Bala Model Show September 16th - 17th 2023

[Benjamin Brady]

23 hours ago, MatP said:

 

(I haven't asked its owners yet but I'm hoping they'll let me run my Class 89 on it, assuming it arrives in time. Otherwise said loco is going to get a bit bored creeping up and down my 1930's GWR shunting plank, coupled to a generator van...).

 

 

 

The weaver hill team are looking forward to receiving a copy of BRM. The next chance to see the layout out and about shall be at Bala and our thoughts have already turned to working out what stock needs to be packed. 

 

Maybe one less train shall be packed with Mat 89, what livery did you go for? 

[MatP]

Hi Ben,

 

My 89 will be in original livery - that's because this was the colour scheme it had on the one and only time I saw it on the WCML (passing Crewe on, I think, a depot open day). My local station in the 80's was Lichfield TV but I never saw it go through there. I guess it stayed further north, most of the time.  

 

I'd love to build a model of LTV in c.1990 based on an alternative universe in which the 89's entered fleet service, but I think I'll need a bigger shed... 

 

All the best,

Mat

 

Edited July 9, 2023 by MatP

[MatP]

Hi everybody,

 

At the Show, there will be a number of exhibits in the School Foyer. As well as our two different models of Llangollen in two different gauges, there will also probably be our currently-static diorama 'Bala Town', built by the staff of Model Rail magazine, and my own model of Llangower, the half-way station on the Bala Lake Railway (it does work but I'll probably be busy elsewhere). 

 

Definitely on display in the foyer will be the fully-operational 0-9 layout Hafod-y-Parc, which belongs to one of our railway's volunteers. There will also be stands and displays representing the Railway's hoped-for Extension and the Bala Lake Railway Society.

 

Bala Lake Railway members get half-price admission to the Show and also a certain amount of free travel on the Railway. An observant person might calculate that purchasing a full adult membership for a year would more than cover the cost of Show admission and a couple of trips on the Railway...

 

We do hope that people who join the Society will turn into long-term supporters of the Railway! We have nothing against observant persons but must point out that it is a rule of the commercial Bala Lake Railway Company (it actually owns and runs the Railway) that only Society members who have had their applications checked and their membership cards issued are allowed to claim free travel and other privileges. This process usually takes 1-2 weeks.

 

As it is the Company which is kindly sponsoring the Model Show, this means that if you want to reap the rewards of membership at the Model Show weekend, you will need to join the Society in advance and as soon as possible! Please see the Bala Lake Railway website for more information.

 

Best Wishes,

Mat P.

 

[Bala Lake Railway Society Secretary, Bala Model Show Organiser, restorer of the Dinorwic slate wagon which Bachmann measured for their forthcoming 009 model, available for weddings and funerals]  

[MatP]

Hi everybody!

 

I have another layout to announce - it's a model of Lapford station in Devon, N Gauge, 1960's BR. If I've got this right, its creators have turned the long straight loop of the real thing into an oval, so as to fit it all on a 4' x 2' board. 

 

I think this means that our Show now has 26 layouts (2 of which will be on display as static dioramas). My thanks to all those layout builders and owners who have generously agreed to come and support the Bala Lake Railway and our continuing efforts to extend into Bala Town. 

 

Best Wishes,

Mat 

[MatP]

Hello All,

First of all, I have an addition to the roster for the Bala Model Show [Ysgol Godre'r Berwyn / Bala School, 16th and 17th September 2023, 10.00-16.00 both days].

 

Our friends Marion and the late Walter Turner (of the Porthmadog Model Railway Society) supported the Bala Model Show for many years prior to the Covid hiatus. They often used to bring their very popular Playmobil layout, for young people to operate. This year, Marion will be exhibiting a stall in her husband's memory, featuring some of the layouts which the Turners built together, in Z and T gauges. Marion will also be selling part of their collection, mainly N gauge and G Scale (Playmobil) models.

 

I also have to announce that "Worthington Shed" (7mm standard gauge, minimum-space) is no longer coming to the Show, due to illness and other issues outside of our control. I have emended the earlier post announcing this layout.

