Abingdon and District MRC 50 Years - ABRAIL 24 - 2nd/3rd March

[Hadders64]

Late amendment due to a couple of late changes

Abingdon and District Model Railway Club (ADMRC) is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024 with a first ever two day exhibition. ABRAIL 24 will be held on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd March 2024 at Abingdon and Witney College. We now have over 40 layouts confirmed including some regular favourites and a few less familiar but no less entertaining - see the list below. Extensive trade support is lined up and now confirmed.

British Steam Layouts:

• Abingdon (O) 
• Abingdon (OO) 
• Bodmin (P4) 
• Burdock (N) 
• Carlisle Canal (OO) 
• Clarendon & Scrubbs Lane (P4) 
• Corwenna (OO) 
• Drws-y-Nant (2mm FS) 
• Hungerford (EM) 
• James Street (N) 
• Lintor Town (OO) 
• Moors View (N) 
• Old Parrock (OO) 
• Overlord (OO) 
• The Parlour Railway (O) 
• Pencader (EM) 
• Portsea (TT3) 
• Redbridge Wharf (OO) 
• York (2mm FS) 

British Modern Layouts:

• Banbury (N) 
• Bottom Works Sidings (OO)
• Brief Encounter (OO)
• City Basin Goods (N) 
• Collingwood (OO) 
• Elbow Lane (OO) 
• Hinksey Yard (N) 
• Kings Park (N) 
• Leigh St George (N) 
• Museum of Transport (OO) 
• Pwllheli (P4) 
• Whiteacres (OO)

Continental Layouts:

• Beijao (HO) 
• Bergeller Bahn (HOm) 
• Broadford (HO & EM) 
• Cessy-en-Bois (HO) 
• Hauteluce (Z) 
• Königshafen (N) 
• Los Tanimals (N) 
• Norge - A Taste of Norway (HO) 
• Pine Bluffs Freight Yard (HO) 
• Zeedijk (HO) 

Children's Layouts:

• Lego City (L)
• Sakura Crossing (HO)
• Sodor Island (OO)

 

Trade support from:

• Aspire Gifts and Models: Providing the bits that modellers want but find hard to get
• JB’s Model World: The ‘box’ man. Plastic boxes with foam interiors to hold your locos and rolling stock.
• N C Butler: Paints and scenic accessories for all gauges.
• Neil Cresswell Model Railways: Trading in as new and second-hand model railways.
• Model Railway Developments: Manufacturers of whitemetal castings and metal etchings. all 4mm scales, and some 7mm scales
• Model Railway bits: For most things Scenics & Bits for Model Railways & the General Modeller
• Osborn’s Models: Specialists in N Gauge who also offer OO and DCC
• Ron's Totems: Customised Vintage BR Style Totem Signs in Aluminium Composite
• Saddletank Books: True stories about real engines!
• Sunningwell Command Control: Always looking to bring you the best in Digital Command Control systems and support
• Isinglass Models: Specializing in LNER O gauge scale drawings, and 3D printing.
• The Glue Man: Supplying specialist glues to modellers.
• Thunderbolt Models: Sellers of all types of New and Secondhand Model Railway items in various scales

Abrail 24 Poster.pdf

Edited February 26 by Hadders64
updated traders/layouts list

[St. Simon]

5 hours ago, Hadders64 said:

Abingdon and District Model Railway Club (ADMRC) is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024 with a first ever two day exhibition. ABRAIL 24 will be held on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd March 2024 at Abingdon and Witney College. Layouts confirmed include"Overlord" and "Museum of Transport". Extensive trade support is lined up and further details will follow soon.

Hi,

 

Look forward to bringing Collingwood along!

 

Simon

[TEAMYAKIMA]

We will be taking BEIJIAO my Chinese HO layout and it will have several new viewer-friendly features to entertain both the serious model railway enthusiast and the general public.

 

Here is a recent photo, taken at the Keighley exhibition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dasatcopthorne]

On 25/08/2023 at 21:40, St. Simon said:

Hi,

 

Look forward to bringing Collingwood along!

 

Simon

 

I'm looking forward to seeing Collingwood.

 

Dave.

[Southernfrance]

We should be there with "James Street" - looking forward to entertaining the punters again at our first show in 2024.

 

Dave

[TEAMYAKIMA]

53 minutes ago, Southernfrance said:

We should be there with "James Street" - looking forward to entertaining the punters again at our first show in 2024.

 

Dave

 

Damn!  I genuinely thought we had at least a remote chance of being voted 'Best in Show' - NOT ANY MORE! 😉

[D1059]

Looking forward to attending with City Basin Goods, been a few years since it attended my home show

[osbornsmodels]

We are looking forward to attending my 'old club' show once more. Not been for a few years as it is quite a long trek for what is normally a one day show but this year is a bit special as a 50 year celebration event. Hope to see many there.

[ELTEL]

Whiteacres set around the millennium will be the Abingdon Model Railway Exhibition at the beginning of March 

[eldavo]

The Winchester Railway Modellers are looking forward to attending with Redbridge Wharf.  Having recently lost our permanent clubroom let's hope it all comes out of storage safely and behaves itself!

