It was very interesting to be invited to help out on the 3mm Society stand at Warley a couple of weekends back – my first time “the other side of the table” at an exhibition.

There was a good showing with 3 stands of TT;

Firstly Andrew Shillito with his 3mm finescale layout Lindhurst

http://www.uckfieldmrc.co.uk/exhib07/lindhurst.html

Then a display of a selection of locos and stock made by various members;

And lastly but not leastly, a table with Bob Brown and Kevin West demonstrating wagon kitbuilding and card structure scratchbuilding.

What particularly interested me was sitting back and indulging in a bit of people-watching as the contrast and types of the general public and our modelling community wandered by. It was heartening to see the number of youngsters with parents and youths showing an interest.

Ok, so across all the domains of our hobby there maybe a preponderance of greying heads in our demographic, but from seeing the younger element gleefully clutching their bags of purchases, it gives hope that our hobby isn’t dying out just yet.

My vote for “most serendipitous coincidence of the year” has to go to a young gentleman from darkest Cornwall,

Having had a long discussion with Peter Stratford about 3mm in general, Peter’s kit-built etched brass Midland 8F in particular and about making a start in kitbuilding and planning a layout, he expresses interest in joining the society, takes a membership form and wanders off on his further exploration of the show.

A short while later another chap wanders over and engages us in conversation. He is from a model railway club in Cornwall. They have a running TT layout, but no stock and no-one to operate it since the only club member who ran 3mm had unfortunately passed on about a year ago. It is now unused, unwanted and gathering dust. Could we suggest what to do with it, or know of someone who might have an interest in operating it?

At precisely this moment the aforementioned potential young recruit just so happened to be wandering back past our stand again in the opposite direction…