Milton Keynes Model Railway exhibition 2023

[Vecchio]

This year our exhibition will be in June, probably a bit warmer then our shows in the past which were a bit earlier in the year. Those of us who are looking at the carpark will appreciate that... 

The visitor will see several new layouts, there will also be traders we didn't see before on our show. The club is currently busy in upgrading 2 inherited layouts for the show in June. 

I hope you will enjoy a day with us at the Ridgeway Centre!

 

 

Organiser                                                 Milton Keynes Model Railway Society

 

Date                                                        Saturday 10th June 2023

 

Times                                                      10:00 – 16:30

 

Entry costs                                               Adults £6 – Children (5-16) £2 – Children under 5 free

 

Venue                                                     The Ridgeway Centre, Featherstone Road, Wolverton Mill, Milton Keynes MK12 5TH

 

                                                              15+ working layouts in all the major scales, traders and demonstrations

 

                                                               Free parking – Refreshments – Fully accessible venue

 

For further information                              www.mkmrs.org.uk

[Vecchio]

As time is not stopping and we are getting closer to the event (ok, still some time to go) I can give you a small update. 

First of all we have updated the poster

 

MKMRS 2023 Poster CMC 

 

And second I can give you a list of layouts and traders . This list will probably be further updated closer to the event. 

 

Some of the confirmed layouts

·  Bettws Road (N gauge)

·  Bowlers Croft (00 gauge)

·  Burton Bradstock (EM gauge)

·  Docklands (O gauge)

·  Margarets Mill (O gauge)

·  Putnoe Halt (G gauge)

·  Recently Departed (N gauge)

·  Ralstone (000 gauge)

·  Dyffryn y Rhaeadr (009 gauge)

·  Quarry End (009 gauge)

·  Whitehall (Hornby Dublo 3-Rail)

·  Bradwell Road (N gauge)

·  Dentdale (N gauge)

·  Pentrefan (EM gauge)

Plus others….

 

Some of the confirmed traders

·  Cheltenham Model Centre

·  Andy Dayton Wrenn Specialist

·  Elaine’s Trains

·  AGR Model Shop

·  James Green Railway Artist

·  Keith’s Model Railways

·  P&D Marsh

·  Saddletank Books

·  Ian’s Trains

·  Checkrail

·  Friends of Bletchley Station

·  JB’s Model World

·  RCTS

·  Marston Vale Community Rail Partnerships

·  CL Finescale

·  Bedford to Bletchley Rail Users Association

·  Model Tree Demonstration by Jacqui Perrat

Plus others….

 

Hope to see many forum members at the show!

[BMacdermott]

Hello Vecchio

 

Looking forward to the show.

 

I was involved in a thread recently that concerned how show layouts were advertised. Could you give consideration to listing layouts along the lines of the dummy samples as below? Many on the thread felt that this little bit more information might convince a 'floating visitor' to attend when otherwise they wouldn't.

 

I will attend anyway as I like to support the club where I can. But this might be worth looking at.

 

Dummy Listings for Example Only:

Bloggs Road (00, 12ft x 6ft, fictitious WR country branch line station set in 1960).

Hunstsville (HO, 25ft x 12ft, steam-hauled coal trains in the hills of West Virginia, USA, 1940s).

 

Many thanks

 

Brian

[Vecchio]

Brian,

 

of course we can do that, I just need to gather the information and will come back (probably after next Tuesday - club evening)

 

Regards Vecchio aka Gerhard

[BMacdermott]

Hello Gerhard

 

Very many thanks!

 

When it's done, I'll post the show on the original thread (if you wish) to show that 'it can be done'.🙂

 

Brian

[1E BoY]

Following our exhibition team meeting we can confirm that we have 18 layouts attending with three others agreed verbally, so everything is coming together for our exhibition on 10th June.

 

Our exhibition will be bigger than our first post-covid event last year and we have an adjoining second room booked for the event. The venue is the same as our 2022 Exhibition.

