Blog- Maurice's Blog - Eurostar - here we come!

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After a period of silence.... nearly a month.... I have to report the prospect of a change of programme.  

 

St Juliot will be going to Utrecht for RAIL 2014 on the 21 - 23 February.  This rather late invitation was only accepted after the Eurostar luggage limits were checked.  Their longest permissible dimension is 850mm.  The length of the original layout without the travelling crate is 850mm.  Luck or design?  Did I check before I built the layout?  If so, I don't remember!

 

Some work will need to be done to make the original box a little more robust and I will have to devise a way of using the end panels as 'legs' to get the layout to the right height as was originally intended.  These late alterations to the layout will be worthwhile even though it only one more has exhibition after this new excursion, that at Nailsea in March.

 

This does raise questions about the need to reduce the size of the proposed replacement layouts so there fit the Eurostar rules.  No decision will be made on this until after the trip to Utrecht has been completed and the possibility of other visits has been assessed.  It would be strange to limit the size of the layout for just one potential exhibition.  

 

RAIL, held at Houten to the south east of Utrecht, is a very large exhibition stretching over three halls.

 

The journey will involve several stages, Exeter to Paddington (hopefully in seat A 73 which has enough floor space beside it for the layout), Paddington to St Pancras (205 bus on my oldies bus pass!), St Pancras to Bruxelles Midi, Bruxelles Midi to Rotterdam, Rotterdam to Utrecht and Utrecht to Bunnik which is within walking distance of the hotel used for exhibitors.  

 

Needless to say I will be armed with photographs of what is inside the box for the security staff at St Pancras!!

 

No pictures here .... I will see if I can find some of East Lynn's visit to Houten several years ago and post them tomorrow.

 

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