Philip1812

Just received my copy of MRJ 299, with some nice photos of Slattocks Junction, (c) Karl Crowther, which will be appearing at a large public exhibition for the first time. Advance tickets available from our website: http://www.mmrs.co.uk/exhibition

Time for an update on THE Christmas Model Railway Show - Manchester 2023! Another three excellent but contrasting layouts which will be present: Wolfe Lowe. An O gauge pre-grouping layout set in Staffordshire. Photos (c) Andy York Euxton Junction. A post-privatisation OO layout showing the busy junction just south of Preston on the WCML. Photo (c) Tony Wright The Warren. A delightfully observed OO cameo layout inspired by the Looe branch line. Photo (c) Steve Saxby For more details about these and all the other layouts, traders and attractions at the show, visit http://www.mmrs.co.uk/exhibition

It should have been automatically forwarded to the member with responsibility for traders. I will check tomorrow when I see him. To be on the safe side, send me a PM on here with your query and contact details. Phil

The exhibition website for THE Christmas Model Railway Show - Manchester 2023! went live last week, to coincide with the start of on-line tickets sales. The exhibition will again be at our new, larger, central Manchester venue, which is a short walk from Oxford Road rail station. There will be 24 layouts present, including some very unusual ones. All the details are on the website - www.mmrs.co.uk/exhibition but here is a little taster of two of them, just to whet your appetite: Dovedale (O gauge) A post privatisation quarry terminal set in Derbyshire. YORK (2FS) Peter Kirmond's superb rendition of the inside of York station in the 1930s.

Day 2 and just two hours left. Heating problem solved (until the get-out). Catering better but not good enough. Card machines blocked out for about two hours but now back on line. Decent crowd but probably not enough to cover costs - but WE ARE BACK AFTER TWO YEARS AWAY!!! Philip1812

Well, the end of the first day, which went much more smoothly than the get in yesterday. Good attendance and lots of positive comments about the layouts and the mix of trade. The big problem was the inadequate catering. The outside caterer had been told about our advance ticket sales (up by 37% on 2019) and our projected attendance over the weekend, but didn't really believe us - hence inadequate staffing levels and horrendous queues. The only other significant complaint from the visitors about the shuttle bus. If we run it again next year, we will make improvements, but we may decide that it is not a cost-effective solution, and let visitors make their own way from Piccadilly, which, after all, is not the nearest station to the Sugden Centre - that's Oxford Road. For reasons I don't fully understand, there was a significant temperature difference between the two halls. It may be that it was caused by the wind direction. The colder hall had a loading door facing north, so when opened the breeze in was a bit chilly today! The get in, yesterday, was not good. We need to modify the registration procedure and try to improve the exhibitor parking arrangements. All in all, for a first exhibition at a new venue I thought it was good but with poor catering. There were some weaknesses, which we will address for next year. We did not have time to arrange the Scale & Gauge display, or to set up properly the family and children areas in the dining area and the lobby, but all of the layouts were good and the Society judges had a very hard task to select the winner of the "Best Visiting Layout" prize which went to Bron Hebog. Philip 1812 Exhibition Coordinator, Manchester Model Railway Society

We must be doing something right. As of noon today, our online advance ticket sales were up by 28% on 2019 -very encouraging! If you want to join them, you've got until 9pm on Thursday, otherwise it's queue to pay at the door. And here's another of the big layouts that will be there: Hills of the North - the Spirit of Shap. 35 ft of scenic excellence up a 1 in 75 gradient, complete with banker engines and 51ft of dry stone walling!

Thank you Baz. Like you, we offer free child tickets with each paying adult, and, like you, we hope that this will lead to more junior members. Every "free" child comes with an adult of the right age to be really useful as a member or helper if the child joins. The other point is, of course, that by targeting families with children, we get adults attending for a family day out who might have little interest in coming otherwise. We market the show in the local media as "The perfect pre-Christmas treat for all the family"

