RAMMA in Sedan

[ianp]

I have just returned from an enjoyable weekend in Sedan in North East France, near the border with Belgium and Luxembourg. It was the site for the regular RAMMA modelling exhibition (biennial I think); mainly trains but also model boats and planes. It's not as big as Alexandra Palace in London or Eurorail in Utrecht but it was still big enough to give me a good day's pleasure, mooching around many excellent layouts and commercial stands. If you are interested in modelling French railways then I can recommend it whole-heartedly. To get there we flew to Luxembourg via Luxair from London City airport, picked up a hire car and drove for two hours back to Sedan. That was, in my view, the best combination of speed and cost given that I booked it all about two months in advance. Sadly, getting there by train is awkward from the UK. Sedan is about three hours drive from Lille, but train-wise you really have to go to Paris and then take a train from Paris Est, usually changing at Reims, which makes it all a bit of a slow slog if you rely on train only. You could put your car on a Eurotunnel train and get off at Calais, then drive, bit I suspect that would be a 4-5 hours drive to Sedan. Anyway, the layouts at Sedan were of very high quality. And I enjoyed talking to the chap who runs the Trains160 website for N scale enthusiasts. We stayed in the hotel in the medieval Chateau Fort in Sedan, which dominates the town. Despite being a 4-star hotel it was quite reasonably priced at about £150 for two nights for two people - breakfast and excellent supper extra. I recommend it. The Chateau Fort is also the main tourist attraction of the town and well worth a visit if you like that sort of thing. It claims to have been the biggest fort in Europe in medieval times, and is indeed huge. Sedan is where Napoleon 3rd lost the decisive battle against the Prussians in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 but its very interesting history goes back many centuries before that. Sadly it seems that quite a lot of Sedan was smashed to bits in the 1st and 2nd World Wars, given the number of concrete blocks of flats, shops and offices dotted around the town centre. Also, judging by the number of empty shops at the moment the town is also a bit economically depressed. But we had a good time and so should you. Needless to say, the food and wine was good, and cheap too.

 

Edit: biennial, not bi-annual.

[Delfin]

I can second Ianp's recommendation for this exhibition.  I visited on the Sunday, my wife and I were heading slowly towards Calais in our motorhome and stopped for the day.  There is no parking at the exhibition itself, you park by a stadium and catch a free bus.  My wife is disabled and we had a bit of difficulty getting her on the bus, but we got there eventually.  The exhibition is spread over a number of sports halls, five I think from memory, with three of them holding train related stuff.  

 

Most of the exhibits were of excellent quality, with many coming from the low countries rather than France.  There were many modular layouts with the different modules shown as fully boxed separate scenes which made for an interesting variety.  

 

My wallet lost a fair bit of weight, mainly at the Trains 160 stand, the Kato model of the Blue Train, seven carriages in a box set, was an unintended buy, but I couldn't resist it.  The new Mikadotrains X2800 railcar was another wallet shrinker.

 

I last went to this exhibition four years ago when it rained all day, the venue isn't so pleasant if this happens.  You get wet moving between the sports halls and the noise of rain on the roof is annoying.  This time it was sunny.

 

The cost is only seven euros and the food is reasonably priced, unlike the NEC for example.

 

Definitely worth a visit.

 

Delfin

[ianp]

I would like to add that the modular layouts were a great idea: simple and effective. In essence, it seems that each club member had been given a box about a yard wide and half a yard deep, and told to build a small section of the overall layout within it. The boxes connected all in a row as they had holes cut out in each side, generally disguised as tunnel entrances, which meant that if the rails had been laid accurately according to plan they could all be lined up and connected to each other, allowing smooth running from one end of the long row of boxes to the other. Thus towns moved swiftly into rural settings and so on. And the row was very long; about 20 boxes I think. I have to say it is such an obviously good and simple idea I am surprised I have not yet seen it deployed anywhere else. Another highlight was seeing the various fabulous models made by the chap who runs the Trains d'Antan business and website. He seems to be the only person in the whole of France making kits to run on narrow gauge layouts  - HOm (12mm) or HOe (9mm) layouts.

[LooseHead]

I would like to add that the modular layouts were a great idea: simple and effective.  I have to say it is such an obviously good and simple idea I am surprised I have not yet seen it deployed anywhere else.

 Not sure how this is different from other modular concepts? A few years ago when regularly visiting local UK shows I found it fascinating to see a number of familiar N-gauge modules 'mixed and matched' in different ways at different venues - so much so that I almost gave way to some gentle persuasion to join in and build a section, even though at the time I was determined not to dilute my modelling beyond the 7mm and 4mm I was already committed to. Now I do have an 'N' (1:160) layout on the stocks but no-one in the vicinity to 'modularise' with - although my initial design did allow for expansion in three stages, which could always have been translated into contraction, to provide a couple of sub-sets of the full monty. That has been lost now I've added a front-to-back diagonal along almost the full 4-metre length, difficult to 'modularise' that.

