Christopher Hughes Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 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 Hi Polybear, Sorry to learn you thought our exhibition was too "train set like" for your tastes. I have just been looking at the Watford Fine Scale layout list and note firstly only 16 exhibits listed, of which only 8 had 'finescale' in their description. Unfortunately I could not find the admission cost, but would not expect it to have been less than £5 (apologies to the organisers if I am wrong), so consider our 40+ layouts and two dozen or so Traders to have been excellent value for the price charged. MKMRS endeavours to cater for a wide spectrum of visitors and the range of layouts on display illustrates this; after all not everyone wishes to see each rivet of a locomotive reproduced nor indeed to stand for ages waiting to see a train move on a layout, no matter how exactly it has been modelled. You are not comparing like with like, the clue is in the title....."Watford Finescale Show".. Over 2300 people attended the MKMRS exhibition on Saturday, so although not to your personal taste, we must have got something right and a great number of people complemented us on their way out. As a final comment, we no longer undertake the catering ourselves as the rules and regulations are far too onerous these days. We rely on an outside caterer, so unfortunately we have no control over the prices nor does the Club make any money out of the service. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold BMacdermott Posted February 17, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 17, 2014 Hello Chris and Ian Just to add another compliment for the show.... I have just bumped into a near neighbour who is a 'modeller' (as opposed to a 'railway modeller' per se). His immediate comment to me was that he thought the show was excellent with some amazing modelling on display. Brian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Bigcheeseplant Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I have never been to Milton Keynes show as it normally clashes with our own Risex show, although I went to Watford, as I am more in the finescale camp, and the traders will have more of the bits I am after, attendance at Watford seemed quiet on Saturday so 2300 for a one day show in MK is not bad at all. I think Watford was £6 or £7 to get in, to be fair I never see the number of layouts at the thing that makes me attend a show more the quality of layouts and traders. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alant Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Firstly I should say that I am a former member of MKMRS so my views are not totally impartial ! However, I visited the exhibition on Saturday and thought overall it was good value for money. I spent quite a bit of time catching up with old friends and looking at progress on Milton Quays where I had previously helped with some of the buildings constructed for the layout. As a result I probably didn't spend as much time as I should have looking more closely at the other exhibits. As mentioned before it was not a "finescale show" nor was it advertised as such. I think the £5 entrance fee was reasonable. I had a quick look through other "local" exhibitions advertised and one of these states an £8 fee for what looks to be a much smaller show than the Milton Keynes one. So overall good value. I was a little disappointed that there didn't appear to be a trader selling embossed plasticard although I noticed some plain Evergreen sheets etc. I recall Squires visiting a couple of years ago but knew they were not listed this year. So, my thanks to all the team for putting on a good show. I know how much hard work is involved and congratulations on the attendance figures. Alan. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianbartlett Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Firstly I should say that I am a former member of MKMRS so my views are not totally impartial ! However, I visited the exhibition on Saturday and thought overall it was good value for money. I spent quite a bit of time catching up with old friends and looking at progress on Milton Quays where I had previously helped with some of the buildings constructed for the layout. As a result I probably didn't spend as much time as I should have looking more closely at the other exhibits. As mentioned before it was not a "finescale show" nor was it advertised as such. I think the £5 entrance fee was reasonable. I had a quick look through other "local" exhibitions advertised and one of these states an £8 fee for what looks to be a much smaller show than the Milton Keynes one. So overall good value. I was a little disappointed that there didn't appear to be a trader selling embossed plasticard although I noticed some plain Evergreen sheets etc. I recall Squires visiting a couple of years ago but knew they were not listed this year. So, my thanks to all the team for putting on a good show. I know how much hard work is involved and congratulations on the attendance figures. Alan. Thanks for your comments Alan. You're not the first to mention the lack of Plasticard - I wonder if there's some sort of shortage! We'll definitely keep in mind the spread of traders when we're looking at next year's show. Best wishes Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry.ecmr Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Link to video of show. Terry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BanburyKev Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 We had a great day displaying my Triang TT Gauge layout. From the time I had away from the layout it looked a very good show with a great range of layouts. We certainly didn't have many times when did not have someone looking at the layout. The kids love it as there are 4 trains moving all the time, normally at greater than scale speed. We also get the same comments from the older modellers, TT was a great scale, pity it died out. Great toys etc. Or a bemused look, trying to work out what it is before sayings it's to small for OO and to large for N gauge. But this is the point to show a train set layout from the past. This weekend we will be out with a scale TT gauge layout in Northampton. What a great hobby we have. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.