A plea for organisers - please fully describe the layouts !

[greatcoleswoodhalt]

11 minutes ago, BMacdermott said:

Have a look at their thread (but I'm not sure how to make a direct link!):

Milton Keynes Model Railway exhibition 2023 - Exhibitions - RMweb

 

[BachelorBoy]

On 11/05/2023 at 23:36, BMacdermott said:

My local area is served partly by the Milton Keynes Model Railway Society Show. Earlier in the year, the club published outline details of the forthcoming show in the 'usual' fashion of layout name and scale.

 

I wrote to them on the thread and mentioned that we here had been requesting 'more detail' about shows and perhaps they could consider our request in the hope it would bring in more 'out-of-area' visitors.

 

I am pleased to say that the club has just published some excellent detail - so, full marks to MKMRS!🙂

 

 

And here are the listings. Rather good.

 

And another update - this time it is all about layouts.

find below the short descriptions of the layouts we will have at our show. The list may be updated later to the show. 

 

1.      Bettws Road: N gauge  6' x 3'

Bettws Road is a fictitious location based in Wales circa 1930/40. The village has a terminus station with its own goods yard and coal staithes. Railcars serve the station while express passenger trains use the main line along with an odd freight train.

 

2.      Bowlers Croft: OO Gauge 12' x 5'

Bowlers Croft has been built to operate vintage Hornby Dublo and Wrenn stock. Hornby Dublo was produced between 1938 and 1964. Bowlers Croft was the area in Basildon from which Wrenn, who took over the old Hornby Dublo tooling, operated. Although it uses modern track and controllers, much of the equipment has been converted from three rail to two rail. The layout is still being developed and is a typical 1960s train set. Bowlers Croft will be making its exhibition debut at this show.

 

3.      Bradwell Road: N Gauge 4' x 3'

This is a fictitious layout showing what can be achieved at low cost using Kato track and other parts left over from a previous layout. It is a rural single-track line set in the 1950s and 60s. You can expect to see anything running.

 

4.      Burton Bradstock: EM Gauge 16.6' x 1.6'

Set in the late 1950s, this is the fictional terminus of the line to Burton Bradstock assuming the Abbotsbury Branch had been extended as proposed towards (but never reaching) Bridport. It uses rolling stock from the BR(W) era. Locos and rolling stock are kits or re-wheeled RTR models.

 

To give a flavour of the Abbotsbury branch, the owner has tried to model several structures on the branch line that did exist such as the goods shed at Portesham, Abbotsbury loco shed and water tower. They are scratch-built mainly from Ratio or Wills kits. Track work is hand built using plywood sleepers and C&L track components.

 

5.      Deliberately Old-Fashioned O-gauge 10' x 7'

A tribute to O-gauge layouts of the 1930s and 1950s. We will be running a mix of trains made in the 1950s in Northampton by Bassett-Lowke and modern trains in the same style, most made in the Czech Republic.

 

6.      Dentdale: N Gauge 19' x 3'

The 72 mile route from Settle to Carlisle takes you on a journey through the magnificent Yorkshire Dales, over the 24 arches of the Ribblehead Viaduct before plunging into the longest tunnel on the line at Blea Moor emerging onto the side of Dentdale, the line leaves the Dales at Garsdale and makes its way through the gentle, lush rolling hills of the Eden Valley, with rural villages and market towns before arriving at the great border city of Carlisle.

 

Dentdale was inspired by the high altitude moorland sections of the Settle Carlisle Railway. The layout runs from the north entrance of the Blea Moor Tunnel, crosses the Dent Head and Arten Gill viaducts and ends at Dent Station.

 

As the Settle and Carlisle line has changed relatively little over the years and still boasts semaphore signalling and buildings painted in authentic Midland colours, this allows us to represent any period from the 1950s to the present day.

 

7.      Docklands: O Gauge 12' x 2'

"Docklands" is set in the East end of London, around Poplar Docks, and is a small wharf / goods depot, with transhipment between British Railway and the PLA and other private users, and loading into lighters for onward transfer into ships.

The dock was served by the North London Railway but the Great Eastern had running rights, and this joint operation is seen now with locomotives from Devon's Road (LMR) - one of the first in the country to go totally diesel - and Stratford (ER), which continued to supply locomotives when Devon's Road shut.

