Eaton

WIGAN 2017 will be the fiftieth model railway exhibition held in Wigan. Much has changed in the intervening years, changes to the organising body from the Wigan & District Model Railway Society to the Wigan Finescale Railway Modellers, inevitably changes in personnel and considerable changes both within the hobby and within the exhibition scene. Back in the late 60's, early 70's a Hornby 'Flying Scotsman' would cost you £3 19s 6p, but as with many things in life you got what you paid for and it certainly seemed that the pricing policy was centred around an eleven year old boy's pocket money. The major manufacturers were in a dilemma as to where to pitch their products and ended up producing locos that fell halfway between a toy and a model. Hence serious modellers relied on detail kits to upgrade the ready to run (and sometimes it struggled to do that) or resorted to the whitemetal kit. How this has changed. Now the latest ready to run offerings are on a par with the best professionally built locos retailed at a fraction of the price. Certainly serious models but at no longer pocket money prices. Interestingly there is still a school of thought that thinks that quality can be obtained cheaply. Exhibitions have also changed. I can remember when it was a reciprocal arrangement whereby one club would bring their layouts to another clubs exhibition and visa versa. I have the Guidebook from our 1969 exhibition, cost one shilling and it lists 22 exhibits of which 10 were layouts and 6 were traders. I would think the financial risk was not very high and neither were the overheads as all of the layouts were local and two from within the club. Certainly no hotel accommodation, minimal catering, little insurance and low transport costs. I well remember the formula whereby the trade stand rentals covered the cost of the layouts and the admission revenue paid for the venue and almost guaranteed a reasonable surplus. Now we are in business mode as the financial risk is considerable and a surplus far from guaranteed. I also remember the days when an increase in visitor numbers could be predicted with a considerable degree of certainty. The eleven year old boy would drag his whole family along to an exhibition. To the young of today model railways are far from 'cool' as there are now many other pastimes that are clamouring for their short attention spans. In my opinion far to many are passive rather than requiring hands on involvement. Many youngsters will not know the joy to be derived from making. We now organise a large exhibition of 32 layouts and 40+ traders and it is not easy and certainly not a means to a goldmine. Financial prudence is certainly the name of the game and has a direct impact on the layouts that we can afford to invite and this is not the position we wish to be in. We are also a non-profit making company so all our surplus is invested in the subsequent years exhibition. The reverse is also true that should we make a loss we would be in serious trouble and the following years exhibition would be severely curtailed. Happily we have never made a loss but the position we wish to be in is that if we see a quality layout we can invite it to Wigan, regardless of where it comes from or how many operators need hotel accommodation. It is this that makes holding the exhibition worthwhile, we are not in it to just survive. Six years ago we increased our admission to £10. For two years it was bliss, we had the freedom to invite anybody and we produced quality exhibitions with many layouts previously not seen in the North West. During those six years our overheads have dramatically increased whilst the admission has stayed the same. Realistically we should be charging £12 and that would still not return us to the 2011 situation. The conundrum is that we need to either increase the ticket price or increase the number of visitors. Word of mouth has always been the most effective means of publicity and we would ask all those who have supported us over those 50 years to spread the word. Every extra visitor will improve next years exhibition and that is a promise. Exhibition Taster No. 2 on its way shortly.

Over the coming weeks we shall attempt to wet your appetite by showing 'Tasters' of layouts that will be appearing at WIGAN 2017. The photograph above features Simon Howard's 'WAINTHROP BRIDGE' which should feel completely at home in Wigan being as it is a 'Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway' layout set in the 1920's, albeit more Yorkshire than Lancashire. However I am sure that some of the locomotives and rolling stock must have run through Wigan. Things to Note: This year we have a vintage bus provided by The Transport Museum in St. Helens running from Wigan North Western Railway Station and the Exhibition at Robin Park. Also our ADVANCE TICKET facility available through our website www.wiganfrm.com is now in operation and tickets are now £8, a reduction of £1 on last years price. Lastly please be aware of the slight change of date, we are a week earlier than normal, SATURDAY 30th SEPTEMBER & SUNDAY 1st OCTOBER.

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PLEASE NOTE SLIGHT CHANGE OF DATE

Regarding Gresley Beat & Pempoul I stand corrected. Another example of the accuracy of the Railway Modelling Grapevine.

The 'Eaton Gomery' team would also like to add our thanks to Mal and the York Organising Team, it was as many have already said a most enjoyable weekend. As this was Eaton Gomery's final exhibition it seemed a perfect fitting that it should be at York, finishing as it were on a high. I believe it was also 'The Gresley Beat' and 'Pempoul's' last outing also, surly that is no coincidence. However, to any future prospective exhibitors a word of warning. Take the advice of the organisers who suggested that those exhibitors accommodated at the Wheatlands Lodge Hotel should use the school car park. We ignored this sound suggestion and chose instead to park on the tree lined road in front of the Hotel, it being we thought a more convenient option. Little did we know that the said trees where the roosting haunts of a particular breed of pigeon. This is a Yorkshire mutant stain that shares it's genes with a cow, cement mixer and a tube of super glue. Now we have pigeons in Lancashire and their droppings are easily removed with a hosepipe and a sponge. Not so this variant, it took me a full morning of hand washing and a trip to the car wash to remove a solid crusted layer of rock hard excrement. This substance has a super material quality that if a research programme is undertaken at the University could yield untold benefits to mankind, be they medical, industrial or technological. I have since found out that the figureheads on whaling ships leaving Whitby were carved from this material and that it was also used on many of the public buildings in North Yorkshire if they ran out of stone. I hasten to add that this predicament was totally my own fault as I failed to take notice of the organisers and as our own Wigan Exhibition Manager commented this is not a rare occurrence. Apparently I'm now the living embodiment of this trait and it is something of which I will be frequently reminded.

One thing appears certain and that being that peoples expectations from any exhibition are different, and rightly so, after all this is why the hobby is so special as it is a very broad church. As a consequence I do not expect every exhibit to appeal to me, rather it is up to me to find those that do. If I can't find any then it probably a case of me not looking hard enough. No Exhibition Manager deliberately presents a 'bad' show as no exhibitor deliberately sets out to build a poor layout and if you except that premise then you also need to except that there must have been something in the exhibit that prompted the Exhibition Manager to offer an invitation. The search for that elusive factor may encourage closer looking. If it turns out that the invitation was offered on the strength of the spectacular scenery then to criticise slow running or the movement or lack of movement is rather missing the point. Every layout is different and not all layouts will have everything, if they did would they not be a little similar. I for one like variety.

DCC, still not sure its the future, on 'Eaton Arches' will still stay with the tried and tested, may even revert to clockwork if this electric thing doesn't catch on. PT

There is a gap in the timetable as the GWR Railmotor has shredded its valve gear and needs a rebuild, but the crane may need a livery change if you are thinking of slipping it in as a subtle replacement.

Hasn't he turned up in 'The Bull' in Ambridge.