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Milton Keynes - Saturday 15th / Sunday 16th Feb 2020


ianbartlett
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MKMRS members are heading to the club room to start the preparations for this weekends exhibition at Stantonbury Leisure Centre.

 

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday or Sunday for what promises to be another great exhibition.

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4 hours ago, swisspeat said:

Well worth braving the rain for.

 

Good selection of layouts in most scales and lots and lots of children which is great news for the hobby!

 

Well done all who organised it and participated.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Peter

Glad you enjoyed it. We’ve had worse weather...but not much! Thanks for coming.

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Agree with Swisspeat, a group of us attended travelling from Leicestershire and we were pleased we made the effort. Came away all agreed we’d had a good day. As usual in my experience of this one, this was a good club show, and generally very well put together. Thanks to all at MKMRC who worked so hard to set this up, I hope it works for you over the 2 days once again.

 

Saturday certainly seemed busy until around 2:30 ish and I second the comment about lots of families, this was great to see. There seemed to be plenty to keep lIttle ones entertained I thought, with the Thomas layout, Minions Railway, Hawkins Halt and a couple of other things well suited to younger visitors, well done all. 

 

Special thanks are due IMO, to the Sea Cadets and some other similar cadet folks I think, who did a super job organising the parking in awful weather! 

 

A couple of last comments, the cafe seemed to work more smoothly than in previous years, still busy but they managed (more staff maybe were helping here). Lastly, sorry to end on a downer but I thought the state of repair of the toilets in the centre was awful. Really, no responsibility for that should be attached to MKMRC, surely this is the fault of the leisure centre and perhaps I was just unlucky.  I would add, though,  that at an event that is clearly successful in attracting young families a practical failing like that could really undermine the experience for some people. It would be a shame if good work was undermined by the poor repair of the venue. Thanks again to MKMRC.

 

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Hello everyone

 

Very many thanks to Ian and his team for another excellent show - much appreciated!

 

I was sorry to read earlier that someone felt that 'the trade' wasn't well represented...that was not the impression I took away. Given that this is a 'traditional local show' and not Warley, there were over 20 actual model traders; a fair balance against the layouts.

 

As is usual, the show attracts a high proportion of family visitors with kids, which can only help promote the hobby in the long run. It is a credit to how Ian and the team promote the show.

 

Brian

 

 

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Great show, plenty of trade support and veriety of layouts on show.

Wanted to vote for best in show but couldn't see anything regarding voting.

Signage from car park and between halls was a bit lacking. (Sorry) I almost missed hall 2.

 

P.S. I would have voted for either Much Murkle or Cranmore.

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Thoroughly enjoyed the weekend with Much Murkle. Thanks to the Milton Keynes club for being great hosts. The weather didn’t help getting between the halls and I would echo the sentiments about the general maintenance of the venue especially the toilets. All that aside some great layouts varied trade to satisfy most modellers needs. Also good to see lots of families with mostly well behaved and interested children.

Well done everyone involved.

 

 

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Great show, a bit busy in places but I don't have many other shows to compare against so it might be the norm and it's all good for the hobby. Haven't seen anyone mention the wavy floor covering in the second hall, might be protecting whatever is underneath. Took my five year old who loved it, great idea with the 50p ride-on upstairs, I wonder if in better weather days that could do part of the journey between the two halls? Restrained myself with the trade stalls as I have plenty to get on with already however we did treat ourselves to a loco from Cheltenham Model Centre which seemed better priced than any I saw online during recent sales.

 

I would like to add thanks to all of the layout exhibitors that were so accommodating and patient with my talkative son as well. The Peppa Pig and Minion layouts were great and he likes pressing the animation buttons etc but I think he really enjoyed the 'regular' layouts where the guys exhibiting would take the time to answer his questions or show him around the back to where the fiddle yard or point switches are and so on. Of particular note Nick above from Much Murkle, Abbey Park, Elmwood Yard and the two GMRC layouts, cheers guys I think you made his day :D

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Dragged the son-in-law and two grandsons (4 1/2 and 3) along this year. Would have caught the bus from the station, but didn't fancy getting drowned on the walk both ways...

