MarkSG

I don't know for certain, but I think you're right, yes. My reason for that assumption is that a quick eBay search shows both versions available from retailers (or, at least, both pictures being used to illustrate items on sale), but the open wheel version is both rarer and cheaper. Which suggests that it's from an older batch, which had a lower RRP when first released but is now close to being sold out, while the newer version is still readily available but has a higher RRP. I may be wrong, of course, but that seems a reasonable explanation.

Part of the issue - and I see this in other fields that I'm involved in, not just railway modelling - is that organising an event is a different skillset to publicising an event. Making sure that the event takes place as planned, all the elements are present and everything runs smoothly on the day is one thing. And a very difficult and timeconsuming thing it is, too. But making sure that potential visitors know all they need to know in order to make an informed decision on whether to attend is a different thing. And those two skills aren't necessarily found in the same person. They're not even necessarily found in the same team, if it's a small group of people putting on the event. Part of this is, I think, also related to the fact that communication skills are often under-valued. There's an old saying, that I think everyone will be familiar with, that "those who can, do, and those who can't, teach". But that's completely back to front. Teaching is harder than just doing, because you can't teach unless you can first do, but in order to teach you also have to be able to communicate how to do. And there are a lot of people who can do, but have no idea how to communicate what they do. Similarly, PR and marketing are often dismissed as just fluff and decoration, ancillary to the real work done by those creating the thing being marketed. To be sure, they depend on the existance of the thing in the first place - you can't market nothing - but effective communication is often the difference between the success or failure of a product, service or, in this case, event. In this context, it's worth bearing mind that the commercial shows, despite the somewhat snobbish perception of them by some people who think that the amateur club approach is the Only True Way, almost always have very good publicity. Events run by the likes of Warners, Key Model World, Meridienne, etc are supported by websites giving all the information you might want. Even a show run by a manufacturer, Rapido Railex, despite being relatively modest in terms of size, has very high quality publicity. And that's because they are run by organisations for which PR and marketing are fundamental to their operation. Of course, one of the advantages of a commercial organisation is that they can afford to employ people whose job is publicity - not just for their shows, but also their other operations. Clubs don't usually have that luxury. But if a club can find volunteers to do the work of actually organising the show, then it can, usually, also find volunteers to do the work of publicising it. For that to work, though, there needs to be a realisation that publicity is a standalone aspect of the process and not something that's simply an add-on to the work of an already overloaded exhibition manager. Just like you wouldn't have the show manager selling tea, coffee, cake and bacon rolls on the day (but you do think it's important to make sure someone does), don't dump publicity on the show manager if that's not their skillset. Maybe even consider paying someone to do it, if you're expecting to make a decent surplus from the takings. It doesn't take a lot of time and effort to put together an informative show website, provided you know what you're doing (and web development is my day job, so I can speak from experience here). The key thing is finding the person who knows what they're doing, and not assume that it will be the same person (or one of the same team) that's putting the show itself together.

The MMRS show is always a good example of effective pre-show publicity, particularly given that it's an event best visited by public transport so travel information is key. Other good examples are the Stafford show, and at the other end of the size spectrum, the Cheltenham show. I used to be a regular visitor to the MMRS show when I lived in Stoke, because it was, from there, a simple short and direct trip on the train. It's a bit beyond my normal range now that I've moved further south, although I did take the opportunity one year of visiting when I happened to be in the area on business - I travelled early on the Sunday so that I had time to visit the show before checking into my hotel in the evening.

I would love it if that were true!

While you are, of course, perfectly entitled to be interested in what you are interested in and not in what you aren't, you do have to accept that the above statement marks you out as both an atypical modeller and a long way from the core demographic of exhibition attendees. So your opinions, while entirely valid from your perspective, are of limited utility in helping exhibition organisers decide what forms of publicity are most likely to maximise visitor numbers and equally unhelpful in contributing to the wider discussion of what forms of publicity show visitors expect to see.

