Milton Keynes Model Railway Society Exhibition, 11th Feb

[mkwolf1877]

We are pleased to announce that our 2017 exhibition will be held at Stantonbury Leisure Centre, Milton Keynes on Sat 11th Feb, 10:00-16:30.

 

Stantonbury Leisure Centre

Stantonbury Arts & Leisure

Stantonbury

Milton Keynes

MK14 6BN

 

FREE BUS SERVICES

Free bus services will be in operation from MILTON KEYNES CENTRAL for use by rail and bus ticket holders.

 

For full details please see http://www.mkmrs.org.uk/exhibitions/

[Andy Y]

Unfortunately I couldn't make this year's press day the club holds in advance of the show but once again they are to be congratulated on the initiative which ensures the event gets good local coverage and hence a very healthy attendance. Something I feel more clubs could do.

 

All aboard for vintage bus to model train show

 

Key exhibition information

Date: Saturday 11^th February, 2017
Opening times: 10.00am – 4.30pm. Buses operate from 9.30am – 4.15pm
Location: Stantonbury Leisure Centre, Stantonbury, Milton Keynes. MK14 6BN
Admission: Adults £6.00, Children £1.00
Website: www.mkmrs.org.uk/exhibitions

 

Milton Keynes Model Railway Society will be running a free vintage bus service for visitors to its annual exhibition at Stantonbury Leisure Centre on Saturday 11^th February.

 

An ex-London Transport Routemaster bus will operate every 30 minutes between Milton Keynes Central rail station and Stantonbury Leisure Centre from 9.30am until 4.00pm. Return journeys will start at 9.45am with the last return bus leaving the exhibition at 4.15pm. An accessible minibus service will also be in operation.

 

Shoppers attending the exhibition may wish to leave their car in town and take the free bus service.

 

The model railway exhibition is one of the largest one-day shows in the UK, attracting over 2,500 visitors of all ages, backgrounds and interests. With over 40 layouts and 30 traders attending, including a miniature railway offering rides and a Thomas specialist trader, the show offers a great value day out for families and railway modellers.

 

Full details of the exhibition and bus service can be found at www.mkmrs.org.uk/exhibitions.

 

Exhibition Manager Terry Silver said: “We are delighted to be offering a ride on a free vintage bus to all our exhibition visitors this year throughout the day and to also be offering additional free parking space. We have 40 layouts and over 30 traders lined up, complete with a miniature ride-on railway – it promises to be a special day out”.

 

Layouts:

 

T - Gauge

Stratfield

Michael Towers
A tiny T gauge (1:450 scale) layout in a guitar case based on BR in the 1980s.

 

Z - Gauge

 

Sankei Kansen 2

Peter McConnell 
A modern Japanese scene with realistically long freight and passenger trains and featuring the world-famous Shinkansen / Bullet train.

Standen Watchett

Graham Jones 
Freelance exhibition layout featuring the LNER just prior to Nationalisation progressing through the ages to BR Eastern Region inthemid 1990s when diesel was king and on into electrification. The area modelled is somewhere on the East Coast Mainline.

N Gauge

 

Burshaw North Western

David Forshaw 
Burshaw North Western is a fictitious station location on the West Coast Main Line (WCML), in North West England. The overhead wires are approaching as part of the Weaver Junction to Glasgow project to complete the WCML electrification from Euston to Glasgow, which will be switched on in a couple of years’ time.

Castleside Junction

Colin Joyce 
A home and exhibition layout which shows how much can be done in N gauge, when two enthusiasts get together, to produce an interesting large layout in a reasonable space.

Dentdale

Wayne Webb, Bob Taylor 
Award-winning (Warley 2015 Best N Gauge layout!) Settle and Carlisle-based layout which runs from the Coal Road Bridge to Blea Moor Tunnel and includes features such as Dent station and sidings, Arten Gill viaduct and St Leonard’s Church.

Dowdam International

Jonathan Wilkins 
Based loosely on Schipol Airport in the Netherlands. A busy train service is running between the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France. Observant viewers will notice the cargo plane taxiingro its stand!

Greystones Central

Ann Sturman 
This British outline layout is set in the late 1950s/early 1960s on two levels. This offers continuous running on the lower level and operational movement on the upper layout, using both steam and diesel motive power.

Horseblock Lane

Neal Cooper 
A small shunting layout set in the post-privatisation era. The premise is a West Midlands through route, truncated under Beeching leaving access to thewagon repairers and cement terminal. More recently, the station, “Rood End”, has been reopened for a DMU commuter service.

Malmesbury

Chris Burch 
Malmesbury Station opened in 1877: a short branch line from the GWR with an unusual track plan and unique station buildings. It can be run in 2 eras: 1933 and 1960. For exhibitionpurposes you’ll find the station much busier than ever it was in real life!

