An 8th show in 10 weekends and another new one for me. A colleague of mine is a member of the Belper Model Railway Group and had told me about this show. So after being kind to the wife I was able to sneak out this morning to make it over to the Strutt's Centre, Belper for this event.

This is another small local show, very similar to the Mansfield event earlier in the month. It featured a number of small layouts, many of which I have seen before. Many of these layouts represented the later eras with the B.R Blue "Church Lane Sidings", privatisation era "Bucknell Lane TMD" and the N gauge "Just Four". The latter features modern image alongside a "preserved" branch which runs from the front of the layout, and climbing to a raised terminus at the back of the layout. I saw this layout at the Midland Railex event at Butterley last year and really enjoyed the constant stream of trains, with the operation on the branch adding interest. Today the branch was operated by an automated DMU. Whilst this "hands free" operation was good, seeing the DMU arrive at a station and immediately reverse without pausing did detract from the "realism" a little. Only a slight criticism though as I did enjoy this layout again.

It was good to see Malcolm's "Bygone Model Railways" display once again. He certainly has a good collection of old Hornby clockwork O gauge. I may be too young to remember it, but its great to see these models doing what they were built for. I look forward to welcoming him with another of his layout's to our show in November.

Next to this display was a small TT gauge layout. It certainly was packed full of things to see. I do like the TT gauge, amazing how this size isn't more popular than it is.

The Belper Group were showing off the progress on their "modular" project. I have heard a lot about this from my colleague, Tom. Each member has a 1100mm x 400mm module to develop as they wish. The only specification being that the track needs to enter / exit at a specific point. This allows the group to build up a very impressive and different layout as each member develops their own section. The modules on show today ranged from bare boards, to fully scenic sections complete with stations. I certainly enjoyed seeing the progress on these. The brewery module looks an interesting one.

I also enjoyed seeing the "What a load of rubbish" display, where the husband and wife team displayed how to make all kinds of scenic items from household junk. It gave me some ideas. This is another display set to attend our show and it was great to have a chat with the people involved.

I did get a brief chance to catch up with my colleague whilst he was supervising the "drive Thomas" layout. I know he was quite pleased with the crowd. There certainly seemed a few people walking around.

I definitely enjoyed the show. It seemed to have a friendly atmosphere again and it was great to catch up with a few people.

Now where is the next one????