Chris M

Testing is going well so far, and I haven’t cleaned the track yet. Yes I know it’s the wrong kind of DMU for the West Country. One day I might get a more suitable one.

My only trip out with Dawlish Warren this year is next month. I'm going to the Statfold Barn model railway exhibition on 13th & 14th April. Statfold Barn is a wonderful venue for a model railway exhibition and I do recommend visiting. You can now go to two shows a year there with Statfold Barn's own show in April and Warley at Statfold in October. Although I would not call myself a narrow gauge fan I do love seeing their large collection of narrow gauge locos. They run their narrow gauge trains all day at these exhibitions and you can have as many rides as you like. I have decided to go back to my first love and run my 1968 stock at Statfold Barn. This allows for a good variety of colours with Warships in green, maroon and blue and Westerns in maroon and blue. The last green warship turned blue in 1967 so my green one isn't allowed even though it looks very nice in green. There is also plenty of mix and match between yellow warning panels and full yellow ends. I can run my motorail with 5 coaches plus six carflats; at this length it just fits my longest storage siding. My coaches will be mostly blue & grey but still with quite a few maroon all mixed together and of course the Cornish Riviera Express was hauled by double headed Warships at that time. I think this makes for a nice mixture of trains which will just run round once and then the next one will go. Some will stop, some will go straight through and some will be overtaken while sitting in the station loop. I think this is reasonably entertaining - but then I must do because I love running these trains and watching them go past at home. At the risk of sounding boring I already know exactly what trains I will be running because they will all be getting a good run at home this month, just to make sure everything is fine. The trains will be:- UP Motorail, paddington express, engineers train, local passenger, milk for Kensington and clayliner for Etruria. DOWN Cornish Riviera Express, NE to SW express, long freight, parcels, DMU, local passenger. One of the things I love about N gauge is that it is possible to run reasonable length trains on a reasonable sized layout. My long freight will be around 38 wagons and my clayliner 30. It takes quite a time to set the stock up on this layout. The first time out I ran different stock on the Saturday and Sunday but my fellow operators have since explained to me that it is a bad thing to do; it causes a lot of unnecessary work on Sunday morning. I get plenty of advice from my fellow operators....

I hate those layouts where someone just plonks as much track as they can down on a flat baseboard.

Until the range increases dramatically TT:120 will be very much a train set scale; it won't be possible to build a serious model railway for the foreseeable future. I still haven't got over the Dawlish layout running nothing but LNER pacifics. Could have been a good layout if they had done it in N and used suitable stock. The HSTs and 50s will improve that layout no end but that layout will still only have two classes of relevant motive power and there doesn't appear to be anything else suitable in the planning stages. You just can't make a proper model railway from the stock announced so far. TT:120 remains ideal for train sets though. It will be interesting to see whether other manufacturers bring out any locos. It would be a big risk but it could just be a good move.

Surely not to cyclists though.....

But the rules of the road don't apply to cyclists.

So how do electric cars get on through fords and floods? I guess everything is nicely sealed so they are ok.

The hope and intention is that Warley at Statfold will be an annual event. October was the traditional time for the Warley show. The NEC bumped us back to November because of other bigger shows they had at the time.

And I’m sure members of Warley club will be Stafford either helping or as paying visitors. Stafford exhibition is quite probably the biggest club run event in the country and always well worth a visit.

? Sorry I don’t understand this. If it’s referring to me I have mentioned that I am a member of Warley club many times over a many years in various threads.

As a long term member of Warley club and therefore likely to be biased in favour of Warley I have to say that I always thought the layouts at GETS were good quality. I rate GETS as a very good show. I'm told that, in order to avoid any overcrowding, there will be a limit to the number of tickets available each day for Warley at Statfold. No doubt more details will emerge later on this.

They have private functions there as well. You could get married there if you wanted.

Great modelling. I will pass the photos over to the layout team.

