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Certainly seems to be a media feeding frenzy at the moment. Never mind toilet paper and pasta though, have you got enough solder and solvent to build all those unmade kits stashed away in drawers?

Good to see this mentioned. Those who pay to attend have a simple choice. For those exhibiting, it is more complex. If you are taking a layout, can you still get enough operators? Mine is front operated, so will be right next to the public and there may be a smell of meths if I decided to wipe the barriers from time to time. How many layouts dropping out does it take to make the show questionable? Traders meanwhile pay a lot of money to attend. Can they still get enough staff? Meanwhile, if attendance falls significantly, will they make enough money to cover their expenses? I don't envy the organisers in their decision making, but exhibitors also face the responsibility of deciding if it is worth the risk attending on health and/or financial grounds, which is a lot more to think about than simply paying on the door.

Haven't logged on here for a while, so apologies for not responding. The drawing I used is included in the Alphagraphix card kit E25 [p18 of2019 catalogue], which is the CVR tractor unit. Costs the princely sum of £4.

Atkinson-Walker Steam Tractor Fintonagh has a new piece of motive power, in the form of the much maligned AW steam tractor. The prototype never turned a wheel in revenue earning service, but seemed ideal as a yard shunter for my new project. Add in a set of Worsley Works etches and a suitable RTR chassis [both from ExpoNG] and a fairly straightforward construction resulted. The WW etches are actually for 'Pheonix', which Henry Forbes converted the tractor to for the Donegal. Hence I had to make a couple of adaptations to the bodywork, while the chassis actually 16.5mm gauge, needed new 17.5mm wheels and regauging to my 21mm track. New pick ups too, but it has a flywheel, drives on both axles and with plenty of weight runs well with a Gaugemaster HH controller. A basic interior has been fashioned from various odds and ends to represent the vertical boiler and two cylinder 'engine', while livery is Halfords grey primer. Lettering is by hand, using a dipping pen and white ink, with weathering powders adding a touch of grime.

Uckfield By and large, Fintonagh's debut went well, though not without a couple of early problems. Setting up was quick and easy, but trying to run trains was a different matter, with a short as soon as power was applied. Not good when there is less than an hour before Joe Public arrives... Happily, the problem was soon traced to two tags behind the controller socket touching each other. A quick tweak and all was well; am guessing I must have pushed them together when carrying the layout to/from the car. However, no sooner that problem solved than the turntable stopped working! Lots of noise, but no movement. Fortunately the gearbox is easy to dismantle and just putting it back together again cured the problem. So, third time lucky and we were away. The only problems after that were down to the couplings. The rare earth magnets largely work well with the Kadee No5s, but are not perfect. The main issue is sighting the uncoupling points obliquely from either end of the the layout, which is front operated. The 'window' is probably less than 5mm, so it is as well that all the locos run nicely, though there was a bit to much to-ing and fro-ing to begin with until we got our eye in. One or two wagons were reluctant to couple up, so I guess things were about 80-90% efficient. Equally, as a first experience of operating from the front [with 90+ shows under my belt], it turned out not bad at all. Sitting on high stools certainly saves aching feet at the end of the show. The LED lighting strips, one towards the rear and one just under the front pelmet, seem to give just the right amount of illumination, with the 'cool white tones' giving a good colour balance too. Meanwhile, as a small layout, just eight trips are needed to/from the car and much to our surprise, we were driving away just 15 minutes after the show ended. There are only four trains at the moment, but the plan is to add a couple more locos, to provide a bit more variety and a degree of insurance in the event of any failures. Lots of people took details, so looks light Fintonagh will be out and about over the next few years.

Had the privilege of being invited two years ago with Arigna Town and if there is a finer venue anywhere for a model railway show, I've yet to see it. Utterly fabulous to be surrounded by real engines and met 100s of lovely people. SE England to Belfast for a one day show was quite an adventure, but so worth it. The museum itself is stunning - add in a quality model show and you have a super day out.

Thanks, Adrian - very much looking forward to the showy Fintonagh is my take on the Clogher Valley Railway in Northern Ireland. The prototype never had and branches off its 'mainline' from Tynan to Maguiresbridge, but to fit the space I had available, I've created one, with shades of Fintona, of horse tram fame. 7mm scale, 21mm gauge, it is also in the style of my 'Loose End Tramway', which appeared at Uckfield too many years ago, in that it is a cameo town centre scene, with the railway hemmed in by buildings. The CVR locos were all 0-4-2Ts, with tramway skirts, that always went cab first. There were also two diesels, a tractor unit and Railcar No 1, which went to the Donegal when the line closed in the early 1940s. Here are a few more pictures.

Have only ever used ordinary Halfords grey or red spray primer. Most of the time it works well, but edges can suffer from wear, chipping etc. One way around this that works well on black locos is before spraying on the primer, first use gun blue [or other metal black], then go over this with a black spirit marker pen. Seems to work well. not my idea - comes from a Martyn Welch article in MRJ.

Excellent show - we were very well looked after. Many thanks to all the team.

Chatham & District Model Railway Club regrets that it will not be holding its annual exhibition in 2019. This is because our organising committee [already rather stretched] has had two members step down, so it was felt we currently do not have sufficient personnel to plan the next show. We hope the situation is only temporary and that there will be new exhibitions in the future. There will however, be no exhibition in June next year.

Thank you, but there are a set in the kit, including an outline drawing.

Looking good, John - some nice 'gingerbread' detail in there!

At Guildex last weekend, I was fortunate to acquire a J15 kit from the remnants of Richard Chown's estate. It is etched brass [no castings] and comes under the label of TDM and Studio Scale Models. TDM stands for Terry McDermott of Dublin. The etchings are actually dated 1985, but the kit is 1998 as this is the date of the letter Terry sent to Richard with the kit, reminding him he still owed £2.50 P&P! Any info on this kit would be most welcome, especially any thoughts on where to source castings for buffers, springs, axle boxes, safety valves, cab detail etc. At the moment, all I have is a chimney and dome, though there is a nice outline drawing included.