[Judge Dread]

Having exhibited at this show in 2007,2009 and 2013, I most heartily agree with the pleasant atmosphere there is at this show. I did take British outline layouts but I was very interested in the modular layouts to the point of taking photos. 

[rue_d_etropal]

I was there in 2013, and it was an interesting experience. There were some ideas that UK exhibitions could adopt, such as paying exhibitors an extra allowance to buy lunch. I did offer them another layout for this year, and they were hoping to increase space available, but I was not selected. No problem, I am actually quite busy at the moment.

What I found when I was there was a superb number of excellent layouts, many pure diorama(one of the themes was ironing boards) and not actually working but pure art. I actually felt what I was offering was not up to the same standard but the visitors seemed to enjoy my layout. I made a lot of mistakes, apart from falling asleep on the Saturday, the main one not thinking to create a French description panel. It also showed me that it was as easy(or difficult) to travel from Lancashire as it would be to travel from the south of France where I am doing up a house. Next time, though , I will pay for better hotel and extra nights. I really should take the time to explore the area.

[Suzie]

I was just so disappointed that I was in the area looking for things to do and did not know it was on! It is not easy to find details of continental exhibitions.

[Middlepeak]

Not wishing to put too much of a dampener on others' expectations, but I have had some difficulties with the organisers of this show over the last year and a half, which led to me having to pull out of participating around 2 months before the event took place.

 

In short, the organisers contacted me through a third party to be part of a P87 display, which I was happy to consider. They ask you for a costed proposal, which I sent to them in October 2014, but it then became clear that they were encouraging as many 'bids' from layout owners as possible and were going to make the final selection from that.

 

Despite much prompting, it wasn't until July 2015, 10 months later, that the final confirmation of acceptance arrived, during which time a number of colleagues from the P87 fraternity had already withdrawn in frustration. However, their e-mail contained no formal confirmation of the 'terms' that I had proposed (expenses, accommodation, etc.), and so I was prompted to seek clarification. It was only then that they confirmed significant gaps in the normal insurance cover that you come to expect from exhibitions - no cover in transit and no cover for minor accidental damage or theft in the exhibition hall. In fact it seemed that the only cover was for a major incident during the exhibition itself, such as a fire.

 

I gave them some detailed feedback on this to explain my decision to withdraw. Whether this prompts any improvements for the future remains to be seen, but having successfully exhibited before in Belgium, Holland and Denmark without such problems, this was a real eye-opener and not an experience I will be looking to repeat!

 

Regards,

 

Geraint Hughes

Obbekaer P87

[ianp]

One great advantage of going to a show like RAMMA was the oportunity to see some products that are very hard to find in the UK. In my case I was looking for good sheets of imitation cobble stones in N scale. Luckily one stall was selling a large selection of the plastic sheets of cobble stones, tiles and brick walls etc made by the Spanish firm Redutex: http://redutex.com/?lang=enThe firm makes many different sheets in a variety of scales. Only some of the replicas were on display in Sedan. But now that I have seen the stuff close up I think it is just the ticket. Other similar products made by Busch and Noch are, in my view, over-scale for N scale, too obviously plasticy and just not realistic enough.As far as I can see, only DCC supplies near Worcester sell Redutex sheets in the UK. Are there are any other retailers?

[Red Devil]

One great advantage of going to a show like RAMMA was the oportunity to see some products that are very hard to find in the UK. In my case I was looking for good sheets of imitation cobble stones in N scale. Luckily one stall was selling a large selection of the plastic sheets of cobble stones, tiles and brick walls etc made by the Spanish firm Redutex: http://redutex.com/?lang=enThe firm makes many different sheets in a variety of scales. Only some of the replicas were on display in Sedan. But now that I have seen the stuff close up I think it is just the ticket. Other similar products made by Busch and Noch are, in my view, over-scale for N scale, too obviously plasticy and just not realistic enough.As far as I can see, only DCC supplies near Worcester sell Redutex sheets in the UK. Are there are any other retailers?

They were available through http://www.modeltextures.co.uk/but it looks like that has gone.

[rue_d_etropal]

Geraint, I offered a layout to RAMMA , having exhibited at the 2013 show. They told me they were trying to get more space for layouts, so maybe that held up things. I found their organisation OK when I went. The only thing I would like better, is for my preferred hotel chain to have a place near there but they don't. Can't blame the organisers for that. Having done the show once, I now know how I would organise the trip next time.

As for insurance, I wonder if it might be a good idea for exhibitors to look into their own insurance. Not sure if my business policy covers France, but for my art/craft business I have to have public liability insurance. Contents insurance is always a bit of a grey area. Luckily I have not heard of many occasions where it has actually been needed, and often in those cases there are disputes.