Model Rail Scotland 2024

[cessna152towser]

A great day out to Glasgow on Saturday.  The forecast of fine weather in Glasgow for a good walk along the river bank from the city centre to the show, together with my previous knowledge of the warmth of the hall, contrasted with a frosty early morning start from home, hence walking around Glasgow all day exposing a hemline of knee length winter trunks which proved to be a tad too long to be completely concealed inside my shorts.  It was great to meet old friends whom I had not seen since last year.  I was very impressed with the standard of the layouts and took some photos on my mobile phone which will find their way to my Flickr pages.  I especially liked Rolvenden, Gresty Bridge, Tulloch Bridge, Weedram, and of course the sheer size of Eastfield, though I had a long wait there to see something running, until a class 121 single unit Diesel railcar appeared on the running line.   Trudging up Finnieston Street afterwards to catch a bus back to the city centre, my back pack felt really heavy, however it was filled with free literature from the various manufacturers and traders and my only item of new rolling stock was a Dapol wagon which was part of an offer to re-subscribe to BRM.   As with @woodenhead's earlier Pendolino, the 18:40 also left Glasgow a few minutes late and crawled the first few miles behind a local, with arrival back in Carlisle around 20-25 minutes behind schedule.  Arrived home slightly later than planned, tired, but happy after an enjoyable day out.

[drt7uk]

Have any new models been announced at the show this weekend? Just checking I've not missed anything. I thought Rapido were going to announce something new?

[JeremyC]

I think that was intended to be the Barclay Fireless, but that leaked out at Doncaster!

Edited February 25 by JeremyC

[drt7uk]

25 minutes ago, JeremyC said:

I think that was intended to be the Barclay Fireless, but that leaked out at Doncaster!

Ah shame, no Caledonian 439 for another year then 😢

[Legend]

1 hour ago, drt7uk said:

Have any new models been announced at the show this weekend? Just checking I've not missed anything. I thought Rapido were going to announce something new?

Nothing I’m aware of . Revolution announced 320/321 in OO just ahead of the show , as others have said Rapido have the Fireless loco and Accurascale announced maroon mk1 s . I think that’s it . 

[60027Merlin]

38 minutes ago, drt7uk said:

Ah shame, no Caledonian 439 for another year then 😢

 Or N. B. R. Scott and Glen!

 

 

[Legend]

1 hour ago, 60027Merlin said:

 Or N. B. R. Scott and Glen!

 

 

yes that would have been good or a Caley Dunalastair or Cardean . But maybe after the Jones Goods appears .  Think I’ve gone for HR green , but must check my order ! 

Edited February 25 by Legend

[terry.ecmr]

Making a guest, photoshoot appearance on my Tellindalloch in Autumn layout 

[Southernman46]

Any new decorated samples of anything on show ?

[BoD]

On 24/02/2024 at 16:12, Legend said:

What you can do is go outside the hall and sit down and take refreshment , as long as you are stamped you can get back in again 

That stamp is a swine to wash off though.  
Actually it might save me the entrance fee next year.

[5BarVT]

2 minutes ago, BoD said:

That stamp is a swine to wash off though.  
Actually it might save me the entrance fee next year.

Ah.  Don’t you know it wears off after precisely 362 days.

:-)

Paul.

[Camperdown]

2 hours ago, Legend said:

yes that would have been good or a Caley Dunalastair or Cardean . But maybe after the Jones Goods appears .  Think I’ve gone for HR green , but must check my order ! 

Only a short walk from the SECC along to the Riverside Museum, to see the real thing.

[Emma H]

On 24/02/2024 at 16:55, 97406 said:

 

That’s absolutely smashing! There’s no way I can make it to the Glasgow show, but I look forward to seeing it at a show somewhere in future.

 

Announced during a video being made at the show that Eastfield, along with a completed Queen Street, will be making its next appearance at the 2025 show in Perth.

[Erixtar1992]

Enjoyed our trek up north for MRS.

im suprised its a 3 day show mind you, i dont feel its large enough and a few exhibitors saying its a very long one for them ect.

we did sat&sun and had easily seen everything lots of times.

 

layouts were a nice quality, traders a decent mix too and a decent layout.

 

thanks to the organisers, we may have to come back next year :-)

[5BarVT]

Thank you to all for another enjoyable day out on Saturday.  Late decision to attend this year as it’s no longer a 30 minute walk.

 

Wellpark (which I have enjoyed before) just oozes Glasgow East End.  The cut down Belgrove signalbox caught my attention this time.

Eastfield was impressive and has just the right feel for the Hawthorn St area.  I noticed the EP point machines.

Donaghadee was a pre decided draw (family connections to the Ards) and the craic was brilliant.  Thanks for inviting/bringing it over.  Showed my wife the photos and she commented me that you wouldn’t know there had been a railway embankment through Newtownards these days.

I watched Neuberg for quite a while because I was intrigued by the control system (rocrail) and it was only on the second visit I twigged they were the same layout 100 years apart. I liked the steam powered snow cutter.

Kettlewell hit my interests spot on - signalled, interlocked (home built mechanical), releases to the ground frames and signalling driving the layout electrics - very well done for a self taught modeller.  And a superbly engineered reversible traverser.

Effingham Street with its JMRI automation was an extra bonus discussing its technicalities.

Balornock Goods was educational, especially thinking ‘what if’ UK HO had caught on.
Watching the exhibitor(s) managing the (child) operators on Türland was fun!  Brave (!) but good investment in the future of the hobby.

 

Very pleased I made the effort to go.

 

Paul.

[greg81]

We had the pleasure of attending Saturday. Really enjoyed it.

