MarkSG Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 I'm doing the A11 / A14 etc. on Friday a.m., arriving around the same time - hopefully the A14/M6/M56 are clear ... If you're coming from the east via the A14, you're better off going up the M1 from the A14/M1/M6 junction and then across the A50 to Stoke, rather than joining the M6 right at the start. It's a couple of miles longer and Google Maps thinks it's slower, but it's far less likely to be congested and is therefore usually quicker at any time outside the normal day. In fact, if I was driving a van, I'd probably take the A1 north to Worksop and then past Sheffield on the M1 and across the peaks on the A628. It's a lot shorter than either M6 route, and the only reason it's slower in a car is because more of it is single carriageway. But if you're not in a position to stick your foot down on the motorway then there's little to gain by going the long way round. Mark (former resident of Ely, and then Stoke-on-Trent, so this is a journey I'm familiar with!) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnd Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 If you're coming from the east via the A14, you're better off going up the M1 from the A14/M1/M6 junction and then across the A50 to Stoke, rather than joining the M6 right at the start. It's a couple of miles longer and Google Maps thinks it's slower, but it's far less likely to be congested and is therefore usually quicker at any time outside the normal day. In fact, if I was driving a van, I'd probably take the A1 north to Worksop and then past Sheffield on the M1 and across the peaks on the A628. It's a lot shorter than either M6 route, and the only reason it's slower in a car is because more of it is single carriageway. But if you're not in a position to stick your foot down on the motorway then there's little to gain by going the long way round. Mark (former resident of Ely, and then Stoke-on-Trent, so this is a journey I'm familiar with!) No No No No never come over the the A628 on a Friday afternoon towards Manchester the delays (if its not blocked because of an accident) can be quite a long time from Tintwistle to the start of the M67. Traffic is usually solid on this bit of road. it seems to never get reported. I work in the area from time to time so be aware. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
charliepetty Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 But how soon will Charlie be on the outside of the food? Hope to be there on the Saturday. Will I need to take a boat like last year...? OFFICIAL RESPONSE Yorkshire folk often look for bargains!, what better, free food in Lancashire!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted September 28, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 28, 2011 Thanks for the advice but My SatNav has active traffic warnings which automatically route me the quickest way, I'm not in a desparate rush so worries Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcan Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Well the floor plan has now been printed out ready for marking out the hall on Friday. Perusing the plan, I always come across stands / displays I want to have a good look at, and yet it never ceases to amaze me that despite being involved with the show from Friday morning through to Sunday evening there will be loads of things I'll miss. That said, as long as our guests and visitors, enjoy their visit then that makes it worthwhile. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Owing to a communication cock-up misunderstanding between MMRS and RMweb which only became apparent last weekend the forum stand will not be at the show this year (my fault) but I do wish the organisers, exhibitors, traders and visitors a successful and enjoyable weekend. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy C Posted September 29, 2011 Author Share Posted September 29, 2011 Bit of a shame Andy and RM Web cannot be with us this year - but hopefully next year!! Mind you he's got plenty of work to do before 1 October himself.... In the meantime a brief respite before marking out starts at 9am tomorrow! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcan Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Only hours away now, before work starts on setting the show up in hall. As ever, we will be gathering together a selection of the best layouts, and trade stands that the hobby has to offer. To our guests and visitors alike. We hope you enjoy your visit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 Richard I'm sure you've noticed that the trams are there again this year so its a great shame you can't be with us. However, I'm intrigued to know what you mean by "Some of the advertising I'd seen for recent MMRS shows had suggested that the show was a shadow of its former self". I grew up with the show at the Corn Exchange and I will never lose my affection for that place but since those heady days it has continued to grow and get better and better. Reaching its 75th landmark is a real achievement, but did the publicity in the past really suggest it was just a shadow of its former self? Tony Yes, I had seen the trams were there again this year! Maybe "shadow" was too strong (weak?) a word, but I have a vague recollection of seeing ads for the show in past years where the layout count was in low double figures (though looking at the RM inserts for 2008, 2009 & 2010 - just because they were immediately to hand, more hunting required for earlier years! - I find 17, 22 & 23). And of course, quality is just as important as quantity. Maybe it's just a combination of the exaggeration of childhood memories along with the advent of "mega shows" like Warley & Ally Pally that have made recent layout lists for Manchester seem small by comparison, in which case I apologise unreservedly and offer my best wishes for this weekend! