Doncaster Model Railway Exhibition - Feb

[ste234]

I must admit Tom Tank, i saw Billingham and was very impressed. I use the real line 4 days a week and its interesting to see how it used to be, and i was that sad i even know where the new station would be! They even modelled the 99 steps on the Billingham Bottoms walk

[Olde Frank]

Hi

Went this morning, we had pre-booked tickets which only cost a fiver each, so we got in half an hour early and because all the other pre-bookers seemed to rush to the traders presumably for any bargains, we were able to have a quick look at all the layouts that we weren't familiar with or particularly wanted to see. Then we went for a bacon cob and a cuppa whilst things settled down. In the queue for the grub I met some mates from the railway club I used to be in, not seen them for a few years so that was good!

There are some excellent layouts there, for me the best were the big roundy's - Billingham and Ackthorpe, both steam despite me being a 80's diesel modeller. nevertheless St Cyrus was brilliant with DCC sound particularly as it is located up stairs where it was quieter, as the sound layouts in the main hall were as usual affecrted by the general background noise.

Trade is good but I only wanted some weathering paint, but was finally tempted to buy two Flangeway Ploughs to replace the ones my lad scratchbuilt some 20 years ago, at least I can use the paint on these without upsetting him!

All in all really worth the money and the trip to Donny! Certainly better and warmer than Harrogate!

One little gripe, no chairs for the missus to have a sit in the main hall, she doesn't subscribe to sittin' on the floor with the blokes in the empty doorways to the race course stands!!!!!

 

Hope you all enjoy it as well

 

Cheers

 

Stuart

[Guest D.J.K.]

Not a bad show, provide you bear in mind the type of show it is. Some nice weathered Presflos on Lord and Butlers stand.

 

Layouts... a mix of qualities, but one or two very nice new ones.

 

Totnes in N gauge is a stunner.... Alloa in 00 was very nice. The 0 gauge model of Barmouth viaduct was impressive..

 

Vine Street, Manston Airport, Westcliff.....

 

??6 to get in with an advance ticket. free parking, and the venue is much improved...... Yes it was busy in the morning, but as usual by mid afternoon the crowds thinned.....

[Mike J]

Good show but extremely crowded in the morning. Stand outs were Totnes and Alloa. Venue warmer than Harrogate last year when we on the North of England Line froze our b*******s off all weekend.

[Guest TomTank]

Morning all

 

edited all my footage together and here it is, most is off the Billingham layout as it's the one that I really wanted to see, and decided to wait around so I could get a shot!

 

Tom

[ECML180]

Nice video-but you managed to pick the one time that Donny Station was empty!

[Colossus]

Morning all

 

edited all my footage together and here it is, most is off the Billingham layout as it's the one that I really wanted to see, and decided to wait around so I could get a shot!

 

Tom

 

 

Nice film Tom. Thanks for making the effort.

[5XP]

Thanks Tom good effort!

 

Sadly I couldn't make it this year so enjoyed the vid.:icon_thumbsup2:

 

Darren.

[brixham]

I was in two minds whether to go or not...

I downloaded a ??1 off form from BRM, so entrance cost me ??7. And by the time I got in, the exhibition was fairly full, and by 12 heaving. So I went outside and had a sit down and my lunch ( always take my own ).

After a rest it was still just as crowded, but by 4pm it was emptying fast. I had Barmouth bridge to myself!

Also the traders still had loads of stuff...so I would recommend going in the morning, and having an hour out when it gets busy.

 

Layout with most interesting stock...Fellburn

Layout with best scenics.............Hornby Live Steam

Most tempting item for sale..........Dirty Boy weathered presflos....or the Aster G1 A4

 

Opening up the inside of the building has helped, but there were certain crush points, and some large expanses of wasted open areas.Would I go agin...70% yes

 

Malcolm

[cb900f]

Was not impressed. Arrived at 11:00 had a 20 min coffee break, ran out of patience by 13:00 and went home, fortunately only 20 miles away. Brassed off with being pushed about and no one having the courtesy to say sorry. Never got to see all the layouts but did enjoy "Ackthorpe". Next year ? Don't think so.