Good mixture of layouts across the scales, and the kids ones went down well, as did the small N working and Hornby Dublo ones.

Also spent quite some time with the 3yo looking for animals on Ilfracombe East, which was particularly well done. We also checked out colours of things on various layouts, because being born 3 months premature, there was a time when he appeared to be colourblind, confusing reds and greens. But happy to say all is OK.

 

Another good show, and hope that the weather didn't affect the numbers too much.

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Dave,

 

I also enjoyed the show - I go every year. I've been red/green colour blind all my life and I've always assumed it was just a natural thing. It has certainly provided  entertainment for friends and family, having a good laugh at my lack of colour co-ordination with clothes, for example. Only last week, I was travelling on a Class 350 unit and stood outside one of the loo doors for ages thinking that the indicator was red. Eventually a sympathetic passenger pointed out that the indicator was green and therefore vacant.

 

Graham    

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On 15/02/2020 at 21:13, ianbartlett said:

Glad you enjoyed it. We’ve had worse weather...but not much! Thanks for coming.

 

On 16/02/2020 at 22:17, Tomathee said:

great idea with the 50p ride-on upstairs, I wonder if in better weather days that could do part of the journey between the two halls? 

 

Most exhibitions have their regular dates for exhibitions & MK is mid-February. In the UK, this is winter so it is likely to be cold, wet & possibly icy. It wasn't raining all weekend & temperatures were above average for February.

 

I can't imagine any February day being very suitable for ride-on transport between the 2 halls.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great Exhibition.

My first time there with my Uncles layout Brooklane.

A great mix of layouts, and traders.

 

The electrical gremlins on Saturday didn't detract anything, if not improve things as people spent more time looking at the details on the layout and asking more questions.

 

Here is my video highlights from the show:

 

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8 minutes ago, chris p bacon said:

 

If only they'd stick to one regular date instead of yo yoing up and down the calendar.

It is regular, my understanding is that it has always been the nearest weekend to the 14th

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18 minutes ago, Ryde-on-time said:

It is regular, my understanding is that it has always been the nearest weekend to the 14th

 

 There was already a near exhibition on the same date (2nd weekend of Feb) and had been for 30+ years, MK picked the same weekend which cheesed off the clientelle attending, when the 30+ year club changed their weekend date MK followed them to the same weekend and now is doing the same for next year.  

 

My personal take on it is that as they are a larger club they think can roll over smaller ones.

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4 minutes ago, chris p bacon said:

 

 There was already a near exhibition on the same date (2nd weekend of Feb) and had been for 30+ years, MK picked the same weekend which cheesed off the clientelle attending, when the 30+ year club changed their weekend date MK followed them to the same weekend and now is doing the same for next year.  

 

My personal take on it is that as they are a larger club they think can roll over smaller ones.

I feel the problem is the MK exhibition is regularly on the weekend nearest the 14th. The Biggleswade one is also on a regular date selected in a different way (2nd or 3rd weekend). Because they are regular but selected in different ways then sometimes there will  be a clash. I have no idea of the comparative sizes of the 2 clubs but there is no negative attitude to Biggleswade club. The MK exhibition is 2 days so if someone wants to attend  both they could do so on different days

 

During the spring prime exhibition time there are always going to be other exhibitions on could be perceived as clash. There are also issues Booking large venues (there are few suitable ones for the MK exhibition) in having to fit around other regular non railway modelling events which I think is why I think the weekend nearest the 14th had to be selected

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38 minutes ago, PenrithBeacon said:

IIRC the Biggleswade club's show was a two day affair until this year. Has it been affected by the change from one to two days at MK?

Biggleswade (EB)  has always been a 1 day show, It was for 30 + years on the 2nd weekend of February but when MK chose Feb they used the same weekend,  so EB reluctantly moved to the 3rd weekend to avoid a clash as MK were (seemingly) reluctant to move but they then still chose the same weekend, EB then went back to the 2nd weekend and MK followed and clashed again. 

After assurances that the clash wouldn't occur in the future it seems they have again booked the same weekend as EB,  this time though in moving they are losing exhibitors and traders to an even larger show ....so what comes around....

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