Warley NEC 2010

[Penlan]

Sadly, in my experience just an extension of the clubroom banter and to be expected. I guess it goes with knowing everything and somehow forgetting that we didn't get to that position overnight. Perhaps it is easy to forget all the hours of research that has gone into the layout and its stock that others might not even have a clue what we are so passionate about. The innocent or even ignorant question may appear that way to the one-who-knows-all but to the questioner may be the sum total of his knowlege so far.

So Kenton, how should I have responded? Perhaps, "...sorry, they are not Great Western coaches, though they look similar I agree, but these ones are based on London North Western Railway coaches and some did run on the Great Western down to Penzance (true)...". Remembering that at a similar point to "...sorry, they are not Great Western coaches, ..." he upped and went.

 

I certainly don't know everything, and I don't assume to be a know it all either, lets not forget the original person stated he was very much into Great Western, so I assume a basic knowledge, or as you say it may be the sum total of his knowledge so far.

 

I am aware of the disparity between say my 50+ years in the hobby and some in our village, suddenly due to a local 'modeller' picking up the Warley NEC thread on RMweb, they have popped round to say they have some Trix Twin stuff and would I like to use it on the (unseen at home) layout.

 

Anyway, I'm off to York in the Morning, back late on Monday and I shall not be on line, so catch you all up then - just in case somebody post's something and wonder why I haven't replied.

[Kris]

There was only one train at at time and quite a gap between them, but there was a large crowd around the layout nonetheless.

 

Paul

 

 

Thanks for that Paul. Obviously the quality of the scenery was holding people. It's something to think about for me as I'm considering something similar.

 

 

[eldavo]

There was only one train at at time and quite a gap between them, but there was a large crowd around the layout nonetheless.

 

Paul

 

Certainly must have been long gaps between the trains. I was operating a layout just a few feet away and passed it numerous times during the two days. I only saw one train! I'm afraid as a layout it does nothing at all for me.

 

Cheers

Dave

[The Stationmaster]

Thanks for that Paul. Obviously the quality of the scenery was holding people. It's something to think about for me as I'm considering something similar.

 

 

 

Definitely the scenery in our case - as soon as a train arrived we walked off to the next layout

 

 

 

[Penlan]

Well, I'm just about to set off for York, but one for the exhibitors.....

 

I was surprised how uneven the floor was, Penlan had to have about an inch added under the legs at one end, and then various packing under other legs, but we still had a couple of hump joints, to elliminate them would probably have involved up to 1.5" of packing on another board or two. I use one of those 12" long laser levels to check along the layout, using a van's end to 'spot the dot'.

 

Aberdare had over 3/4" to make up in the middle of one of the sides.

 

I was surprised I didn't get tired feet, in the past, for concrete floors I've had a roll of wide stair carpet to lay down behind the layout, it's been used now at home..... We did use those rubber cable protectors on the floor though for the supply cable, well worthwhile - but borrowed, not bought.

[The Stationmaster]

I'm not sure if you are referring to my comment, which was I politely said "...they're London North Western.." at which point he stood up straight and very quickly disappeared, before I could go on to mention that there are various GWR kits available... but if it is, then even with my dry humour I fail to see how I'm taking the p1ss, don't forget, he did say "..was very much into Great Western.." and thus I anticipate he may at least know the colours, mainly Cream and Chocolate, or even Maroon for circa WW1 of the coach livery.

(snipped)

 

Coombe Barton, absolutely, an engine is so often the give away.......

 

 

All a bit odd when you think about it as even a quick look at Penlan shows very clearly that it is not a GW layout (it shouts LNWR from every inch of the station, and the signals of course) and the engines are black!

 

[Pennine MC]

All a bit odd when you think about it as even a quick look at Penlan shows very clearly that it is not a GW layout (it shouts LNWR from every inch of the station, and the signals of course) and the engines are black!

 

 

Now you're just being elitist

 

Seriously, I do wonder where it will ultimately get us, commenting on the psychology behind conversations that we weren't actually party to.

