expoEM 2015 - 16/17 May 2015, Bracknell

[Porcy Mane]

Tony, the Wright has been taking some new photos today for EXPOSITION EM 2015 the senior 4mm scale society super showpiece. I hope to see you there. Phyllis Quatt (RN Retd.)

 

I hope he didn't clonk that signal...

 

P.s. I think I've photographed your knees?

 

The R.N. Knee Formation Acrobatic Team (Champions 1959)

 

P

[t-b-g]

The good news is that Leighton Buzzard has been set up, put through a full test and has come through with flying colours. Just the usual couple of wires dropped off but nothing that couldn't be fixed in a few minutes.

 

If it isn't working well at the show, it will be as a result of being bounced around in a car for 4 hours or so or it may just decide to sulk!

 

The plans are that Stephen Denny will be with us all weekend and Crispin will be around for a big chunk of Saturday, so I am really looking forward to seeing them (and their better halves) again.

[BRIDGEMAN]

I can't find a complete list of demonstrators for ExpoEM only a few names on the EM web site stating "and others".

Does anyone know who the others are?

Ray.

[pete55]

I can't find a complete list of demonstrators for ExpoEM only a few names on the EM web site stating "and others".

Does anyone know who the others are?

Ray.

 

The programme for ExpoEm has just been loaded onto the EMGS website if that helps - below is the list of demonstrators contained in it.

 

Phil Tattershall

Bull-head track construction.

Tim Easter (Chilterns Area Group)

Overhead catenary.

Geoff Kent.

His method of constructing plastic

buildings.

Roy Jackson

On his lifelong quest to provide

Retford with its locomotives.

Peter Hill.

Converting R-T-R locomotives.

Ray Hodson (South Hants Area

Group)

Resistance soldering.

David Dormon (Devon Area Group)

Modelling on a shoe string.

Chis Hewitt.

Resin casting and simple buildings.

Dave Hawkins

(South Hants Area Group)

Which coupling to use.

John McCrea.

CAD drawings for etching.

Vernon Harrod

Kit and scratch built rolling stock.

Andrew Ullyott

(North West Somerset Area Group)

Scenery and lightweight baseboards.

Karl Crowther

(North West Somerset Area Group)

Signal construction.

Ian Hunter

(North East & Borders Area Group)

Building construction.

Peter Stanger

(North East & Borders Area Group

Etched loco construction.

[BRIDGEMAN]

The programme for ExpoEm has just been loaded onto the EMGS website if that helps - below is the list of demonstrators contained in it.

 

Phil Tattershall

Bull-head track construction.

Tim Easter (Chilterns Area Group)

Overhead catenary.

Geoff Kent.

His method of constructing plastic

buildings.

Roy Jackson

On his lifelong quest to provide

Retford with its locomotives.

Peter Hill.

Converting R-T-R locomotives.

Ray Hodson (South Hants Area

Group)

Resistance soldering.

David Dormon (Devon Area Group)

Modelling on a shoe string.

Chis Hewitt.

Resin casting and simple buildings.

Dave Hawkins

(South Hants Area Group)

Which coupling to use.

John McCrea.

CAD drawings for etching.

Vernon Harrod

Kit and scratch built rolling stock.

Andrew Ullyott

(North West Somerset Area Group)

Scenery and lightweight baseboards.

Karl Crowther

(North West Somerset Area Group)

Signal construction.

Ian Hunter

(North East & Borders Area Group)

Building construction.

Peter Stanger

(North East & Borders Area Group

Etched loco construction.

Many thanks for the list.  Ray.

[Gee Vee]

I did try to copy the link to the full programme without success but it is at www.emgs.org

[ANT]

Hello

 

Here is the link to the programme, Click on the below:

 

http://www.emgs.org/images/eventlist/show_guides/expoEM_2015_guide.pdf

 

Thanks

SEEYA
ANT

[Kenton]

 

Here is the link to the programme, Click on the below:

 

Thanks. Oooh look, track plans! I'm definitely going now!

[t-b-g]

  Thanks. Oooh look, track plans! I'm definitely going now!

 

If you do make it, please come and say hello. If you fancy having a "play" on Leighton Buzzard you would be most welcome.

 

Tony

[andytrains]

Just packing up to go and collect the hire van to take Clatterford to Expo EM.

See you there.

(I am the ugly one with silver hair).

(Mind you, that describes most of us!).

 

Andy.

[Worsdell forever]

Greyscroft is all set up and ready to go, waiting to eat now!

Had some drama on the way down, spotted t-b-g on the side of the road with a flat tyre so stopped to help. Half of the layout had to come out of the car to get to the spare!

[mudmagnet]

Myself and Ray had an excellent day visiting today! Well done to everyone involved. Very high standard of layouts and two particular favourites being "Striven" and "Wibdenshaw".

[robertcwp]

I went today.  An excellent show, with Wibdenshaw being the highlight for me.  Roy Jackson did a very interesting talk on his layouts and in particular on how Retford evolved.  He's doing it again on Sunday at 1.30 pm - not to be missed.

[RANGERS]

Ventured South to the show (so far South I expected to see penguins down there!) and spent the whole day there. Every layout was first class and the trade equally good, it would be unfair to single out individual highlights but Roy Jacksons piece on Retford (and all his others before it) was a real trip back in time for all those who grew up with those layouts and still hold the in the esteem which they all so rightfully deserve. The pinnacle of course is Retford and as Roy said more than once, it seemed like a good idea at the time, well undoubtedly it was!