 

Pete

[Guest TomTank]

As I said earlier, I don't remember this problem at Harrogate, was this because less people came or because there was more space?

 

Maybe BRM should think about altering venues again, just seems alot of people, myself included didn't really see much layout wise because of the huge numbers.

 

Did people have trouble like this at other large venues such as Warley?

[ste234]

I thought it was far too warm yesterday. We sat on the balcony outside for 10 mins or so with a drink just to cool down! Then we were freezing so went back in

In my opinion Harrogate was a much better venue, it was never as cramped in as this weekends show.

[fiesta]

Well I thought it was a good show - something for everybody - good layouts, good variety of traders - from box shifters to kit builders, scenery, lighting and a good selection of demonstrators. What more could you want? It was fairly busy in the morning but surely that's a good sign - if it's not well attended that's when shows get taken off the model train calendar. We got there at 11 am but by mid afternoon it did start to thin out a bit and you could get to any layout you wanted to see in comfort.

 

With regards to the admission cost I thought it was OK - we were there for over 5 hours so we certainly got our money's worth!

 

For me a much better show than Harrogate - the venue at Doncaster was as someone else said a lot warmer and much more pleasant!

 

And I hope I don't ever meet the very rude man with the haversack on his back who literally pushed me out of the way (I nearly trampled a very old lady with a walking stick and she actually commented how rude he was), whacked me in the face with it and when I said "excuse me" he was quite rude back - because next time I won't be responsible for my actions. And I do hope he reads this forum and knows who he is! Because if you do - you should be ashamed of yourself!

[eastwestdivide]

Maybe Doncaster's easier to get to by train than Harrogate for many people, and more interesting for those who are also into the real railway, so it'll attract more visitors. It was certainly crowded round the stands Sat. am, but the aisles were pretty wide enough to move around.

Didn't think the catering was up to much though. Tea with UHT milk, and greasy breakfast or monster kitkats was the only choice for elevenses Saturday.

[fiesta]

I agree about the catering - certainly nothing there what I would call "healthy" - so I did without - not into the pizzas, pie and mash food - lesson learnt - take my own next time.

 

Coffee was OK from the end stand and you did get fresh milk but the containers it came in were awful - you could taste that every time you took a drink - yuk!

 

A trivial complaint though compared to Harrogate V Doncaster! But do wish caterers would provide healthy alternatives - we're not all into pies and pints or greasy food!

[Troublesome Trucks]

I went today and thought it was a good show.

 

The smaller traders who I know well enough to talk with were all pleased with trade, yesterday was very busy I understand, and had smiles on their faces.This is encouraging,I think many had some slow shows around the country last year.

 

Fwiw, whilst I have nothing against the venue at Harrogate,it did seem dead to me last year, and if I was to choose I would rather pick Doncaster as the venue.

[Worsdell forever]

Layout with most interesting stock...Fellburn

 

Malcolm

 

Thanks Malcolm, glad you liked it, I do like building different wagons.

 

From an exhibitors point of view, it was VERY busy on saturday until about 2.30 then it eased off but was still quite busy the rest of the day. Sunday was steady all day. Just think how hard it was to carry a tray of tea through those crowds! certainly warmer and cleaner than Harrogate (except when water started dripping on the layout from the floor above!) but no where near as big. We searched the whole building for a small piece of cake and some fruit but to no avail!!

[mike knowles]

I agree about the catering - certainly nothing there what I would call "healthy" - so I did without - not into the pizzas, pie and mash food - lesson learnt - take my own next time.

 

Coffee was OK from the end stand and you did get fresh milk but the containers it came in were awful - you could taste that every time you took a drink - yuk!