[beast66606]

We had a good weekend on the S4 stand, hopefully recruited a few new members, chatted with some current ones, some RMWebbers and some general public, including youngsters - only real bad point was first thing on Saturday when an obnoxious man had a go at us because we didn't have the whole of the S4 stores, and anything else he wanted to buy on our 6' X 3' table , a minor bad point was how cramped we were, there was plenty of room around the hall, and yet the S4 society, EM society and Aberdare were squashed into too small a space - fortunately we all had a sense of humour and yes EM and S4 do talk to each other

[queensquare]

Hi Jerry

I spent several minutes admiring your part complete model of Queen Square, but didn't get a chance to speak to you as you were talking with another visitor at the time. I didn't realise you were on RMweb or that Highbury Colliery - one of my favourite layouts - was yours or I would have waited a bit longer.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how your model of Queen Square / Green Park / my local Sainsbury's develops, having spent much time grocery shopping there, been very impressed by Taunton MRG's BR era OO model, and once built much of it in Sketchup. It should look particularly good in the SDJR period with the locos and carriages resplendent in their smart blue livery.

 

Paul

 

 

 

Hi Paul,

thanks for the Kind remarks. I spent the entire weekend chatting away. I brought some bits along to work on as part of a demo at the end of the display but got no further than opening the lid of the toolbox!!

A combination of red and blue trains and engines (with the occasional LNWR and LSWR coach as well) is the main reason for choosing the pre-group period although it does meen the layout is unlikely to be finished anytime soon, pre-group in 2FS is not for anyone in a hurry - but hugely satisfying nonetheless.

Good to hear you are fairly local (shopping in Bath). Highbury will be at the Gas Cupboard in Westbury on Dec 12 as part of a mini exhibition. Entry and mince pies are free with donations to the Royal British Legion. See http://www.gascupboard.co.uk/-i-24.html

Say hello if you can make it over,

 

regards Jerry

[Mallard60022]

We had a good weekend on the S4 stand, hopefully recruited a few new members, chatted with some current ones, some RMWebbers and some general public, including youngsters - only real bad point was first thing on Saturday when an obnoxious man had a go at us because we didn't have the whole of the S4 stores, and anything else he wanted to buy on our 6' X 3' table , a minor bad point was how cramped we were, there was plenty of room around the hall, and yet the S4 society, EM society and Aberdare were squashed into too small a space - fortunately we all had a sense of humour and yes EM and S4 do talk to each other

 

I've only helped out at a few exhibitions and it never fails to amaze me just how horrible the odd (and they often are) bloke (and they are almost exclusively male) can be. How do they not get a good thumping in the real world? If they work anywhere how do colleagues survive? SWMBO tells me that's life; she works for the NHS so she should know! Anyway, 998 out of 1000 folk I meet at exhibitions are lovely and some just need a little more attention and understanding than others (and that's just the exhibitors;)).

We in the hobby just need to lighten up a bit sometimes do we not? Maybe a brief modellers' workshop in the Air Crew Training School of smile under all circumstances might not go amiss?

Top marks to the exhibitors who, this year it appears, put on extra 'staff' to deal with the question brigade; nice touch.

Just as a final and personal comment. If I go to an exhibition as a 'punter' and I go to a stand/layout and appear to have my 'invisibility cloak' activated when it is fairly obvious I want to engage, then I just walk away and use another trader and watch another layout. I may give them one more chance later in case they were having a bad time but no more!

There's nowt sa ###### as folk thee knaws! (Including me:yahoo_mini:)

36E

[Gordon H]

a minor bad point was how cramped we were, there was plenty of room around the hall, and yet the S4 society, EM society and Aberdare were squashed into too small a space - fortunately we all had a sense of humour and yes EM and S4 do talk to each other

You weren't the only ones. However it seems "those are the rules, so like it or lump it" was the order of the day, and any attempts to reasonably question the wisdom of such a one-size-fits-all philosophy for the sake of a few inches here and there were completely dismissed.

[edcayton]

998 out of 1000? That'd be me and one other then? Must be a right miserable git!!