 

My only gripe is the location, there's nowhere perfect but it's a shame it isn't the easiest of places to get to, well over an hour from Waterloo on top of a two hour journey to get there from home. Even by car it's an awkward trek for anyone North of Watford. Talking to a chap from Cheshire on the way home on the train, he'd left home at 05.30 to catch a 06.15 train, arriving in Euston before 9, train from Waterloo at 9.50, arrived at the show at 11.15, almost 6 hours. The return was pretty much the reverse.

[BG John]

I spent my first 26 years in Bracknell, and the only Penguins I ever saw were the ones my Mum bought . I'd have liked to make the 200 mile trek, as I've only managed to get to one since it's been in Bracknell, but at the speed I travel now it would have taken several days of ambling along, stopping off at a few cheap caravan sites on the way, and I couldn't get my life organised in time!

[polybear]

As far as I can remember, all previous Model Railway exhibitions I've been to (and I don't mean just EM exhibitions here) have had a varying number (sometimes none) of quality layouts mixed in with the more average (or worse) examples.  So far as I can recall, today's ExpoEM was the first ever exhibition I've been to where EVERY layout was very high quality, and some being the very best (e.g. Striven, Clarendon).  Absolutely first class - well done and many thanks to all concerned.

 

Highlight?  Picking up an RG4 for twenty notes

 

polybear

[Porcy Mane]

Highlight?  Picking up an RG4 for twenty notes

Crikey! I didn't realise they commanded that sort of price nowadays.

£20.00 just to pick one up.  If it's costs that just to touch one, how much to buy one? 

 

Porcy

 

(Have fun boys.)

[Siberian Snooper]

I have to agree, it was a cracking show and I came home with me pockets suitably lightened. Well worth the trip.

[mudmagnet]

A few photos from Wibdenshaw and Striven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mike morley]

A superb show, as always.

My wristwatch is now in state of disagreement with my wallet.  The former insists that I spent more than intended while the latter states that I spent less than intended.

I got the feeling that this year the attendance figures on the Sunday will turn out to be rather better than last year, when exhibitors seemed to outnumber spectators.  Even so, it was never crowded and meant that for the first time I was able to get close enough to some of the better-known layouts to give them the appreciation they deserve.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Even by car it's an awkward trek for anyone North of Watford.

 

I used to have a car like that!

Two and a half hours door to door from Nottingham, not shabby at all.

 

Mike.

[Gee Vee]

Knackered.............. thanks for all the favourable comment.  If you enjoyed it tell a mate and bring him/her next year.  If you didn't enjoy your visit then tell me so we can see what we can do to improve things next year.u

Thanks to everyone involved for their support.  I would particularly like to thank all those that helped clear up after the show.  Always a time when people are eager to get away so big thanks to you guys - you know who you are.

Congrats to Leamington Club for winning the Peter Denny Trophy for most authentically operated layout, Richard Butler for Best layout award (and bear in mind all the layouts present had previously won an expoEM best layout award!!) and to Chris Lamacraft for the Eileens Emporium best scratch built item (a barn on his Hemyock layout).

 

 

 

Graeme

[David Bigcheeseplant]

I thought this years show was the best for quite a few years, plus attendance seemed up which is a good sign.

 

Also I think that Expo EM will be two weeks before Railex in 2016, this year with Derby, Expo, Railex and DEMU all a week apart it will be frantic month for good shows, I think Brian Hanson will have attended them all.

 

David 

[chrisf]

Well done to Graeme and what I hope is his team for producing another excellent show.  In addition to a fine selection of layout and a shrewdly selected batch of traders and demonstrators there were three talks, each held on both days.  An hour or so with Roy Jackson talking nominally about Retford is always interesting, and for all the right reasons, while Ray Hodson continues to conjure up good reasons for buying and using an RSU.  Sadly I did not get to Karl Crowther's signalling presentation, for is not the road to hell paved with good intentions?.

 

It is a good idea to go for both days if you can for this show is as much a social opportunity as an exhibition.  From posts above I see that there were several inmates there into whom I did not bump.  This is a pity but it seems that it can't be helped.  Much time was spent nattering with people I know and it soon proved wise to have completed most of my shopping early on.

 

EMGS negotiates a discount deal with a 4* hotel in what for the sake of argument we will call Bracknell town centre, the latter best viewed under cover of darkness and devoid of architectural merit.  Now I would expect a 4* hotel to have room keys which allow entry to ones bedroom without the key being reprogrammed and the subsequent assistance of a receptionist because it still did not work.  A nice touch would have been to have lights which did not go out after a mere two minutes.  This little glitch took another receptionist to fix.  Never mind: the nearby Wetherspoons contained many kindred spirits and I understand I enjoyed the evening.

 

Chris

[t-b-g]

Got back at around 10.30pm last night after an excellent weekend.

 

Leighton Buzzard station behaved quite well but once again the fiddle yard took a few steps down the road to a major rebuild!

 

It is really very rewarding when people say such lovely things about the old layout and it is also surprising how many were recounting stories of seeing Buckingham upwards of 50 years ago. One chap took a long hard look at Stephen Denny (just retired) and recognised him from having last seen him when Stephen was still at school! 

 

I thought that it was not just the best EXPO event I have been to but one of the best exhibitions full stop. Once you get over the idea that everything is 4mm scale and either EM or P4, the mix and the quality of the layouts and trade was superb.

 

Many congratulations to Graeme and also many thanks to the Greyscroft lads for their help at the side of the motorway!

 

Tony