Midland Railex Exhibition 2012

[ngtrains.com]

Come and see us we're lonely

[PaulRhB]

Didn't get that far today but will be there tomorrow when I get a long break , didn't want to be walking back and forth all day

Pork bap and top n tail 47's tonight

[griffgriff]

Really enjoyed my visit today, lots to see and at £10 very good value for money. We got up to the west shed but TBF there is so much scattered around the site there is a lot to miss too if you don't look at the map.

 

This may be controversial but as a mixed attraction event I think Railex works in a way that Model Rail Live doesn't. I can't exactly explain why. Perhaps more space, perhaps more customer friendly? But IMHO it does, so well done to all involved today at the MRC.

[Andy Y]

It's been a hugely enjoyable and relaxed day with lots of good feedback from visitors about the event despite the odd showers.

 

Please do come along tomorrow if you can; it's certainly an event worth supporting with the proceeds going straight back into the future development of the railway.

[Guest 838rapid]

Had a thoroughly enjoyable day there today.

 

Met Andy Y and had a chat.

 

Some 47 and Kettle haulage,but managed not to see the class 31's that are there..

 

Any ideas where they were hidden guys??

 

Well worth a day out,and good value too,which is good in these cash strapped times.

[southern42]

Not long arrived home (fully laden :locomotive:) from a grand day out (no smileys carrying a shopping a bag or two ?).

 

We enjoyed all your wonderful layouts - including those in the far sheds.

Yes, we got all over the place this time with a special trip to see the buses only I got so engrossed in the tram layouts that I forgot to look round at the (big) buses themselves. Ah, well, we'll have to come again...

 

Thanks to all who chatted, shared their experiences and answered our questions.

Good to see a wealth of Welsh named layouts including the close-to-home-might-have-been Rhyd y Clafdy.

 

Hope you have a good day tomorrow and a good trip home.

[tender]

Come and see us we're lonely

 

 

We came, pockets lighter, bag heavier (3lbs of Sculptamould)

[Mike Bellamy]

We came, pockets lighter, bag heavier (3lbs of Sculptamould)

Now we know who you are as we only sold one bag !!

 

As Paul's photos show, we got the impression that our area was much quieter than others and that many visitors stayed in the main shed and other buildings closer to the station. If so they missed a great collection of layouts and traders covering almost all scales and gauges plus the chance to see Princess Margaret Rose and the many interesting exhibits in the Stanier Museum http://www.prclt.co.uk/New_The_Museum.htm

 

Had a long chat with 838Rapid (and many others!) about the 7mm Ixion Hudswell Clarke loco - final score for the day was 4 sold and 3 pre-orders collected - all running perfectly straight out of the box.

 

Hope to see more visitors later.

 

Mike

[RedgateModels]

Sun is shining, picnic is chilling in the fridge, just got to get #1 son out of bed then feed and water them and I should be on my way!

[southern42]

Now we know who you are as we only sold one bag !!

 

 

I think we had 4 carrier bags by the time we got to you, although one was tucked up inside another.

And 'the lads' from the GWS (don't know if any of them attended) may be interested to know that I picked up parcels car No. 34 from Kernow for Great West Road though it took a walk out into the fields to get the card machine to take my money.

 

Nice meeting you Mike.

 

Polly

[Alan76]

I went on Saturday and came home with mixed views. Let's do the negatives first: the number of cars arriving completely overwhelmed the available parking. I eventually got parked a five minute walk away from Butterley Station on a bomb site that was acting as a sort of overflow to the overflow parking. Car got muddy so did my shoes - and the weather had been good. Arrived at Butterley just in time for the 11.15 train. Except they'd let it go early because it was full. So I spent 45 minutes waiting for the next one. Not good when you've come to have a look at a model railway show rather than a heritage railway station. One or two punters were getting a bit ratty about this and the staff were clearly under pressure. They appeared to have decided to abandon the timetable and just run a shuttle to shift as many people as possible, so full marks for quick thinking. But still not a good start to anyone's day out. The positives? Some good exhibits - great to see Hospital Gates again, for example - and lots of chats with folk I hadn't seen for a while - Brian from Shawplan, Steve from RM, Andy Y and Dicky W. I also had a long chat with Colin at Black Cat Baseboards about the next project and treated myself (!) to a set of the new tampo printed weathered 16t minerals from Farish from Kernow who were very helpful. So all in all a steady old day out. I would share the reservations expressed elsewhere in this thread about the amount of walking you have to do between venues - it is very, very spread out and in heavy rain would not have been a good experience. Maybe the team could think about grouping the modelling into fewer buildings next year? You don't have to have models everywhere and I suspect many folk would have gone for a poke around the full size stuff anyway.

