Jump to content
 

Southampton Model Railway Soc Exhibition


30179
 Share

Recommended Posts

Had an enjoyable morning at the show with 92220.  We arrived just before 10am and parked less than 100 yards away on the main road.

 

Great to see Grantham for real and bargain of the day was Ackthorpe for sale at £1200.....:o

 

I would have bitten their hand off if I had 34' of space to play with. A very good quality layout for a very attractive price...

 

Bumped into Chris F complete with his RMweb badge, although instantly recognisable. Lovely to spend time with Phil Hall and Tony Wright and to see first hand some of his wonderful loco's. Sanford and Barnwell and Grantham were the stars of the show, closely followed by two N gauge layouts, Lightermans Yard and Melton Mowbray. In the larger scales, Haydon Square in 0 gauge was very good. Overall a high standard of layouts so congrats to the organisers and exhibitors for such a good show.

 

Could have spent more on the trade stands, but limited myself to 'what I need' rather than 'what I'd like'.......

 

Back home suitably motivated to get on with things, so mission accomplished.

 

 

Edited by gordon s
  • Like 1
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

There were excellent layouts in several gauges and scales. Several I’ve seen before but still worth watching again. Grantham was the one I went to see but I spent as much time watching several more in 2, 3, 4 and 7mm. Trade support was a good spread too and I resisted buying a large pile of books as it was raining and it was bus and train home. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
27 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

There were excellent layouts in several gauges and scales.

Agreed, a high standard of layouts; I didn't get much time to look round as SWMBO tagged along, but a very impressive selection, Melton Mowbray was my personal favourite.

 

A good selection of traders I thought, more specialist traders than the usual sea of new or used Bachmann/Hornby at most exhibitions I attend.

Edited by spamcan61
Link to post
Share on other sites

I went to this show on the saturday, this is the first large model railway exhibition I have been to.

Many of the layouts were very impressive and well worth studying.

As above Melton Mowbray  was a favourite.

Trade stalls were a good selection and yes I spent more than I should have.

It looked busy and hopefully done well financially. 

As a newbiee I did note however note several things:  

1)  Several layouts were quite high, there were a number of people in wheelchairs who could not view these at all and I did overhear some unhappy comments on this.  This also applied to children but in this case the parent can generally lift them up,  (although one grandmother was struggling to do this)

2)  Letterbox type displays, yes it confines the viewing area and helps fixing viewpoints / perspectives etc but it also results in a limited access, 3 people stood in front peering in, no one else sees anything.

3)  Some layouts had a control panel at the front, at a busy exhibition sorry this is not good, the operator is a major obstruction to viewing and is too preoccupied to engage with visitors.  Conversely if quiet this would work well allowing a more relaxed pace and possibly some visitor hands on opportunity.

4)  The venue uses a number of rooms, some quite small, most doorways were only single width causing problems with access with people going in, coming out and in one case an exhibitor stood in a doorway for a prolonged time talking to his mate inside.

 

Pete

  • Agree 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Pete, you’ll find those points made repeatedly in various show topics and they go round and round. Problem is these are mainly private layouts and aren’t exhibited for money so they conform to the wide variety of personal taste rather than any standard. Search for wheelchair and you’ll find a variety of threads covering the subject. 
Basically it’s a no win situation. 

  • Like 1
  • Agree 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, IWCR said:

4)  The venue uses a number of rooms, some quite small, most doorways were only single width causing problems with access with people going in, coming out

 

A common comment about this venue.

 

1 hour ago, IWCR said:

in one case an exhibitor stood in a doorway for a prolonged time talking to his mate inside.

 

I'd have tried an "Excuse me please". 

Edited by guzzler17
Change of response
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
1 hour ago, guzzler17 said:

 

A common comment about this venue.

 

But it’s an affordable venue. We moved NGSouth there because it’s nearly half the cost of our old venue and Eurotrack which was also in another venue locally also stopped because of cost and access problems. 
More venues are raising prices and trying every angle to maximise use, leading to higher demand and more enquiries which leads to them raising charges due to demand, to support their own funding shortages. It’s a pretty good venue if people are sensible and polite in the corridors. 