A bit of an Irish theme this year, with two layouts depicting 'over the water'. My own Arigna Town [sLNCR] and Tony Ragg's Stanfording [mostly NCC]. Alphagraphix there too as the main trader in all things Irish, so if you are tired of the move to RTR, come and say hello.

Indeed they were. Jonathan Beaumont's splendid book shows No57 at Westport, in original condition, with the double smokebox doors. Lovely! If you can blow the etches up to 7mm scale, I'll certainly buy one.

Railway Modeller Magazines 1970 - 1987; also 1959-1964 Many fully bound Also several pre-war Model Railway News and same 1964-1971 'Modern Railway Working' 1913 Nine volumes, very much bound like early Encyclopedia Britannicas. Amazing for any historian. Quite a lot of 1980s BR operating manual too, mostly Southern Region area These all seem too good to go in the skip, but we need to clear some space! Contact davidholman05@gmail.com Club nights are Tuesdays and Fridays 7.30-10pm for anyone interested. Note we cannot dispatch, whoever wants them must collect, one a first come basis.

Been working on the presentation side of things, so the layout now has a full frame/proscenium arch a la Rice, which I guess means it is a 'cameo' layout. LED strip lighting is used - one strip stuck to the underside of the pelmet's framing, with a second strip in one of LED Hut's aluminium frames, which seem excellent. Power for the lighting is fed up a central gallows bracket, which also aligns the two back scene boards and carries two clips for the framing. Meanwhile, the railcar trailer has been rebuilt. It didn't show too badly in the photos, but I'd made a right mess of the glazing, while the sides bowed in too. Not nice... The third photo shows a pair of rare earth magnets [5mm dia x 10mm length] that I'm using as uncouplers for the Kadee No 5s. Fingers crossed, they are working well, though still need to add discreet markers, so operators at either end can spot where they are without moving in front of the viewers. The Uckfield debut draws ever closer!

Never alone with a clone 0-4-2T Blackwater, now has a friend, with a second Ragstone Models kit, completed in the form of 'Erne'. These are very nice kits - the only real difficulty being forming the smokebox wrapper. A Mashima motor and 30:1 gearbox [both from Branchlines] powers it, while it was always the case of doing a green engine, to contrast with Blackwater's crimson. By the end of the 1930s, Erne was apparently pretty run down and scruffy, while Blackwater got a repaint. I can now [sort of] recreate the cover picture of E M Patterson's book on the CVR.

Fintonagh at last has a fiddle yard! Board built a while ago, but have now made the track, plus alignment bolts and wiring

Thanks for the comments folks. We always have a review meeting after the show, so we can endeavour to correct what was wrong. Can only apologise re-signage: since we downsized, we have deliberately cut down on this due to costs. However, am fairly sure the flier was put on the website and that had a map, but will see what we can do in future. As for Arun Quay, whisper it quietly, have been friends with the Gravetts for years, so they stayed with the wife and I. Hence a very fine weekend, because they are every bit as nice as they come across at shows, which I'm sure will not surprise anyone who has met them.

A huge thank you to all exhibitors and traders for your time and efforts over the weekend. General consensus is that it was a good show & well received, though the two posts above show you can't please everyone! Thanks to the splendid efforts of our own and visiting stewards, the halls were cleared by 6.15pm, so very much hope everyone had a safe journey home. it takes a massive effort to put on a show like this, so our thanks and appreciation to all involved.

Best wishes to all exhibitors at Chatham this weekend. May your layouts and demonstrations run exceedingly well, with really good takings for all traders.

Thanks again, Richie! Last minute preparations today, with our hired van filled up this afternoon with all the show essentials. Teapots [of course], but electrics, barriers, signs, hopups, trolleys and other stuff, ready for setting up in the morning, when it will be all hands on deck to mark out the two halls, put in cable runs, add tables & chairs, plus sort out envelopes for all the exhibitors. For a show this size, we probably have as wide a variety as possible, with Z, N, 2mm fine scale, 3mm, HO, HOe, 009, 00, EM, 0 and 0 5'3. Layouts cover prototypes from USA, UK, Ireland, France, Austria. Scroll up to see photos of many of the layouts. We look forward to welcoming visitors from 10am on Saturday and will be happy to receive comments here afterwards. Don't forget it is Dickens Weekend down in Rochester, so why not make a full day of it and visit both events?

Thanks Richie! Apart from the layouts and traders, another BIG reason to visit the Chatham Exhibition is that 2nd-3rd of June is also the Dickens Festival in Rochester. The historic city comes alive with people in victorian costume celebrating one of Britain's greatest authors. Theatre, music, dance, walking tours - a whole host of activities in what is a major feature of the Medway calendar. All in all, a great day out for the whole family, so why not spend a couple of hours at the Model Railway Exhibition, as part of a wide array of events down by the river.

A general update about the show first: Car parking is as last year, with 250 spaces next to the school and plenty of on street parking too. Disabled drivers/visitors should go to the MAIN GATE and speak to the stewards, who will let you in and thereby avoid the 100m walk to the doors. Note that this only applies to those with disabled blue badges Mini bus service from Chatham station: the first bus will be around 9.30am. The trip is free and takes around 10 minutes. We hope to run a regular shuttle service from then on. Last bus will be just before 5pm on Saturday and 4pm Sunday. The EM Gauge Society have kindly offered to bring a soldering demonstration, along with their usual stand. Now another layout - Roberts Junction [00], by one of our younger members, who also puts in a lot of work on our permanent 00 layout in the Clubroom.