Kensington Olympia in n scale

[acg5324]

The Earls Court building has now got a roof and the first blocks of colour over grey primer. From pictures the actual roof covering looks like corrugated iron or cement board, difficult to tell. I might add some spurious EARLS COURT signage on the building to liven it up a bit. The bridge steelwork has also been made.

 

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by acg5324

[St Enodoc]

21 hours ago, acg5324 said:

I might add some spurious EARLS COURT signage on the building to liven it up a bit.

How about a large billboard advertising something at the arena?

[acg5324]

18 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

How about a large billboard advertising something at the arena?

That’s a good idea John......Motorshow? Ideal Home show?  When I worked for BRBS we had a stand at the World Travel Trade Show at Earls Court.

[St Enodoc]

I think it's too early for your period but I went to a Led Zeppelin concert at Earl's Court in 1975.

 

The Boat Show was always a good day out.

Edited August 20, 2020 by St Enodoc

[acg5324]

26 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I think it's too early for your period but I went to a Led Zeppelin concert at Earl's Court in 1975.

 

The Boat Show was always a good day out.

Mmmm Boat show sounds good, slightly weird that it’s not on a river or the sea. Think it’s at Southampton now. Might just Google Earls Court 1980 events.

[St Enodoc]

12 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

Mmmm Boat show sounds good, slightly weird that it’s not on a river or the sea. Think it’s at Southampton now. Might just Google Earls Court 1980 events.

There were two top boat shows at that time (plus several others that I didn't rate as highly). The Earl's Court show in January always had a huge pool in the middle of the hall full of floating gin palaces and the like. The best part was always catching up with mates for a drink in the RYA lounge.

 

The other good show was at Southampton in September. Plenty of outdoor exhibits of course and the chance for them to be seen (or even tried) in action on the Solent. That was sometimes quite exciting as the event was often beset by equinoctial gales ( BiSoDol was good for those...).

 

Happy days.

[grahame]

22 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

That was sometimes quite exciting as the event was often beset by equinoctial gales ( BiSoDol was good for those...).

 

 

Was that to generate wind to fuel the gales?

 

;-)

 

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, acg5324 said:

Might just Google Earls Court 1980 events.

Nothing better to do so I did that. There were enough interesting events to change the billboard according to the date! Here are some:

 

London International Boat Show

Ideal Home Show

Motor Show (Birmingham not London)

Royal Tournament

Pink Floyd Concert

International Stamp Exhibition

Caravan Show

British Toy and Hobby Fair

International Motorcycle Show

Edited August 20, 2020 by St Enodoc

[acg5324]

Thanks John, I had a quick Google before I went to work.....you’re allowed to in the privacy of your own home! Spotted the Pink Floyd gig so I think that might be the one to go for.

 

As it was over several days in the summer months it gives me a good window of time for the layout.

Edited August 20, 2020 by acg5324

[Duncan.]

Hi Andy,

I was at the Pink Floyd gig and can recommend it, great show to reflect a great layout!

Cheers

Duncan

[Ian Morgan]

Unfortunately there is not much room in that corner of your layout, but some of those exhibitions/shows would have been a good excuse for some interesting scenes of loading and unloading of lorries - boats, stage props, etc.

[acg5324]

11 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

Unfortunately there is not much room in that corner of your layout, but some of those exhibitions/shows would have been a good excuse for some interesting scenes of loading and unloading of lorries - boats, stage props, etc.

Indeed Ian that would have made a great scene.........one of the reasons for not building the Olympia exhibition halls was like Earls Court they are enormous buildings. I had enough problems with Charles House

 

[grahame]

I remember going to the Boys and Girls exhibition at Olympia in 1964. They had a driverless 'brainy' train and Daleks from Dr Who. Even if you don't model the building you could have Daleks on the pavement being delivered. . . . . 

