Great Electric Train Show 2018

[gwrrob]

A few of my photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[philiprporter]

Enjoyable show, but they really need to sort out some better catering, nobody was checking wrist bands on both occasions when I entered/re-entered the arena (they really need to sort that one out!) and very limited in terms of stands to buy modelling essentials (paints, glues, tools etc) which was a shame as thats always a useful part of any model railway show. Good selection of layouts though and not too cramped. 

[G-Mac]

Great exhibition with high standard of layouts and trade. Thoroughly enjoyed my time today.

 

Access to the hall is easy and the isles are wide enough for walking down even at the busiest times of day.

 

Looking forward to tomorrow!

[ELTEL]

I think every time a exhibition moves to a new venue it suffers for the first year as the venue totally under estimates the demand and does have enough staff on hand.

 

Eltel

[Davexoc]

I don't see catering as an issue, you only had to go outside and there is M&S, Costa, Prezzo, McDonalds, KFC, Bella Pasta, Asda, Ikea, and Pizza Express to name a few, and there were plenty of people seeming to do so.

A good selection of British layouts over the three floors and yes there were lots of RTR traders, but isn't that the norm for GETS?

Lighting better than the NEC, but not brilliant. Space pretty good and seemed quite empty around 3.30, but definitely lacking seating.

All in all, a good show, and the venue works far better than Gaydon.

 

Dave

[tarifa]

I don't see catering as an issue, you only had to go outside and there is M&S, Costa, Prezzo, McDonalds, KFC, Bella Pasta, Asda, Ikea, and Pizza Express to name a few, and there were plenty of people seeming to do so.

A good selection of British layouts over the three floors and yes there were lots of RTR traders, but isn't that the norm for GETS?

Why be encouraged to go outside the venue to be "catered" for, to my mind the show organisers should provide "adequate" catering for the punters.  I also thought Gaydon is a superior venue.  The GETS is one to miss next year.

[robertcwp]

Been today.

 

Quite good show. Very easy to park.

 

A couple of gripes that the organisers should be familiar with from previous shows;

 

Too few seats around lunch time,

Queues far too long for food and drink. They have multiple Bars/Serveries but only one with staff,

Nowhere to refill a water bottle to cut plastic waste,

Too many Box Shifters, (cut one and find a Tool supplier)

No tool stand,

No one selling paints or raw materials,

Too any DCC supply stands.(cut one out and insert Eileens Emp)

 

If you want to buy something specific, check the Traders list before you go.

 

Long queue for Advanced Ticket holders at 9.30 but they got them in really quickly. If it's raining you will get wet in the queue.

 

The slant is definitely towards buying RTR trains and not for Model makers. That's funny because most of the layouts were obviously build using materials etc. that could not be purchased at the show.

 

Would I go again? Yes if the Trader list is sorted out.

 

 

Lastly, favourite Layout?   Newhaven Harbour. Of course!

 

Dave

Dave

 

Thanks for the lift to the show today.

 

I agree that the trader list was unbalanced and that Eileen's Emporium or something similar and a tool supplier would do a lot to address that. 

 

Operators of layouts with Bachmann 4 Ceps need to learn how to marshal them correctly. The corridors of the trailers are on opposite sides so the first class in the composite is towards the middle and the loos in the second are towards the adjoining motor brake second. Two Ceps seen, both in wrong formation. Newhaven Harbour corrected theirs when I pointed it out.

 

I agree that Newhaven Harbour was the best layout in terms of overall quality by some distance, but seemed a bit slow in operation at times when I was watching it. One of their 2 EPBs is of the batch where Bachmann got the numbers the wrong way round (DTS has MBS number and vice versa) so that's another thing to correct, but is pretty trivial.  

 

The big 0 gauge layout with lots of diesels in the green to blue transition era was also good and what I particularly liked was that, like Newhaven Harbour, everything seemed to match in terms of period modelled. 

 

Several other layouts were very nearly very good but could do with paying a bit more attention to such things as how they form up their trains and putting tail lamps on the rear, etc. Lighting rigs are also important.

 

Although there were lots of box-shifters, I didn't mind too much as I managed to come away with three locos to add to the other 300 in my fleet. 

 

The aisle by the catering was very crowded, and there seemed to be several other pinchpoints whilst elsewhere there was lots of room to move around. Possibly more use could have been made of the balcony space, with slightly less crammed into the main floor.

[2750Papyrus]

I didn't want to go outside and wander, I just wanted to sit down with a tea and maybe a bacon or sausage roll! 

 

My first visit to GETS - I don't take HMag and Gaydon was shade too far for an unknown show. 

 

Easy access and parking, reasonable width between stands and decent height avoided claustrophobia of some shows.

 

Good choice of layouts, most previously unseen  -  other shows sometimes seem to feature a number of layouts making the circuit.  Layouts using sound showed restraint and generally co-ordinated it with movement rather than continuous throbbing of diesels or distant gunfire.  Noticeable that only one layout using corridor coaches had connections in contact.  Could have done with a few more specialist traders for bits and pieces and presumably show policy to limit preservation and line societies.. 

