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WIGAN 2019 EXHIBITION 5th & 6th October


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It was a good show. I spent a lot of time looking at Calderwood, which was the best layout there, in my opinion.

 

I learned a few things from the chap (sorry, can't remember his name now) who was demonstrating the making of wagon loads and I now have a load of sticking plasters to cut up and there are several cotton wool balls soaking in tea...

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An excellent exhibition.  I am sure that when I first visited they were using 3 halls, though one had little in it.  It seems to be both bigger in a smaller space.

 

Exhibits were almost all of the best quality.  

 

One niggle, a bit under toileted for the number of visitors.

 

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13 hours ago, Ruston said:

It was a good show. I spent a lot of time looking at Calderwood, which was the best layout there, in my opinion.

 

 

 

I would agree the quality and level of the engineering craftsmanship of Calderwood was superb.  It would benefit from a lighting rig to see all the detail.  (AM)

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19 minutes ago, ardbealach said:

It would benefit from a lighting rig to see all the detail.

 

It did have a rig but the bulbs and directions were ineffective unfortunately.

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33 minutes ago, ardbealach said:

 

I would agree the quality and level of the engineering craftsmanship of Calderwood was superb.  It would benefit from a lighting rig to see all the detail.  (AM)

 

The best that I could manage of Calderwood at Wigan, taken with a highish ISO and a lowish shutter speed.

922028243_Calderwood-WiganModelRailwayExhibition051020191-RMweb.jpg.298d5d946349fb1861f3f5ec28a5e18a.jpg

 

1835498565_Calderwood-WiganModelRailwayExhibition051020192-RMweb.jpg.0610b415955c263312e5a40e81818e65.jpg

 

1441507783_Calderwood-WiganModelRailwayExhibition051020193-RMweb.jpg.c42c77f2fa9e34523a79b68763762956.jpg

 

 

 

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Was there on Sunday afternoon and thought it was a good show with a nice mix of layouts & great standard of modelling.

 

Broadford was a favourite as its "my thing" but other stand outs for me personally were Bear Creek Jnc, Kitedale(clever use of backscene & disguise of fiddleyard entry), Rensville, Talywain Loco Shed (thanks for the tips re: Kadees), Vale of Oxbury (nice backscene!) & Waddon Marsh.

 

Purchase of the day was a Zimo 8 pin chip from Digitrains (thanks for the tips) - £20 which I think is a steal.

Greenscene saw some of my money - love their static grass range.

 

Good chat with my mates & even the burger 'n chips was ok.

 

Oh, and card payment on the door was really handy - but I guess thats going to become the norm in time... thumbs up for the programme too.

 

 

 

 

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My 8 year old son and I had a fabulous time at the exhibition on Saturday.  Well done to all concerned!

 

One particular highlight for me was asking my son (after standing watching Bear Creek Junction for over 20 minutes) whether he would like a bite of something to eat.  He turned to me aghast and replied - "but Daddy, I haven't seen everything on the layout yet!"  It retained his attention for a good long while.  Excellent layout with continual interest and wonderful detail.  

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5 hours ago, Crantock said:

An excellent exhibition.  I am sure that when I first visited they were using 3 halls, though one had little in it.  It seems to be both bigger in a smaller space.

 

Exhibits were almost all of the best quality.  

First time I went there were 2 halls, the main large hall and the small one behind it, then what is now hall one started to be used for catering and a few traders and society stands. the original small hall is now, I think, dedicated to some sports activity.

 

5 hours ago, Crantock said:

One niggle, a bit under toileted for the number of visitors.

 

thought there was enough, there's the ones alongside the cafe and more single ones near the entrance.

 

Very good show, as usual a good range of layouts.

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Can I just say that I have never modelled in N Gauge as it is a scale that has never appealed to me, but that does not mean that I cannot appreciate fine 2mm modelling. The 'Vale of Oxbury' was superb exploiting its advantage over OO in that you can fit a lot into a smaller space. This being the case I am sure there was a temptation to overcrowd the layout as there is in any scale and in doing so the realism is destroyed. Not so on the Vale of Oxbury the space comes across as vast, it really does look like a Vale. The most noticeable feature on the layout is the merging of the scenery with the backscene which appears almost seamless. This may have a lot to do with the fact that it was the backscene that was constructed first and the layout built around it, rather than added as an after thought. This has enabled the colours in the landscape to be matched almost perfectly adding much to the illusion of depth. There is also a clever use of the trees and woodland, splitting as they do, the layout into smaller undulating sections.