The time period is 1957 - 1964, covering the period of the transition from steam to diesel, with Class 15s and 20s replacing Jintys and J50s. There are example of Class 04 shunters from Stratford which worked the docks, replacing ancient NLR 0-6-0Ts, as well as other BR diesel shunters.

Various private owned locomotives will also be seen delivering and collecting wagons from the exchange sidings.

In reality this layout was built to try DCC operation, with its added bonus of sound, in a small space. There are a number of new RTR locomotives which will be seen, together with kit built examples.

 

8.      Dyffryn y Rhaeadr: OO9 Gauge 4' x 2'

Valley of the waterfall - and that is what the layout shows. A narrow gauge line in rather bare Welsh countryside, following the topography of the landscape, crossing a river.

 

9.      Evington St John: N Gauge 5.6'  x 1.6'

Evington is a truncated branch in East Anglia hanging on to survival and consists of a very small halt served by a railbus and a goods shed and coal yard. There is a garage serving vehicles in the centre. It is very well detailed to show what can be done in a small area (scenic is 3ft 6in long) and has been very well received.

 

10.  Junior Club Layout (Kids can have a go): OO Gauge

  

11.  Margarets Mill (A Completely Pointless Layout): O Gauge 4' x 1.3'

FACT

Hudson’s Mill was served by private sidings which left the Kent and East Sussex Railway “main line” near Bodiam. The Mill continued to be served by rail even after closure of the K&ESR when the Mill owners purchased their own locomotive which took their traffic down the old K&ESR line to Robertsbridge.

FICTION

This layout imagines that a similar Mill and sidings were built somewhere adjacent to the Wisbech and Upwell tramway and the locomotive used will either be the Mill owner’s locomotive or a local BR Tram loco. The period depicted is the early 1950s. The track plan and operation are based on Snape Maltings near where I live in Suffolk.

 

The Layout is a micro shunting layout built to a scale of 7mm/ft and shows what can be achieved in this scale in a very small space. The whole board measures 48 inches by 15 inches. Shunting is carried out randomly or by using a wagon cards and dice system. 

 

12.  North Malden: OO Gauge 21' x 2'

The village of North Malden in the south east of England is served by a single-track branch line. A small oil distribution company set themselves up in the old goods yard and they take frequent deliveries by rail. The layout is set in the 1980s/1990s but is designed to be flexible regarding era and location by making some simple changes.

 

13.  Oakgrove Central: N Gauge 10' x 3'

Oakgrove Central is a freelance DCC layout constructed in 2mm/ft scale and built with PECO and KATO UNITRAM track. It is controlled by an NCE Powercab controller. The layout is continuous and features four running lines plus two tram tracks. It also has a five station platform which is constructed from KATO ready-made structures and features platform lighting.

 

The majority of stock is GWR, Chiltern and Regional Railways passenger with the occasional fuel train, this station could be part of the new East West Railway which is currently being built to connect Oxford and Cambridge.

 

14.  Pentrefan: EM Gauge 10' x 1.6'

A very minor halt on an obscure light railway in 1920s mid-Wales.

 

15.  Putnoe Halt: G Scale 10.6' x 6.6'

Putnoe Halt is a fictional G-scale model railway layout. This is the owners first attempt at building an exhibition layout for people to see and enjoy, just because they are large trains you don’t have to have a large space. The layout is based on a small country village station with a couple of goods sidings. Most of the trains and rolling stock used is of foreign origin which works well with the layout.

Questions are welcome at ALL times.

 

16.  Quarry End: OO9 Gauge 6' x 6'

Quarry End is a small village set somewhere in Wales where most of the people work at the local slate mine. Questions are welcome at all times. Built and run by Dale Gillard.

 

17.  Ralstone: 000 Gauge 8,6' x 3'

RALSTONE is a layout featuring the Treble-0-Lectric model railway products of Lonestar (DCMT Ltd of Hatfield) manufactured between 1958 and 1968. At its launch it was the smallest model railway in the world! It was the forerunner of "N" gauge, at a scale of 2mm/ft - actually nearer scale than British N gauge. Ralstone is a representation of what a modeller of that era might have achieved using only Lonestar products, both British and USA outline.

 

18.  Recently Departed: N Gauge 3' x 1'

Recently Departed is an N Gauge layout that was donated to the club a short time ago. It depicts a 1960s post Beeching countryside branch line station with the line having just been closed and the track lifted.