 

We are also delighted to welcome back Cheltenham Models who were unable to attend our re-arranged event last year when we were all coming to terms with trying to organise an exhibition post-covid and the challlenges that had to be tackled.

 

We will be updating layout, demonstration and trade information as we get nearer the event. We are currently working on collating all the information of the booking forms and finalising the hall plans.

 

In the meantime further information can be found on our club website at https://mkmrs.org.uk/2023-exhibition/ 

 

 

[Vecchio]

Well we have a little update  -  find below the list of traders / associations who will participate to our show 

An updated layout list will follow in a short time. 

 

Hope to see many of you at the show!

 

 

List of traders / associations

Keith's Model Railways

Andy Dayton - Wrenn Specialist

Ian's trains

Friends of Bletchley Station

P & D Marsh

AGR Model Railway Store 

DCC Concepts

Saddletank Books

Elaine's trains

JB's Model World

Checkrail (Nik Dean)

RCTS

Marston Vale Community Rail Partnerships

Cheltenham Model Centre

CL finescale

Bedford to Bletchley Rail Users Association

Leighton Buzzard Railway

Buggleskelly Station

 

Demonstrations

Jacqui Perrat  making model trees
Stephen Walker building and modifying wagons
 

[Vecchio]

And another update - this time it is all about layouts.

find below the short descriptions of the layouts we will have at our show. The list may be updated later to the show. 

 

1.      Bettws Road: N gauge  6' x 3'

Bettws Road is a fictitious location based in Wales circa 1930/40. The village has a terminus station with its own goods yard and coal staithes. Railcars serve the station while express passenger trains use the main line along with an odd freight train.

 

2.      Bowlers Croft: OO Gauge 12' x 5'

Bowlers Croft has been built to operate vintage Hornby Dublo and Wrenn stock. Hornby Dublo was produced between 1938 and 1964. Bowlers Croft was the area in Basildon from which Wrenn, who took over the old Hornby Dublo tooling, operated. Although it uses modern track and controllers, much of the equipment has been converted from three rail to two rail. The layout is still being developed and is a typical 1960s train set. Bowlers Croft will be making its exhibition debut at this show.

 

3.      Bradwell Road: N Gauge 4' x 3'

This is a fictitious layout showing what can be achieved at low cost using Kato track and other parts left over from a previous layout. It is a rural single-track line set in the 1950s and 60s. You can expect to see anything running.

 

4.      Burton Bradstock: EM Gauge 16.6' x 1.6'

Set in the late 1950s, this is the fictional terminus of the line to Burton Bradstock assuming the Abbotsbury Branch had been extended as proposed towards (but never reaching) Bridport. It uses rolling stock from the BR(W) era. Locos and rolling stock are kits or re-wheeled RTR models.

 

To give a flavour of the Abbotsbury branch, the owner has tried to model several structures on the branch line that did exist such as the goods shed at Portesham, Abbotsbury loco shed and water tower. They are scratch-built mainly from Ratio or Wills kits. Track work is hand built using plywood sleepers and C&L track components.

 

5.      Deliberately Old-Fashioned O-gauge 10' x 7'

A tribute to O-gauge layouts of the 1930s and 1950s. We will be running a mix of trains made in the 1950s in Northampton by Bassett-Lowke and modern trains in the same style, most made in the Czech Republic.

 

6.      Dentdale: N Gauge 19' x 3'

The 72 mile route from Settle to Carlisle takes you on a journey through the magnificent Yorkshire Dales, over the 24 arches of the Ribblehead Viaduct before plunging into the longest tunnel on the line at Blea Moor emerging onto the side of Dentdale, the line leaves the Dales at Garsdale and makes its way through the gentle, lush rolling hills of the Eden Valley, with rural villages and market towns before arriving at the great border city of Carlisle.

