Milton Keynes Model Railway Society Exhibition 2014

[Pete the Elaner]

Eh?  I've lived here for 25 years and I still get lost!

Please don't ever drive to London. You'll never find your way out.

 

You missed off the requirement:

You need to take 2 minutes to learn how the grid works or else you'll never understand it. Once you learn, you'll never get lost on it again.

[mike morley]

I lived in London until I was 30 and was a dispatch rider for a few years and never got lost - even when I ventured into the London Borough of Harrow, where they didn't seem to realise what roadsigns were supposed to be for (just like Milton Keynes now), and the East-End, where things were evolving so fast that traffic systems could change beyond recognition by the hour.

[5 C]

Car is all packed with the Pendon information stand, ready for set up this evening.

 

We're in Hall 5 (within striking distance of the Buffet Bar) with our Driver's Eye View video and wifi permitting, our new digital introduction to the Museum courtesy of BRM http://www.pendonmuseum.com/app-instructions.php

 

Come and say hello if you're visiting.

 

Andy

[BanburyKev]

My Tri-ang TT Gauge Display layout is all set up in Hall 4 ready for tomorrow's show.

 

Next door is a display of Hornby Dublo, so please call by and see some 50 years old models in action.

 

Kevin West

[polybear]

I went over to MK today - my first visit to this exhibition.  A nice venue (certainly not your average school....) , although parking was/seemed limited - there was an overflow carpark about 10 minutes walk away, but many seemed to park on the local roads nearby.

As for the exhibition itself, well many of the layouts were a bit too near the "train set" end of the spectrum for my tastes, rather than the "model railway" end.  One high point was seeing one of Jack Nelson's "forced perspective" dioramas - amazing work.  Considering the modelling was done 60 years ago makes it even more impressive.

One downside was the cost of the catering though. Considering it was a school venue (i.e. typically very good value catering) I was a bit taken aback to see cheese sarnies at 3-50, and cake at 3-00.  I realise there's a need to at least balance the books (and hopefully make a profit for the club coffers too) but to me these were Ally Pally prices.  Or maybe I'm just tight.....

 

polybear

[BMacdermott]

Hello Polybear

 

I am not a member of MKMRS, but attended the show last year and this. I think we have to bear in mind that it is a ‘local’ exhibition with many ties to the local community as opposed to the ‘national events’ such as Warley.

 

There were 40+ layouts in a range of 14 scales along with 25+ traders as well as demos and society stands. If I had wanted to, I could have bought anything from a state-of-the-art decoder to a very early piece of 0 gauge tinplate rolling stock. The catering was provided by locally-renowned ‘Buskers Coffee Shop’. The entrance and coffee shop were open from 09.00, meaning that visitors could wait for 10.00 show opening inside having paid on the way in. There was a free bus from Bletchley.

 

The cost of all this was just £5.00 – and there was (I believe) a 50p discount on production of a valid rail ticket.

 

I saw many families attending – and that’s what the hobby needs. Andy York in his opening speech noted the number of families coming through the door and encouraged them to ask questions. I spoke with many of the layout owners, and was amazed at their skill and commitment. I’m sure there will be many ‘model railway converts’ as a result of this show.

 

Brian 

[mkwolf1877]

I thought it was brilliant to see the number of children at the show yesterday, as Andy said in his opening speech, the hobby needs to encourage the youngsters.

 

Polybear - thanks for your comments regarding the catering. As the above post mentioned, the catering wasn't supplied by the school, it was by a local business who pay a fee to put it on, the club don't get a cut of his profits! You aren't the only person to have mentioned the prices though & I will feed back. It is only our 2nd year at the venue, so just as we are learning, so is the caterer who last year only did cold food ie sandwiches etc.

 

A big thank you to everyone who came, it was another huge success.

[Andy Y]

As for the exhibition itself, well many of the layouts were a bit too near the "train set" end of the spectrum for my tastes, rather than the "model railway" end.  One high point was seeing one of Jack Nelson's "forced perspective" dioramas - amazing work.  Considering the modelling was done 60 years ago makes it even more impressive.