N.E. Where

Ian Redman 
We use the modular system where each member builds and owns their own board and we then join them together to form various size layouts. It can be set anywhere in the world from Japan to the UK scenes. We don’t run to any timetable but whatever we do we always keep the trains moving. We are always willing to talk so if you have a question, please ask.

Rugby Central

Robert Longman
Rugby Central was built by the Great Central Railway and opened in 1899. We are modelling the station, goods yard and its environs as it was in the late 1950s until closure, under the Beeching closure programme, on 3rd September 1966. Our “N” gauge layout is based on the station and its environs in the late 1950s/early 1960s.The layout is on 4 boards with an overall size of 16′ x 3′. We have managed, with some slight modellers licence to include all the main areas of the Station and Goods Yard to scale.

Tanners Hill

Stephen Farmer 
Tanners Hill is set in the late Network SouthEast era. It is an imaginary suburban station built in N gauge and is set in the New Cross area of South London. Most of the units have been built from kits and represent types of units and liveries seen around at the time.

William’s Curve

Bill Ball Peter Ball
Based somewhere on the Canadian and American borders. This layout is built and operated for our pleasure, so we run both American and Canadian stock.

Wolverton Mill

Angela Hawker
An imaginary layout loosely based on Wolverton Carriage Works – two millers arguing about who produces the finest flour!

009 Gauge

Coleford

John Wilkes 
Coleford is based on a real railway in the Forest of Dean, with history having been warped a little to suit a “narrow” (gauge) mind. The railway from Coleford to Monmouth had its origins as a 3’6”gauge plateway, the Monmouth Tramway carrying coal, clay and lime to the river Wye at Monmouth. But it’s been reinvented as a 2’ gauge railway serving a quarry, gold processing and a chocolate factory.

Ilfracombe East

Brian Key
Based on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, Ilfracombe East is the terminus of a fictitious Blackmoor Gate – Ilfracombe branch. Set in the ‘Southern’ period (1923-1935), with a number of vehicles retaining their L&B colours. Includes a number of items of rolling stock representing developments had closure not taken place in 1935.

Stanton Lacy

Mark Howe 
Unfortunately Mark has had to withdraw his layout this year. We hope he can join us in future.

Timber Valley

Dale Gillard 
Fictitious location set somewhere in Yorkshire depicting the local community working at a sawmill. The main station takes passengers off to meet the main line with the small branch line heading off into the hills and adjoining valley.

OO Gauge

Castle Mawr

Geoff Trenholme 
A rural landscape with a moreprotoypical platform length station able to accept longer trains. Twin track oval with siding functioning as a scenic fiddle yard.

Chalk Hill

Paul Martindale, Neville Townend
Modern image small suburban terminus with adjacent freight depot for container/palletised goods. Small diesel depot/signing on point and stone yard/CE stabling. To the front is a small steam shed and running line for preserved steam/diesel locos. DCC with sound.

East Quay

Mick Payne 
Small fictitious Cornish Quayside serving the local fishing industry and ferry to the other side of the estuary. A Great Western branch line set in the mid to late 40’s.

Elmwood Quay

Mick Wooldridge 
A cross London line with a variety of locos and stock from all regions. Based on the 1950s-60s period, although some modellers license is used. All the buildings interiors are fully detailed and most are illuminated.

Hornby Road

Jim Rainer 
Double main line, engine shed and goods yard. On 5 baseboards, running Hornby Dublo trains with a few ‘never wazzers’ (never was made!) included.

Thomas at Silverfox Island

Gareth Homersley 
A DCC layout built for children to operate. A double track loop passing through scenery – come and try your driving skills using DCC operation.

Triang Railways and Minic Motorways

Dave White 
Manufactured by theTriang Company Line Brothers, the railways were manufactured in Margate while the motorway was made in the Canterbury factory. Triang was the largest toy company in the World during the 1960s!

Wandlebury Road

Dan Deathe 
Modern day diesel depot with a variety of diesel freight and passenger locomotives.

Whitehall

Roger White Don Hall
Typical large example of the ‘perfect tabletop’ railway as advertised by Meccano Ltd in the 40s and 50s for the Hornby Dublo three rail system. Features locos and rolling stock wth accessories as provided by Meccano.

 

On30

Glendon Halt

MKMRS
Compact narrow gauge layout illustratinguse of 0 gauge in a limted space. Layout and stock are scratch built. With thanks to John Mileson who kindly donated the layout to MKMRS.

Snowy River

Terry Rowe 
North American narrow gauge, set in Maine USA around 60 years ago.

EM gauge

Burton Bradstock

Chris Lester 
Imagines theAbbotsbory branch was extended towards Bridport. It is set in BR(W) days and features kit built and converted RTR stock.

Pentrefan

Mike Morley 
A very minor halt on an extremely obscure byway somewhere in the deepest, darkest depths of 1920s mid-Wales!