 

A trivial complaint though compared to Harrogate V Doncaster! But do wish caterers would provide healthy alternatives - we're not all into pies and pints or greasy food!

 

We went up to the carvery on the second floor. Much more civilised and a lot quieter too. For ??7.50 we had beef, pork, yorkshire pud, stuffing, new potatoes, roast potatoes and four veg and very nice it was too.

[Blandford1969]

Car parking was poor, we arrived at 11.20 the bloke on the gate had it closed and just shook his head, there were no signs for alternative parking, where as Harrogate had pleantly.

 

There were some excellent layouts Allowa and Billingham but it was poorly laid out with areas of very small gaps around layouts and then big gaps with nothing elsewhere. Unfortuntley there were lots of inconsiderate people who as others have said barged their way around without ever saying sorry or excuse me.

 

No chairs downstairs to sit on, which is fine if your fit and healthy but not for those with things like arthritus.( there were lots of chairs at Harrogate)They have after all been running these shows for a few years now and should have expected to need chairs.

 

We spoke to the BRM stand who just said it was busier than expected rather than something they seamed concerned about.In short if it stays at Doncaster, based on this year they have lost 3 visitors.

[Harbottle]

I went to the show yesterday. I did enjoy it but I also noticed more pushing and shoving than I've ever experienced at such shows before. There were chairs in one corner of the main hall for people needing a rest.

[Pennine MC]

Whilst I wouldnt say the show was perfect, I must say I'm a bit puzzled by some of the comments in this thread. We went yesterday and must have arrived about 11 (still plenty of space in the car park opposite at that time) and stayed til about 4. We moved around very easily and saw no queues, no crush and no barging anywhere, at layouts or trade stands; Alloa and Billingham probably had the biggest audiences but not so much that we were dissuaded from bothering

 

In general terms, I think if people are citing having numbers of viewers in front of them as a criticism of the show itself, then frankly they need to get over it - if an exhibit's popular, you're going to have to be a bit patient and wait your turn, whatever the show. And the organisers can hardly be held responsible for any ignorant punters - people like that are everywhere you go these days, sadly

[cb900f]

Ian,

I don't think anyone is complaining about not being able to see a layout because of the crowds. If a popular layout is attending then of course one must be patient to view it. In visiting exhibitions for approx 30yrs this was the first ever exhibition that I walked out of early, purely because of the amount of people present and the fact that my safety valves were ready for lifting. Yes I agree that the organisers cannot be held responsible for ignorant punters and that unfortunately it is a sign of the times. Obviously the answer is to visit on the Sunday because it sounds as though it was empty compared with the Saturday.

 

Pete

[mike knowles]

thats saved me a trip tomorrow

It's a shame you based your decision on this opinion as was it not only inaccurate it was an insult to the exhibitors, traders and demonstrators there and quite rightly the original post appears to have been removed by the moderators.

[Eaton]

It was certainly busy on Saturday and quite warm giving us problems with expanding joints and roads on the cassettes on the layout we were operating. Although I had little time to spend watching there seemed to me to be a good selection of quality layouts. 'Totnes' was a BRM Award Winner, and rightly so. Whilst Westcliff, Alloa, Bridgeford and Barmouth Bridge seemed to worth the ticket price on their own.

The hall layout was a little peculiar resulting in some bottlenecks whilst in other places you could park several cars, but that has been true of every BRM Event I have attended and is possibly the result of the exhibition management not appreciating the difference between a Model Railway Exhibition and one featuring Motor Homes and Caravans. Warner Publications having as it does and Exhibition Department who are not only organising BRM Exhibitions.

As a layout exhibitor I can say that the organisation was good and the accomodation superb and that if you are ever invited to the BRM Awards presentation you should immediately accept for not only is the cusine excellent but you will be able to marvel at Mr Wright's erudite delivery.

[fiesta]

I didn't even realise there was a second floor !