Stafford Railway Circle Exhibition 4th 5th February 2012

[Fay Singpoint]

My first ever visit to the show today despite this being a local venue for me. Despite my interest being O gauge I was impressed with the variety of layouts and spent a good 4 hours wandering around the venue. Trade representation was excellent and stocked up with materials for rolling stock construction exploits for Moorgate.

 

Andy has already mentioned Warren Lane which kept a good crowd interested with the workings of the overhead crane loading and unloading containers.

 

The only sad point was the public announcement barely 2 hours after opening time warning traders and exhibitors to be on their guard as someone had stolen a locomotive from one of the stands.

 

The promised snow arrived which made the journey home through my part of rural Staffordshire quite interesting despite having 4 wheel drive.

 

Overall a good day out.

[Guest Phil]

Enjoyed a flying visit to the show this afternoon and had a quick look around. Would love to have stayed and gawped at Alloa for hours, what with those NBL and Barclay diesel shunters lurking around. Most of the layouts were of good quality, and I now wish I stopped and taken a closer look at the large scale American NG setup.

 

Had only a small bit of pocket money so only invested in a Bachmann Eastern van, and didn't see any of the steel opens available. Is it just my imagination running riot, or is it really the case that transition wagons fly off the shelves quicker than those air braked box wagons, HEAs and tanks. Yes, I know the steel opens and ER vans are newer and finer, but it strikes me that "transition era" is the most popular theme for purchasers of model railways rolling stock.

[griffgriff]

I visited for the first time last year and I was eager to return... I wasn't disappointed. Some super layouts... no weak link IMHO and I was quite surprised by a slight Southern bias? (pleasantly though), great trade* and it was all well organised (I very much liked the space given to the stands - no sense of overcrowding even though business was brisk

 

* well Impressed with Eileen's Emporium - they had a 'try before you buy' table for their range of airbrushes - picked up a Iwata Neo (or rather Neo for Iwata) at a very keen price, might be worth a look if anyone is thinking to dipping their toes - No connection apart from a happy customer.

[08221]

Spent a pleasant 4 hours at the show this afternoon. It was excellent! great variety of layouts - something for everyone and could have watched Alloa all day!

 

There was a good choice of traders and all exhibits and traders had plenty of space around them so things did not feel too crushed or cosy.

 

Well done to everyone concerned for putting on such a great event - if you ever have room for a small 4' circular OO layout, let us know!

[Piemanlarger]

we made it as far as M5 road works abut 3 miles short of franklan services before the head gasket went on the 4x4.

 

wish we had gone for 2 wheel drive now.

 

So, £4-500+ repair bill to come and have just forked out £140 for the trip home as my "national" cover had small print!!

You get what you pay for so suspect i will be going back with RAC or AA, at least they get you home!

 

Still, if another Car can be found a trio of taffies may make it Sunday.

[Mark Forrest]

we made it as far as M5 road works abut 3 miles short of franklan services before the head gasket went on the 4x4.

<<snip>>

Still, if another Car can be found a trio of taffies may make it Sunday.

 

Wow, now that's commitment to railway modelling!

Hope to see you there, I'm sure the show will be worth the travel.

[Nick G]

Fantastic show as usual thanks to Terry and the team. Shame about the journey home which should take 1 hour 45 mins but took 5 hours. I thought we knew that this snow was coming?

[pitbull1845]

Just arrived home after a great day, arrived at the show just after 10 and left at 16:30 ish.... Well worth the trip.. Thats including the snow on the way home.

As already mentioned there was a good selection of layouts.

It was good to meet Maggie, Alan, Mick and Ben and of course see Warren Lane in the flesh. I was even allowed a go which was very kind. I passed on the crane though, hope no offence was taken Alan, I just cant perform in front of crowds.. Now where is that photo of you showing how its done??

 

Managed to speak to Mick at Blackmill and see the elusive NR 57 which was spotted on a light engine movement.. Great layout with a lot of detail, we even spotted the grim reaper!

 

Pendennis was good, I especiallyy liked the china clay part at the far end. (Matt didnt get to speak but did see the signals, very nice)

 

Midchester City was another one that appealed to me.

 

And just as we were leaving I found Cromer, another good one with nice attention to detail.

 

There were plenty of other good layouts andI've come away with so many ideas,(which I don't think is a good thing with my track record of layout changing) the exhibition was just oozing inspiration..

Oh and bumped into 250Bob and Nick from Holland Park. (Nick I know where you are coming from regarding the roads)

Well done to the organisers, and caterers, all seemed to run smoothly and there was plenty of space to move around which was a nice change.

 

A really good day and good company too. Just a shame about the hell that was breaking out at my house whilst I was miles away..

 

If you're umming and arrring about going, go and have a look. If I can travel back to Bournemouth in the snow then you can make the effort too..

This was the view that greeted us when we left

 

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[250BOB]

Outstanding exhibition........cannot recall ever enjoying an exhibtion so much, congratulations to you all at Stafford MRC.

Bob.