Roadwater

Stephen Walker 
Terminus on a ‘might-have-been’ truncated GWR branch. I have changed history and assumed the line remained, linking to the Taunton – Minehead branch at Washford.

O Gauge

Belbroughton

Ron Bailes 
A Western Region branch-line in the late 1950s. Belbroughton in North Worcestershire is a village in an area bounded by Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Longbridge and Stourbridge. In reallife the village never had a railway but this is what could have been if the LMS and GWR had built a line into the town.

Blackshaw Yard/Coopers End

M Hazeltine 
Blackshaw Yard was built in memory of my partner, Sandra Blackshaw. All structures are scratch built, with the locos and rolling stock being a mixture of kit and RTR. Coopers End was built as an addition to BlackshawsYard, but can be exhibited on its own.

Harpenden East

Andy Ward 
Harpenden East is a small country station and good yard, situated on the border of the Midland and Eastern regions of British Railways just to the south of Luton on the now defunct line between Leighton Buzzard and Welwyn Garden City.

Lionel 0 Gauge

Paul Draycott
Lionel 0 Gauge began manufacture in the early 1900s and continues to the present day in the traditional form of 20 volt AC running on3-rail track. One feature of the system is the many working accessories which can be seen around the layout.

The Wagon Works (a pointless layout)

Colin French 
This layout is a fictional ‘0’ gauge, minimum space shunting layout, influenced by what the builder remembers of Wolverton Works in the town from where he originates. The back scene represents a workshop andwagons are worked into this, via a working turntable. Locomotives are from different companies depending on region represented. The layout was featured in the April 2016 edition of Railway Modeller. To save space there are no turnouts on the layout, hence the title.

Wildean

John Forman 
Scenic tinplate layout set in the early 1930s using items that were around in those days: tinplate trains and accessories, lead figures and animals, tin houses, horsedrawn farm implements etc.

G Scale

Gneiss Cider

Barry Weston
Depicts the cider producing end of the Gneiss Farm Estate with the cider press, underground storage and Pub. The layout is Gn15Scale, and uses 16.5mm track at 1:22.5/1:24 scale to represent 15” gauge. The Underground storage tunnels provide a home to the resident Artist studio, and a ghostly spirit can sometimes be seen and heard.

PG Wood House

Barry Weston
Built in G9 scale, the layout is located near the Orchard by the Tennis Courts adjacent to the Formal Gardens on the fictionalKatham House Estate. The railway was constructed (with help) by the brother of the present Lord of the Manor for his niece & nephew in order that they had somewhere to run smaller scale trains and locomotives, The main Estate Railway is constructed to 15” gauge and follows Sir A. P. Heywood’s principles.

Putnoe Halt

Simon Marshall 
Demonstrates that although these are large trains you don’t have to have a large space! Based on a small country village station with a couple of goods sidings, most trains and rolling stock used is of foreign origin.

[chris p bacon]

Excellent. I'll be popping over to MK

 

And in a shameless plug here is our own show at Biggleswade the following week which we moved so as not to clash with the MK show again.

 

http://ebmrs.org.uk/show.htm

[Craig1989]

I'm at mk on chalk hill and looking forward to giving the stock a run out

[ianbartlett]

Just in time for our exhibition this Saturday, a nice piece about us on the BBC website following our press day last week:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-38888118

[Andy Y]

A reminder for anyone not going to Doncaster!

 

[Ryde-on-time]

Looking forward to the show

 

I see the programme and floor plan are now available to view/download here:

 

http://www.mkmrs.org.uk/exhibitions/#squelch-taas-tab-content-0-5

[ianbartlett]

A reminder for anyone not going to Doncaster!

 

MKMRS 2017.jpg

[ianbartlett]

Free bus is every 30 mins from Milton Keynes Central station starting at 9.30, finishing at 4.00. Return buses leave the exhibition at 15 and 45 past each hour until 4.15pm.

 

There will also be an accessible minibus running at the opposing half hour to the Routemaster.

[BMacdermott]

Many thanks to MKMRS for another good show.

 

Brian

[stivesnick]

^{A great show, thanks to those involved in putting it on.}

 

^{One thing I noticed, there appeared to be more children at this show than I have seen at many others. Would be interested to know if the organisers have any thoughts on why that is.}

 

^{Might it be lower price than some shows, some specific local advertising perhaps? It could be the cold weather, so less incentive to go out.}

 

^Regards

 

^Nick

[porkie]

I had a great time today. Also took my lad who is only 6. And it was nice, as people were kind and not barging him out the way.