There has been very little said in this thread about one crucially important aspect of staging an exhibition (or, indeed, any event): - advertising. This links to a second, very important, question which not all exhibition organisers consider: who are your target audience? I manage the Manchester MRS exhibition. Like many clubs up and down the country, we were forced to cancel two exhibitions, but we had the added problem that we had been obliged to move venue. The 2020 show would have been our opportunity to tell our visitors that the 2021 show would be on the other side of the university campus, about 500m away, but both shows were cancelled. This year our problem has been not just to tell everyone that we were back after an enforced absence, but also WHERE we now were. We took the brave, some would say foolhardy, decision not to increase our ticket prices, or the trader stand rents from their 2019 level and to use this as a positive inducement in our advertising. Fortunately, over the last 5 exhibitions we have (a) collected a large mailing list, and (b) analysed carefully the demographics of WHO was attending. We also had a clear idea of our target audience: (1) the keen and experienced fine scale modeller, (2) those with an average interest in railway modelling and rail transport generally, and (3) families with children. It remains to be seen whether we will cover our costs this year - back in January I told the MMRS committee that I could not guarantee breaking even, but the omens are looking promising at present. The biggest expense for this year's exhibition has not been the venue hire, nor the accommodation costs for the 34 hotel rooms I've booked for two nights. The biggest single cost has been advertising. But advertising targeted at the sections of the public we want to attract. Will it work? Ask me in a fortnight! What I can tell you is that between 2015 and 2019 we saw an increase in % attendance of the under 16s and the 35-45 age groups, at the moment approximately 1/3 of the advance tickets which have been sold are to people already on our mailing list, and that advance ticket sales are up by about 24% on their 2019 level - what effect that will have on walk-up sales is anyone's guess!

And now there's just one week left to get advance tickets. Here's another two layouts: Canalside Ironworks 6mm/ft scale, 9mm track gauge, and Boston Lodge Junction 16mm/ft, 32mm track gauge, and making its first ever exhibition appearance!

It's just two weeks - almost to the hour - until advance ticket sales end for THE Christmas Model Railway Show - Manchester 2022! Two weeks, in other words, to get tickets which are cheaper than those bought on the day, admit you 3/4 hour before visitors who buy at the door, and minimise the time spent queueing to get in! Visit http://www.mmrs.co.uk/exhibition for full details of all the layouts, traders and other attractions. Our new, bigger venue is a short walk from Oxford Road train station, and very well served by buses and trams. If you decide to drive into central Manchester, there are two multi-storey car parks nearby. Some of the layouts on display are shown above, here's another one - completed during lockdown so you won't have seen unless you went to the Uckfield show last month. Drws y Nant in 2FS built by Nigel Ashton. Take a close look at that offset scissor crossing!

Three weeks today and we will have welcomed the 24 layouts from all over the country who will be appearing at THE Christmas Model Railway Show - Manchester 2022! Doors will open at 10:30 on Saturday 10th December for walk-up ticket sales (£10 adult), but at 09:45 for those who have bought the cheaper advanced tickets online, just £8.50 with no booking fee. We have kept our prices the same as in 2019, and, as always, accompanied children are admitted FREE. Here is another layout with a snowy setting to get you in the mood for a Christmas treat, The Great White River Navigation Extraction and Steam Packet Company an On30 layout set on the Pacific NW coast of America.

Less than a month now until THE Christmas Model Railway Show - Manchester 2022! Here's a peak at a very appropriate layout that will be on show - all the way from Exeter. Further details at www.mmrs.co.uk/exhibition

A couple more of the layouts attending THE Christmas Model Railway Show - Manchester 2022! Ryburn in P4, a Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway model set just before WW1. Originally it was one of two layouts making their debut with us, but they accepted a late booking from Wakefield, so this is only its second outing. Bron Hebog is the magnificent OO9 layout of the present day Welsh Highland Railway and is coming all the way from Ayrshire to be with us. December 10th & 11th in our new, spacious venue: The Sugden Centre, M1 7HB

Advance bookings for THE Christmas Model Railway Show - Manchester 2022! opened last week and already there has been a steady stream of orders through our online booking agent . Visit www.mmrs.co.uk/exhibition for full details of the exhibition and how to get tickets. Why book in advance? Because you can enter from 09:45 each day, with minimal queueing, rather than wait in a queue until 10:30 for the ticket desk to open and begin selling walk-up tickets. What does it cost? £8.50 for an adult, with children FREE. That's the same price that we charged in 2019! What is there to see? 25 excellent layouts in a wide range of scales, gauges and periods. Like this one for instance: South Pelaw, 11.6m of EM excellence.