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Is Big really the Best?


andyram

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Throughout this week there has been plenty of excitement about this weekend's Warley exhibition. Sadly I have never been to this event, and my plans for a visit this weekend have been scuppered by a nasty case of flu! Strangely enough I do not feel that disappointed.

 

This year Warley advertises 87 layouts, numerous demonstrations and plenty of traders ready to tempt people to part with their hard earned cash. There is also the manufacturers who will be announcing new products, and full size exhibits such as the part built Patriot class. There really is plenty to see. So why I am not that disappointed to be visiting this mecca of model railways.

 

That fact is - I am going to play devils advocat for a few minutes. Can a show grow to be too big?

 

The show is advertised as running from 9.45 - 6.00. Let's assume I can get in the show at 10am and stay until closing. That gives me 8 hours. Take away half an hour to have some lunch and that leaves 7 and a half hours or 450 minutes. That means that during that time, just to see all the layouts I would have an average of just over 5 minutes per layout. That does not account for the demos / traders and all other exhibits. Considering them would reduce the average time down to 2 or 3 minutes per exhibit. To me that sounds like a real rush!

Considering the number of people who say they are going to the show, I am sure that there will be a large crowd inside the NEC and I wonder how easy it will be to get to see some of the exhibits.

Entrance to the show is £13, and parking can be as much as £10. If I am going to pay that much out before I even get into the show I want to know that I will enjoy the event and have the time to see all that I want to see.

 

The biggest event I regularly visit is the Stafford show which is quite a bit smaller than Warley. Despite spending the whole day there I sometimes come away feeling that I have not had enough time to properly see everything.

 

At the smaller shows there is plenty of time to make two or three circuits of the exhibits, see everything, go back and view and photograph my favoured layouts and also spend time talking to some of the exhibitors. At these events it seems a lot more relaxed and less rushed, as a result I often come away having enjoyed them more.

 

So, at the risk of asking a contraversial question, can a show actually be too big??

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Another approach is simply to visit the layouts that interest you most, rather than all of them. And do a quick recce to check which ones are worth going back to see in depth.

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This year I went to a similarly-sized event, Showbus, arguably the biggest bus gathering in Britain, at Long Marston, based on part of a former airfield larger than the hall used to host the Warley show at the NEC. However I only knew about it happening a few days before my stay in Warwickshire and admission was

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whilst going O/T, I believe that the entrance fee for long marston was cheaper than at Duxford this year and the buses was more spread out with lots of runs around the site unlike duxford which go off site as I was doing them and making up my own route at times!

 

Evryone has different views and expectations whatever the show is about.

 

Warley did seem to be more spacious this year and it was only around some areas that there was a traffic jam of people, other times i was able to get around easlily when i needed to.

 

Regards Robert Thompson

Winner of best Dennis Dart at Showbus!

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I only mentioned Showbus because it was another big event I attended which illustrates my thoughts about how I prioritised what to see and do because I only had limited time at my disposal.

This year I considered going to Warley but in the end didn't. If I went, I would have gone on Sunday and focus on seeing the layouts. I would have skipped the traders except to visit Bachmann, Dapol and Hornby to see what they had in their display cases.

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