Before I went to Statfold Barn last April I had absolutely no intention of building an 009 layout, not even the slightest itch. Some time last year I started coming up with plans for an 009 layout and now Warley club is building an 009 layout to my design. I am or course very much part of the team building this layout. Maybe the Statfold Barn visit provided inspiration for my change of direction. I might start a thread about the layout build.

I would agree it is not the best weekend but it was the only one available at Statfold Barn this year. Next year's date will almost certainly be better from this point of view. I know GETS and Farnham are great shows as I have visited and exhibited at both of them. I am sad that I will inevitably miss GETS this year but I am really looking forward to spending the weekend at Statfold Barn. It will be my second weekend there as I am exhibiting at the April Statfold Barn model railway exhibition. I don't think layouts for the Warley at Statfold exhibition will be a problem as there are plenty of high quality layouts around. Traders could be more of a problem but I'm told the emphasis will be on attracting the smaller specialist trade stand; the kind that generally could not do the NEC. I have not seen many of those smaller specialists at GETS so hopefully getting the right traders will not be a major issue either. As the proposal to put on this exhibition was only finalised during last week nobody will have been invited yet. I know there are a number of club members working hard on who to invite at the moment. I know I am not taking my Dawlish Warren layout as it was at the NEC last year and will be at Statfold Barn in April. That's more than enough!

I’m also building an 009 layout . I must be more of a fan of narrow gauge than I thought.

The clash with GETS is not a good thing. I normally visit GETS but the date we have was the only free weekend available at Statfold Barn. They are two quite different shows though. If I wasn’t involved I would probably go to one on the Saturday and the other on the Sunday. Personally I would expect there to be two model railway shows at Statfold each year. They are 6 months apart and as a visitor I would happily go to both. In fact I am going to both as I am taking my layout to the April show. I’m not really a narrow gauge fan but I do love Statfold Barn Railway.

Just released to the press. The Warley Model Railway Club has teamed up with the Statfold Narrow Gauge Museum Trust Ltd to hold a brand new railway modelling showcase event at the Trust’s Statfold Country Park venue near Tamworth, Staffordshire. Branded as Warley at Statfold the event is planned for the weekend of the 12 & 13 October 2024 and entry tickets will include an exciting new-look model railway exhibition, full access to the Museum’s locomotive and stock collection, unlimited train rides on both the 2' and 12½" gauge railways and the chance for visiting families to enjoy numerous children’s themed attractions also on the site. The exhibition is to be hosted by the Warley MRC and will see up to 30 quality layouts displayed across a variety of scales and gauges, along with a choice selection of specialist retail trade stands and manufacturers. A revamped programme of modelling demonstrations is also being formulated that will reflect the emerging techniques, technologies and demographics of today’s modern and diverse hobby. Statfold has the largest collections of narrow gauge locomotives in the country, all of which will be open to view in the adjacent museum, or in action on any one of the outdoor railway circuits where visitors can hop-on and hop-off the full size trains as they loop through and around the beautiful country park setting. Warley MRC Exhibition Manager Nigel Smith said; “This new and inspiring venture is not just the old Warley National Model Railway Show reloaded. It’s about the club and our associated charity moving forward within the dynamics of this ever- popular hobby. By joining forces with the people at Statfold, we can mitigate those daunting factors which resulted in the winding up of our NEC event, and continue the club’s endeavours and charitable aims to promote the benefits and merits of railway modelling to the wider public. All-in-all this will make for a splendid and invigorating day out for established enthusiasts and family groups alike.” The Statfold venue has ample on-site free parking. A free connecting bus service to and from Tamworth railway station and the town centre will be provided for those travelling by public transport. Catering services will also available, situated at various locations within the country park. Further details will be available in due course via the Statfold Country Park web site: https://www.statfold.com/ and the Warley MRC show web site: https://thewarleyshow.co.uk/ Or by emailing the club on: warleymrccio@gmail.com Warley Model Railway Club, Unit 1F, Pearsall Drive, Oldbury, West Midlands, B69 2RA Registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) Charity No: 1153792

Love it! One can't help feeling there may be a couple of minor heath & safety issues.