Another aspect that emphasises the scope of the scale is demonstrated in the operational schedule. A long forty wagon coal train trundles through the station which is contrasted with the simultaneous arrival of the single coach auto train from the branch. One very long, the other very short, you can do this in N gauge, difficult in OO almost impossible in O.

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On behalf of the Deadmans Lane crew, thanks to Steve and the rest of the WFRM team.

Always a well run show from an exhibitor point of view.

(I think I've done 8-9 with various layouts over the years)

 

DL ran well apart from gremlins affecting one or two operators who didn't push buttons properly!

(They worked when I used them.............)

 

Cheers,

Mick

 

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Ended up going along with my mum in tow. Thought she would be rather bored but fortunately not. I'm another for Whithorn, my mum loved Bear Creek Junction (and she was also impressed with Whithorn, the attention to detail in it).

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One of my favourite exhibitions and one I always go to, there seemed to be fewer large layouts this past year but still a very enjoyable day out.

one point I didn’t understand was reverting back to just using the small cafe instead of the first hall where it’s been for the last few years ? 

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Regarding the cafe situation. As the Sports Centre is being redeveloped the kitchen that used to supply the cafe in the first hall has gone to be replaced by the small kitchen in the new Coffee Shop. We are told that this is progress and part of a new Grand Plan.

Please understand that the 'reverting back' was not our idea as factors like the catering and the car parking are completely outside our control, unfortunately, as is the use of the Gym on Saturday between the two Halls. Not an ideal situation.

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A big thank you to Steve and the Wigan crew, always a excellent exhibition don’t think I’ve missed one over the years.

 

it was nice to give my layout a outing and I hope people enjoyed it.

 

Terry 

Oil Drum Lane 

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Having only just recovered from last weekend the Wirral & Wigan consortium are taking 'Newhaven Harbour' to the Great Electric Train Show at Milton Keynes this weekend. Such stamina is either commendable or foolhardy. I wish them well. 

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Now the dust has settled we can reflect on a successful exhibition,or so our Treasurer informs us, which means that we can start to think about next years exhibition with a degree of certainty.

As a small group we would like to thank all those people who over the weekend contributed to the success of our venture, be they layout builders, owners or operators, after all it is your creations that our visitors come to see. We are also value the support of our loyal traders and we hope your trip to Wigan was both enjoyable and profitable.

Most people would consider our exhibition to be a two day affair but to the 'heavy gang' it is a five day logistic effort and to put is in very simple terms without the effort from this group of supporters there is no show. That effort is both acknowledged and appreciated.

What is most gratifying is that visitors come to support our event in sufficient number to encourage us to continue to organise the Wigan Exhibition and it is to those visitors that we say a big thank you. 

If you have any suggestions as to how the Exhibition could be improved then we would be happy to hear them as we have a meeting in the coming week to discuss this very topic. Please be aware that there are some issues beyond our control such as catering and car parking but never the less we could pass on your observations to those that are responsible.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We have had our meeting and there will, as you would expect to be changes and tweaks to next years show. However our best laid plans are often thrown out the window by decisions that are made by the Sports Centre often involving the catering.

We are pleased to confirm that this years attendance was an improvement on 2018, so we are moving in the right direction and presumably we must be doing something right. Thank you once again to all those people who contributed to an enjoyable if tiring weekend and we hope to see all our visitors next year.

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Difficult to quantify, but in some ways its a double edged sword. Some visitors, particularly those with children come along expecting every layout to have exploding volcanoes, landslides and crashing locomotives and go away slightly disappointed. I would have hoped that in the second series the production team would have made time to visit a layout at the more serious end of the hobby. A trip to Pendon, a visit to Little Bytham or Liverpool Lime Street, a five minute insert would have been sufficient, perhaps in place of the silly challenge.

But what do I know about television.

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