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy C Posted September 29, 2011 Author Share Posted September 29, 2011 Interesting RJS - with that one exception of 17 (all big stuff that year) since i took over the reigns in 2000 we were running at a minimum of 21 layouts. Prior to that the average top number was 15 so I suspect the rose tinted spectacles of youth may be coming into play there!! One thing we have done is continue the accent with top quality finescale modelling - we do not put in any "fillers" in order to maintain a higher number of layouts as some NW shows are wont to do. Quantity does not equate to quality as RJS points out. We also try to get as good a balance of layouts as we possibly can covering all scales different guages eras and prototypes, That may not keep the polarised idiots who think that if its not "modern image" then its rubbish happy but hey. We believe that good modelling is good modelling no matter what it is, and is there to be appreciated by everyone. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigwelsh Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Looking good Paul. I've got that pannier bit next to my membership badge ready to bring up on the weekend. 9:30 in the morning to go help with the barriers.. if i manage to wake up anyway.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy C Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 09:30 Craig? - here Im sat about to go out, armed only with my butties, two long tape measures and three rolls of masking tape, ready to be down at the hall to mark the layout and trade positions on the hall floor. Mind you its about 20:00 Sunday evening Im more worried about when Im slumped in a chair back home so absolutely cream-crackered I cant be bothered to get a bottle of beer from the beer store in the garage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSG Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Due to the rearrangement of some other things I'm now planning to drive up to Manchester tomorrow morning, rather than Sunday, meaning I'll get the better part of a day there rather than just a couple of hours. The line-up does look very good, particularly since the majority of it is new to me and even most of those which aren't I've only seen once or twice - it's only the Widnes Vine Yard folk that I seem to follow round the exhibition circuit like a bad smell! I'll be bringing my new DSLR with me, so hopefully I'll get some good photos to post later. I'll also have a wedge of cash to spend with the traders, and I'll be on my own so I won't have the disapproving glances of the other half if she thinks I've spent too much! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
62659 Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Well, there we go. 23 of the finest layouts from around (and indeed from outside!) the Kingdom - and all in the hall by about 7pm! I know I'm biased as I booked the layouts but I really think we've got a cracker this year - even a couple of our members who are, shall we say, not best known for enthusing about layouts outside their immediate spheres of interest came up to me and told me so. I look forward to seeing hundreds (thousands?) of you over the weekend. If you need a further excuse to attend, apparently the Friendship Inn in Fallowfield village (about 10 minutes walk from the hall) is having a beer festival this weekend - guess where the team will be on Saturday evening! By the way, whatever the local TV or radio may say about how Manchester's transport network is affected by two politically connected events (one from each end of the spectrum so everyone can have a rant), access to the Armitage Centre and its 400 free parking spaces is unaffected. Phil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Natalie Graham Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 I haven't been to Manchester show for many years. I live too far away nowadays. I used to love that trip over the Pennines from platform 8 at Sheffield Midland on the Saturday before Christmas. I was looking through December 1968 Model Railway News this week and it has a preview of what was billed as the 21st Manchester Show. That's a puzzle if 2011 is the 75th. It certainly looks a good line up this year. I hope it is a success. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy C Posted September 30, 2011 Author Share Posted September 30, 2011 Apart from a couple of traders to get in tomorrow morning the show is set up for start tomorrow morning at 10am (9:50) for advance ticket holders. As Phil says its looking good and is fair set to be a classic show, the balance of classic layouts and newer layouts really works. Come along and see for yourself, you will regret it if you don't and see the pics on RM Web!! Two alterations, first All Components are unable to attend due to what can only be descrbed as a terminal transport failure on the way to the show. Also as Paul has posted he is unable to attend with Albion Yard, a personal blow here as i was so looking forward to seeing it in the flesh at last. However as always, family must come first and Paul on behalf of the MMRS and the whole exhibition, our thoughts are with you and yours at this difficult time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigwelsh Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Well the exhibitors