 

A good show - will go again, domestic calendar permitting - but will take a flask and cake next time!

[woodenhead]

Nice train ride to MK today, found the bus in z6 as indicated on the website, it also returned from where the driver said it would.

 

Lots of trade, no tool supplier but I did find people selling kits, buildings, paint, track, books as well as the RTR stands. A lot of secondhand on the stalls as well which I think is good, Ellis Clark nearly got £54 from me for a couple of Maunsell coaches in dark olive but I resisted the urge for more coaches when I have enough. Ended up only purchasing a Trix wheel cleaner.

 

Nice mix of layouts, packed in the morning, more space as the afternoon went by.

 

For the operators and their pride and joys, it needs better barriers next year, too many times the barriers simply shifted on the slide floor to be pressed up against the layouts. Some layouts were actually moved by the pressure from the barriers and a couple of times I winced at children's fingers on the barriers as they shifted toward a layout.

 

Overall, I'll go again next year.

[bart2day]

Although there were lots of box-shifters, I didn't mind too much as I managed to come away with three locos to add to the other 300 in my fleet.

 

300??!! Goodness gracious me. Edited October 13, 2018 by bart2day

[TheSignalEngineer]

 

 

I agree that Newhaven Harbour was the best layout in terms of overall quality by some distance, but seemed a bit slow in operation at times when I was watching it.

Many years ago I spent about two hours at Newhaven Harbour waiting for the ferry to leave. I don't think there was very much train action during that time on the real thing.

[stivesnick]

^{Tend to agree with above comments about; too many box shifters, lack of tool stand and queue for the catering. There were however extra seats in the area to the left of the bar and others on the balconies.}

 

^{Newhaven Harbour was not the only layout with sluggish operation. On many of the larger layouts, any activity was often away from the viewer, giving the impression that nothing was moving. This is something that both exhibition managers and layout designers need to consider. Whitby West Cliff was a classic example, with a 30 foot single track on one side and I measured nearly 10 minutes between trains passing.}  

 

^{One thing the exhibition did have was a feedback form, so hopefully things will be better next year.}

 

^{Not 100% sure, if I would go next year.}

 

^Nick

[5 C]

As Arena MK is barely half an hour away, I decided it would be rude not to visit.

 

My last experience of the GETS was as an exhibitor at Gaydon. Although the British Motor Museum is a worthwhile venue in its own right, I felt its rabbit warren layout didn't really suit a model railway show, so I was interested how GETS would work at the new venue.

 

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. Arriving around lunchtime, the car park steward warned me it was busy and I might struggle to find a space - he was right. The show was very busy and seemed to remain that way for a few hours. The first thing that struck me was the diversity of the audience. Lots of families and younger people - all encouraging stuff. There was also a Channel 4 film crew in attendance filming many of the layouts and traders and were interviewing Simon Kohler when I walked past the Hornby stand.

 

As El Tel rightly points out, the first year in a new venue can always be difficult. One of the bar staff told me they were anticipating about half the numbers that actually attended and it was a lot busier than many of the events he'd worked at the arena. From my own experience, estimating attendance for even an established event in a new location is educated guesswork, so catering would be staffed and stocked accordingly.

 

Many people have commented about the mix of trade. I think it's fair to say Hornby Magazine's audience is in the RTR/RTP segment of the market. Nothing wrong in that, it's how I started and traders catering to that audience seemed to be doing good business. There were some specialist stands who didn't seem particularly busy, so I wonder whether a show like that is financially worth their effort. Yes there were a lot of box shifters selling similar product. If you had a particular purchase in mind and were prepared to make the effort, you could probably go from stand to stand and get the best deal. Much of the second hand pricing was ambitious to say the least. Nevertheless I picked up a couple of genuine, unexpected bargains from Ellis Clarke.

 

As for the layouts, there was a lot to like. The venue has a similar level of gloom to the NEC, so layouts and stands with their own lighting rigs scored highly with me. I was particularly impressed with the decent number and quality of O gauge layouts, especially Dubmill Sidings.

 

For an event in a new venue it was very successful and judging from the attendance alone, Key Publishing have done a great job. Any concerns over catering, trade mix, space utilisation etc. are just tweaks for next year. Would I go again? Definitely.

[robertcwp]

300??!! Goodness gracious me.

I know, it's completely out of control. And that doesn't include the withdrawn ones awaiting disposal or the units. Still, there are worse things in life to be addicted to.

[chrisf]

I never went to Gaydon so yesterday's visit to MK Stadium was my first to this event.

 

No layout went "wow" at me but some made more of an impression on me than others.  Lower Rose Goods and Lee-on-the-Solent were worthy representatives of P4: two such layouts is two more than grace many a show.  It was good to see Loftus Road in the flesh at last.  Having earned my living in a prominent office block near Kensington Olympia for quite long enough I am familiar with the territory that inspired it and impressed by how well it has been portrayed.  A lot of blood, sweat, resin and filler went into the Electrostar emu and the result vindicates the effort.  Whitby West Cliff is distinctive in being viewed from two sides.  I was left wondering just how steep the gradient really was such that it placed a strain on a J39 and two coaches.   It was good to see Newhaven Harbour again, albeit in revamped form.  Bewdley impressed in terms of fidelity to the prototype but if only someone had taken the trouble to correct the wrongly placed number on the Dapol 122.

