Weekend Away
Entry posted by Claude_Dreyfus
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A few months ago, it was suggested by one of the club members that a few of us might like to have a weekend away at one of the big continental shows. There are a number to choose form, however it was decided that the Cologne show at the end of November might be a good choice...interesting city, busy station, decent show, and a good few model shops as well!
To start with, we spent an hour or so around Cologne station and the bridge. This is a fascinating place, with a large variety of trains...many of which were loco hauled. This is a small selection of what we saw...
Following on from this, we spent some time at the exhibition. This was an impressive show, covering four halls, although not all were dedicated to model railways...one hall was for Lego, and had some pretty cool Star Wars stuff. For me, there were perhaps too few layouts; there were a lot of manufacturers and sales stands. I also struggled with the guide, which although showed a map of the venue, did not identify the layouts clearly...hence many of these pictures being unidentified.
Finally for the layouts, something a little more familiar from the UK. This is Purbeck, a small 009 layout I have seen at a couple of shows in the south of England.
Finally for the Star Wars fans...
Aside from the railways, there is, of course, the impressive cathedral; but owing to the attentions of the RAF much of the old town has been lost, and to my mind most of the replacement has not been very aesthetically pleasing - no real attempt appears to have been made to rebuild as in some other German cities.
The bridge is always interesting, with the footpath running along side giving a decent view of the trains. One interesting aspect of the bridge is the probably million plus padlocks fixed to the mesh fencing beside the track...certainly makes a striking sight. The food (as always) was excellent with more than one visit to the currywurst stall...
It was a long weekend...and pretty expensive for some of my fellow travellers!..but well worth the journey. Looks like a visit along these lines may start to become a annual event.
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