Yesterday I spent an enjoyable few hours at the Peak Model Railway Show at Bakewell. I visited the show for the first time last year, and was looking forward to this year's event.

The venue is very nice - a spacious and well lit hall with plenty of room to walk round and view the exhibits. There is a well priced cafe too with some very nice bacon rolls!

This year's event featured a number of impressive layouts. The Lancashire and Yorkshire layout "Calderwood" has a number of impressive cameo scenes along its length. The station is very detailed in particular. It also features working signals and they are operated realistically with communication between fiddle yards via a series of bell codes. When I saw this layout at Derby a year or so ago there was lots of bells, but no train movements in five minutes. I was pleased to see a much more frequent service this time - with three passing freight trains in a similar time.

Mentioning cameo scenes - there were lots on the impressive P4 layout Cheddar S & DJR. This contained descriptions of the scenes printed on the front in order to bring the layout to life. The model ran well, and the Prussian blue engines looked superb under the lights.

There was also plenty to see on the "Museum of transport" layout. This attended the show last year. It may not be one for the purists perhaps, but I do like it. It is something different with the wonderfully modelled exhibition buildings, a superb harbour complete with an excellent model lifeboat, and the canal with the operating boat is a feature not seen on many other layouts. How many others have an operating hot air balloon! The model also features two "demonstration tracks" in OO gauge. At the front the automated GWR railcar operated to and fro, while at the rear, sound fitted DCC steam outline models operated a shuttle service. The museum demonstration line feel was represented by a Castle class loco' hauling a single GWR auto coach. Elsewhere on the model a 009 track also ran constantly with many superb models on show. I recently purchased, on a whim, a 009 model from EBay. It was painted in the Rev W Awdry Skarloey Railway livery and represents "Duncan", minus the smokebox face. I have considered a small 009 layout for this to run on, but not being experienced in this scale I need to research more as to how to go about it.

Back to the show and there was another layout which was returning for a further year. Glen Gillie was this year presented with its "Loch Inch" extension. I was very impressed with this model last year. It also features lots of great scenics and cameos. The distillery is a superb model, complete with an air freshner filled with whisky to give off the appropriate smell! The extension features a detailed loch scene, a small halt serving a camping coach and a ruined castle which was thronged with little visitors. This really is an excellent model with lots to see.

Other impressive models were the Scottish layout "Glen Roy" and the model of Idridgehay. There was also plenty of trade stands, although I was a little short of the "folding stuff". I did pick up a Harburn Hamlet model of a beekeeper - complete with an open hive. It made me smile and I decided that this figure would become the resident of the cottage on my show layout Skaleby West.

An enjoyable show and a perfect escape from my paperwork for a few hours.