Long Line Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 2011 marks the 25th anniversary of theSwindon Railway Works closure. This year’s festival will pay tribute to the men and women who worked ‘inside’ the famous Swindon Works. Poignant photographic displays, rare BBC archive footage and presentations from industry experts will relive the golden years of the works and its sad decline. Join pop music powerhouse Pete Waterman and showsponsors Hornby Magazine for the ultimate display of GWR layouts, steam vehicles and memorabilia. Show highlights include: Large displays from Hornby and Bachmann. Steam cars courtesy of the Steam Car Club of GB. Traction engine display by Hatch Heritage & Steam Engineers. Trade stands for massive model rail bargains (includes Cheltenham MC, Kernow MC and Model Zone and more). Railway café, BBQ and Real Ale Bar managed by Box Steam Brewery. All the usual attractions at STEAM, including our new arrivals ‘Lode Star 4003’ and ‘Ditcheat Manor 7821’, high-tech Signal Box, Engine Driver Simulator and children’s interactive play area. layouts confirmed : East Wheal Dream (7mm) Knockley Gate (7mm) Dainton Bank (7mm) Test Track (7mm) Mythur Riverside (4mm) Llanryglyn (4mm) Yardeary Junction (4mm) West Cliff (4mm) Cwmderi (4mm) Kilbrandon (S) Irish Broad Gauge Aston Magna (N-Fine Scale) Under construction/demo The Long Line (N) '1st outing in 1986-1994 period' Highbury Colliery (2FS) Hapsburgh Goods- (O) Polpenpra (N) 1o+ hands-on demonstrations of wagon and loco construction, weathering, signals, modern image and more. Display of O gauge locos (M Price and J Glaze) Pre grouping O Gauge display (M little) Display of steam and diesel rail-motors (R Slaymakers) Preservation and model society stands Admission: £8.50 for adults;Seniors and Concessions £5.50; Family tickets £24.00 (two adults, two children)and £27.00 (two adults, three children), Weekender Tickets: Adult£12.00,Seniors and Concessions £8.50. Under three go free. Swindon Card discounts. STEAM – Museum of the GreatWestern Railway, Kemble Drive, Swindon SN2 2TA Tel: 01793 466646.www.swindon.gov.uk/steam STEAM is signposted from all major routes. Look out for AA road signs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold queensquare Posted September 4, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 4, 2011 Lookimg forward to this event, particularly the reaction to a non GWR layout at Swindon. Still, we did do the S4 Society AGM last year and treated it as missionary work. Looks to be a cracking line up and we're not the only 'foriegn' layout there. Jerry (Highbury Colliery 2FS) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 I've been trying to read the small print for a date for this event but all I get is a headache. Can we drop the supper small font effect please? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted September 5, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 5, 2011 Lookimg forward to this event, particularly the reaction to a non GWR layout at Swindon. Still, we did do the S4 Society AGM last year and treated it as missionary work. Looks to be a cracking line up and we're not the only 'foriegn' layout there. Jerry (Highbury Colliery 2FS) You mean you aren't repainting all your locos specially for the occasion? It's always a nice show and one with plenty of room in most places due to it rather unusual (for a model railway exhibition) layout of the stands, and judging by the queues to get in it seems to increase in popularity every year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long Line Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 I've been trying to read the small print for a date for this event but all I get is a headache. Can we drop the supper small font effect please? Apologies for that... the text shrink, seems to have occurred during the changeover to the new layout, adjusted now. Sadly Roy Slaymaker passed away recently, however his son is intending to bring Roy's excelent collection of rail-motors. cheers Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long Line Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 Comments filtering down from on high informed me recently that "Swindon's an O gauge show and its got no n gauge", strange as i can see 9 layouts that are not 7mm and 3 that are N and one 2FS? and some of them aren't GWR either! If the crowds last year are anything to go by... go on Sunday if you have a choice, otherwise get there early. Well worth a visit, Cheers Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted September 6, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 6, 2011 The Saturday last year wasn't too bad once you got through the very long queue to get in - a little crowded in a couple of spots and round several of the more popular layouts or museum exhibits but otherwise not bad once 'in'. However as noted above it does seem to get that bit busier each year that passes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long Line Posted September 8, 2011 Author Share Posted September 8, 2011 Long Line and Aston Maga packed in Landy ready for the off, relaxing having a beer at local community center and club home listeneing to Jug band, sorting our own show 23rdsept. Can almost taste that first pint in the Glue Pot Friday eve... Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted September 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 8, 2011 Long Line and Aston Maga packed in Landy ready for the off, relaxing having a beer at local community center and club home listeneing to Jug band, sorting our own show 23rdsept. Can almost taste that first pint in the Glue Pot Friday eve... Mark I do hope The Glue Pot Inn serves a much better pint than the half of best I had there in 1965 - one of the worst kept beers I have ever tasted Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raffles Posted September 8, 2011 Share Posted September 8, 2011 I should think it will Mike, not been there for a while but the last time I did, my only issue was with the layout of the place and some of their clients. There's always the erm... Cricketers? Maybe not. