Mickleover
Entry posted by andyram
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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 for the Weston-on-Trent show. Family commitments meant that I couldn't stay long. With my wife feeling ill and in need of a break from mummy duty, I was able to return on the Sunday with my baby daughter in tow again as we gave mum some much needed peace and quiet.
I have to say I really enjoyed my visits. There were some excellent layouts on show. In the club room it was great to see the latest developments on the group's "Duffield" layout. This has been a long term project and looks very nice indeed. There is a long scenic run and there was plenty of action as a procession of long trains past in each directions.
A second 00 gauge layout was "Everywhere" which is the new club running layout. This has five tracks and is made to allow a wide variety of stock to run, something that is important to cater for the wide interests within such a large club. Whilst watching the action I saw everything from a Black 5 hauled passenger train to a motorised "hand cart" and an American diesel express.
The final layout in this room was the group's 0 gauge "Warner Street". On the Sunday this was being run with a variety DMU's whilst there was a mix of steam and diesel in action on the Saturday.
In the Community Centre there were some more club layouts. I am not a diesel fan, but the club's modern image layout "Farkham" is excellent. Set in the suburbs of Stoke on Trent it gives a good impression of a railway passing through a city area. The tower blocks are nicely modelled and I loved the Del Boy cameo.
Other layouts on show included the Famous Train's group's "Darley Green" layout. This was making its exhibition debut and was quite impressive too. There was also plenty of action on this layout with a good procession of passenger trains arriving and departing and freight being shunted. My daughter also seemed to enjoy the action. She was also very interested in club's N gauge "Derwent Valley". On Saturday this was being operated as a preserved railway's gala. On the Sunday modern traction was the order of the day with lots of EWS and Scot Rail liveried stock. Thomas the Tank Engine also made an appearence now and again. He was also present on the club's Thomas layout of course. 10 months old and already my daughter seems to have a taste for the little blue tank engine and his friends. She was captivated by the procession of trains on this particular model.
To be honest all the layouts were excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition. It was also made by the many friendly people I met. I have often considered becoming a member of this group and / or the Famous Trains charity. The friendly nature of the people from both groups continue to make this a tempting option. They all helped make the visit very enjoyable.
It was also nice to chat to fellow RM Web member Don and to view his Hockley Goods diorama which is excellent. No wonder it was voted into the top 10 of a competition on this website. I look forward to seeing the model again at our show in November.
An enjoyable visit and a big thanks to all involved.
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