TEAMYAKIMA

Please do come over and introduce yourself to us on Beijiao

Many thanks for your comments - I will be dealing with this issue today. 🙂

As if to prove how close I think the layout is to being 'finished', I will show you some of the 'major issues' I've been dealing with lately - some of which have been 'major issues' ever since our very first exhibition! The first 'major issue' - When I first laid the industrial track, I laid the important tracks (the through road and the platform road) with concrete sleepers as if they had been updated at some time. but I laid the sidings with wooden sleepered track. However, I randomly inserted some concrete sleepers to show that when the wooden sleepers had needed repair they had used the more modern concrete sleepers, but in my haste (six years ago) to get the layout ready for its first show I had just washed black paint over all the track and so the subtlety of that 'feature had been somewhat (literally) overshadowed .................... Now, having finally got some spare time to deal with these really big issues, I've gone back and sorted the problem 😉

TBH I was a bit confused when I first read the topic heading. When I read "What would you like to see at an exhibition, but have never seen happen?" I must admit that the first thing that jumped into my head was "My layout run faultlessly!" but I soon realised that I had misunderstood the question. 🤔

Paul is sitting here with paintbrush in hand! 😉

Al Turners WW2 German N gauge layout "THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN" is a homage to the film of the same name and features cameos linked to other films, such as "The Dam Busters" and "Ice Cold in Alex" He is also planning a cameo based on "The Great Escape"

From personal experience, I think that there is a lot of truth in that attitude - not 100% true, of course, but even so it can be very true - to an extent it depends on what demographic you are trying to please. If there is a large 'general public' audience at a show then constant movement is what they want, but if the audience is dominated by serious railway enthusiasts then serious operation is called for. But, I think, serious railway operation can reach out to the general audience if it is explained to them and whilst cards and posters can work, nothing beats a front-of-house man explaining why things are happening as they are. Human interaction with the audience is very important if you want them to understand anything more than roundy-roundy operation - most of the general audience know nothing of a lot of what has been discussed here (slip coaches etc) and therefore they can't engage with it like a serious enthusiast can.

A member of Twickenham MRC made one many years ago. I think it was G scale and the horse's legs were jointed and actually moved and it was the legs that really dragged the thing along but I only saw it on his demo stand diorama rather than a layout.

Someone sent me sound files of various Chinese steam loco Horns some years ago - from Australia I think. They are the same sound files that were used on the first sound module set-up last year, the only difference is that there are now three distinct 'channels' feeding into three speakers. Yes, everything has been tested and the modules have been built into the layout and they work in situ - all good 😊

Yes, that was done as well. Assuming that everything works out OK it should add something to the whole banking 'experience' and in that context we are going to experiment at our next show (Taunton) with a new protocol. The industrial operator will flag up to the other team members that he is ready to send a banked train up the grade. The other operators will hold back from sending new trains into the scenic section, but they can/will start trains out of the fiddle yard but hold them 'off-scene'. Once the scenic section is clear, the industrial operator will set of the sound modules and then once the last banker has replied he will start the train off on its way. The other operators will wait until the bankers have disappeared from view and then immediately send their mainline trains into the scenic section. Assuming that we have a 'front-of-house' man on duty, he will warn viewers as to what is about to happen so that they can set up their video cameras and capture the whole scene without mainline trains getting in the way. I must emphasise that this will be an experiment at Taunton - we hope it will make the banking move far more prominent as it is one of our main USP's and in the past it has never caught the public's attention as much as we had hoped - it has always been somewhat 'in the background' both physically and psychologically.

Yes, although technically it's merely an upgrade of something we've had in the past - let me explain .............................. In the long run up to our last show (Keighley) I asked my good friend Steve to make me a sound module to replicate the 'messaging' between the train loco and the two bankers whereby a message is sent from lead loco to the bankers that the lead loco was ready to head off up the 1/30 climb up to the steelworks. Using a simple push button hidden in the backscene the industrial operator could set the sounds in motion - there were 'large' speakers hidden in the buildings - the speaker lined up with the lead loco would sound off and a few seconds later the two bankers would reply in the two speakers set at the rear of the train - or at least that is what I thought would happen! Not for the first time, but hopefully for the last time, the problem of not being able to easily set boards up at home for testing brought my efforts crashing down and when we tried the idea at Keighley it didn't work. Once back from Keighley I looked into why it didn't work and I discovered a basic mistake (which I had made) which had burnt out one of the two sound modules - only the lead loco module now worked. So I had to send the existing module back to Steve for repair, but this time I asked him for a couple of upgrades. 1. Originally, there had been quite a long gap between the lead loco sounding off and the first banker replying - that has now been cut from 7 seconds to 3.5 seconds. 2. Originally, the two bankers sounded off in mono even though I had actually installed two speakers for them i.e. an individual speaker for each banker. So, as Steve was going to do quite a bit of work already, I asked him to separate the three sounds into the three speakers. So, in theory, if a viewer is standing directly across from the bankers they should hear banker #1 in their right ear, followed by banker #2 in their left ear. Whether anyone notices that unless it's flagged up for them, I don't know and TBH I can't be 100% sure that they will notice it even if it is flagged up to them - but at least we tried! 😉

Something very interesting arrived in the post today....