 

 

 

I wouldn't disagree with your assessment Mr Bear but as Brian has said it was more of a community exhibition. I'd commented yesterday that it reminded me of the sort of show I'd be taken to as a small kid and fostered an interest in the hobby, very much a 'town show' but very important for the future of the hobby.

 

 

Yes; there was a good amount of tinplate/collectable/vintage trains but that's a strength of the MK club too and it keeps people in the hobby into their nineties as shown in this snap of the club's oldest member, Brian Barnes.

 

 

I did help with the layout judging and there were some excellent exhibits which happily fit towards 'our' interest area; aside from exhibits I'd already seen I was immensely impressed with Earls Court's detail and atmosphere.

 

My thanks to the club for the invitation to the event and thanks to all the hard work put in with so many club and club member's layouts on show they sell themselves to the community very well.

 

It's certainly not intended to deflect from the positives above but there was a quite unpleasant scene caused by one person who berated the exhibition manager, Terry, at the point of entry because there was not a price for concessions. His tone was plain nasty, he probably knew the price before leaving home and didn't even start to look around to make an assessment whether his admission was fair value for money. An exhibition manager does not need such distractions ten minutes after opening and I commend Terry for keeping his cool, I'd have probably given him his fiver back and suggested he spent the day in his own company.

[terry.ecmr]

Thanks to everybody at the show yesterday. I really had a great day. All the club members worked hard and were very helpful.

 

The free buses must have encouraged a lot people and I can confirm that there were many families with young children. One young boy had to be dragged away from my layout by his dad as he refused to leave without seeing ex LMS10000 come in and out the station again.......even though I'd done it for him about 5 or 6 times! I've no idea why he was so interested in that particular loco.....he would never have seen it and it wasn't 'Thomas or Percy'

 

It has to be good for the hobby to see youngsters attending and enjoying themselves.

 

Also had a good conversation with a chap who was based at Bletchley shed in the late steam era. He remembered seeing and even driving some of the real loco's and stock that I have models of. Happy days!

 

 

Terry

'Earl's Court'

 

ecmr.webs.com

[mike morley]

This was Pentrefan's  first ever show and, as I'm assured is traditional, it arrived still smelling strongly of fresh paint with the scenery along the front of the layout barely sketched in and the glue still wet.

To my astonishment, the layout ran almost faultlessly all day - the only glitch being a dead short that manifested itself just three quarters of an hour from the close, when the crowds were already thinning rapidly, and was soon overcome thanks to the considerable help provided by Nigel of Q Dump, the layout next to us.

 

If only the motive power situation had been as good!

I was uncomfortably aware that I was a loco short going into the show and that I hadn't had the opportunity to test one of those I did have since my most recent attempt to cure its erratic running.  It rapidly became apparent that it was still as erratic as it had always been (capable of hauling eight heavy white-metal wagons up a 1-in-33 gradient one minute then wheelspinning to a standstill when running light the next) and that the friends loco I had borrowed to make up the numbers was no better.

Then, mid afternoon, one of my stalwarts, a proven veteran of several shows on other peoples layouts, failed and I suddenly found myself trying to operate the layout with just a single useable loco!

I was not aware of any comments but by then I was so stressed out I doubt if I would have noticed a mortar attack!

 

Still, the layout looked pretty and I did catch a few compliments on the trees.

 

Edited to add a PS. on the subject of children.

For me, the best bit of the day was when I handed the controller to the ten-year-old son of a couple I work with.  For the next half hour or so he drove the trains while I changed the points and I'm not sure which of us enjoyed it more!

[Andy Y]

I was very taken with Pentrefan Mike; that could have kept me operationally happy for hours.