 

Dentdale was inspired by the high altitude moorland sections of the Settle Carlisle Railway. The layout runs from the north entrance of the Blea Moor Tunnel, crosses the Dent Head and Arten Gill viaducts and ends at Dent Station.

 

As the Settle and Carlisle line has changed relatively little over the years and still boasts semaphore signalling and buildings painted in authentic Midland colours, this allows us to represent any period from the 1950s to the present day.

 

7.      Docklands: O Gauge 12' x 2'

"Docklands" is set in the East end of London, around Poplar Docks, and is a small wharf / goods depot, with transhipment between British Railway and the PLA and other private users, and loading into lighters for onward transfer into ships.

The dock was served by the North London Railway but the Great Eastern had running rights, and this joint operation is seen now with locomotives from Devon's Road (LMR) - one of the first in the country to go totally diesel - and Stratford (ER), which continued to supply locomotives when Devon's Road shut.

The time period is 1957 - 1964, covering the period of the transition from steam to diesel, with Class 15s and 20s replacing Jintys and J50s. There are example of Class 04 shunters from Stratford which worked the docks, replacing ancient NLR 0-6-0Ts, as well as other BR diesel shunters.

Various private owned locomotives will also be seen delivering and collecting wagons from the exchange sidings.

In reality this layout was built to try DCC operation, with its added bonus of sound, in a small space. There are a number of new RTR locomotives which will be seen, together with kit built examples.

 

8.      Dyffryn y Rhaeadr: OO9 Gauge 4' x 2'

Valley of the waterfall - and that is what the layout shows. A narrow gauge line in rather bare Welsh countryside, following the topography of the landscape, crossing a river.

 

9.      Evington St John: N Gauge 5.6'  x 1.6'

Evington is a truncated branch in East Anglia hanging on to survival and consists of a very small halt served by a railbus and a goods shed and coal yard. There is a garage serving vehicles in the centre. It is very well detailed to show what can be done in a small area (scenic is 3ft 6in long) and has been very well received.

 

10.  Junior Club Layout (Kids can have a go): OO Gauge

  

11.  Margarets Mill (A Completely Pointless Layout): O Gauge 4' x 1.3'

FACT

Hudson’s Mill was served by private sidings which left the Kent and East Sussex Railway “main line” near Bodiam. The Mill continued to be served by rail even after closure of the K&ESR when the Mill owners purchased their own locomotive which took their traffic down the old K&ESR line to Robertsbridge.

FICTION

This layout imagines that a similar Mill and sidings were built somewhere adjacent to the Wisbech and Upwell tramway and the locomotive used will either be the Mill owner’s locomotive or a local BR Tram loco. The period depicted is the early 1950s. The track plan and operation are based on Snape Maltings near where I live in Suffolk.

 

The Layout is a micro shunting layout built to a scale of 7mm/ft and shows what can be achieved in this scale in a very small space. The whole board measures 48 inches by 15 inches. Shunting is carried out randomly or by using a wagon cards and dice system. 

 

12.  North Malden: OO Gauge 21' x 2'

The village of North Malden in the south east of England is served by a single-track branch line. A small oil distribution company set themselves up in the old goods yard and they take frequent deliveries by rail. The layout is set in the 1980s/1990s but is designed to be flexible regarding era and location by making some simple changes.

 

13.  Oakgrove Central: N Gauge 10' x 3'

Oakgrove Central is a freelance DCC layout constructed in 2mm/ft scale and built with PECO and KATO UNITRAM track. It is controlled by an NCE Powercab controller. The layout is continuous and features four running lines plus two tram tracks. It also has a five station platform which is constructed from KATO ready-made structures and features platform lighting.

 

The majority of stock is GWR, Chiltern and Regional Railways passenger with the occasional fuel train, this station could be part of the new East West Railway which is currently being built to connect Oxford and Cambridge.

 

14.  Pentrefan: EM Gauge 10' x 1.6'

A very minor halt on an obscure light railway in 1920s mid-Wales.