I have created a rough groundwork using kitty litter. It is designed to represent 'rough ground' where an old marshalling yard may have been in the past - long since abandoned. I painted it with Revell acrylic paint #87 - dark earth - and it came out a realistic looking darkish brown as shown in the (1) area. But it needed touching up and so I've bought more of the same paint and applied it over the top and it's dried different colour - far greyer - as shown in the (2) zone and I don't like it as much. I think this photo shows the difference - and I have stirred the paint very well. Can anyone please suggest a good, easily obtainable, paint to represent 'groundwork'? m

Wow! That must have been some disagreement. I regret that I have to say, "Tell me more!" (please)

Returning to the setting up, there is a bigger issue for bigger layouts. By that I mean a 'big' layout like mine cannot be set up in 90 minutes on a Saturday morning, we like to be setting up from any time after 12pm (Warley) and many/most medium size shows are in schools and that often means that we can't get the boards into the hall before 5pm. Setting up takes several hours because we now have to have a lighting canopy and display boards etc etc and it all takes time. Another problem is accommodation - how far away from the hall is the hotel? And what time can we get breakfast on the Saturday? Usually, on a Saturday breakfast in a hotel is 8am and if the hotel is 30 minutes door-to-door from the venue (for cheapness) then you're not going to get much time on the Saturday before doors open especially if there is early-entry for pre-paid tickets. Luckily, most shows don't have the 'perfect storm' of all those issues, but I/we do take all those issues into account - we want to be in the pub by 8pm on the Friday at the very latest!!!!

Next 'little job' was to weather a couple of new recruits - I weathered the frame and deck, but decided to leave the cabs as delivered except for some matt varnish. That's when the 'fun' started as most of those detaily bits along the sides of the frames are add-ons' and simply pushed into place - result, with handling they come off. Several hours later having scoured the floor, I found all the missing bits which had simply fallen off and now they're all glued in properly - two hours of my life wasted! It appears that one of the loco crews on the industrial railway had complained about the state of the ground signals and so management have sent someone out to deal with the problem

As the owner of a large 'exhibition-only' layout, this is a very interesting thread.

Ok, here's the final version. My next previously over-looked 'problem' - these XingXing G60 tank cars. They were fitted with end steps made out of a rubber material - to avoid getting them easily broken I guess - but the downside is that they tended to curl up as in this photo and this isn't the worst example!

As previously reported, I have been going back and 'finishing' things which may have been rushed in the past. One such thing is the depot building (my choice of expression - as opposed to station building). I always thought the very top of the walls looked 'odd' and so today have tried to address that - here is a photo with the job 2/3rds done.

I think that there are several factors - some of which might be : 1. People in general have lost the concept of a 'club' in the sense that every member shares the responsibility to make that club 'work'. Back in the day (1960's/70') my club had very active general meetings (four per year) which would sometimes go on for two hours or more as members queued up to voice their opinions on every issue facing the club - nowadays we have just our AGM which can be over in 20 minutes. Members now leave decision making 'to the committee'. 2. In that same context, people are used to 'paying a bit extra' rather than contributing by helping out. For example, if you join a gym you don't expect to stay behind and tidy up the place, turn out the lights, lock up etc - you pay the company who owns the gym to hire someone to do that for you. In a model railway club that's not the way it works! 3. The very fact that many/most clubs are dominated by 'old people' might tend to put youngsters off. Generally speaking we tend to bond more with people where we have things in common to chat about - music, films, culture - and I am aware that I would share very few such interests with someone 40 years younger than me.

My apologies - I was not clear enough. To me 'the hobby' is exhibiting at exhibitions. I accept that I may be unusual, but I have virtually no interest in a home layout, but each of us have a different take on 'the hobby'.

That quote reminded me of a similar thing back in the earl 1980's when I was exhibiting what I think was unique back then - an American O gauge layout - Wyandotte Transfer. Once we had set up and before the public were admitted, I went out into the gangway just to see how the layout looked. At this point the barrier team arrived and before they started to assemble our barrier the team leader looked my layout up and down and said, in a strong Welsh accent, "There's some people who like this sort of thing, I suppose." I must admit that m view is almost the exact opposite - almost any foreign layout is usually more interesting to me than the average British one. Why? Because I've been going to exhibitions for about 60 years and I've seen just about ever conceivable 'take' on British model railways. Whereas, a good layout of a country, about which I know little, is educational, interesting and thought-provoking.

I couldn't agree more - put me down for that (postcard unavailable at this time)

I will certainly be making the journey from Watford with my friend from Barnet - it looks like it will be a fantastic show - and just the kind of show that we need to support to keep the hobby going!

Whilst I entirely agree with you, I think the original post refers more to exhibitions being run by companies like Hornby Magazine (Key Publishing?) and BRM (Warners)