 

Best Wishes,

Mat P. (Bala Lake Railway Society Secretary and Bala Model Show Organiser)

[MatP]

Hello everyone,

 

With time's swift chariot driving over my battered corpse (= it's only two weeks or so until the Bala Model Show), I have received details of our last layout - though actually, and I wasn't expecting this, it's two layouts...

 

Llamedos (009) is an ugly, lovely town, as Dylan Thomas might have commented when he wasn't busy making up reversed place-names. This layout was built by the Bala Lake Railway Society’s Heritage Officer, who is also in charge of our historic vehicles and collection of original parts. What may look like rotten bits of splintered timber to some (well, most) people is in fact a priceless resource for accurately building replica and restoring original quarry vehicles (such as the Dinorwic slate wagon I built :) and which Bachmann measured up... But I digress).

 

Squeezed into the back streets of a little town of stone, slate and rusty corrugated iron lies a narrow-gauge terminus. The local railway company is pretty hard-up and presses into service whatever railway vehicles it can get hold of.

 

Llamedos' owner will be bringing two more exhibits: a display of model buildings and a second 009 scale layout, a "micro" named Pointless  (for reasons that will be immediately obvious).  Pointless is visible at the back of the first picture, on the right hand side.

 

So, once you've been to the 009 50th Anniversary Show, the Redditch Show, the Lichfield Show, the WHR Member's Day, the Blackpool Show and the SVR gala on Saturday 16th, to name but a few, you know where to come on the Sunday!!!

 

Best Wishes,

Mat

Edited September 6, 2023 by MatP
Extra information added

[MatP]

Hi Everybody,

 

The brochures for the Show have just arrived from Solopress - they're a single sheet of A4 printed both sides and folded in half. They will of course be available at the Show, for free, or if possible with a small donation towards the Extension Fund.

 

The leaflets also have full details of the train service on the Lake Railway and the times for the connecting buses.

 

One thing which is being announced on these leaflets - and which we haven't yet announced anywhere else to my knowledge - is that the 2024 Bala Model Show is planned to take place on 21st and 22nd September next year. 

 

All best,

Mat 

Edited September 6, 2023 by MatP

[MatP]

Good Evening!

 

I hope you are all planning to stay at your preferred temperature level. With less than a week to go until the start of the Bala Model Show, I have to announce... another layout!

 

Dalton-le-Dale is a 00 Gauge terminus-fiddle yard layout built by our friends at the Colwyn Bay Model Railway Club. The setting is the North-East of England in the 1960’s, and the traction is predominantly but not entirely steam. With the Marples-Beeching axe in full swing, probably this station’s days are numbered, but for the time being it continues to serve the surrounding rural community. 

 

I hope the club won't mind me pinching a photo from their website, given the (slight) rush. More photos and information can be found at: https://colwynmodelrailwayclub.co.uk/layouts/

 

I think that means we now have 27 layouts (assuming all of the micro-layouts being displayed next to bigger things can make it) and two dioramas (dioramata?) The word was made-up in the 19th century I believe, but in a faux-ancient-Greek style, so should it have a Greek plural? Tell me what you think is the right answer when you get to Bala next weekend. 

 

Best Wishes,

Mat

[MatP]

Hi Again,

 

I have another last-minute announcement for you - another trader. It's ABC Model Railways, a firm owned and run by some Bala Lake Railway Society members. Along with their trade stall, they will also be bringing a 009 layout, small but highly detailed - after all, they did use to be commercial builders of layouts. Their stall will be selling second-hand and shop-surplus stock, plus all sorts of other difficult-to-find things in all the main standard and narrow gauges. It will be located in the cafeteria, next to the live-steam layout that's also going in there - and of course the food and drink!

 

The 009 layout is called the Woolthorpe Light Railway: the back-story to this freelance railway is that it was built in North Devon in the 1880's, taken over by Colonel Stephens, disused after World War Two and eventually preserved. The line's industrial origins mean that loops are short and stations are small, such as the one depicted, serving the picturesque village of Thornley Basset. 

 

If you include the two static dioramas (and one might be in use as a test track for Holy War models that are going to be sold at a special discount rate), and two micro-layouts that will hopefully be shown next to their owner's primary exhibits, but which can't be 100% confirmed, the Bala Model Show will now feature thirty layouts.

