well I found it quite disappointing compared to pervious shows. Whilst there were some lovely layouts (for example, Towcester, Leysdown, Fen Drove, Blackwells Brewery, North Bridge, Kirkmellington, Kettlewell and others) there were some pretty crude and wasteful ones. Some layouts needed no introduction - Copenhagen Fields and Canada Road.
I don't do continental stuff much but since there was so much of it, I had a look. Chelma Canyon and Prospect Point were very nicely modeled and were running well.
I will get shot down on here but Crewelisle isn't a premier league exhibition layout but in fariness, it was running trains which some others seemed to struggle with.
The Freemo American layout was a total waste of time, probably 150ft of running line and if you were lucky, you might see one train moving and a switcher dithering. Simply not good enough and the lack of spectators watching it all day tells its own story. I overhead one of the operators telling a member of the public that they had been robbed of 2ft of space by BRM/MRC and they didn't have enough operators to run it!!! Blinking Heck, it was the biggest layout in the show and to blame a missing 2ft board is ridiculous. If they can't get operators then why are they turning up to a major show where people pay a huge sum to see trains run.
Lancaster Green Ayre looked like it was built by school kids in a class project, and not sure that would grace the conference league, scenery was unfinished, some places already showing signs of wear and damage and the station building had a 10 degree list. The less said about the catenary the better.
Binns Road isn't my cup of tea but it drew a decent crowd and worked which some of the above should take lessons from.
Come on MRC, your standards are usually so much higher.
On the plus side, the weather was great and sitting outside in the sun with a pint whilst looking down over little London village and its pointy topped buildings was very relaxing.