[Beacon]

Thoroughly enjoyed my visit (also with a 5 hour train journey home - we travelled at 20mph due to a frozen horn!) Probably one of the best shows I've been to due to the quality of layouts, good range of trade and well set up and organised venue. Thanks to all involved in making it so enjoyable and worth the effort of travelling to.

 

Peter

 

(null)

[Savoyard]

I enjoyed the show, I left just before five and walked in the house at 1020, 5.5 hours, the journey there took 1.5 hours, I took an extended tour of the snowy streets of Stoke after my sat nav warned of problems on the M6, I eventually made my way to A34 after 8 and had a reasonable trip after that.

 

Peter

[ELTEL]

STAFFORD RAILWAY CIRCLE EXHIBITION UPDATE 4/2/12

 

Thank you for all the fantastic comments about the exhibition.

 

Sorry about the weather on the way home for many of you including myself, one and half hours instead of 10 minutes to get home.

 

Also as many SRC members I missed the social tonight.

 

Local weather forecast for tomorrow is much better, icy start and misty, but dry.

 

Drive carefully.

 

Should be a great day see you all tomorrow.

 

On behalf of the Exhibition Team and all the SRC Members who made it happen.

 

Terry

Exhibition Manager

Stafford

 

[A1X]

Carnot wait till tomorrow :no: :no:

[ELTEL]

Well we have now got back home after our first ever visit. Most impressed by the show. Loved Airthrey Park, Alloa and Warren Lane which I have never seen before, great modelling and great operation. Blackmill was at its usual entertaining peak. There were few poor layouts - those that disappointed were mainly having operational gremlins and offered little movement to the punter. Trade support is good even if you have to go out into the car park to give your money to Mr Petty by debit card, still it was amusing to see him shivering until the warm glow of a yorkshireman receiving money thawed him out! The car parking was excellent and well marshalled

 

Thanks to the Stafford RC team for an enjoyable day out.

 

Poor Layouts?

[chrisf]

It was worth the trip but I thought it best to cut short my visit due to the arrival of the snow. As it happened, the worst part of the trip home was the crawl through Stafford! I managed to out-run the snow on the M6 but it was not long in following and now there are lots of irregularly shaped wedding cakes in my street.

 

Not every layout was to my personal taste but the scope of the selection was impressive. After my gripe last year it was pleasing to see EM represented by the rather fine Alkham with its oh-so-natural setting of buildings and by two diligent, capable and friendly demonstrators. Having now seen Alloa I can understand why Geoff Kent had made a special trip to see it: those station buildings are something else but I was surprised to see tension lock couplings on that of all layouts. Yet another take on china clay came from Tremore: minimum space but maximum attention to detail. I forgot to ask where the wheelie bins came from!

 

Trade support was varied. Like others, I had a play with an airbrush at Eileen's while attempts were being made to connect the credit card reader to the internet. I ended up signing a piece of paper: oh, how 20th century.

 

Chris

[Guest Digital]

Great show with some cracking layouts.

Highlights for me were Warren Lane, Georgemas Junction and Airthrey Park.

Thanks to Terry and his crew for all the hard work in putting on a great exhibition.

Also thanks to Nick (Holland Park) for getting us home in one piece!,

John

[Andy Y]

The snow is rapidly thawing here, a bit misty but it's not as bad as it was looking last night.

 

The motorway cameras show it as clear and quiet on M5/M6/M6T/M42

[2ManySpams]

Confirm that weather report Andy. Looking out the window at my folks it looks like there was about 2" of snow on the car but thats now started to thaw and is now piled on the drive. Main roads in Stafford were all clear last night. Nowhere near as bad as the tv doom mungers like to make out.

[3mm Andy.]

Andy thanks for the update, hoping to get to the show to day at present still have about 4 inches of snow here in lecester, but will try

to see if I can get there if not will be the first one that I will have missed in the last 6/7 years.

[Savoyard]

The last bus yesterday.

 

 

Peter

[Douglas G]

If think this PMT double-decker used to be my school bus around 1969. If I remember correctly, the seats upstairs were long benches on a raised platform with the aisle to one side in order to give more headroom downstairs, as it was a low height model.

 

For me personally the most interesting layout at the Stafford show was/is Alloa. I really like it when the aim of a model is to recreate a location historically, as accurately as possible. This layout oozes atmosphere, with lots of fascinating details such as the bowling green, and you just know it is a real place. I never even noticed that the couplers were tension lock!

 

I think it is very difficult to get an invented model to have the same atmosphere - they tend to have too much crammed in and bring in too many cliched features, or the layout somehow doesn't ring true.

 

Douglas

[big jim]

Anyone thinking of visiting this afternoon, ive just got here from crewe and the M6 is clear but a bit misty and the road up to the showground is clear from stafford

 

Just about to walk from the car park!!

[DaveyH]

Fantastic show - just returned home having thoroughly enjoyed myself (and surprisingly spent very little )

 

Here's my favourite photograph from today - may post some more later.

 

[2ManySpams]

Well done to Alloa for winning best visiting layout.

[trisonic]

I'm looking forward to more photographs (particularly interesting ones like that, above from Cornerman).

 

Some very nice layouts at this exhibition - and photos are the only way us Ex-Pats really get the chance to "see" them......

 

 

Best, Pete.