[polybear]

Fair point about it being more of a "family show" than a "finescale" show, which as pointed out certainly isn't a bad thing in this day and age. (I know it was a family show cos' one little mite had woofed his choccy milkshake over the floor ).  It was for me a bit of a toss up between my normal show, Watford Finescale, and MK; I decided to give MK a shot as I'd never been before.  WF would suit me better in future, though that doesn't make MK a bad exhibition though - just a personal taste that's all.

 

Fair comment about the catering being run by a commercial organisation, which I didn't appreciate - still expensive though. Me - I saved myself and went for the post-exhibition triple banger, egg, chips and beans down Morrisons at 25p more than a cheese sarnie. No brainer.....

 

For future exhibitions, could the MK Club consider running the catering themselves?  I think you're missing a trick here, and losing good profit.  The visitors would certainly appreciate it too I'm sure.

 

Andy - many thanks for the piccies of Jack Nelson's work - great stuff!

 

polybear

[Pannier Tank]

Looks like I missed a good show. I wasn't trying to avoid Mr Y; I took the missus away for Valentines Day   

[mkwolf1877]

 

It's certainly not intended to deflect from the positives above but there was a quite unpleasant scene caused by one person who berated the exhibition manager, Terry, at the point of entry because there was not a price for concessions. His tone was plain nasty, he probably knew the price before leaving home and didn't even start to look around to make It's certainly not intended to deflect from the positives above but there was a quite unpleasant scene caused by one person who berated the exhibition manager, Terry, at the point of entry because there was not a price for concessions. His tone was plain nasty, he probably knew the price before leaving home and didn't even start to look around to make an assessment whether his admission was fair value for money. An exhibition manager does not need such distractions ten minutes after opening and I commend Terry for keeping his cool, I'd have probably given him his fiver back and suggested he spent the day in his own company.

He certainly wasn't the only one Andy and I'm sorry you had to witness that nasty character. I did a stint on the door in the afternoon & one chap made such a fuss I charged him £3 and issued him a "child" ticket. The look on his face was priceless!! Personally think £5 was a very good price for what was on offer!

[polybear]

He certainly wasn't the only one Andy and I'm sorry you had to witness that nasty character. I did a stint on the door in the afternoon & one chap made such a fuss I charged him £3 and issued him a "child" ticket. The look on his face was priceless!! Personally think £5 was a very good price for what was on offer!

 

"The youth of today...I just don't know what the world's coming to".  Maybe that should now be "The OAP's of today.....

 

polybear

[polybear]

Or then again, if he was that intent on receiving a concession maybe you could've charged him 4-99...

 

polybear

[Ray H]

Hope you haven't set a precedent with the same chap for next year.

 

It was a good show and at just £5 the concession absence wasn't really noticeable.

 

Given the average age of many people attending model rail exhibitions these days - has it really changed that much over the years - I wonder whether there should be some form of standardisation on the types of entry fees charged e.g. either all or nobody offers concessions/family, etc. Like anyone else I'll take it if it is offered and I'll miss it if it isn't but I wouldn't miss it enough not to go.

 

Apologies for drifting off subject.

[ianbartlett]

Hello All,

 

Thanks for your kind comments about the show. I'm delighted to say that we had a record attendance figure of 2,300 - considering the weather situation on Friday, overnight and on Saturday morning, we're over the moon with that figure as we had real worries about anyone being able to get there.

 

I'd like to put on record a few thank-you thoughts to people and organisations who helped make the show a success. Firstly, to Andy York who very kindly gave up his time to come along and open the show and then, later, also judged the competition for best layouts - more on that in a moment... Also, thanks for the pictures above - lovely!

 

We're very grateful to London Midland trains who, along with Marston Vale Community Rail Partnership, went out of their way to assist us with advertising and promoting the exhibition. Also, Iain Stewart MP (for Milton Keynes South) and the Mayor of Milton Keynes, Brian White, both gave up considerable amounts of their time to come along and show their support to us.

 

Finally, we're extremely grateful to everyone - layouts, traders and members of the public - who battled through wind and rain to take part in the exhibition.

