Exhibition at Maldon 25th Feb

[Ravenser]

This event is viewed with disfavour by some:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/112235-presents/page-7

 

However, it is/was a model railway exhibition, and therefore can presumably be reviewed on the same basis as any other exhibition. So out of curiosity I went along to see for myself - there's not much in terms of exhibitions round my way at this time of the year, and the drive to Maldon was not prohibitively long. (Also the new car needed a longer run to keep it in good health, and I worked for a company in Maldon a few years back).

 

The exhibition was held at the Plume School near the centre of the town (and the car made it up the South Face of Market Hill without stalling). This is the (only) secondary school in the town

 

Signage and advertising left something to be desired:

 

​You may have been able to park in the school carpark. But in the total absence of external signs, and the visible presence of a game of something being played on a court , I wasn't confident it was permitted - or indeed that I had definitely got my dates right, - and I ended up in a side street near​by

 

​The exhibition was held in two rooms - the school cafeteria and the gym. I counted 16 layouts. There was a modest teabar staffed by two elderly ladies

 

​Admission was £5. When the group in front of me were asked for £15 for three people this provoked the remark that "it's almost as much as Warley", which didn't seem quite fair - unlike Warley you weren't charged "same again" for car parking

 

​I counted around 100 visitors in the two halls just after 2pm . I'd say they were predominantly under 50. Here's the gym:

 

 

​No Warley style crush here

 

​Trade support was limited - a couple of secondhand/new stands, a baseboards to order trader, a trader doing a variety of lasercut products [not Poppy's Models by the way], and a scenic trader. Someone was doing a figure painting demo and selling finished figures

 

The word that comes to mind for this show is "interesting", and I don't mean that sarcastically. There was nothing that you would call finescale , and the only 7mm layout was narrow gauge. But the overall standard of work was good - arguably a better average than at the smaller club shows. There were three Continental layouts - Norwegien HO layouts are not two a penny (does a steam-punk layout set on an asteroid count as "Continental" ?)

 

​N gauge and narrow gauge were strongly represented, and the overall mix seemed rather more strongly modern image than is usual. - 1950s BR was not the dominant note

 

 

 

 

​It is perhaps worth noting that 4 or 5 of the layouts were evidently from local clubs or their members - operators were wearing club-branded sweatshirts - and leaflets advertising four or five local club shows were in evidence around the venue. This event did not seem to be being opposed by local clubs, and as far as I'm aware the local shows in Essex are predominantly in the autumn, with one or two in summer. I'm not aware of there being a Maldon club, and the club in Witham doesn't stage an exhibition. Layouts seemed all to be local

 

​I was at the show for about an hour and a half, and felt the time and money were worthwhile. I could not see any obvious reason to oppose the staging of this event .

 

​I have no idea whether it covered its costs or whether it will be repeated next year, but if it is repeated I would almost certainly go again

 

As an aside , someone seems to have cleared the land around the former Maldon East station, which is now looking out across a plain of broken brick rubble , though Station Road and the station itself are unaffected. Not sure what is going on there....