Jump to content
 

Nottingham East Midlands Model Railway Exhibition, 15 & 16 March


GWC1

Recommended Posts

Latest News:

Floor plan now finalised and on its way to the printers. We have listened to feedback from last year and improved signage. Thanks very much to Booklaw Publications who have kindly offered to produce some new signs for us.

I have also drawn a simplified site plan showing the way between the various exhibition areas. I will post that on our website shortly. It doesn't act as a substitute for the full plan, which will still be printed in the centre pages of the guide, but should help visitors find their way around, along with all the new signs.

We have grouped the demonstrations this year. Last year we had some of them grouped, but this year we have gone the whole hog and so we have the 2FS room, with exhibits from the 2mm Scale Association, the Scalefour room, the EM room and the Electronics Zone featuring Gordon Hopkins and MERG. The East Midlands Area group of MERG are holding their meeting at the show, so the electronics room won't open until midday on Saturday, but will be well worth waiting for, with a whole room full of the latest electronic gizmos and the people who know all about them.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Squires Tools will be having a stand at our show. This is the first time that they have exhibited at the Nottingham show, and possibly their first appearance in the East Midlands (being based on the south coast)

 

 

   They do travel around a bit now, we've had them at our events in Shepshed, Leics.. for the last five years at least

Link to post
Share on other sites

Douglas G said:

"Are there to be any 2mm layouts? I was surprised to see none listed in the list of layouts posted earlier, but usually you have several at this show."

 

Well yes there are, but not finished. We have Colwyn Bay Goods all weekend and another two layouts under construction as demonstrations (a different layout each day). Our thanks to the 2mm Scale Association for arranging this for us as we have already had all the layouts on our list of potential 2FS exhibition layouts! If any owners of 2FS layouts think that theirs is suitable for our exhibition, please get in touch, I can see about adding them to the list for future years.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Just over a week to go now - it's all getting quite exciting!

Last year some visitors mentioned that it was hard to find their way around, so this year, in addition to 90 extra signs (thanks Booklaw!) we have a site plan. It shows where the exhibition areas are. Visitors are still advised to buy a guide (only £1.50 for a quality A4 magazine-style publication) to get the details of the various exhibits, with track plans and write ups, but this year we also have a handy A5 sized map as well. For those who want to plan their visit in advance, the map is here.SitePlan.pdf

Link to post
Share on other sites

That site plan is a good idea to inform visitors in advance that the exhibits are in more than one area of the school. The weakness however for those who would REALLY like to PLAN their visit, is that it doesn't indicate what specific exhibits are where. Is there any chance of a more detailed map in advance, or does that create too large a threat to sales figures for show programmes?

Link to post
Share on other sites

That site plan is a good idea to inform visitors in advance that the exhibits are in more than on area of the school. The weakness however for those who would REALLY like to PLAN their visit, is that it doesn't indicate what specific exhibits are where. Is there any chance of a more detailed map in advance, or does that create too large a threat to sales figures for show programmes?

 

Agreed, doesn't really tell anyone much at all.....

Link to post
Share on other sites

Interesting point made by gr.king re the guide. I have wondered about whether to make the guide a free pdf download. At present the guide just about breaks even on costs, with the advertisers and the buyers of the guide covering the cost of printing. If we had it as a free download, we couldn't afford to also have it printed, so visitors who had not downloaded and printed a copy wouldn't be able to get one at the show. OK, we could have some pre-printed copies for sale, but they would not be on quality glossy paper in magazine form, like the existing guide. The printing would also be likely to cost more than the £1.50 cover price of the current guide. An interesting topic for further debate I think.

 

Anyway, that's all for now - I'm off to set up the show! See you all tomorrow (or Sunday).

Link to post
Share on other sites

The only significant shows I can think of (there will be others) who issue a plan as a .pdf beforehand are Leamington & Warwick who have a free guide anyway, and Warley at the NEC who are on a massive scale and bring a new meaning to the art of getting lost and not seeing everything.

 

Whether an organiser should include a guide or not has been debated at length on here before, but from my experience at Nottingham and other shows, some people will always buy one, whilst others look at you with great distain when asked to part with any more money, as if the meagre entrance fee charged to enjoy the work of other amateur hobbyists for a whole day is somehow doesn't represent good value for money. In short, what is wrong with paying £1.50 for a comprehensive list of traders and layout descriptions and plans from the builders themselves...?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Very pleasant weekend with the East Midlands folks. Modesty forbids me posting pix of my own layout (they're on my thread) but here's a view of Leeds Central that we were thoughtfully paired up with:

 

post-16151-0-18997700-1395011895_thumb.jpg

Looking forward to returning with the full layout in 2016 :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...