 

Alan

[Suddaby]

I also had a great day out with some friends, but the day didn't get off to a good start as we arrived at 11.25 to find Butterley platforms very full, and no one much around to find out what was going on. This happened last year, when they had a huge gap in the timetable at the same time. We eventually walked to Swanwick, but that probably wasn't an option for some people. Then at the end of the day, we found out that there were no round trips (it was only 3.30) as all the railway were doing was shuttling back to Butterley, so for the future the railway really needs to get its act together, as people won't put up with that sort of naff service,spoling what was otherwise a very enjoyable day, finished off in the Talbot at the top of Butterley Hill in Ripley - nice pub.

 

 

Kevin

[asmay2002]

Hi Andy

 

You are the winner with 190.1, miles please PM me your details ASAP and I will contact you with the details, on how collect your prize.

 

Steve

 

Apologies for not getting back to you as I was away from a computer and didn't expect to win. I did do the long drive to the show on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed myself. First time back in the part of Derbyshire where I grew up in about 20 years. Don't worry about the "prize" - just put my £10 entrance fee to something useful at Butterley if you want.

 

 

[dagrizz]

Today was my first visit to Butterley and I was surprised at how extensive the facilities were and how much stuff was there. I spent over five hours walking around the sites and could easily have spent longer. Great day out and I'll be back next year.

 

Graham

[hmrspaul]

Good to meet some of you, thanks for dropping by. I would be interested to know how many of your realised, or not, that the "room" off of shed F was the HQ of the Historical Model Railway Society. There were 5 "historical" model railways operating in there all weekend.

 

I think I found my way to most of it, but have mentioned to some of the organisers that the plan needs to have walking routes far more clearly marked out. That was part of the problem for the Margaret Rose shed - the only signs were well along the footpath, and if it was approached by anything other than the main route from the station then rails had to be crossed. That was OK for those of us used to "old fashioned" open days when almost anything went and walking in front of active locos was normal - but we are all expected to be far better behaved these days! There was also a mini bus shuttle, but it wasn't clear from the signing whom it was for, or where it was going.

 

And the best thing ... the parrot and owl display, fantastic. And for those of us priviledged to stay on, on Saturday evening, the wonderful melodic screaching they made at 21.00 as they settled down for the night as dusk came on was truly magical! Mind, I'm not sure the parrots were too pleased to have the Standard 5 blowing off a few yards from them during the day!

 

All the best, perhaps see you next year.

 

Paul Bartlett (with his little Senegal parrot sitting quietly on his shoulder)

 

PS Thanks to all of the organisers, a splendid weekend.

[Dukedog]

Got home with Pen Y Bont about 2 hrs ago after one of the best weekend expos I have had the pleasure to attend.

 

Talking to the stewards in shed F I gather that the attendance on Saturday was 50% up on last year, So, if the same rings true for today (Sunday) it's not surprising that the railway link was busy.

 

From my side of the fence the organisation was spot on. The stewards were very helpful, the food was good and bought to you at the layout, (no having to go and get your own)

 

Well done to Steve and the Railex team for a great weekend.

 

I took some pictures but not down loaded the camera yet, will post some tomorrow.

 

Cheers!

Frank

[PhilH]

Brilliant! I had an absolute blast, we could not have been been looked after any better by some of the friendliest people I've ever come across at these things. We absolutely lucked out straight away as on the Friday night after setting up Dave and I found ourselves in the company of Steve from Bachmann / Midland Rail Centre who organised it and Paul, the railway operating manager for the MRC. They had even organised a minibus and driver for the weekend as the pub taxi service, needed as we didn't get back to the hotel till around 1 am Sat morning.

 

Being more interested in the 12"/ft side of the things I left Dave to it for a bit as Paul had organised footplate rides on the Colas 47 and the Standard 5 for me. I was a bit dismayed to read the comments about the railway timetable as they had major signalling problems on Saturday meaning that Paul had to really think on his feet and work his butt of to get any trains running at all.

 

Waton generally behaved itself, the operators had their usual mix of cock ups, banter and laughter interspersed with periods when the trains actually behaved themselves and it looked vaguely railway like.