 

Wellpark and Eastfield (can’t get over the scale of it!) really resonated with me, although many others were extremely good. Just needed a bit more time to take it all in.

 

I was very impressed with the Hornby TT items. The HST, class 50 and the class 66 samples looked very promising.

 

Purchase wise, I thought there were some bargains to be had. I got a deal on the Locomotion Models stand. A returned class 33/1 with a broken clip in fuel tank/battery box. Replacement parts now ordered from Gaugemaster.

 

Also picked up a Bachmann Res mk1 BG from the Ellis Clark bargain boxes.

 

One of the other highlights was meeting Mr Kato!

[brynna79]

Thanks all for sharing pictures.  Allows those who did not go, to see highlights of the show. 

[matchmaker]

A long, tiring, but very enjoyable weekend. Many excellent layouts to be seen. Eastfield brought back many memories of spotting in the 1970s. i's a shame they had technical problems - I understand they were mainly power supply related. It was a first outing for Glenkiln Road, and we have a lot of tweaks to it for its next outing, learned from our experience at the show. The Rapido Jones Goods had a run on the layout and looked amazing - I'm looking forward to getting mine!

 

Wel, done to all for putting on such a great show. I will now lie down in a darkened room for a few hours/days...

[it's-er]

I was there on Friday, and yes, it was a fabulous show. So much to see, and to such a high standard. Lots of trade, and I picked up a number of second hand items I hadn’t expected!  Manufacturers, yes, but not Oxford Rail. Plenty of new items on show but apart from the Revolution 320/321 mentioned above by Legend, no new announcements at the show. 
 

A couple of folk I spoke to on Friday thought the venue was very busy, almost too busy. I didn’t feel that, but I would be interested to know if visitor numbers were up on the last two years. I hope they were substantially up, for the sake of the hobby and of AMRSS the organisers. There must be a financial risk in setting up something so big, so all power to them.  Thank you!

 

John S

[it's-er]

And Bob and Gillian Baird of Harburn Hobbies here in Edinburgh have returned from the show with the news that they have been awarded Bachmann Retailer of the Year.  Congratulations, and very well deserved!

 

John S

[puffmeister-general]

Went on Friday and had a great day. Clocked up several miles going around the hall and always seeing something new. I spent an absolute fortune on a a Hornby A4 Sir Nigel Gressley, Saltire 156 from Charlie at DC Kits, some BBA wagons and some pop up design kits. Managed to squeeze into the Ellis Clark stall and wrestled a couple of MFA wagons.

 

Spoke with the guys at West Hill Wagon Works who were very helpful in explaining their fantastic new range of OHLE (around 16 different models being produced if I recall correctly) and all resin kits but not compatible at this time with metal wires. The kits do look very impressive. They have magnetic bases allowing them to be easily removed from the layout and also the hangers can be slotted along the portal to the desired location. A great addition especially after Revolutions announcement regards the class 320 and 321 in OO.

 

For me Wellpark was fantastic and brought back fond memories of the orange (aka Strathclyde red) and black 303s.

 

I have never returned back for a second day however I came close but family commitments prevented me returning again over the weekend. Don’t think my wallet would have lasted another day!

 

Edited February 28 by puffmeister-general

[Legend]

On 25/02/2024 at 21:03, Emma H said:

 

Announced during a video being made at the show that Eastfield, along with a completed Queen Street, will be making its next appearance at the 2025 show in Perth.

It will be even more impressive when Queen St is added . That’s a lot of floor area for Perth , possibly most of one hall . To be honest while it was visually impressive , in terms of movements it was lacking . I know they had issues on Friday, not sure if it ever got fully resolved . Certainly  there seemed to be traffic looping round , but the distance is so great  that there were long periods of inactivity . While I could understand this on DC , I would have thought DCC could have had more trains running , with a decent signal spacing .  I did see some movement in the yard , but it was sparse. I got the feeling they couldn’t have too many trains running at one time . The max I saw was two .  
 

If they can simulate trains arriving at Queen St , station pilot moves , and locos released going back to Eastfield then it truly will be a visual feast  but I think there really needs to be more action for Perth .

 

While O is clearly the differentiator for this layout , I did think to myself how impressive this would have been in OO , with Queen St added .  Unlike O I think all the stock required has been available at some stage in OO , while with O there was a noticeable lack of DMUs . I did see a 101 , but I think that was the only one . Eastfield did have lots of dmus with the trains to Stirling, Edinburgh via Falkirk Grahamston and Cumbernauld  all dmu operated . There were usually a good few of them stabled on shed . 

[PeteScR]

Just about recovered from our weekend in Glasgow exhibiting my layout "Brunswick Yard". It was great to engage with so many visitors and chat about the layout. It ran well all weekend thanks to my team from The DEFine crew. I got to see some of the show on Sunday and thought that there were some really good layouts this year. It was also great to see so many friends from the hobby and have a catch up. Many thanks to Ian Porteous and the MRS team who organised the event and kept us safe over the weekend.

Cheers

Pete

[Craig Watson]

On 28/02/2024 at 14:45, PeteScR said:

Just about recovered from our weekend in Glasgow exhibiting my layout "Brunswick Yard". It was great to engage with so many visitors and chat about the layout. It ran well all weekend thanks to my team from The DEFine crew. I got to see some of the show on Sunday and thought that there were some really good layouts this year. It was also great to see so many friends from the hobby and have a catch up. Many thanks to Ian Porteous and the MRS team who organised the event and kept us safe over the weekend.

Cheers

Pete

Was good to catch up Pete, the layout looked looked great.

Cheers

Craig