 

 

Cheers

Dave

[dasatcopthorne]

Elbow Lane will there for the weekend.

 

I'll have my newest DCC conversion with me.

 

Scratch built in 1983, it's a 2Hal, or Tin Hal if you prefer.

 

Dave.

 

 

[Modelrailwayquest]

I will be coming with BRIEF ENCOUNTER monochrome model railway as a last min entry plus doing some filming of the show which like past show videos will include some dodgy sourced facts about the town of course lol

 

 

Edited February 25 by Modelrailwayquest
spelling mistake

[TravisM]

I think I'll make the trip and attend, probably Sunday.  Be nice to meet up with @TEAMYAKIMA again and chat with @Modelrailwayquest

[dasatcopthorne]

On 25/02/2024 at 00:24, Modelrailwayquest said:

I will be coming with BRIEF ENCOUNTER monochrome model railway as a last min entry plus doing some filming of the show which like past show videos will include some dodgy sourced facts about the town of course lol

 

 

 

Looking forward to seeing this.

 

Dave.

[Dave Searle]

We'll be there with Hinksey Yard

 

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[mike morley]

Demonstrations?  Lectures? 

To describe the one last year by Brian McCulloch as merely inspiring would be an understatement of considerable magnitude.

Edited February 29 by mike morley

[Modelrailwayquest]

Everyone setting up for Abrail 24. Apparently over 900 advance tickets sold already. It’s going to be a good show. I’m with Brief Encounter on the 1st floor of the ASC building next to Bottom Works Sidings and Hauteluce. Come and say Hi! 

[exet1095]

Just booked my ticket…

[exet1095]

What an excellent exhibition. Thank you to all the members of the Abingdon and District MRS for putting on such a great show.

 

Room after room of quality layouts. Lots of 2mm too (not my scale, but which were amazing to watch).

 

Not much trade support and eye-watering second hand prices on one of the stands, so it’s not a shopping trip, but for a family-friendly exhibition with inspiring and inspired modelling, top marks!

 

Paul

[Jonboy]

Was a very good selection of layouts and very busy which was nice to see.

 

Not a particular fan of the venues suitability, don’t think we found everything, but it’s local so cannot complain.

[D9502]

What a fab show, a really good mix of high quality layouts, quite a lot of finescale (2mm and 4mm). 

It was very busy this morning, i'm not sure the venue was suited to this sort of thing,

It was especially crowded in some of the classrooms but much better in the large sportshall.

 Definitely worth a trip to see on Sunday if your in the area.

A big thanks to ADMRC for putting this on, top job.

Edited March 2 by D9502
Grammar

[Mike_Walker]

Went today and thought the layouts were excellent but TBH I thought the venue was a bit of a warren.  It would have been helpful to have a more detailed plan in the quide to navigate around.  That said, I think I saw all the layouts and met up with several friends.

[Gilbert]

My photos of some of the excellent layouts on show. My congratulations to the layout booker! Click on the pawnbroker for the album...

 Uncaptioned at the moment but hopefully I'll be able to do something tomorrow morning....I visited on Saturday morning when it was very busy indeed and I was not able to get photographs of every layout...

[AY Mod]

12 minutes ago, Gilbert said:

My congratulations to the layout booker!

 

An excellent selection indeed.

[The Stationmaster]

What a superb show - probably one of the best collections of top quality layouts I have ever come across at a single show (including some of the 'really big national shows').  As my daughter said (several times) it was a show where there were numerous 'best in show' layouts to choose from.   Shame about the fire alarm this afternoon (Saturday) but one advantage was that if you got back in quickly you could chose your spot at some of the busier layouts where the aisles were rather too narrow!

 

The arrangement of the exhibition was obviously dictated by the spaces available but one you got used to finding your way around and made sure that you kept on looking in every doorway as you came to it we didn't miss any layouts.  In fact the one or two layouts to a separate room worked out to be quite a good arrangement provided the room was crowded - far better than narrow aisles that you get at many shows.  As ever great to meet and chat with various folk we know and see some of the developments on various layouts.

 

The drawbacks?  No cakes and a limited selection of foodstuffs on offer - needs some thought for next year maybe?   The arrangement of layouts in the sports hall seemed a bit hit & miss with narrow aisles in some places and huge gaps in others - maybe the floor plan needs some thought for next year?   Possibly clearer detail in the guidebook re smaller rooms etc but I can see the possible difficulties in doing that.  Incidentally the guidebook is of superb quality - one of the very best I have ever seen given away at a club show.

 

One unusual feature was the relatively limited trade presence and I hope that doesn't affect the viability of the show, especially with what both daughter and I said had a reasonably priced entrance fee to see the layouts in just one of the several buildings used for the show.

 

Good to read that they'll be at the same venue for another two day event next year.  And I hope that it will, as we saw today, also appeal to families with younger children.

 

PS having one rebuilt eye and one unrebuilt eye I found that if I used the unrebuilt one on its own I could actually see some hints of colour in parts of the delightful 'Brief Encounters' layout!!