The road can be seen running parallel to the line with a new bus service, viewed as a cheaper replacement to running trains to small villages and communities.

This layout shows a different side to our hobby that is very rarely modelled but a very poignant part of our country's railway history.

 

19.  Triang Big Big Display: O Gauge

 

20.  Whitehall: OO 3-Rail 14' x 5'

Whitehall is a comprehensive Hornby Dublo layout featuring most of the accessories and trains of the 1940s – 1960s era. The running stock is pre- and post-nationalisation in tin plate, die-cast and plastic as bought from Meccano stockists. The layout has four sections allowing two-way running on the outer circuits, with a goods yard for shunting and a motive power depot for locomotives adjacent to a turntable. There is a remote-controlled lineside feature of a working mail bag pick up and dropping depot.

 

[BMacdermott]

Hello everyone

 

Along the same lines as 'good written description' but in visual form. Well done Railex!

 

Brian

 

 

[Les1952]

Having read through what seem like interminable posts on this topic I'm going to throw in my two pennyworth....

 

As a show manager (now retired) I worked my butt off trying to get publicity out there.  Dealing with a few issues-

Railway Modeller allow you to put the layout names and scales in your free ads- nothing beyond that.

Two other mags didn't even allow that much.

BRM now like you to pay for an ad- on very a tight show budget forget it.

I put more detail into our local social media groups but long distance modellers don't read these.   UK Model Shops is fine, but updating the piece isn't always convenient- other things get in the way of the time.

 

As a punter I find I can learn from EVERY layout, no matter what the scale, period or origin.  Personally I dislike banger blue, and modern branch lines with zero pointwork and Class 150s etc shuttling backwards and forwards don't float my boat.  However they are still worth looking at, even if at the end I think "why bother?"   I have never modelled in O gauge, but I can enjoy watching it.  Similarly I have no desire to model Z or T, but there is some brilliant stuff out there that I can learn a lot from.

 

Some of the comments here have reminded me of a Trip Advisor comment absolutely panning a holiday in Spain because everyone spoke Spanish in the street and the reviewer didn't want to listen to people "jabbering" in a language they couldn't understand.

 

Please folks, get your blinkers off and look at layouts from periods and prototypes that don't interest you.  You will be surprised at the positive effect this can have on your own modelling.

 

Les

 

BTW MY layouts are N-gauge German electrics set in the present day,  OO gauge industrial/preservation set in the seventies, and a new TT one based on German light Railways, set post 1976.  I'll leave it to you to work out which is which...

 

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by Les1952
pressed send too soon..

[Reorte]

1 hour ago, Les1952 said:

Please folks, get your blinkers off and look at layouts from periods and prototypes that don't interest you.  You will be surprised at the positive effect this can have on your own modelling.

Very definitely worth doing. I've got a strong dislike of the full-sized current day railway, but a good layout of it can capture my interest as much as any other. I've frequently found that the layouts I've liked the most are the ones I'd least expect to.

 

But that said there does need to be something to capture my interest in the show in the first place. A sufficient mix of things I think I'd want to see and some nice surprises is ideal; quite honestly I'd probably get bored if every single layout ticked the boxes I think I want ticking.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Reorte
reworded a bit that read as garbled nonsense

[BMacdermott]

Hello Les

 

Thanks for writing.

 

As I noted in an earlier post, I haven't ever been a model railway show organiser but have arranged similar types of event when I was at work. I have also posted some worked examples of how - in my view - it doesn't add much work to give fuller show details.

 

MKMRS have shown willing (following an explanatory email from me) as have Railex (without me writing). I always support MKMRS as that is my local show (or one of them) but the Railex video has convinced me to attend whereas I probably would not have.

 

I see your point about looking at all the layouts and learning - but I have a disabled wife who has to travel with me as she cannot be left alone. That also means that I have relatively restricted time in any exhibition, so I have to make the most of it.

 

Travelling a couple of miles to a local show and 'not enjoying' the layouts is not much of a problem as I go to support the local clubs. But travelling an hour or more needs focus (as alluded to by Reorte above)

 

Brian

Edited May 18, 2023 by BMacdermott
Spelling

[griffgriff]

wow… just wow

 

I’ve visited this thread via a link out of curiosity and wish I hadn’t. Have an opinion by all means but this is a gunfight over nothing. 
 

Back to the bench. It’s safer there.

 

Rob