 

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, grahame said:

I remember going to the Boys and Girls exhibition at Olympia in 1964. They had a driverless 'brainy' train and Daleks from Dr Who. Even if you don't model the building you could have Daleks on the pavement being delivered. . . . . 

 

 

Crikey, I went there too! Also the Gibbs Ivory Castle (no relation to our host as far as I know!).

 

My Dad took some cine of us on the brainy train, which I've still got and which will be transferred to DVD when I get a round tuit.

[acg5324]

As the layout will also be able to be set in 1986......Intercity Cross London.......I need an event for then. Only found the Boat show and Crufts so far. The World Travel Market which i was on the BRBS stand didn’t move there until the 1990s.

[St Enodoc]

41 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

As the layout will also be able to be set in 1986......Intercity Cross London.......I need an event for then. Only found the Boat show and Crufts so far. The World Travel Market which i was on the BRBS stand didn’t move there until the 1990s.

You're right, that's proving tougher. The only other ones I can find are the Ski Show (possibly), Ideal Home Show (again), Royal Tournament (again) and British Toy and Hobby Fair (again).

 

[grahame]

9 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Crikey, I went there too! Also the Gibbs Ivory Castle (no relation to our host as far as I know!).

 

My Dad took some cine of us on the brainy train, which I've still got and which will be transferred to DVD when I get a round tuit.

 

It was all black and white then . . . .

 

 

 

 

[ianmianmianm]

On 28/07/2020 at 01:10, grahame said:

 

Yep, although it looks like from the link that the only material choice from Shapeways is FUD/smooth fine detail plastic which I'm presuming is better than the tough rough finish nylon versatile plastic that N-train use in their own branded direct sales.

 

I'd be interested to see what can be achieved with that set although it's rather dear for just a bit of experimental fun bearing in mind you also need to source bogies/wheels and motor.

 

 

 

I find the N train stuff accepts vinyls better than the FUD. Vinyls seem to have the edge in this case rather than painting, as they portray the windows really nicely.

[Nick Gough]

11 hours ago, grahame said:

I remember going to the Boys and Girls exhibition at Olympia in 1964. They had a driverless 'brainy' train and Daleks from Dr Who. Even if you don't model the building you could have Daleks on the pavement being delivered. . . . . 

 

 

I remember joining a long queue, on the pavement outside, for that one.

After a couple of hours we gave up and went to the Science Museum instead.

[PaulCheffus]

5 hours ago, acg5324 said:

As the layout will also be able to be set in 1986......Intercity Cross London.......I need an event for then. Only found the Boat show and Crufts so far. The World Travel Market which i was on the BRBS stand didn’t move there until the 1990s.

Hi

 

In the mid to late 80s I worked for a Smoke Machine company (the type you got in night clubs) and in September of each year there was a show held at Olympia called the Light and Sound show. I’ve managed to find this from 1989 that mentions it but It certainly occurred before then as I went in either 1987 or 1988 to man the stand.

 

https://www.lsionline.com/downloads/magazine-vault-issues/lsi-issue43.pdf

 

Cheers

 

Paul

Edited August 22, 2020 by PaulCheffus
Spelling

[Joseph_Pestell]

Out of your era, but in the late 1960s there used to be an exhibition at Earls Court aimed at people who might have a religious vocation. The advertising posters in the long passage from the Underground Station into the main hall usually had a high percentage of lingerie advertisers. All these were removed for the duration of the exhibition lest nuns were led into temptation.

[Colin]

Sounds like a scene from Father Ted!

 

”Careful now......”

[acg5324]

Down with this sort of thing...........

[acg5324]

Not much progress over the last week as we had our Willow tree and others felled.......there is a lot of timber and foliage to clear.......double figure trips to the tip so far.

 

[acg5324]

I have had time to make up some removable poster boards for the Earls Court building. Two PECO track pins filled flush and the points cut off are used to fit the frame to the building. 

 

Edited August 26, 2020 by acg5324