[Davexoc]

^{A great show, thanks to those involved in putting it on.}

 

^{One thing I noticed, there appeared to be more children at this show than I have seen at many others. Would be interested to know if the organisers have any thoughts on why that is.}

 

^{Might it be lower price than some shows, some specific local advertising perhaps? It could be the cold weather, so less incentive to go out.}

 

^Regards

 

^Nick

Attended today with my grandson (new Thomas fan) with back-up from my youngest daughter (was an avid Thomas fan in her earlier years). Always found the show to cater for everyone, and long may it continue that way. For the younger ones there was no shortage of tail chasing exhibits, featuring Dublo, Triang and Lego amongst others, which keeps them amused. The club has a press day prior to the event to publicise it, and this year even made it onto local BBC websites. The hobby needs more family shows like this to keep it alive in the long run. The Bachmann stand were giving away miniature animal Scenecraft sets the the children this year, so thanks go to them as well.

As we live near the railway station we used the free bus service, which also went down well with the little one. So thanks to MKMRS for another good event.

 

Dave

[lmsforever]

Excellent show agree with the comments about children ,there were many there and one mother told me her five year old had a layout and was very knowledgeable on railways ,a good sign.Interesting layouts and good traders keep up the good work .

[Vecchio]

Just a few impressions - didn't take a lot of pictures. I am sure there were many other nice scenes - so nobody should be cross if his/her layout is not shown here.

 

DSC04302

 

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DSC04301

 

DSC04300

 

DSC04303

 

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[Marke]

Very good show - not sure what the attendance figures reveal but this show seems to go from strength to strength. A particular point that struck me was the large number of N-gauge layouts, a treat for me as an NGauge modeller. In fact I think there were more NGauge layouts than OO. Also well done to Bachmann for proving some big manufacturer support for the event.

 

Well done to all involved.

 

Mark

[Nick Gough]

Did anyone find 'Malmesbury'? It wasn't where the floor plan showed it should be and I didn't find it elsewhere so I guess it didn't make it.

[Dad-1]

As an exhibitor there I will say we had a great day out.

I used to be a member until I moved away and know it's a policy to encourage families, children of today

we hope will be the railway modellers of the future.

I was amazed how well they were behaved, a credit to the families that came. I had a few cows, couple of

horses and a tractor right on the edge at one end - None were touched, yet little hands were holding that

edge and trying to pull themselves up to see better.

That 2nd to last picture is of our layout and rather chuffed to see something on here - Thanks.

 

Dad-1

[Vecchio]

Very good show - not sure what the attendance figures reveal but this show seems to go from strength to strength.

 

I am sure attendance numbers will be out soon. It looks like the numbers were similar or even better than last year.

[mike morley]

Did anyone find 'Malmesbury'? It wasn't where the floor plan showed it should be and I didn't find it elsewhere so I guess it didn't make it.

 

Chris Burch, whose layout Malmebury was, died at the end of last year. I was aware of that but was not aware that he had been invited to the show until the listings and floor plan had been produced, by which time it was obviously too late to correct things.

[Nick Gough]

Chris Burch, whose layout Malmebury was, died at the end of last year. I was aware of that but was not aware that he had been invited to the show until the listings and floor plan had been produced, by which time it was obviously too late to correct things.

Thanks. Sorry to hear that sad news.

[Nearholmer]

One of the things that MKMRS get right is variety ...... most scales/gauges, and a good spread from very fine to collectable vintage.

 

I have it on very good authority that attendance was significantly up, and it is evident that the public appreciate the broad church.

 

Kevin

[Andy Y]

 

Despite the sleet and snow, over 2,250 people flocked to the annual Milton Keynes Model Railway Society (MKMRS) exhibition on Saturday 11 February at Stantonbury Leisure Centre. Organisers were especially pleased to welcome a large number of families with children to the show as well as railway modellers from across the UK. Visitors came from as far away as Scotland and Brighton as well as within Milton Keynes including the Mayor, Councillor Steve Coventry.

 

A vintage Routemaster bus from London, running between Milton Keynes Central rail station and the exhibition proved to be especially popular, with numbers using the service well up on previous years.

 

 

MKMRS are very grateful to all visitors who supported the show and to all exhibitors and traders. Special thanks are due to Marston Vale Community Rail Partnership, London Midland trains, route2hire.com, MK Community Transport and everyone at Stantonbury Arts and Leisure who all assisted greatly to make the show a success.

 

MKMRS would love to hear visitors’ views and suggestion about the show; a feedback form is available on our website at: www.mkmrs.org.uk/feedback

 

MKMRS Exhibition Manager, Terry Silver said:

 

‘We were delighted to see so much interest from families and children this year, especially as we worked hard to present some top quality exhibits. Given the appalling weather, we are delighted that so many people chose to join us. We would love to hear visitors’ feedback on the show as it really helps us to plan for next year.’

 

 

The society look forward to seeing everyone again at next year’s show on Saturday 10 February, 2018. See the MKMRS website for further details as they are announced: www.mkmrs.org.uk