 

Winners of best layout competitions were as follows:

 

Best in show: Earl's Court, by Terry Tew (http://ecmr.webs.com/) - Andy felt it really captured the atmosphere of the area it depicts and was a great example of what can be achieved in a limited space. 

 

Best Club or Club Member's layout: Dentdale - excellent scenic presentation and excellent use of N gauge 

 

Andy also wanted to give Great Train Robbery by Luton MRC (http://www.lutonmodelrailwayclub.org.uk/gtr.htm) a special mention for its quality and the way it corrects many of the misreported facts about what is one of the major elements in the social history of the railways.

 

Regarding what we're aiming to do with the show, we have deliberately advertised in places where a family audience would read about it and, hopefully, come along. It seems to have paid off as so many of the visitors yesterday were families with children and, as many have said, it's really important that we attract children to the hobby. Personally, I believe they are naturally interested, but we have to work harder to engage them when there are so many competing activities and opportunities. In short, it needs to be fun. That said, we want to provide something for everyone and I believe that with 44 high quality layouts, we were able to achieve that. Admittedly we offered no concession price, but at £5 for such a large show, I think we could fairly argue that we offered everyone a concessionary rate!

 

Thinking about the food, we have let that out as a concession simply because we are not resourced to feed 2,300 people ourselves! We let it to a local company (Buskers of Wolverton) who we believe are very good and provide excellent food. It may not be as cheap as, say, going to a supermarket, but it is all freshly made on the premises with high quality ingredients. Judging by the queues, and the exhausted staff afterwards, it was very popular. That said, we will feed your comments back and will certainly take a look at the layout of the café. As one of the earlier posts said, we are all learning as we go along.

 

So, once again, thanks to everyone who came along. We hope you enjoyed it and look forward to seeing you same time, same place on 14 February 2015.

 

Ian

MKMRS Secretary

 

[Roy L S]

I too went to the MK show yesterday.

 

My wife and I took advantage of the discounted entry if travelling by train and then took the shuttle bus from Bletchley station. It all worked extremely well, and looking at the number of cars when we arrived at the venue, I'm glad we made that choice. I would encourage anyone who can to take advantage of using public transport next year.

 

As to the show itself, we both though that for the adult price of £5 it was exceptionally good value for money with such a diverse spread of layouts, trade and demos. Certainly plenty to appeal to everyone, young and old alike. 

 

The volume of people in the venue when we were there (from about 11.30) suggests that whatever advertising was done reached the intended audience, Although there were a few bottlenecks here and there we saw everything we wanted to and a reasonably crowded venue is surely a good measure of success?

 

I would concur with what was said earlier in this thread that it was no "finescale" show (although there were some truly excellent layouts) but then I can see it was not intended to be, and I think it succeeded very well in delivering an entertaining day out for it's target audience. 

 

Well done to all involved, I certainly intend to visit again next year.

 

Favourite layout? Dentdale..

 

Roy

[Ray H]

I think the outside team - those looking after the car park - need a special mention. They were polite and helpful when I arrived and when I left in what at times wasn't very pleasant weather.

 

I echo the thoughts about involving families. Alas, for whatever reason MK has no substantive model shop that I'm aware of so I tend to shop via the Internet. Once you're started in the hobby and have some knowledge that's probably OK but at the beginning you need the friendly shop to give you the advice. A club can do that to a certain extent but it isn't something that you can easily take youngsters to and let them see what they want on their model (and establish whether it is suitable).

 

One other small point. I was hopeful of buying some Ratio/Wills kits and some embossed plasticard yesterday and came away disappointed despite going round the show twice to be sure I hadn't missed the stand selling them (and I already go to Specsavers!).

[A4CML]

pentrefan 003.jpgpentrefan 007.jpgpentrefan 008.jpg

This was Pentrefan's  first ever show and, as I'm assured is traditional, it arrived still smelling strongly of fresh paint with the scenery along the front of the layout barely sketched in and the glue still wet.

