wombatofludham

We definitely need some 2ds to this standard now!

Nobody is extrapolating anything and I've seen some very nice layouts with decent weathering live and on video. All the videos I've watched show whole layouts and all the exhibits at the show, not just "edited highlights". But many, many more seem to have little weathering beyond the rolling stock. Perhaps that is how the layout builder wanted things, and if you read the rest of the post instead of jumping to conclusions and using your conclusions to put up a patronising response, you would see that notwithstanding my finding it odd quite a few exhibitors seemingly prefer not to weather buildings, track or in some cases stock. I still value the skill, modelling and the fact they have shared their modelling and time to show the layout off. Having done exhibitions myself as an exhibitor it's no easy task and my observations were by way of a casual observation of a wide range of layouts, both in person and on well produced and comprehensive videos, all shot with the consent of the exhibitor.

I must admit to having been watching a number of videos recently on the Choob of shows I can't really get to, living virtually on the beach (well, a few yards inland of it) in Wales with several hours of mountains to traverse to get to any exhibitions, even those in the part of Wales where they don't really speak proper Cymraeg y Gogs. There's a surprising number of them which must be a sign of the hobby actually being in a good place, and they have made me determined to get over to the Midlands to visit a few more shows this year, so long as Welshpool isn't under water. There were a few things that stood out though which I haven't noticed before; Why don't exhibitors weather buildings? The stock is often treated but the surrounding buildings look almost like new builds. Similarly, when was the last time you saw pristine ballast unless after relaying? Today, ballast looks a lot cleaner I grant you, since we stopped dumping (literally) aerosol brown liquid out of coach lavatories, no longer have widespread cast iron brake shoes scrubbing off iron oxide and replaced 1950s incontinent diesels dribbling oil everywhere, but up until the 1990s most ballast was a murky shade of brown or even black, so much so any new ballasting stood out like the proverbial baboon's bottom. Yet a lot of the layouts I've seen film of have nice, clean ballast. Arriving at a terminus at a scale 50 mph to stop with such a force you'd catapult the passengers through the building and into the next county. Now I will put my hands up and admit to having a few buffer stop interfaces when operating "King's Oak" mainly due to one unit having some sort of inertia simulating DCC chip installed which I could never master, but when running "Dolgellau" I liked to run trains at scale speed, with gentle stops that wouldn't lead to HMRI popping round for a chat or having to get the whole Meirionydd ambulance fleet out. Of course none of these observations in any way negates my respect and admiration for the modelling, and the exhibitors who have given up their time and incurred considerable expense and inconvenience to show off their modelling, which is often in all other aspects fantastic and deserving of praise. Nor would I consider these things "deal breakers", I'm not that anally retentive, but it does seem a bit odd. Of course, I suppose the correct attitude to take, which is what I do when at an exhibition in person, is to view the layout as a work of art, and as such, is allowed artistic interpretation and as such should be enjoyed in the round. So what if the pigs are the wrong kind of pigs, the buildings look like they have just been erected and not a trackside fertilised tomato plant is to be seen, at least someone has produced a working artwork, sometimes of subjects which are unfamiliar or challenging.

In that livery they had predominantly grey seating with a brown-grey floor. The walls were a beige colour and the vestibules a darker brown-grey. The later Central Trains moquette was a dark blue as can be seen in this interior shot I took on the last London Midland 150 tour which turned out to be not the last 150 in LM service. the walls and panelling are as delivered but the flooring has been refurbished. https://www.flickr.com/photos/36805899@N06/30357783573/in/photolist-NfBzpB

I think Wednesford just moved south of Birmingham... fantastic news and alongside the Dapol 323 will make anywhere between Northampton and New Street fair game for a model! Those of us who like our units are being spoilt, Mr Ambassador.

Ahh, Hugh G Box, star of the 1930s cinema... If it re-assures those concerned about panel fit and fragile details, I have two 37s which have survived my clumsy handling and I assume they have removable panels as I can't see any joins and as they already make noise, I haven't had to access the interior, but the roof panels all look good to me. I didn't get a Deltic as they weren't that common around the Midlands so I can't comment from experience on any chains but I do recall reading they were re engineered in the later batch. Did the 50s have the same chains as the Deltics?

