter job in mind I have moved the layout back into the lounge and plan to tackle this over the next few weeks. I have already given the track a thorough clean in order to get the trains running again. The layout was tested with my Bachmann "Jinty" which was used a lot to test the layout during last year's build.

The testing showed up an issue with the points. One or two do not seem to be making a good electrical contact so I will need to look at these to try and solve the problem.

The thing is - even if I complete these jobs it may improve, but not really change the look of the layout. I feel like I want to do something else to make Skaleby West look different for the next Weston show. In my mind I am thinking of an extension to the scenic section, possibly by adding a second scenic board. The current layout has a three sided back board. I am not sure I want to cut this to fit in a second board so I may build the second board in a similair way, effectively making Skaleby West a modular layout. I have not got a final plan for any extension yet - mind you I have not gained planning consent from the wife yet!

Until next time.....