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long Line Posted September 9, 2011 Author Share Posted September 9, 2011 Can't honestly say iv'e had a bad pint in there to date. Odd one might not have suited my taste; but that's what you might expect when a variety is offered. Current ales are listed via the link below... http://www.hopback.c...to_Dec_2011.pdf Good news is; that the show accommodation is in town this year, so no taxis required. Say hello if you visit the show and if your in the Glue Pot ahead of me.... you are what you drink.. and i'm a bitter man! cheers Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted September 9, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 9, 2011 Can't honestly say iv'e had a bad pint in there to date. Odd one might not have suited my taste; but that's what you might expect when a variety is offered. Current ales are listed via the link below... http://www.hopback.c...to_Dec_2011.pdf Good news is; that the show accommodation is in town this year, so no taxis required. Say hello if you visit the show and if your in the Glue Pot ahead of me.... you are what you drink.. and i'm a bitter man! cheers Mark The Glue Pot Inn used to be a Courage house = which probably explained that stuff back in 1965! (and possibly what helped to turn me off most English beers). Daughter and I hope to be along sometime mid-late morning depending on the queues so will try to say hello - just look for a chubby chap with a white beard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted September 10, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 10, 2011 Spent a very enjoyable day at 'Steam' today - a show (if it can be called that as it's museum visit as well of course) which seems to up its game and organisation every year. This year notwithstanding arriving at c.10h30 there were no queues to get in and four ticket sales points in operation with the only delay seeming to be folk paying by card or asking questions that were already answered on the various free leaflets. Inside there were one or two choke points due to dead ends which meant folk trying to move in two opposite directions but that apart the arrangement of layouts was pretty good and some (such as Highbury Colliery) were admirably placed from the visitor's viewpoint. The mix of layouts was far from exclusively GW and was - I thought - very well chosen to give something for everyone; I was particularly pleased to see Llanryglyn back to show off progress while Dainton Bank was beautifully sited just inside the doors of the big hall which gave it a smashing smokey aroma from the two traction engines parked just outside, how many exhibitions can pull off something like that I wonder? Sorry no phots as things were fairly busy but it was definitely worth the trip for that selection of layouts. Other interesting plus points were a good selection of traders including Oakwood Press and the Museum's own stall (down to the last 19 'Castles' when I arrived, and 18 when I left) plus beer and the works tunnel entrance from Bachmann - which comes with the blue sign as a loose extra, a big plus for us older people who knew the entrance before the sign was erected. The catering offer has been considerably reorganised this year with a marquee outside (which meant fewer traction engines but offered seating and a good range of decent grub at sensible prices while there was another catering outlet inside. And how many other model railway shows include a couple of Stanley steam cars on static display? Another interesting feature is that the library is open and while I was there going through the books of unidentified photos (I got one out of the way - the NER boardroom at York Main HQ building ) a modeller called in to check some livery details for a current job. Not in the same league as York for records but a helpful bunch of folk. A good day rounded off by a call at Tesco on the way home for fuel and filled up with 50 litres of diesel at =£1.20.9 per litre (yes one pound and twenty point nine pence per litre - they allow a maximum of three '5p per litre off' tickets with any one purchase). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long Line Posted September 12, 2011 Author Share Posted September 12, 2011 A expected, another enjoyable weekend spent at Steam with some good layouts and great modellers. Long Line and Aston Magne are back in Comm- Centre now.. so time to start the next little job: Sorting our own Exhibition COMM-RAIL in Poynton 23-25th Sept. A big thankyou to Keith, Dave and Matthew for operating Long Line- albiet it with deisels (i'm still not sure about those shiny silver china clay tankers though?) LOL... Cheers to all who came to see us and hopefully we will see you there again next year, Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinjamesporter Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 Had a good day at the show yesterday. Lots of good layouts on display and lots of traders. Managed to pick up some GWR Hornby Hawksworth's for 28.75 each from the signal box stand. Also picked up steams limited edition castle Swindon for £99.00 as they only had refurbished ones left without certificates when I got to the stall. Had a good look at Dapols Beattie well tank on Kernows stand and picked up a 6pin chip ready for when mine arrives next month. Also managed to get a Bachmann 21pin chip from the picture pride displays stand as none of the big stall holders had any as they are having problems getting them from Bachmann. The traction engines and Stanley steam car were a nice touch outside. Impressed with the dainton bank layout which had a sound fitted king running while I was there. Hornby and Bachmanns displays with the new models were good. My friend liked the long line layout with the 37's running. I have seen this layout run a number of times but I think this was the shortest setup I have seen. But is was still impressive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long Line Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 As we suspected the crowds were even greater this year... Figures in... reveal an increase of app- 250 persons on 2010 Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crompton Power Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 They must have heard that Silver Bullets were running on The Long Line!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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