 

There were some sins of omission.  No representative of EM was present among the layouts but we can't have everything, can we?  What should have been there was a stall selling tools.   In my feedback to the organisers I pointed out that today's out-of-the-box models are good enough to be worth improving, if that makes sense.  Without tools to complement the imagination and desire nothing will get done and the models will continue to look just the same as everyone else's.  I thought that there were too many stalls offering pre-weathered models but fortunaely Mick Bonwick was there to show intererested punters how to do the job properly.

 

As for amenities, £2 is the upper limit of what I consider acceptable for placing a tea bag into a cup and infusing hot water.  The logistics of clearing the queue need a long hard look.  I avoided the need to feed on burgers by having breakfast at Wetherspoons on my way to MK.  The shuttle bus from the station worked well once the driver had been told where the set-down point at the stadium was.

 

Overall verdict: not overly impressed.

 

Chris  

[Barry O]

 

As for the layouts, there was a lot to like. The venue has a similar level of gloom to the NEC, so layouts and stands with their own lighting rigs scored highly with me. 

 

 

seems like people missed the new LED lighting Hall lighting at the NEC last year - it is no longer such a gloomy, yellow place.... And all layouts are told that they need to bring some lighting of their own for the NEC.

 

All Exhibition Halls have "subdued" lighting as major trade stands are very well lit as part of their sales pitch.

 

Baz

[John Tomlinson]

I went yesterday, like others my first visit as I never ventured to Gaydon.

 

Overall a very positive experience. A good selection of layouts with Newhaven Harbour topping the bill for me in terms of sheer quality and attention to detail. 

 

I did think the light in the hall was a bit inadequate, and the other thing missing was a trader such as Eileens or Hobby Holidays selling a general range of modelling consumables.

 

I was pleased to encounter East Kent Models (Exhibitions) for the first time, and came home with a collection of very useful goodies for some winter projects.

 

Finally, getting to the venue was a piece of cake coming from the east - A1 and A421 - also the adjacent free and straightforward parking was much appreciated.

 

I'll be going next year.

 

John.

[Chris M]

I couldn't get to this show but would have liked to. Sounds like it has been successful which is great.

The trade mix will be partly down to who was invited but also down to whether trade exhibitors were prepared to take the risk of getting sufficient revenue to cover the costs involved. People criticise box shifters and yet those are the stands that are so popular that they make sufficient sales at these shows.

I'm surprised lighting was a problem. You can be sure that lighting in exhibition venues will be variable so surely all decent exhibition layouts should have their own lighting.

[woodenhead]

By the looks of the crowds at the RTR stands, Ellis Clarke wasn't far off the Bachmann scrum at Warley on Saturday morning, they chose the right level and type of trade.

[DRS Crewe On A Mission]

Excuse my ignorance everyone but did anyone that attended the show see any EPs of the Hattons Class 66 or RHTT wagons?

 

Also were their any announcements of new products?

 

Thank you very much in advance. 

[gwrrob]

Excuse my ignorance everyone but did anyone that attended the show see any EPs of the Hattons Class 66 or RHTT wagons?

 

Also were their any announcements of new products?

 

Thank you very much in advance. 

 

Nothing new announced from them but the 66 and RHTT wagons were in display cases to see.

[DRS Crewe On A Mission]

Nothing new announced from them but the 66 and RHTT wagons were in display cases to see.

 

Thank you very much for the reply. I really appreciate it. 

 

Did anyone manage to get any photos of these?

 

Thank you in advance. 

[Bulleidnutter]

Felt very underwhelmed by the whole thing. The only layout that kept any interest was Brinklow as it was all about keeping trains moving for the people to see. All to often do you see layouts being run to what feels like a Sunday service in winter.

 

I think if you're going to have box shifters like Kernow and Rails in the show they can't be opposite each other which drastically reduced what was already tight aisle space. 

 

Would I go again? Probably not, maybe if I am in the area at the time. 

I will say the venue is far better than Gaydon as suggested above the rabbit warren type layout of Gaydon didnt help.

[McC]

Also were their any announcements of new products?

 

Thank you very much in advance. 

 

 

Indeed yes, Accurascale announced a PCA Cement Wagon in 4mm (with RealTrack commissioning in 2mm)

     ACCURASCALE AND REALTRACK TEAM UP TO RELEASE PCA CEMENT WAGON IN 4MM AND 2MM    

 

As well as a model of the Rawie friction buffer stop, also in 4mm

     Accurascale announce Rawie Buffer Stops in 4mm    

[Graham_Muz]

I think if you're going to have box shifters like Kernow and Rails in the show they can't be opposite each other which drastically reduced what was already tight aisle space.

 

Except they were in different isles so not opposite each other.