 

Ed

[Mike Bellamy]

You weren't the only ones. However it seems "those are the rules, so like it or lump it" was the order of the day, and any attempts to reasonably question the wisdom of such a one-size-fits-all philosophy for the sake of a few inches here and there were completely dismissed.

I disagree. The 7mm Narrow Gauge Assn stand was very close to the fiddle yard of the next layout and after pointing this out to one of the Warley stewards, we moved the whole stand forward by at least a foot to give us more room and to stop us banging our heads on the next layout when we sat down. Societies and Associations like ours can have as much space as they want but like the traders they have to pay for it. The first 6ft (and two passes) is free but we paid about £150 for an extra 6ft.

 

What was strange is that our block consisted of all Narrow Gauge with 7mmNGA. OO9 Society, three O16.5 layouts and one OO9 - and then in the middle of all that they put the Great Central Railway. Now I don't know a great deal about railways but the last time I was at Loughborough I'm sure the rails were 4ft 8.5ins apart

 

Mike

[PaulRhB]

Certainly our little square was able to stretch a bit as we were next to a rest area although the Swiss Railway Society did swap with the Scandinavian group so the relevant stands were next to appropriate layouts. Maybe you could mention to the organisers that you arent just putting up display boards but doing a demo too and get extra space even if it is in the demo area.

[Michael Delamar]

thanks for the video clip of crown st,

 

although the clip just cut before the wagons did theyre gravity decent down the tunnel.

 

the yard looked quite sparse, cant quite get it into the heads of the operators that it looks better when the yards full. although if it was near end of play on sunday ill let them off

 

desperatley need a load of 16t minerals, and I hate those red open wagons and private owner wagons, but beggars cant be choosers.

 

and id love to rip off that backscene and do a better one, thing is I dont get any time to work on the layout now or do any stock so its in the hands of club members

 

 

Mike

[Huw Griffiths]

We had a good weekend on the S4 stand, hopefully recruited a few new members, chatted with some current ones, some RMWebbers and some general public, including youngsters - only real bad point was first thing on Saturday when an obnoxious man had a go at us because we didn't have the whole of the S4 stores, and anything else he wanted to buy on our 6' X 3' table , a minor bad point was how cramped we were, there was plenty of room around the hall, and yet the S4 society, EM society and Aberdare were squashed into too small a space - fortunately we all had a sense of humour and yes EM and S4 do talk to each other

 

The 7mm Narrow Gauge Assn stand was very close to the fiddle yard of the next layout and after pointing this out to one of the Warley stewards, we moved the whole stand forward by at least a foot to give us more room and to stop us banging our heads on the next layout when we sat down. Societies and Associations like ours can have as much space as they want but like the traders they have to pay for it. The first 6ft (and two passes) is free but we paid about £150 for an extra 6ft.

 

What was strange is that our block consisted of all Narrow Gauge with 7mmNGA. OO9 Society, three O16.5 layouts and one OO9 - and then in the middle of all that they put the Great Central Railway. Now I don't know a great deal about railways but the last time I was at Loughborough I'm sure the rails were 4ft 8.5ins apart

 

I suspect the rails might be slightly further apart in some countries ... .

 

Joking aside, I really enjoyed my visits to both of your stands - and the chance to meet some decent people, with decent models on show and loads of excellent advice.

 

 

As for me, I think I'm heading towards O-16.5 (or similar), with an experimental freelance railmotor in the development stage (translation: "I'm still working out what I'm doing") so I was understandably interested in typical dimensions, couplings and stuff like that. The 7mm NG and On30 guides will also come in very useful.

 

As for joining the 7mm NGA, I'm not ready to decide - so I'm afraid it's "wait and see".

 

 

I'm also trying to work out a neat but easy way to fit lights to models (preferably something that would be easy to convert to DCC at a later date). I've got ideas but, as yet, nothing that's ready to appear here. Seeing how this stuff had been done in some 4mm models was very useful. In fact, for me, the actual scale was of little consequence - I'm rather more interested in the "how it's done" stuff.

 

I've also got to work out how to post any photos I might do at a later date (I think I should be OK when the time is right - but not yet).

 

 

It was a privilege to meet you guys on Sunday - just as it was a privilege to meet a number of other RMweb members elsewhere at the show - I hope our paths cross in future.

