Wakefield 54th Model Railway Show November 2015vg

[enginelane]

Sadly will not be returning with MrsB she hung on grimly determined to buy me a Christmas present but she was walked through 6 times by people with no spacial awareness whatsoever. She was the thin one with a crutch, me the round fat guy no one stood on walked into or anything else. If I stood in front of her somebody knocked into her back etc it wasn't a lack of space either stood on the edge of an expanse of carpet someone hit her so hard a guy coming the other way went .    Had I been alone I would have stopped a lot longer there was a lot more to look at but when you want to give some people a bit of the pain she has it is time to leave.

Sorry did not have as an experience as you and your wife would have liked. On the front desk, the programme and rmweb we have asked that visitors are aware of and considerate to others. Sadly, as in all activities, there are some who are oblivious to others

[enginelane]

Many thanks who came to the show today. We were pleased to see you all.

 

Sunday 10 to 5 is the last opportunity this year of coming to the show

[AMJ]

A very enjoyable full day at the show. I met quite a lot of people I know and quite a few others whom were interesting.

 

Tomorrow is the last day for normal passenger trains at Middleton before the Santa steam trips,

 

Steam travel is also being run on new years day.

 

For more information see our 2016 time table or the web site.

 

Sorry to get off topic.

[enginelane]

A very enjoyable full day at the show. I met quite a lot of people I know and quite a few others whom were interesting.

Tomorrow is the last day for normal passenger trains at Middleton before the Santa steam trips,

Steam travel is also being run on new years day.

For more information see our 2016 time table or the web site.

Sorry to get off topic.

All part of the show, society stands, exhibits and traders

[Boxcab]

A nice show. I found the road signs hard to spot - and I knew the way! Perhaps do their background in colour? (for those coming on Sunday, the signs are black on white and easy to miss)

As mentioned in an earlier post we have to comply with the council terms & conditions, one of which is we can only have signs that are black on a white background.We used to have a pictogram of a loco on them originally, like the highway code symbol, but we had to remove it as it did not comply with EU directives. These are the rules that we have to work with.

Other people put up signs of various colour but these are technically illegal.

 

As the sports hall is owned by the council we do not wish to jeopardise our relationship with them & risk losing the use of the venue.

 

Most people these days also have access to directions to a venue via sat nav or Google maps etc.

 

We appreciate your feedback on all aspects of the show & where possible we try to improve.

 

Thanks.

[enginelane]

It's been an interesting experience so far in the role of exhibition manager and I am sure today will throw up more challenges! Pleased with how the numbers have held up and comments received on the door so for the final time this year

 

The Wakefield 2015 Show -Sunday 22 nd Nov 10 to 5

[Bomag]

As mentioned in an earlier post we have to comply with the council terms & conditions, one of which is we can only have signs that are black on a white background.We used to have a pictogram of a loco on them originally, like the highway code symbol, but we had to remove it as it did not comply with EU directives. These are the rules that we have to work with.

Other people put up signs of various colour but these are technically illegal.

 

As the sports hall is owned by the council we do not wish to jeopardise our relationship with them & risk losing the use of the venue.

 

Most people these days also have access to directions to a venue via sat nav or Google maps etc.

 

We appreciate your feedback on all aspects of the show & where possible we try to improve.

 

Thanks.

 

If somebody at the Council is quoting 'EU directives' then not only are they wrong but out of date as the Construction Products Directive was replaced by the Construction Products Regulations (which would not impact on what was on the sign anyway).  Also putting up signs without permision under S65 of the RTRA 1984 is unlawful but not illegal. For next year try to look at the Transport Advisory Leaflet on event signing before talking to the council to undersand what should be used. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/temporary-traffic-signs-for-special-events)

[ColinK]

I went to the show on Saturday with four friends. Really enjoyed it as always. I had only seen one of the layouts before. Nice to see some big layouts there. Alloa was outstanding, pleased to see Lancaster Green Ayre as it is near were I live, nice to see Borchester Market which I remember from magazines a long time ago. I thought is was a good idea that the public could see the back of Borchester Market too, all those ancient switches. Shame I hadn't put my layout in the car as it would have filled the space opposite Squires.

I made the traders happy too and almost got everything on my very long list, but missing the two items I needed urgently, 'burnt black' paint and satin varnish ready for airbrushing. Good brew and enough seats in cafe.

Quite happy with £7 admission, we stayed 4 hours, so that's less than £2 per hour entertainment.

 

All credit to the exhibition manager, volunteers and exhibitiors for putting on a good show. Looking forward to next year.

[enginelane]

Just returned and finished my Sunday dinner, a little dried up but very welcome after a long day.

 

I have learnt a lot as my first experience as a model railway exhibition manager, firstly the queue to moan is always longer than the queue to say well done but on the whole very much as I had thought it would be. Pleased to see lots of happy faces looking at layouts and the number of people eager to come to the show and exhibit in the future. Thank you to the traders who have already expressed a desire to come back again and to our new first time traders hope you will feel confident about returning.