Fit and finish issues are mentioned in the original post. "Such as" means a number of issues, not just those listed. Bit too early to start stressing about the fit of the roof panel when Accurascale say they are aware of and expected a number of issues to be resolved. Personally I'd rather have a removable panel for easy DCC installation than having to perform open heart surgery on a £200 loco (yes Hornby I'm throwing that brickbat at you and the ridiculous having to remove the PCB in the 87 to fit a 21 pin chip upside down malarky)

Fantastic kitbashing, really atmospheric. I decided to put a modern courts complex into "Wednesford" and lightly kitbashed a 1960s "New Ulm" German railway station originally from (I think) Vollmer, into the sort of building that would have replaced older court buildings in anticipation of the Beeching reforms of the court system in the 1970s. My inspiration was the old Granada TV "Fulchester" Crown Court building where Granada just sent the office teaboy down to Manchester city centre to take a few pictures of the entrance to their courts building. Of course Wednesford would not be a Tier 1 Crown Court, but would have county and magistrates courts plus rooms for tribunals and the like. I too sourced a Royal coat of arms off eBay, a badge from a uniform of some sort which was the perfect size (and I've used uniform buttons with the Royal Cypher for other Government buildings on the layout) so it's nice to see great minds thinking alike! Just shows how, with a bit of thought, some 3d printing, and modelling, HO scale kits can be refashioned into other uses and "Anglicised".

There's been a lot of new county and regional flags following a campaign by the Flag Society to stimulate interest in flags and banners Meirionydd (which remains a county even though the council was abolished, whereas Gwynedd isn't a county, being two thirds of the old principality of Gwynedd) has, since 2015 had its own flag featuring three stoned white goats floating off on an acid trip. You think I'm joking?

My first ever venture into the world of exhibiting outside our village hall was when @AY Mod called my bluff and invited King's Oak to the Ricoh arena in Coventry. The layout was a compact fictional terminus set in the Midlands in the late 90s-2000s so full of noisy DCC Sprinters, and was my first attempt at modelling since my gonads and voice dropped in the 70s, so was pretty much poison to the more anal modeller. So it surprised me just how many people actually stopped to look at it. However, there were some who thought it appropriate to give a stare of disdain. Thing is, me and my friend who was also with me were (and still am) built like the proverbial brick dunny and if they happened to make eye contact with me, tended to get a stare back, one which invited them to come over and be greeted warmly by the throat. On the whole though my brief outings with Kings Oak despite being second-gen DMU based were very positive, especially when I extended it to feature "Crossroads" with a film crew recording an edition of Crossroads inexplicably with the Ghost of Meg Richardson in the shot. Like I've said before I don't take model railways seriously. I've become really interested in worldwide railways through watching YouTube cab ride videos. I know there are plenty around here who think YouTube is the spawn of Satan but there are a lot of good cab ride videos out there. Over the past couple of years I've watched a multitude of driver's eye views fro Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia,Slovenia, Serbia, and Bosnia, and after getting into the videos usually do some research into signalling systems, rolling stock and other operating differences such that I'm now becoming interested in a wide range of railway systems. It's interesting too to see how the railways are integrated into the townscapes and countryside which is the area of modelling that interests me most, so I will be attending model shows with an increased interest in continental modelling in the future and will now seek out those who dare to break the Holy Wail of the GWR kettleista branch line. I can recommend those who still are a bit doubtful about funny foreign places to try the odd European cab ride video and who knows, you might develop a wider interest in railways. Be warned though, they can be very addictive and you might just develop a Continental railway crack habit.

I remember an A level trip to Croda Four Ashes where the most memorable part of the trip was seeing the fireless loco and me impressing our guide that I knew what it was. Given I failed my A level Chemistry, the rest of the visit wasn't terribly relevant although I remember one of my fellow students describing it as a "different smell round every corner" and the alarm caused when passing one particular mysterious spray our guide referring to the process at that point producing carcinogenic compounds. Turned out the spray was water but not before we all edged away from it. I too could be tempted by the Croda pressure cooker even though Wednesford has no need of one.