On the whole, I am a bit more likely to go to a show that has a reputation for treating its exhibitors well. That's one of the reasons why I like to see a thread about it here on RMweb, because if it is a show with a good reputation then that's almost always an opportunity for someone to say that "I'm really looking forward to taking my layout", or words to that effect. If the exhibitors are enthusiastic about a show then the chances are the organisers are on top of things and it will be a good show for visitors, too. Obviously you can't always rely on that, particularly for smaller shows where it's entirely possible that none of the exibitors are participants here. So the lack of exhibitor endorsement for a show wouldn't necessarily put me off. But it is a very positive sign when it does happen.

Throwing this out there as a general comment rather than a reply to any specific comment previously, this is what matters to me when making a decision on whether to visit a show or not. The information can, broadly speaking, be divided into "must have", "should have" and "nice to have". Taking them in order... Must have Firstly, I have to be certain that it's happening. That may seem a bit of an obvious statement, but it's surprising how many shows don't meet that requirement. If the only evidence for a show's existance is an entry on a listings website, with no link to the organiser's own website or social media, then there's no assurance it's actually going to take place. Equally, if there is a link to an organiser's website or social media, but that has no details of the show. Anyone can submit an entry to a listings website or the exhibition pages of the magazines, but the publishers have no way to verify that. When I was younger we pretty much had to take the Railway Modeller show guide as gospel, because there wasn't any realistic way to check it. But these days, with the ready availability of web and social media, there's zero excuse for any show organiser not publishing at least the basic details on their own wesite and/or Facebook page. Even if the show is actually happening, if they can't go to even that teeny tiny bit of effort in publicising it then I'd be inclined to wonder what else they can't be bothered to do, either. Assuming the show organiser does have their own website and/or FB page that gives the relevant details, then the bare minimum those need to tell me about the show is: Date/time Location Price Approximate number of layouts/traders Obviously, without a date and a location then I can't go anyway - I'm not psychic! But the admission fee and an indication of the size are essential for any show other than, possibly, one that's only a few minutes' drive away. I need to have an idea of whether the cost is value for money and whether the size of the show justifies the travel time. Should have Beyond that, nothing is absolutely essential, but there are some things that are really helpful to know, and I'd expect them to normally be provided: Availability of parking (free or otherwise) Some information about the organiser Some information about the layouts (either a list of those expected or, at least, an indication of which scales/gauges/era/settings are in the mix) Whether there's anything aimed specifically at younger children (eg, a drive-it-yourself Thomas layout) Whether there will be refreshments on sale Whether admission is cash only, card only or both cash and card I would expect most of this information to be provided, although it wouldn't be a deal breaker if not all of them were - some of them may simply not be applicable to some shows. But if none of them were then that would be another reason to wonder whether the show organisers were really on top of all the organisational aspects of the show. Also, while it's not directly relevant to me, because I don't have any mobility difficulties and my children have all grown out of the baby buggy phase, I do expect organisers to indicate whether the venue is fully accessible or, if not, how much of it is and what potential issues might be faced by someone with mobility difficulties or needing to bring a push chair (eg, "one layout will be on the stage which has five steps up from the hall floor level") so that people can make their own decison whether that's a problem or not. Again, the absence of this information, even if I, personally, don't need to know it, does indicate a lack of thought given to the needs of visitors and therefore leads me to wonder what else might not have been thought of. Nice to have The remainder are things that, while their absence wouldn't bother me at all, having them does tend to make me more likely to visit a show that's further away and hence needs more justification for the travel time: More detailed information about the layouts, including a short description and/or photos An active discussion thread on RMweb in which the organiser (or a someone connected to the organiser, such as a club member) participates A printed flyer handed out at other shows I visit Photos/videos of previous shows I wouldn't expect these to be available as a matter of routine for every show, particularly smaller ones. But I would expect most of them to be the norm for the bigger shows (which, in fairness, they are for all the ones I regularly attend). And even for smaller shows, it does help.

