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Nottingham 2013


andyram

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Ok, it was not at Harvey Haddon and the show was spread out over a number of locations. Ok, if you hadn't purchased a show guide you may have struggled to find everything, and ok there may have been parking problems. But Nottingham 2013 was a great show and great credit should go to those who organised the event in a relatively short space of time. It is not their fault the previous venue was unavailable, and it was not their fault that the weather caused some of the parking problems. (I remember a Stafford show where many cars had to be towed off the car park!!).

 

Some people do not like change, clearly!

 

Now the reason I am labouring the point is that, on Saturday, I observed a visitor verbally abusing one of the stewards in an aggressive manner about the above issues. It was disgraceful behaviour. If the gentleman in question reads this I hope he is totally ashamed of himself. Ok, he may not have been happy over some elements, and he is entitled to his opinion. But there are ways and means of making your point and that was not the correct way!

 

This was the first show at the new venue and I am sure it has been a learning curve for the organisers and they will learn the lessons of this for future shows. But they are on the right track. There were plenty of signs and stewards to direct visitors to the different parts of the event. Maybe a free map with your ticket would help - after all the Mansfield show does this! The catering was good, and the entry fee slightly cheaper. And there was a good range of exhibits, well organised and logically grouped together.

Highlights for me was the gigantic model of Leicester South which depicted the Great Central Railway. The large goods facility, complete with working wagon turntables was superb. Other excellent layouts were Sutton, Thurston, Borchester and Yarborough. All were excellent large layouts.

I had been looking forward to seeing Gamston Bank. Sadly, like others who have commented, it seemed to be having a few technical problems whilst I was stood there. I did not get to see too much action. The layout was still an impressive model!

 

The show had a few hidden gems including the Scottish region layout - Dalmally. This B.R blue era model depicted a modified model of a real station on the Glasgow to Oban line. Its track layout taking inspiration from such locations as Killin Junction. I have developed an interest in the Killin branch after reading articles and books on the line to Loch Tay. Seeing this model was very interesting..maybe a model of Killin Junction could be a long term personal project. Now there is a thought!

Another little gem was the N gauge modern image model of Stoney Lane Depot. Such detail packed into a relatively small space. Superb!

And what a shock. Here is me - a self confessed steam modeller praising modern image layouts. They must have been that good!!

 

There is always the odd model built in a strange place. The "Shoerack Shuttle" was located in a room which I almost missed. This was built in an Ikea shoerack and showed what could be done when space is very limited. Another excellent model.

 

Overall a great show. And a good starting point at this new venue. I believe that the show will be there for another two years at least and I am sure the organisers will learn lessons from it. But was a great show. Well done to all concerned.

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Thanks for that Andy. It was more of a learning vertical than curve but hey!

The team has already been talking things over and a thorough de-brief will be underway over the next couple of weeks. Then we start on next year with the lessons we have learned.

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Agreed, a very well balanced overview. There were things which I am sure the team will do differently next year but overall we had a great weekend - we were next to the Shoerack Shuffle.

 

Jerry

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I went yesterday and enjoyed the show. Sure there were a few hiccups but it's not the only show that I've been to in a school.

 

On the plus side, I found it much easier to get hot food and drink when I wanted it than was the case at the sports centre. The sausage and tomato roll that I had on arrival more than made up for the walk in the sleet from the alternative car park.

 

I heard several of the traders comment negatively at the level of trade that they were getting though.

 

If I would change one thing (apart from the weather) it would be the lighting in the sports hall - it seemed quite dark in there. Maybe this was partly to blame for the mood of the traders. Logically of course we would all say that lighting doesn't affect our willingness to buy stuff (I did my bit to support them!), but on the other hand the high street shops all try to flog us their pretty things by putting them under bright lights and presumably they know what they are doing.

 

Does anyone know whether the school will be a long term arrangement?

 

Regards, Andy

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FWIW, I was also stewarding on both days and generally found the public to be understanding of the situation and thankful for additional help and advice when offered. There were one or two who seemed overly "wound up" and unable to appreciate that us volunteers were working hard to make the best of a bad situation. I'm not sure if these are the same people who manage to have a gripe at the show every year or at life in general when their Bus is late or Tesco's have moved the tins of Beans to a different aisle, but I didn't witness anything of an extreme nature.

 

My first impression of the sports hall was the lighting was set to "dim", which would have been fantastic to enhance well lit layouts or those with theatrical effects, but obviously less so for traders. Whether it was intentional or not, the tubes certainly didn't seem to be on their brightest output levels. Issues like this remind us that sometimes show organisers have no control over the venue, so what is considered the norm during the week such as dim lighting, lack of signage to toilets or even broken locks on the doors and non-working wheelchair lifts, is suddenly an issue. 

 

Regards,

 

Another Andy.

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