I was 1 when mom and dad moved to a new housing estate in Handsacre built to house miners moving to Lea Hall Colliery in Rugeley. The Trent Valley mainline dived under Lichfield Road overbridge at the top of the street. I suspect mom and dad noticed I liked trains on walks in my pram into the countryside that surrounded the village as the then still new electric expresses and long slow freights went past. The railway seemed to be visible wherever you went in the village and surrounding area so it was probably inevitable I'd become obsessed with electric traction. Then in 1968 I started primary school, and Hayes Meadow primary had a sports field that went up to almost the railway boundary. One of my earliest memories of the school is one hot summer afternoon Mrs Niblett taking us outside for a story session and having to compete with the two class 25s being thrashed on the daily London Brickliner, one if the few diesel hauled freights to pass apart from MGR traffic. My nan and grandad lived in Pleck, Walsall, and when we used to visit for the weekend Grandad would take me and my brother for a long walk which often included a stop off at Bescot yard, further feeding my interest. Given my parents couldn't drive, the fact we used to rely on Green Bus of Rugeley's eclectic fleet, Midland Red's home built buses, and Walsall Corporation's pick and mix fleet including the last trolleybuses, to get around, also gave me an interest in buses. So, I blame the family.

I always thought the Danish IC3 "Gumminase" unit would have been perfect (scaled down to UK loading gauge) for the Regional Railways express services, adding and taking off portions with just a swinging out or in of the driving desk after a quick auto couple, and given the Danes routinely run diesel IC3 units in formation with electric IR4 units would have been a useful way to replace the South Western fleet, keeping the Southern tradition alive of mixed traction trains. Won't happen as it requires forethought and common coupling standards whereas SWR like to spend money refurbishing trains then scrap them.

That looks nice, there's a photo of it on Flickr from about 1968 at Crewe depot so I could probably justify one on "Wednesford" for the '68 timetable!

Personally I will stop and look at all the displays, as having had a very brief period of exhibiting anyone who is prepared to put themselves out to spend a tiring day showing off their creativity, having to deal with the public AND the more sniffy, anally retentive "enthusiasts" who, if it hasn't got their pet kettle or had rails made using a 4mm finescale working blast furnace and rolling mill, don't consider it modelling, deserve the respect of paying them attention and, if possible, engaging with them about their layout. I make no bones about my dislike of the GWR, despite having been involved with the "Dolgellau" layout for the past few years but I will still spend time with the proverbial GWR branch line despite it not accurately depicting the deep rural poverty and decline of the 1930s and having a train service to embarrass London Underground in frequency. Whatever the standard, however clean the locos and scenery are, and wherever in the world the model is set, I can't think of a single layout I've seen at numerous shows over the years where I haven't come away without some sort of inspiration. I loved @TEAMYAKIMA's Chinese layout despite having a near zero knowledge of Chinese motive power or operations. It didn't matter to me, the bold decision to exhibit something so outside the typical model interest made it a winner for me. I'm a bit of a contrarian and I reject outright following the herd and get a tad irritated when "The Herd" decides the latest cool thing is something I'm interested in. Hence my indifference to the GWR. But, I feel I should respect all exhibitors and pay them the compliment of my attention, and I just wish some of the snottier modellers would invest in a large ring spanner to loosen the massive wing nut causing their anal retention, they might just find something unexpected that could ignite a whole new interest for them.

As both a Eurovision fan and railway modeller, I fully endorse this. How Warley managed to organise an annual spectacular on an industrial scale will forever be a source of wonder. (PS, going off piste, Bachmann will you get off your backsides and get a licence from the EBU/BBC/UA:PBC to produce 350104 in it's Liverpool Eurovision livery? I'm sure I'm not the only occupant of the intersection in the Venn Diagram of Eurovision fans and fans of Desiros) Also well done to Warners for taking on the mantle of organising Son of Warley. Assuming the weather plays ball (November has a good chance of seeing the roads and railway line from Wales to the Midlands being washed downstream to the Severn estuary) I might be able to get over to see the new show.

There was a small batch of SO (2+1seating but 8 bay) Mk2 vacuum brake coaches built for the West Coast electrification scheme. They were to be used with Mk1 kitchen cars for second class dining facilities where Pullmans didn't go, services like the Midland Executive which replaced the Birmingham Blue Pullman. Eventually they ended up on the Eastern region out of Liverpool Street where the restaurant service was very popular, especially with theatricals on an awayday to Anglia TV (or 19th Century Fox as David Niven called it). I remember travelling in one on a Norwich to Birmingham stagger towards the end of their days, I think they might have remained vacuum brake throughout their lives. Presumably the wider aisles allowed the food service to avoid anyone passing, plus the extra elbow room at the table would have avoided you copping an eyeful of your neighbour's Dover Sole.