They are all toy trains really. Everyone will have their own set of wants to class their layout as a model railway. Nobody is right or wrong, just different opinions which are all equally valid. Everyone should do whatever makes them happy and nobody should criticise them. having said that here are my criteria for a model railway:- 1 Rail sides must be painted. Shiny bright rail sides really does mean train set. 2. Weathered stock. Unweathered stock straight out of the box just looks plasticky and so train set. 3. Buffer details added. Locos on proper model railways have hoses and couplings on the front buffer beams. Train sets have holes in the buffer beams. 4. Reasonably believable train formations. Too many train sets at exhibitions feature a diesel hauling brightly coloured seven plank coal wagons. I’m all for folk doing whatever they want in the privacy of their own home but that sort of thing should never be seen in public. 5. This may be a tad controversial. A train set is where tracks have been laid on a flat board and scenery built around it. A proper model railway recognises that land is never absolutely level (except for the workers houses at Swindon) and land height is often lower than the level of the track. It appears to me that most train set builders are members of the flat earth society. Well that’s how I judge things. Others will have different criteria and that is fine by me. I would never say anyone doing any of the above is wrong , they just have different equally valid criteria. The most important thing is to enjoy what you are doing.

In the UK the "normal" situation is as follows:- Trade exhibitors pay for their space at a rate determined by the exhibition manager or team. Sometimes trade exhibitors can have free drinks at a show Layout exhibitors get re-imbursed for fuel and van hire (if required) . Layout exhibitors are also usually provided with free tea & coffee (often made by themselves in a designated room) and lunch. Lunch can vary from a sandwich through mini fish & chips to a cooked meal. Warley provided a cooked meal at the NEC and Taunton club provide a voucher which goes a long way towards the excellent meals cooked by the catering staff at their venue. Where overnight accommodation is required a hotel is provided complete with breakfast. Layout exhibitors pay for their own evening meal and any incidental food etc. Some layout exhibitors will not want expenses if they think the show is for a good cause. Club layouts going to other clubs shows will work on the same basis as individuals. The costs of the layout operators will be covered but no donation to the club is expected. Sometimes one club provides stewards for another club's exhibition and the exhibiting club may make a donation to the club that helped out in this way. The above is the way it mostly works but are not hard rules. I know of one show where they do not provide food or drinks to layout exhibitors. I don't like this so the last time I was invited there I said no thank you. Some layout exhibitors have tried to charge a lot on their expenses, for instance wanting 45p per mile for their car. If that happens they will not be invited again. Quite a few exhibition managers state a mileage rate which makes fuel costs clearer but I would often want less than that to cover my actual fuel costs. The above arrangements seem to be quite equitable to me.

I would expect that Key and Warners need to make a profit on every show because they are businesses and profit is what keeps a business going in the long term. A club can afford to just scrape an excess of income over expenditure and be happy whereas a business must get a reasonable return on any investment. Businesses do have professional people who are organising exhibitions all the time which will help them put on a show that is highly cost effective.

A problem for exhibition managers is that exhibitors have very variable wants and needs. This year we are going to one exhibition where the layout operators are happily paying the cost of van hire ourselves. We decided we wanted to go to that exhibition and we also wanted to support the organisation putting on the show so why not? Conversely I have turned down an invitation to a commercially run show this year simply because they don't provide a lunch or even a cup of tea to exhibitors. I have been to this show before and ramped up my expenses to cover tea and lunch but this time I couldn't be bothered - its their loss. This sort of illustrates that the way a show looks after its exhibitors is likely to have an affect on the quality of the show. An exhibition not arranging accommodation should be expected to put some layout exhibitors off attending. On the other hand it would be preferred by me. Maybe, as suggested above, exhibition managers should offer the two options - arranged accommodation or an accommodation allowance. Could be best of both worlds for all concerned.