 

There will also be eight traders and two Society stalls. So, even if the Professor Emeritus of Nanotechnology at Tokyo University was to ring me up and tell me that he had a working model of Gogarth Halt, built on a beer mat at 1 micron to the foot scale, I'd have to tell him that we didn't have any more room. 

 

But there's always next year (21st and 22nd September 2024). 

 

All best,

Mat

 

P.S. If you haven't noticed, you can tell how busy / stressed I am by how florid my language gets. 

[Llangerisech]

Well Drws y Nant is all loaded up ready for the journey to the land of my fathers (literally!). We will be stopping off at Drws y Nant en route, so if we don't show up at the show, send out a search party looking for wormholes. I suspect the Llangollen layouts could suffer the same fate if taking the appropriate route. See you in Bala.

[MatP]

We should have a very small collection of relics to go alongside the wonderful Drws-y-Nant, comprising one of the signal box finials, a piece of timber from one of the windows (some of which were re-used in at Llanuwchllyn Signal Box up until very recently) and a Llanuwchllyn - Drws token (which I had to give up one of my kidneys just to borrow). We hope that a friend of ours who used to be a signalman on the line, and whose photographs were an essential resource for building the model, will be able to come.

 

We had a team wrestling with Porth Penrhyn until late last night but if the worst comes to the worst we have a battery R/C Ivatt 2-6-0 and narrow gauge Ruston (both 4mm scale!!!) so as to be able to demonstrate it a little bit. It was only ever advertised as a static exhibit with the possibility of movement and it is amazingly impressive even when sitting there doing nothing (unlike the Exhibition Manager!!!).

 

My first job today, however, is to go and photograph an ash-disposal train on the Bala Lake Railway. One of the wagons in it is mine and he (Tippy the Tipper - certainly not an 'it') doesn't often get the chance to go on the main line. I believe the train is leaving Llanuwchllyn at about 9.30 and heading for Llangower, where there's a spot in an embankment which needs building up.

 

Finally, my thanks in advance to all the wonderfully skilled and generous people who are bringing layouts to our Show this weekend, and to all the traders who are supporting us, and to all the volunteers who are going to be worked until they drop by the ruthless individual in charge of the whole event :) 

 

All best,

Mat (BLR Secretary / Exhibition Manager / Occasional LKM tipper restorer) 

[Adrian Stevenson]

Been to the show today 👍

[Nick G]

I will have to bring a layout one year.

[big jim]

I might take a trip there tomorrow if I get up early enough

 

will probably feel strange as the venue is my old high school and I haven’t been back there since 1991, probably discover ‘Brog’ has been cryogenically frozen and is still the headmaster!

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by big jim

[Adrian Stevenson]

I have done thread in the Preservation forum on Bala Railway and added a lot of pics from today’s show there.

[ELTEL]

1 hour ago, Adrian Stevenson said:

I have done thread in the Preservation forum on Bala Railway and added a lot of pics from today’s show there.

Could you post a link 

Thanks

Terry 

[Adrian Stevenson]

Here you go.

 

Cheers, Ade.

[big jim]

Lovely exhibition, some fantastic layouts, had flashbacks seeing these in the gym though!

driven out to llanwychllyn and just about to have a ride on the train to Bala and back,

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by big jim

[big jim]

Back from the show now, the Bala lake Railway pics will be going in my main work thread

PTSD seeing this again after 30+ years 

 

weaver hill @Benjamin Bradywas on the main stage in the hall, bought back memories of messing about back stage during a drama lesson and falling onto the fire alarm resulting in the school being evacuated and a fire engine turning up, I did own up to it!!

what a lovely little show though, lots of inspiration 009 wise, the port Penrhyn layout is a beauty as the micro layouts gave me plenty to think about scenery wise if I ever get round to getting it done on my layout

 

this was a great little layout, a simple balloon loop with trains just following each other round in a continuous loop, loops within the non scenic bit so they could have 4 trains alternating, a network rail depot at the back and all the stock being older triang and Hornby times painted up in NR yellow, colas, whatever, anything goes!

 

The owner said he built it in 3 weeks too for a bit of fun, a friend of @sawyermodels I believe, quite simply good fun, simple idea well executed and very effective! 