There is more information on the organiser's own wwebsite, which is handily linked to from that listing. I wouldn't expect a listings site to carry more than a broad overview of a show. The main purpose of a listings site is to advertise the fact that the show is taking place, and provide a pointer to where more information can be found. But, anyway, I'd question why we need to know all the details of all the layouts. A basic layout list is useful, because it gives an idea of how well the organisers have done in getting a decent mix of scales, settings and eras. But beyond that, I'm willing to be surprised. There is nothing like turning up at a show and encountering a layout that you've never seen or heard of before, but that absolutely blows the socks off you. And some descriptions can be a little misleading. There are some layouts that have looked really good in the website advance write-up, but, on viewing, have left me a little disappointed for one reason or another. That's not to say they're bad layouts, it's just that, for me, they lacked the "wow" factor. And you'll never get that from photos or text, however well written. You can only get it from seeing the layout in action.

That's really interesting. Two things do seem to be apparent from the statistics. One is that people seem to be more willing to travel longer distances on the Saturday of a two-day show. That's contrary to my personal experience - I generally prefer to go to the more distant shows on the Sunday, when the roads will be quieter (and I have to drive, because there aren't any shows that are easily reachable by rail from where I live) - but I wonder if that's a reflection of the fact that rail travel is generally more reliable on a Saturday. If you've got the data, it might be interesting to do some correlations between mode of transport and distance travelled. The other thing is that people seem to be less willing to travel longer distances now than they used to be. As you say, that may also be related to increasing unreliability of rail transport. But I also wonder if it might be another of the post-Covid demographic changes that have affected a lot of leisure pursuits. Lockdown created an enforced break in many activities that had previously been a habit, and many people have simply not gone back to what they used to do.

Practically any spreadsheet software can open it - including OpenOffice, which runs on Windows, OSX and Linux, and Apple Numbers on an iPad or Mac. You can also open it online in Google Sheets. Although originally created by Microsoft, .xlsx is now an open standards format which has widespread cross-platform support.

Would sir require his coat on the way out?

That's right after the expected end of the King's speech at the State opening of Parliament, in which he sets out the government's forthcoming legislative programme. So maybe Bachmann have done a deal with the new PM to release the first model of a "Great British Railways" liveried train. 😉

It's somewhere oop north. Everywhere oop north is near Widnes 🙂

If this is caused by the Polyfill takeover, then you need to bear in mind that, as the Ars report linked to earlier makes clear, the malicious code is designed to only trigger at certain times and only to certain users. So "it isn't happening to me" is not, unfortunately, a helpful data point.

We're at risk of going seriously off-topic with respect to this thread, but yes, I'd broadly agree with that. Also, given that RTR models are now better than the vast majority of us can achieve with kitbuilding or scratchbuilding (they're certainly better than anything I can achieve!), I'm not going to criticise a layout for using them. What I want to see in an exhibition layout is a plausible, well-designed and well-constructed setting in which trains in appropriate formations run along principles that (allowing for time compression) broadly follow real life practice. And I'll accept compromises in all of those so long as the overall impression works. I am a convert to code 75 bullhead track and it's what I'm using on my current project - I think it is visibly nicer than code 100 flat-bottomed, particularly for the setting I'm modelling. But I've seen some very good exhibition layouts that do use code 100 FB rail even for a steam era setting, and so long as the rest of it works that's not a problem. Ditto couplings - Kadees are a reasonable approximation for diesel era layouts but there's nothing which is visually right and yet simple to use for steam era layouts. I'd like to be pedantic enough to use three-link, but I'm not, and it doesn't really bother me which particular compromise other modellers use, whether they be tension lock, Kadee, Sprat & Winkle, Alex Jackson or whatever. It's all part of the willing suspension of disbelief which is necessary for any theatrical setting - and an exhibition layout is, most certainly, a form of theatre.