 

15.  Putnoe Halt: G Scale 10.6' x 6.6'

Putnoe Halt is a fictional G-scale model railway layout. This is the owners first attempt at building an exhibition layout for people to see and enjoy, just because they are large trains you don’t have to have a large space. The layout is based on a small country village station with a couple of goods sidings. Most of the trains and rolling stock used is of foreign origin which works well with the layout.

Questions are welcome at ALL times.

 

16.  Quarry End: OO9 Gauge 6' x 6'

Quarry End is a small village set somewhere in Wales where most of the people work at the local slate mine. Questions are welcome at all times. Built and run by Dale Gillard.

 

17.  Ralstone: 000 Gauge 8,6' x 3'

RALSTONE is a layout featuring the Treble-0-Lectric model railway products of Lonestar (DCMT Ltd of Hatfield) manufactured between 1958 and 1968. At its launch it was the smallest model railway in the world! It was the forerunner of "N" gauge, at a scale of 2mm/ft - actually nearer scale than British N gauge. Ralstone is a representation of what a modeller of that era might have achieved using only Lonestar products, both British and USA outline.

 

18.  Recently Departed: N Gauge 3' x 1'

Recently Departed is an N Gauge layout that was donated to the club a short time ago. It depicts a 1960s post Beeching countryside branch line station with the line having just been closed and the track lifted.

The road can be seen running parallel to the line with a new bus service, viewed as a cheaper replacement to running trains to small villages and communities.

This layout shows a different side to our hobby that is very rarely modelled but a very poignant part of our country's railway history.

 

19.  Triang Big Big Display: O Gauge

 

20.  Whitehall: OO 3-Rail 14' x 5'

Whitehall is a comprehensive Hornby Dublo layout featuring most of the accessories and trains of the 1940s – 1960s era. The running stock is pre- and post-nationalisation in tin plate, die-cast and plastic as bought from Meccano stockists. The layout has four sections allowing two-way running on the outer circuits, with a goods yard for shunting and a motive power depot for locomotives adjacent to a turntable. There is a remote-controlled lineside feature of a working mail bag pick up and dropping depot.

 

Now the forum reader can read what is coming, I hope to see may of you at the show!

[BMacdermott]

Hello MKMRS

 

Well done on this excellent detail!

 

I have mentioned the show on the thread: A plea for organisers - please fully describe the layouts !

 

Brian (unsure of how to directly link to the thread!)

[rob D2]

Yes , well done, great detail .

[1E BoY]

Two weeks to go and its all hands on deck to get Bowlers Croft ready for its debut.

 

Thanks to Wayne, Mike, John, Ian, Gerhard, Paul who allowed me to escape ballasting duties for long enough to take their picture (and then make the tea!).

 

As we get nearer to the 10th June, more progress reports will follow. 

 

[1E BoY]

 

 

 

Press release issued to local press

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

Full speed ahead for model railway exhibition

 

Milton Keynes Model Railway Society is holding its annual exhibition on Saturday 10th June at The Ridgeway Centre, Wolverton Mill between 1000 and 1630.

 

Visitors will be able to see 20 operating layouts ranging from the small N gauge models up to larger ones which are popular for large scale garden layouts.Layouts are both from within the club and also from outside clubs and individuals. These will be seen alongside a variety of trade stands, demonstrations, preservation societies and local railway groups displays.

 

Following their move to The Ridgeway Centre last year, the first to be held post Covid, the exhibition will be bigger than last year with the use of a second room.

Club members have been working on a several new exhibits for the show including a new layout which has been constructed to allow our younger visitors the opportunity to drive the trains themselves. A free to enter competition for children to name the layout will be decided after the end of the exhibition for which a model railway related prize will be awarded.

 

Club chairman Chris Hughes said “following on from covid, many model railway clubs such as ours are now able to rebuild their exhibitions. Exhibitions give the club the opportunity to show case our work to a wider audience and encourage others to partake in the hobby. We were formed in 1969 and we were one of the very first to adopt the name of our city from the onset. Fifty-four years later we are still going from strength to strength. We have always been based in Bletchley and are continuing to grow our membership”.