 

Ended up coming away with a few bits and bobs from the trade stands, a 4 pack of Hattons genesis 6 wheel coaches in crimson lake, an LSL/saphos mk2 from sawyer models and one of the Ltd Ed Bachmann Holy War from rhe Bala railway stand 

 

well worth the visit and only one 20mph zone en route! 

 

 

[Merfyn Jones]

Had a thoroughly good time over the weekend exhibiting the Colwyn Club's Dalton le Dale layout for it's last exhibition (has now been sold)

Totally shattered as we are all getting on a bit.  Thanks Mat and the team for organising the biggest and best Bala show yet.

Great to meet so many old and new friends all enjoying our great hobby.

Merf.

 

 

[big jim]

Didn’t realise you were there would have been nice to say hello

 

 

Edited September 18, 2023 by big jim

[Llangerisech]

Also back from the show and more than a little tired. Thanks to the show team for a fabulous welcome and all the locals who attended and shared memories of Drws y Nant. We were expecting some degree of local interest, but the feedback surpassed all expectations. A lovely friendly society putting on the show with a real sense of community, so thank you again Mat and team for the invitation.

[MatP]

Thank you to all the exhibitors, traders, volunteers, staff and visitors that made this Show, I humbly claim, a great success. And thank you to those people who have posted messages about the Show since it took place, here and in other places. I needed a day or two of total isolation in Portmeirion before looking at another computer! 

 

In spite of the Wales-Portugal game on the Saturday afternoon (things were a little bit quieter then), and the other fine railway events going on that same weekend, visitor figures were up 28% on last year, and possibly more because the Company's ticket recording system doesn't show the (many) under-16s who get in free, one per adult. One thing that worked particularly well was having exhibits in the cafeteria to entice people in, something we didn't do last year. I have it on good authority that we sold over 300% more chips!

 

I've already had loads of very interesting offers (and suggestions) for next year, and am happy to receive more, from exhibitors, societies and traders. Although we had 30 layouts, we have to remain a frugal Show in order to support the Railway, and, alas, cannot pay for accommodation.

 

Thank you to all those participants for your generosity in terms of expenses claims and fee-payment agreements and being prepared to find your own accommodation and particularly for making this such a happy show behind the scenes, which I am sure creates a happy atmosphere for the public.   

 

Next year's Bala Model Show is on 21st and 22nd September. We will continue to make it roughly 50/50 narrow to standard gauge and to cater for the particular interests of as many people as we can. I did once work out, though, by multiplying modelling eras, regions, subjects, layout sizes, layout operation types, scales, finescales, and having a couple of each thing so nobody would feel that a particular type of modelling was under-appreciated, that we'd need to have over 500 layouts in the Show truly to cater for everyone -  and that's just for layouts set in the UK!  

 

Anyway, below are some pictures from the weekend: as well as layouts there is one of the exhibitors' barbecue being prepared on the Saturday night (Hi Dan!) while the exhibitors' special train was off down the line. For no very good reason, I have also added a couple of pictures of some notable full-size narrow gauge vehicles I also saw during my week in Wales. One shows Tippy the Tipper (my own wagon, LKM 1950's) going down the line on Friday 15th to help with an embankment strengthening project, and the other is of new Double Fairlie, James Spooner, which I spotted on the Ffestiniog on Monday (the owner of MPB Models, who was also at the Show, happened to be in the same coach). Although there were a couple of stressful moments, I had a great time too, and I look forward to meeting many of our new and old friends from this year at another Bala Model Show in the future. 

 

By next year's Show, if we can keep fundraising, we should have re-submitted our planning application for the Extension, and hopefully will have good news on that front, too.

All the best,

Mat

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by MatP
Some pictures came out upside down the first time, I have no idea why!

[MatP]

Hi, me again.

 

Here are a couple of YouTube videos of the Show. The first is by Enwins 3D Models, who had a stand at the Show. The second was drawn to my attention by the owner / builder of "Sandy Lane", one of our layout exhibits this year.

 

 

 

Regards,

Mat

Edited September 21, 2023 by MatP
Second video link added

[NorthWesternModels]

Great event once again Matt, thanks to all the volunteers and staff at the BLR for making it happen and especially the evening special and BBQ