  • Like 1
  • Agree 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

But it’s an affordable venue. We moved NGSouth there because it’s nearly half the cost of our old venue and Eurotrack which was also in another venue locally also stopped because of cost and access problems. 
More venues are raising prices and trying every angle to maximise use, leading to higher demand and more enquiries which leads to them raising charges due to demand, to support their own funding shortages. It’s a pretty good venue if people are sensible and polite in the corridors. 

 

Apologies.  Even my amended post, toned down from what I first wrote, has touched a nerve.

 

  • Friendly/supportive 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

An excellent show with a good selection of layouts of various scales and sizes.

Not sure I’d give a preferred one, a lot depends on your interest.

Good to see a variety of traders rather than just box-shifters. I ended up with a few items!

Catering was more than acceptable, nothing special. Just the queue for hot drinks slowed things down, 

so I grabbed a cold drink instead.
The connecting bus from the local stations worked well too, saved me walking!
The one pain in the proverbial is those who insist on standing in front of a layout, with their backs to it,

chatting to their friend about something irrelevant. Just get out of the way!
 

 

  • Agree 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
49 minutes ago, guzzler17 said:

 

Apologies.  Even my amended post, toned down from what I first wrote, has touched a nerve.

 

Not really ;) it’s just that there are few venues that are now affordable in the area so you have to live with certain compromises. I just wanted to say why before anyone suggests another venue ;) Profit isn’t much on a show so it’s very much the difference between some profit or a loss. 
I also have to say the club were very generous in helping NGsouth with info when we moved it there in 2019 which is why it’ll be back there in April if you like narrow gauge :) 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
9 hours ago, EmporiaSub said:


The one pain in the proverbial is those who insist on standing in front of a layout, with their backs to it,

chatting to their friend about something irrelevant. Just get out of the way!
 

 

 

That is a pain - had a prime example at Small Cardiff Show last weekend....

 

But not at this one whilst we were there on Sunday. Can only echo what others have already said... a great variety of layouts, including some excellent ones - including shunting in 2mm - but Grantham the wow factor - and an excellent mix of traders. Catering good too and sensibly priced. All in all well worth the visit!

 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Interesting statement about layouts being to high for wheelchair users, it a challenge but we have to remember not all disabled or less able  are in wheelchairs and that some people can't see the layout if they are too low i.e using crutches or sticks or if they have a visual impermanent.  You can't please everyone all the time.

I found the show a good all round show with something for everyone and the traders managed to extract money from me too..

 

Good work David Barker and team.....

 

 

  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Ticked all my boxes this year, in my opinion the best for some time.  Loved Grantham, Ackthorpe, Calderwood and Sandford & Banwell - all for completely different reasons.  And though they're all 4mm, which will always be my favourite, I appreciated many others including in other scales.  I'm guessing S & B won the Founder's Cup for flawless operation and scenery - especially if Tony Wright was on the panel!

 

I've been going for years (on Sundays) and never met any problems with parking within 100 yards or so of the gates.

  • Agree 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
Quote

 Some layouts had a control panel at the front, at a busy exhibition sorry this is not good, the operator is a major obstruction to viewing and is too preoccupied to engage with visitors.  Conversely if quiet this would work well allowing a more relaxed pace and possibly some visitor hands on opportunity.

Pete sorry I have to disagree with you. I have been involved with layouts operated from both the front and behind for about 30 years. All the layouts operated from the front including my own Brighton East have had the operators in front of the fiddle yard, not obstructing the view of the layout. It allows us to fully interact with public and gives me the opportunity to allow children to operate a finescale layout they would not normally have the chance to. Come and see me at one of Brightons exhibitions (see my Brighton thread for 2020 dates) and let me know if you comments are still valid and if so how we can improve. 

  • Like 2
  • Agree 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

There was a layout with the operator in front of the fiddle yard, as you say no problem.

The ones i'm referring to had operators right in the middle of the viewing area, one was a large layout, not so bad, the other was quite small.  Both were very busy operating trains and the back of their head is not  good to interact with the public.

 

Pete

  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...