A maroon Hunslet, and 80 class and Enterprise set in Caribbean Blue and Morocco Red would get me to part with some money. Although some probably regard it as dull, I always thought the livery was both unusual and classy. C'mon IRM, cash waiting!

I'm afraid I'm strictly narrow gauge as the layout I'm planning for the Irish stock will also be designed to represent a North Wales LMS branch terminus. I did some train travel in Ireland back in the early 1990s and was struck by just how some stations still retained the atmosphere of the steam era so with a bit of Rule 1 together with sticking to 16.5mm I should manage to create a dual purpose station. I'm more an impressionist than a Dutch Master

"Powered models" So you ARE producing a working BR sausage on a stick fluorescent platform lamp! I'm in...

I've probably mentioned this before (along with the NIR 80 class) but I do think there is room in the market for an Accurascale FGA-FFA original Freightliner flat especially now Bachmann seem to have put their models to bed. Given they ran mainly in fixed 5 car rakes (although some were later shortened) and the way Accurascale offer bulk packs I could see a five car boxed set of bare container flats (given the availability of loose containers on the market) being affordable and popular. A five car pack would be fine for smaller layouts whilst those with larger set ups could run 10-20 at a time. Even if Bachmann do remember they have the models in their range, I would expect Accurascale to be more competitively priced and if sold in 5 packs at least you'll have a complete rake rather than the Bachmann situation where you can still get the FGA pairs but FFAs are rarer than hen's dentures in a pile of rocking horse dung.

Having missed out on the pre-order I was able to take advantage of the spares made available to snap purchase a six car NIR "bumblebee" rake which arrived today. Astounding models. The detailing is off the scale and prism free flush glazing is genuinely prism free. Printing and colour rendition is spot on and when you turn them over and see the bogies are set up for Irish gauge it does rather hammer home that those of us sticking with 16.5mm track (in my case a necessity because my Irish stock will run on my 1927-34 LMS seaside branch layout. Don't ask...) really are running on narrow gauge. Sadly we don't have an IRM Hunslet to run with them (I'm sure you could do one on the back of a BR Class 20...) nor an 80 class to park next to them, but on this basis my incoming order for a Mk2b/c BR rake will make everything else look toy like. Genuinely impressive. Now, about the 80 class...and Hunslet...and Dutch Van (for the IR Mk2 rake...)

Great news. Although they would look daft doing 70 behind an 86 on "Wednesford" they wouldn't look out of place on the second layout. They are a nice model and provide an opportunity for impressionistic pre-grouping layouts for the non-anal rivet counters.

Oh dear, the steam modellers are having a fit because there's no steam outline stuff in this announcement. Well, welcome to the world of those post-steam modellers every time Hornby do their grand announcements. Perhaps Bachmann have also heard from their retailers that post steam modelling is a growth area, as a competitor let slip in these forums. Whilst my planned secondary layout will be a dual purpose LMS and Irish Rail end to end, I firmly am in the camp of wanting to recreate the trains I grew up with from when I started primary school which looked over the newly electrified Trent Valley line in 1968 to when I had my last all line railrover in 1994. A period when steam was a funfair ride. Bachmann must have invested well north of a couple of million notes in non-steam models over the past few years which given they are a business does rather scream out that they see their future in that sector. If steam was a cash cow some seem to think they would have spent that sum on steam and had a recent programme of releases more like that of Hornby. Anyhoo, I'm apparently one of a handful of people not upset by today's announcements. The 31's livery releases will complement nicely the three Accurascale versions I have on pre-order, especially the two Redstripe examples, so no duplication for me there, and as for the Mk1s, fantastic, especially the ICX liveried examples. Hopefully next time round they will announce electrically fitted bogies on the restaurant cars so I can serve food to passengers on the incoming Accurascale Mk2b-c set after dark. My only disappointments were no FFAs, Mk2f blue/grey or Reggie Rail 117s but we've another three announcements to come. Overall though, could be worse.

I wonder if Rails will acquire the toolings as well? The announcement seems to suggest Rails will take on the processing of the second batch (including my order for a Midland rake) but I'm sure given Rails have been doing some pre-grouping locos taking on the production could make some sense.