Chris M

The platform on Hortus Halt is made from around 2,000 individually laid coffee stirrers. The guy who laid them is still receiving counselling.

Hortus Halt is an unusual layout at this years show. It belongs to Warley club and is designed to be a portable representation of a garden railway rather than a typical model railway. It is G scale and, all being well, will feature both Thomas and an" exploding" truck. If you have youngsters with you the might like it. This layout is at far corner of the hall close to the Bachmann sales stand. I've heard a rumour that Harry Potter might be on board one of the trains.

I've been involved with the Warley show since well before it was at the NEC. It's been wonderful to see it grow into what it is today. We took a massive risk in going to the NEC. The main reason for going to the NEC was to create a showpiece for the wonderful world of model railways. It has been very successful and has grown from the smallest hall at the NEC to the largest. It is still quite a unique show and we have at least one full size exhibit every year. We also have a number of layouts brought across from Europe every year. Although foreign layouts aren't to everyone's taste it's great to see what is often a slightly different approach. Because there are over 90 layouts there is a fantastic variety with some of the best modelling you will see and also some interesting oddities. We also have the winners of the Great Model Railway Challenge together with a few other layouts from the programme. You might just see "Stern Steve Flint" on the Peco stand. A lot of effort has been made to attract small trade exhibitors as well as the big boys. All the magazines are there and usually the editors are there in person. We also make a special effort to have as many railway, preservation and modelling societies as possible although there has to be a limit of around 50 stamds. This provides a great chance to chat to societies you are interested in and maybe join them. Then there is what is almost certainly the largest collection of demonstrators at any show. In order to encourage youngsters we now have a junior admission price of just £1 which applies to both days. We believe it is a great show and the main driver behind it is to enhance our hobby. Perhaps the most amazing thing is that this show is put on by a bunch of amateurs; basically just ordinary club members. There are no paid staff and there is no big business behind the scenes although we are very grateful that we have our sponsors. There are a lot of people giving up their time for free to make the show happen every year. We all just do it for the good of the hobby and the thrill of being there. We just love to see lots of people there enjoying a day out. In all those years I have never been hit by a rucksack bit I have seen thousands of happy people. I recommend that you all buy a two day ticket so you have time to fully enjoy it all!

How did you know? I'm not all that well at the moment but will make the effort to be there over the weekend. Hopefully... As I said in the above post, if anyone has a problem don't be afraid to ask for help, that's what all those people are there for.

Sunday is always quieter and is fine for seeing the layouts. If you don't like crowds then Sunday is the day to go. Just to clarify people shouldn't use the void part of the hall; it isn't part of the exhibition and you have no right to be there. You won't be clamped in irons for being there but you may well be asked to leave the void and go back into to the exhibition. If anyone has any problems of any kind there is plenty of help available. There is the Warley club information stand by the entrance who can contact all sorts of people and Warley stewards wearing bright yellow "here to help" tee shirts scattered around the hall . These stewards do not generally have radios. The NEC staff wear red jackets, they have a radio and will be very helpful, especially if medical assistance is required. There are also some Warley club members with maroon jackets who will help but they are often being pulled in many directions at the same time.

Oh good - I have a Civic Sport so I should be OK.

The leeway that has traditionally been allowed does appear to be slowly disappearing. Its probably best to assume it doesn't exist. I always stick to 70 (well 73 on the speedo which is 70 on my current car) motorways with overhead cameras or those smart motorways where they have average speed cameras. I am told Stafford area don't give any leeway and also most of Wales. You can often get an indication of how things are in an area by the behaviour of other drivers. If everyone else is doing around 80 on the speedo its probably OK but if you suddenly find lots of cars are doing 70 it could well be because the police are hot in that area. My expectation is that, if the planned legislation requiring new cars to not be able to exceed the speed limit comes in then all leeway will also go. Otherwise why would anyone buy a new car? Don't assume that all speedos over estimate speed. Nearly all do but I had one car which when the speedo showed 120 kph I was doing exactly 2 kilometres in 1 minute. How do I know? Those French motorways are very long and you have to find ways to alleviate the boredom. In the days before satnavs that is how I checked the accuracy of my speedo.