 

More of the same on Sat night, so very bleary Sunday morning, but still awake enough to notice how important Andy York has become since his recent elevation in status. He seemed to be the only one who couldn't get a signal on his mobile phone in the diesel shed, the amount of times he had to step outside to take a really important phone call was wondrous to see. Also blagged a cab ride on the 20 which was average.

 

I thought the layouts on site were good, but more importantly I felt there was a good atmosphere around the place, really friendly. You always get the complete numpties whether punter or exhibitor but they did seem to be few and far between.

 

All in all I thought it was excellent, I certainly think that anybody could get real value from the day, so,so much to see, and as I said, some really friendly people around the place as well. I'd love to go again next year.

 

But you always get those who will moan at anything don't you!

[Timara]

Just got back from what I can say has been one of the most enjoyable exhibitions I've ever been to.

 

A big "well done" to Steve, Paul, Richard and the rest of their team for their sterling efforts organising the show. It was a real pleasure to be part of it. Special thanks to Paul for enabling me to realise one of my boyhood ambitions today. Suffice to say, that Caprotti is an absolutely awesome machine indeed and it was a very nice experience indeed!

 

I'll post a few pics later on once I've recovered!

 

Cheers!

[Dave47549]

.

[Timara]

(Added bonus afterwards was grabbing half hour in a very quiet Brunswick Inn on the way home before the Derby fans invaded! )

 

Funny that, I spent half an hour in there myself before I got my train home! A very nice pint of Railway Porter was had

[Dave47549]

.

[Andy Y]

but still awake enough to notice how important Andy York has become since his recent elevation in status [You're funny you are!] He seemed to be the only one who couldn't get a signal on his mobile phone in the diesel shed, the amount of times he had to step outside to take a really important phone call was wondrous to see.

 

It was a great pleasure to be situated opposite Waton and half of its crew.

 

On arrival on Saturday morning I did notice that a score sheet had been pasted on the wall for "important phone calls" and I was being embarrassed to keep the score as low as possible, however the fag fairy seemed to have paid a visit overnight and added spurious scores to the count. I can't win

 

An enjoyable and fun weekend; as Phil says the organisers really do look after exhibitors and a thank you to Steve (and supporting stewards) and Julie (and supporting tea/cake providers) for a great time. The fundamental issue over the weekend was the substantially greater turnout than last years and the logistics of moving as many people as possible as fast as possible from A to B which I'm sure will be looked at again in due course.

 

Great to catch up with friends old and new, one of the most relaxing shows I've 'done'; loved it!

[PaulRhB]

Got back bout an hour ago, traffic was busy but moving to the South Coast which is more than can be said for Ringwood to Winchester in the other direction! Stopped twice for refreshments to ease the journey.

Made it round all the site today and various luminaries of RMweb.

On behalf of all our four who were unanimous in their agreement. . . .

Many thanks to all the organisers and stewards, and a special mention to the ever cheerful and resourceful Tim on the gate at Swanick who came up trumps with a pump for the van! Have to say standing up for hours and wandering around all the goodies on site, then a 200 mile trip home and unloading the hire van means I fell into the shower and then collapsed for a bit but it was blummin good fun.

I bet Steve and co are even more tired trying to get it all sorted and my wallet got knackered too

I'd agree highlighting the routes on the site plans, in the guide and some boards around the site would be worthwhile. Maybe just dotted bold lines showing where the footpaths are. The West shed is well worth a visit and the view, from the path, of the work going on behind the exhibition hall was interesting too with a nice crane and 02? chuntering away.

Trip Saturday night was fun and the hogroast was good with plenty of food though I'd save yourselves all the running and hand out the tickets with the passes on Saturday

 

[PaulRhB]

Oh and Gary I meant to get back to you about the tantalising next project but you'd obviously gone to play with the big diesels when I got back to the West shed later on. Will just have to wait until it emerges on here

 

[Guest 40-something]

Just back from a fabulous weekend at Railex. Steve & Paul (& co) done a great job in organising the show and also in organising footplate rides on the Standard 5 today for the 3 of us on St Marnock Engine Shed!

 

Seen some quality layouts, Melbridge Dock, Pen-y-Bont, Skip Hill, Idle Way and a few others that escape me at the moment. Picked up a few bargains in the way of second-hand wagons at very good prices and managed to keep away from the shiny new things despite some keen pricing!!!

 

Saturday night on the train was smashing, the Amber Ale was very nice, as was the hogroast!

 

I hope to visit again in the coming years!