all seemed to be enjoying the food and beer (before they drunk all the good stuff for the night) in the family pub next to their hotel and I made my way home.. By the way, whatever the local TV or radio may say about how Manchester's transport network is affected by two politically connected events (one from each end of the spectrum so everyone can have a rant), access to the Armitage Centre and its 400 free parking spaces is unaffected. Phil It didn't affect access to the show last time it happened and the show was in town then around the corner. This time with the show down in Fallowfield it really wont have any issues at all. No boating lakes this weekend where any cars should be either though the weather does mean those who like to save washing days should schedule one before their visit . Not that it should affect anyone on here of course . A great shame I wont see Albion Yard this weekend now but hopefully a visit can be arranged in the future and my thought's are for Paul there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tynewydd Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 I look forward to seeing folk there. Please come and say hello and join me in enjoying some modelling history! I'm sad that I can't come to see it in person, but there is the minor matter of a medium-sized continent and a "pond" in the way . Still, there's always next year.... BTW - Congratulations on preserving Buckingham; when I found out yesterday, by reading this forum, it was the most wonderful piece of news I had seen in a long, long time. Could you identify the engine-shed part of Buckingham that this picture, taken at the last exhibition, was from, please? Neither the Buckingham Branch Lines - Part Two nor the Buckingham Great Central book seem to have a shed positioned like this - was some rework in progress, perhaps? Or should I try and find a BBL - Part One copy? As a humble suggestion, publishing the LB exhibition timetable (perhaps in an RM article or on DVD) would be a great thing - I always found the detailed operational aspects of Buckingham (differently painted solebars on each side for truck destinations, the Denny fiddle-yard, the full timetable as an appendix in BGC, Automatic Crispin, etc) to be among most interesting things that PD shared, as they are not commonly described when people wax poetic about their layouts because everything is treated as static pictures rather than a living animal. In fact, Buckingham as described always struck me, almost uniquely, as primarily a social instrument built in beautiful, painstaking, railway-as-art, but designed for promoting plenty of genial collaboration around operating the timetable (even if with an Automatic Crispin) and to do that the details are essential. Perhaps Peter's "other" vocation had something to do with that design focus, but it always made it the layout without equal for me. Good luck with the show and the weather! Adam - serving out his purgatory in HO-t California Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted October 1, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 1, 2011 We do requests, so if there is a particular loco or suchlike you wish to see out, or have posed somewhere, please ask! DIESELS Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangor Lad Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 For those hoping to see Albion Yard this weekend, I've had to withdraw at the last minute due to a family medical emergency. Paul M-P Paul Hope everything works out. Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium newbryford Posted October 1, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 1, 2011 DIESELS But make sure they aren't multicolour or carry telephone numbers for Exasperatingwizzo.................................. I'll be there Sunday on the DEMU demo stand, probably with a few items from "Blackmill" and "New Bryford" Cheers, Mick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSG Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Just got back to my hotel room after a day at the show. It was as excellent as expected,and it was great to finally see one of Peter Denny's creations in the flesh. I took loads of photos, but a lot of them will need cropping and I don't have any editing software on this netbook (and this connection is a bit slow,too), so just for starters here are four of Leighton Buzzard (Linslade): It's interesting that, because it was never designed as an exhibition layout,operation is from the front. And, in true authentic Peter Denny style, the fiddle yard has a separate operator and communication between the two is by bell. I may post a few more later this evening, but right now I'm hungry and, as the hotel doesn't have a restaurant, I'm off out somewhere to find food. And when I get home next week I'll pick out the best of the rest. Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leander Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 A marvellous show with a wonderful collection of some of the finest exhibition layouts from the past 20 years. If you're thinking of going on Sunday - don't even think too hard, just go! You definitely won't be disappointed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Meldrew Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 You won't believe it! Really great show, very high standard, loads to see. Don't miss it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozzer models Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Good show But A bit to hot for me today Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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