My last but one layout, although WR based, was inspired by the Harborne branch.

No thanks, I like to plough my own furrow. I'm currently working on my own new project.

All the best with this project. I've cycled along the route and seen some of the old photos. Modelling the urban scene takes a lot more time than rural but it is more interesting. Always thought Rotton Park would make a nice little station.

So aliens who are so advanced that they can cross the huge void of space come to have a look at earth but do not want is to see them. After flying all that way they get here and forget to switch the lights off on their spaceship. Unlikely.

Hope all goes well at Warley. It's one of the harder shows for exhibitors as there are so many people viewing the layout all day. No time to rest. The layout I'm involved with has been in-store since it's last outing back in July. It will be fine.

Around 1968 I travelled from Newton Abbot to Newquay (with my mom as I was only a young lad) and was told to change at Bodmin Road. I always wondered why the advice from the railway man was to change at Bodmin Road rather than Par; it seemed like strange advice. You may well have solved a mystery that has been with me most of my life! I'm glad we changed trains there as it inspired this. Shame about the headcode.

Just to confirm what Paul said. I would not recommend going on Saturday if you don't like crowds. Sunday is usually ok. There are a lot of people around and crowd control just before opening time but this all goes quite quickly after 10:00. There is a void area which isn't for use by the public. I would say in your circumstances it would be ok to go there for a bit of piece and quiet. Just explain your situation if anyone asks. If you have any difficulties speak to someone at the information stand just inside the hall. You could just ask for me if you run into difficulties as all those in red jackets know me.

For me they didn't capture my imagination . I think the boiler in the tender put me off. The 16mm live steam scene is thriving. I think this is because the boiler is the boiler, the valve gear is the valve gear, the pistons actually drive the wheels and plenty of steam comes out the chimney. Obviously this sort of thing just isn't possible in oo. The Hornby effort was a good try but not close enough to a real steam engine for me.

When you have a GWR/WR terminus the brake van has to run veranda first wither when coming into the terminus or when going back out. So exactly 50% of the freight workings on my layout had the brake van veranda first. Rather oddly I did get a few comments that the brake van was the wrong way round at exhibitions. I was always careful to be polite when I explained. In this photo the pannier is about to run round the assembled freight train ready to go back down the branch.

I have never ever found a pre common rail diesel good to drive. Even the Peugeot diesels, which were supposedly the best, had an extremely narrow power band. As soon as they started to get some oomph you ran out of revs. The first common rail diesel I ever drove was a Rover 600 with am L series diesel. At the time it was a revelation. Six months ago I would have strongly agreed that I prefer diesel to petrol but I changed to a petrol with a large turbo earlier this year and now this is easily my preference.

I have mostly bought and enjoyed diesel cars since the "modern" diesel engines appeared but, with the exception of some Mercs (which I have never owned), I really don't see diesels as being classics. I kind of associate V petrol engines inside a nice car with being classics. Mind you the Honda Civic 2.2 diesel that I recently sold was brilliant for torque, acceleration and fuel economy...

No, didn't know about that but it sounds very interesting. I saw all I wanted above ground but I imagine they must have some interesting and maybe obscure blasts from the past down below. Maybe next time....

I recommend visiting Hereford Model Centre. It's a fantastic Alladin's cave of a place with all sorts of wonderful stuff on display. I've only been a couple of times but really enjoyed having a mooch.

There will be small numbers of the limited edition wagons from previous years on sale.

There is no show wagon this year . Interest had started to wain. There have been quite a lot of special show wagons over the years, some by Warley club and some by Virgin Trains. I designed the first ever Warley show wagon way back in the days before we went to the NEC some 31 years ago.

I would have voted for stern Steve as best judge if he was on the list.

That's a really useful photo thanks. I think that is the colour scheme I will go for.

Had a wander around this evening. There are some great looking layouts there.