To my astonishment, the layout ran almost faultlessly all day - the only glitch being a dead short that manifested itself just three quarters of an hour from the close, when the crowds were already thinning rapidly, and was soon overcome thanks to the considerable help provided by Nigel of Q Dump, the layout next to us.

 

If only the motive power situation had been as good!

I was uncomfortably aware that I was a loco short going into the show and that I hadn't had the opportunity to test one of those I did have since my most recent attempt to cure its erratic running.  It rapidly became apparent that it was still as erratic as it had always been (capable of hauling eight heavy white-metal wagons up a 1-in-33 gradient one minute then wheelspinning to a standstill when running light the next) and that the friends loco I had borrowed to make up the numbers was no better.

Then, mid afternoon, one of my stalwarts, a proven veteran of several shows on other peoples layouts, failed and I suddenly found myself trying to operate the layout with just a single useable loco!

I was not aware of any comments but by then I was so stressed out I doubt if I would have noticed a mortar attack!

 

Still, the layout looked pretty and I did catch a few compliments on the trees.

 

Edited to add a PS. on the subject of children.

For me, the best bit of the day was when I handed the controller to the ten-year-old son of a couple I work with.  For the next half hour or so he drove the trains while I changed the points and I'm not sure which of us enjoyed it more!

 

Well done Mike. I know you burnt a bit of midnight oil to get it to the exhibition. It was definately my favourite EM layout less than 33 feet long!

[ianbartlett]

I think the outside team - those looking after the car park - need a special mention. They were polite and helpful when I arrived and when I left in what at times wasn't very pleasant weather.

 

I echo the thoughts about involving families. Alas, for whatever reason MK has no substantive model shop that I'm aware of so I tend to shop via the Internet. Once you're started in the hobby and have some knowledge that's probably OK but at the beginning you need the friendly shop to give you the advice. A club can do that to a certain extent but it isn't something that you can easily take youngsters to and let them see what they want on their model (and establish whether it is suitable).

 

One other small point. I was hopeful of buying some Ratio/Wills kits and some embossed plasticard yesterday and came away disappointed despite going round the show twice to be sure I hadn't missed the stand selling them (and I already go to Specsavers!).

 

Thanks for mentioning the car park team. They were from the local Scouts group and they did an amazing job out in the wind and rain.

 

I'll make sure they are made aware of your feedback - thanks!

 

ian

[Geoff Endacott]

It's certainly not intended to deflect from the positives above but there was a quite unpleasant scene caused by one person who berated the exhibition manager, Terry, at the point of entry because there was not a price for concessions. His tone was plain nasty, he probably knew the price before leaving home and didn't even start to look around to make an assessment whether his admission was fair value for money. An exhibition manager does not need such distractions ten minutes after opening and I commend Terry for keeping his cool, I'd have probably given him his fiver back and suggested he spent the day in his own company.

 

We had a few comments this year at Calne as we were charging all adults the same price - £4.50. The solution was to tell senior visitors that the price should have been £5.00 but we were giving a 50p discount to people under 65 as well.

 

Geoff Endacott

[ELTEL]

We had a few comments this year at Calne as we were charging all adults the same price - £4.50. The solution was to tell senior visitors that the price should have been £5.00 but we were giving a 50p discount to people under 65 as well.

 

Geoff Endacott

Brilliant

 

Eltel

 

Stafford

[ianbartlett]

Just to let you know we have published our Exhibition Review page - we'll be adding more content as pictures and video become available. If you have any pictures/video you'd be happy for us to publish on the site, do please let me know, either here on RMweb or via email to webmaster@mkmrs.org.uk

 

http://www.mkmrs.org.uk/exhibitions/2014-review/

 

Also we'd be very grateful if you could take two minutes to complete our feedback form as this really helps us to plan and improve things for next year: 

 

http://www.mkmrs.org.uk/feedback

 

Thanks very much,

 

Ian

MKMRS Secretary