 

Thank you to the visiting exhibitors last night for your vote of thanks to the club

 

On the whole the figures held up well but today in comparison to last year figures were down more than expected. I would be interested if anyone had intended to come and did not, why not and happy for people to use the message function to tell me why.

 

Next year will have a different feel and once Warley out of the way and the small matter of ensuring I pass muster on appraisal next week at work will start the 2016 - assumes of course get passed the exhibition debrief tomorrow!

[ColinK]

enginelane, being exhibition manager for the first time is a huge challenge; being exhibition manager for a big, sucessful and hgh profile show such as Wakefield is a huge task. I hope that everyone who, like me, enjoyed the show, well done and many thanks.

[Boxcab]

If somebody at the Council is quoting 'EU directives' then not only are they wrong but out of date as the Construction Products Directive was replaced by the Construction Products Regulations (which would not impact on what was on the sign anyway).  Also putting up signs without permision under S65 of the RTRA 1984 is unlawful but not illegal. For next year try to look at the Transport Advisory Leaflet on event signing before talking to the council to undersand what should be used. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/temporary-traffic-signs-for-special-events)

My mistake for quoting it as "illegal" when I did mean unlawful & also for misquoting "EU directives". After a long tiring day at the exhibition my brain was not functioning correctly when I posted my reply.

The objective of my original reply was to make people aware that it is not always as easy to do some things as they think they are.

Next time I will make sure that I am fully awake & check my facts before posting.

Thank you for the advice,I will pass it on to our traffic management team.

[45156]

Anybody got any pics of Lancaster Green Ayre?

[long island jack]

59th and Rust is home safe and well, what a cracking weekend and show, we were well look after, plenty of food and drink (even free beer, what's not to like!!) had a lot of interest in the layout(even though it's only an American layout!!)and a couple of more invites.

 

Big thanks to all the Wakefield crew for a great, friendly weekend, especially Robin with his smiling face (it might have been wind)keeping those cups of tea going.

 

only down side was ,being next to Roger Nicholls ,with his regular cry of, "got out for nowt, Ray" but you get use to that.

 

Here's to the next time, great show, give yourselves a big pat on the back.

 

Ray

p.s we even found a lot of good drinking holes to put our nights in, and the famous Wakefield pie shop!!!

[roundhouse]

p.s we even found a lot of good drinking holes to put our nights in, and the famous Wakefield pie shop!!!

 

Ah, but you had a trial run last year!

[Bagpuss]

Many thanks to all who visited our show this year and thank you for all your feedback.

Project X created a lot of interest, particularly as an example of what can be achieved in a small space in a short time time with a limited budget.

It was won by ticket number 0087, sold to Ken Paul from Chelmsford.

[60526]

WRMS, congratulations on a good show, good selection of layouts and although somewhat 4mm biased I thought Alloa was a good choice for the cup. We were down the other end with Borchester which travelled well this time although it nearly had a heavy 50lb hammer through the GN fyard the previous Wednesday when it decided to throw up a wiring trick for us, the air got a bit blue, why wasn't one of the points switching - it must be the switch - no, it must be the relays - no, it decided to be one of the choc blocks that we had not replaced. On the whole it behaved itself over the weekend, our problems were again lack of operator practice, RTR couplings (oh why can't the manufacturers make them the same height) and a bit of variation in back to backs. The layout is now 40 years old, we've been looking after it for 10 years and it's still amazing to operate. As feedback we found the accomodation ok, no pulled beer though, they only sold bottle beer and since we came up from down souf, where did the beer come from - Kent? But what a letdown, we had the buffet on Saturday night and we're given bottled beer, and what was it - Green King, and what do we have down souf, Green King. Why could you not supply a Yorkshire Ale such as Black Sheep? Anyhow, the lads with the van finally got through the front door at 2 am, one of those things, but still enjoyed it.

[enginelane]

WRMS, congratulations on a good show, good selection of layouts and although somewhat 4mm biased I thought Alloa was a good choice for the cup. We were down the other end with Borchester which travelled well this time although it nearly had a heavy 50lb hammer through the GN fyard the previous Wednesday when it decided to throw up a wiring trick for us, the air got a bit blue, why wasn't one of the points switching - it must be the switch - no, it must be the relays - no, it decided to be one of the choc blocks that we had not replaced. On the whole it behaved itself over the weekend, our problems were again lack of operator practice, RTR couplings (oh why can't the manufacturers make them the same height) and a bit of variation in back to backs. The layout is now 40 years old, we've been looking after it for 10 years and it's still amazing to operate. As feedback we found the accomodation ok, no pulled beer though, they only sold bottle beer and since we came up from down souf, where did the beer come from - Kent? But what a letdown, we had the buffet on Saturday night and we're given bottled beer, and what was it - Green King, and what do we have down souf, Green King. Why could you not supply a Yorkshire Ale such as Black Sheep? Anyhow, the lads with the van finally got through the front door at 2 am, one of those things, but still enjoyed it.