 

 

All the best,

 

Huw.

[Mike Bellamy]

I really enjoyed my visits to both of your stands - and the chance to meet some decent people, with decent models on show and loads of excellent advice.

 

It was a privilege to meet you guys on Sunday - just as it was a privilege to meet a number of other RMweb members elsewhere at the show - I hope our paths cross in future.

 

 

Gosh - what can I say

 

There were four of us there on Sunday and two of the others are also here on RMweb - Phil Traxson (of Port Wynnstay Models) and tim@dy (Tim Allsopp from Derby)

 

Look out for future postings about our Member's Day at Derby in January (open to anyone under our 'day membership' rule ) and our big exhibition at Burton in May.

 

Good Luck with your move to the narrower gauge

 

Mike

[Ohmisterporter]

I thought the buildings on the Rymenzburger Chnollebahn looked familiar. We discussed them on the old forum. There is a link to the construction site, afraid it is in German but you get the picture.

 

http://www.kostenloses-forum.com/board/schnapskeller-,nxu,01642644nx1878,t,682.html

 

Geoff.

[Jol Wilkinson]

I've only helped out at a few exhibitions and it never fails to amaze me just how horrible the odd (and they often are) bloke (and they are almost exclusively male) can be. How do they not get a good thumping in the real world? If they work anywhere how do colleagues survive? SWMBO tells me that's life; she works for the NHS so she should know! Anyway, 998 out of 1000 folk I meet at exhibitions are lovely and some just need a little more attention and understanding than others (and that's just the exhibitors;)).

We in the hobby just need to lighten up a bit sometimes do we not? Maybe a brief modellers' workshop in the Air Crew Training School of smile under all circumstances might not go amiss?

Top marks to the exhibitors who, this year it appears, put on extra 'staff' to deal with the question brigade; nice touch.

Just as a final and personal comment. If I go to an exhibition as a 'punter' and I go to a stand/layout and appear to have my 'invisibility cloak' activated when it is fairly obvious I want to engage, then I just walk away and use another trader and watch another layout. I may give them one more chance later in case they were having a bad time but no more!

There's nowt sa ###### as folk thee knaws! (Including me:yahoo_mini:)

36E

 

From my experience as an occasional exhibitor and a somewhat more frequent trader’s assistant there are too often times when it’s difficult to give prompt service to a potential customer.

 

Friends and acquaintances like to gather in front of the stand, not realising they are stopping access for others. Telling them to clear off is usually the only answer. Sometimes they creep around the back of the stand for a chat and don’t seem to understand they should take a pause when a customer appears.

 

Unless you want to be rude, it can be difficult to get rid of “Enthusiasts†who like to share their train spotting/railway experiences and knowledge. Like the gent at York last year whose father in law had designed some fitting for a Stanier loco and wanted to spend 10 minutes telling us know about it. They aren’t there to buy anything, just impress/bore victims who don’t have an opportunity to escape.

 

And why, just because you are behind a trade stand, do visitors expect you to know where a certain layout/trader is, where the refreshments/toilets are, etc.

 

It’s not always that you are wearing an invisibility cloak, sometimes the exhibitor’s brain has just overloaded and gone past the “why am I here? “ threshold. The best way to restore him is to loudly admire his layout or spend a lot of money at his trade stand.

[Chris Nevard]

What a weekend, I normally only ever do the one day, but this year I was wanted for the whole weekend which was nice.

As usual I didn't really get to see any of the layouts, with everything else going on it's just too busy. I hoped on Sunday am to get a chance to look around, but by the time I had messed about with the car and having to parking it down near Dover I didn't get back into the show much before the doors opened.

I'm now midway editing down around 400 shots to 150 or so finished images of new releases and any other interesting items of rolling stock (of which there were many) that made their way into my little studio on the Model Rail stand.

[Ron Ron Ron]

This is a fascinating model. How well was it received as it appears to be a just a single track so a maximum of one train to be seen at any time, (although with very nice scenery).

There was only one train at at time and quite a gap between them, but there was a large crowd around the layout nonetheless.