There are too many black sheep in the club without serving them the stuff but point taken there is Ossett Brewery just up the road so perhaps a Yorkshire beer could be served.

 

I grew up with that layout in the modelling mags and I was not disappointed to see it in the flesh so to speak. Thanks for coming and having the foresight to preserve such a layout

[Steven B]

The Wakefield show is on my "must go to" list. Whilst I enjoyed my visit (and I'll be back next year), I left feeling a little disappointed compared to previous years. I couldn't quite put my finger on why. I went on Sunday morning and there were quite a few layouts without much moving - yet plenty of lovely looking trains in the fiddle yard. Perhaps the operators had enjoyed themselves too much on Saturday evening! As much as I enjoy a good bit of scenic modelling, please lets also see some trains running.

 

As a N Gauge modeller, I felt it was a shame that there were no N Gauge or 2FS layouts at the show. There was also very little 1:148 on sale. I never thought I'd say this, but I think I preferred Leeds show this year...

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

[enginelane]

The Wakefield show is on my "must go to" list. Whilst I enjoyed my visit (and I'll be back next year), I left feeling a little disappointed compared to previous years. I couldn't quite put my finger on why. I went on Sunday morning and there were quite a few layouts without much moving - yet plenty of lovely looking trains in the fiddle yard. Perhaps the operators had enjoyed themselves too much on Saturday evening! As much as I enjoy a good bit of scenic modelling, please lets also see some trains running.

 

As a N Gauge modeller, I felt it was a shame that there were no N Gauge or 2FS layouts at the show. There was also very little 1:148 on sale. I never thought I'd say this, but I think I preferred Leeds show this year...

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

Thank you for your comments and there was a problem with a fiddle yard on least one layout. As regards N gauge the Warley factor did come into play with the booked layout unable attend on the changed dare and our usual trader running their own exhibition and being unable to come to the revised date.

 

Next year N gauge will reappear and in 2017, subject to confirmation at Warley 2FS .

[Boxcab]

All the roadsigns are safely back in now,one or two had been blown slightly off course by the strong winds that we had over the weekend.

 

Thank you to everyone that visited the exhibition over the weekend, however the show is not over just yet for us though,as tonight is the de-brief session at the clubrooms.

 

I know what Steven B means, I too had that feeling that there was something a bit different about the show & couldn't quite identity what it was.

Hopefully tonights de-brief will reveal that.

 

The comments about lack of Yorkshire beer have been noted.

The reason for the Greene King selection was, in true Yorkshire tradition, that we got it at a good discount price !

It got the thumbs up from Long Island Jack,so it must have been good. (Or was it because it was free.)

 

Hope to see you all again next year.

[long island jack]

It got the thumbs up from Long Island Jack,so it must have been good. (Or was it because it was free.)

Not a lover of Greene king, so was pleasantly surprised by the bottle of East coast IPA, also (in Roger Nicholls fashion )it was free.

 

There was plenty of choice of beer, a 10 min walk down the road in Wakey.

[Leander]

Anybody got any pics of Lancaster Green Ayre?

Several taken at the show are on the layout thread 

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/2646-lancaster-green-ayre/page-31&do=findComment&comment=2101083

[CoViAnna]

Highlight: Finally got to see Borchester Market. A model of it's era but truly enchanting. I returned many times to see it.

 

Lowlight: Liverpool Lime Street. Seemed an awfully long gap between the trains running. Stunning modelling though. But kept so far away.

 

Surprise Highlight: Alloa. Excellent running and a good overall standard of modelling.

 

Surprise Lowlight: Is it me or are people becoming less aware of people around them. Or do they just not care who they barge past in pursuit of their enjoyment?

 

All of the above (well the Lowlights) are not meant as a criticism of the Wakefield MRS but just my observations. Wakefield is one of the shows I never miss.

[enginelane]

Highlight: Finally got to see Borchester Market. A model of it's era but truly enchanting. I returned many times to see it.

 

Lowlight: Liverpool Lime Street. Seemed an awfully long gap between the trains running. Stunning modelling though. But kept so far away.

 

Surprise Highlight: Alloa. Excellent running and a good overall standard of modelling.

 

Surprise Lowlight: Is it me or are people becoming less aware of people around them. Or do they just not care who they barge past in pursuit of their enjoyment?

 

All of the above (well the Lowlights) are not meant as a criticism of the Wakefield MRS but just my observations. Wakefield is one of the shows I never miss.

Thanks, we did put on rmweb, on posters outside and in the show guide about taking into consideration others around them but sadly sometimes it's only about them

[Andy Y]

Thanks, we did put on rmweb, on posters outside and in the show guide about taking into consideration others around them but sadly sometimes it's only about them

 

I think that's a positive and brave move; I wonder what the result would be if there were an extra admission charge for a backpack? I'd say the price of at least a child would be fair.