Obviously the quality of the scenery was holding people.

Certainly must have been long gaps between the trains. I was operating a layout just a few feet away and passed it numerous times during the two days. I only saw one train! I'm afraid as a layout it does nothing at all for me.

Definitely the scenery in our case - as soon as a train arrived we walked off to the next layout

 

For me, this layout sums up the half-cocked nature of many I've seen on the exhibition circuit.

A beautifully modelled bridge, complete with weathered detail, nicely in proportion and conveying a real sense of scale. The bits modelled either end were very good too.

However, IMHO the representation of water was very poor, operationally the frequency of trains was a bit thin (probably prototypical?), when they did appear running was a bit jerky and erratic when I was there; but that backscene !!!! Oh dear? Garish and totally hideous!

 

So close but so far!

 

 

 

 

[beast66606]

For me, this layout sums up the half-cocked nature of many I've seen on the exhibition circuit.

A beautifully modelled bridge, complete with weathered detail, nicely in proportion and conveying a real sense of scale. The bits modelled either end were very good too.

However, IMHO the representation of water was very poor, operationally the frequency of trains was a bit thin (probably prototypical?), when they did appear running was a bit jerky and erratic when I was there; but that backscene !!!! Oh dear? Garish and totally hideous!

 

So close but so far!

 

Nicely modelled but (as you mostly say)

The houses to the left on the backscene must have been occupied by giants - had the feeling that an arty person had been asked to paint it, but without reference to the model.

Running was incredibly poor, and very sparse, I think they were trying for prototypical times, but the problems are mostly things which can be easily rectified.

[The Stationmaster]

Nicely modellers but (as you mostly say)

The houses to the left on the backscene must have been occupied by giants - had the feeling that an arty person had been asked to paint it, but without reference to the model.

Running was incredibly poor, and very sparse, I think they were trying for prototypical times, but the problems are mostly things which can be easily rectified.

 

The running definitely let it down - one reason why we left when a train appeared - but the bridge was something rather special notwithstanding the other scenic shortcomings mentioned by Ron and yourself.

I don't think the interval between trains was necessarily to reflect prototype infrequency (which at one time wasn't that infrequent in any case) but was rather a consequence of what appeared to be considerable effort to actually get a train formed up and ready to run). In fact perverse tho' it might sound it might have been better not to bother with any trains

[JohnDMJ]

Because it was the NEC and knowing that there would be a lot of people about, we made the effort to double man the fiddle yards to provide "conversation cover" whenever we could on Blackmill. If a particular operator at the time didn't know the answer, then the public were directed to the operator that would. Due to the very nature of the layout, it is very intensive and requires a lot of concentration, but by providing the extra cover, we generally kept things running whilst conversing. I think that this strategy was well received by the onlookers.

 

We experienced this problem too, especially on Sunday when we were down to four staff! Our response was to have one guy posted at the back door to the stand, at least one behind the counter and another in front, watching the exit and the queue; if punters were queuing with no obvious product to buy, they were approached and, if necessary, taken from the queue to discuss their question!

 

 

From my experience as an occasional exhibitor and a somewhat more frequent trader’s assistant there are too often times when it’s difficult to give prompt service to a potential customer.

 

Friends and acquaintances like to gather in front of the stand, not realising they are stopping access for others. Telling them to clear off is usually the only answer. Sometimes they creep around the back of the stand for a chat and don’t seem to understand they should take a pause when a customer appears.

 

Unless you want to be rude, it can be difficult to get rid of “Enthusiasts†who like to share their train spotting/railway experiences and knowledge. Like the gent at York last year whose father in law had designed some fitting for a Stanier loco and wanted to spend 10 minutes telling us know about it. They aren’t there to buy anything, just impress/bore victims who don’t have an opportunity to escape.

 

If caught behind the counter when such visitors 'started off', I excused myself whilst coming off the stand to get him out of the stream, effectively swapping roles with my off-stand colleague! Seemed to work OK!

[familyguy99]

Hi

 

Do anyone know if class 142 was on display at warley and if so have the got a picture of it because I couldn't make it this year