 

Admission to the exhibition costs £6 for adults, children aged 5 to 16 are £2, whilst children under 5 are free. The Ridgeway Centre can be found on Featherstone Road, Wolverton Mill, Milton Keynes MK12 5TH. There is free parking and refreshments will be available.

 

Further details of the club can be found at www.mkmrs.org.uk

-ends-

[1E BoY]

Andy Dayton (Wrenn Specialist) has had to withdraw from our exhibition due to ill health. We wish him a speedy recovery.

 

Unfortunately our six page complimentary exhibition guide had already been printed. Andy has suggested an alternative trader and we are in discussion with them.

 

The back page of the guide gives details of our open day on 17th June and also the date of our 2024 exhibition.

 

The guide cover is below,

[1E BoY]

We have been burning the midnight oil in the final push to get Bowlers Croft ready for its exhibition debut. We have just three nights left to complete the task!

 

[Pete the Elaner]

It will be the first outing for Kempston MRS's 'North Malden' too. We were given this fairly recently & have done a lot of work to bring the era a little more up to date.

We have some finishing touches to apply tomorrow night, including fixing the station lamps which look a little drunk in the photo.

We'll be there to set up on Friday night.

 

[Pete the Elaner]

Is there an exhibition bus service from either MK or Wolverton stations? The scheduled buses look pretty regular to be honest.

I guess there is always the option of hiring out a scooter? They even have phone holders now so you can follow Google maps!

[1E BoY]

13 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

Is there an exhibition bus service from either MK or Wolverton stations? The scheduled buses look pretty regular to be honest.

I guess there is always the option of hiring out a scooter? They even have phone holders now so you can follow Google maps!

 

The cost of hiring buses for out exhibition is no longer cost effective post- covid. Club run exhibitions are only just fiinding their feet again, We had to find a new venue and this one has 200 free car parking spaces, It is also not far from one of the main grid roads with local estates served by Arriva buses, 

 

Bus route 4 serves Greenleys local centre which is close by. The timetaable can ber found here https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-06/4 Wolverton - Greenleys - CMK - Hospital - Whaddon Way - Bletchley (Arriva).pdf

 

A map of Milton Keynes can be found here 

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.0578673,-0.8278123,185m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

 

There seem to be plenty of scooters and ebikes to hire around the city.

 

Hope this helps you to find us?

[1E BoY]

Another late night but we now have a layout for the exhibition on Saturday.

 

A couple of pictures show us running trains on Thursday evening before everything was packed up ready to be moved later today.

 

My thanks to all those MKMRS members who helped to get Bowlers Croft over the line!

[Pete the Elaner]

9 hours ago, 1E BoY said:

 

The cost of hiring buses for out exhibition is no longer cost effective post- covid. Club run exhibitions are only just fiinding their feet again, We had to find a new venue and this one has 200 free car parking spaces, It is also not far from one of the main grid roads with local estates served by Arriva buses, 

 

Bus route 4 serves Greenleys local centre which is close by. The timetaable can ber found here https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-06/4 Wolverton - Greenleys - CMK - Hospital - Whaddon Way - Bletchley (Arriva).pdf

 

A map of Milton Keynes can be found here 

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.0578673,-0.8278123,185m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

 

There seem to be plenty of scooters and ebikes to hire around the city.

 

Hope this helps you to find us?

 

I'll be exhibiting so I'll see you there for setup tonight. I was thinking of visitors using public transport.

Bus 4 & stop Z4 at 00 & 30 past the hour from MK Central station are useful pieces of information. With a service of that frequency, I don't think hiring a bus would be very beneficial anyway.

[1E BoY]

We are open from 1000 to 1630 and look forward to welcoming visitors to the show.

 

 

[Vecchio]

On we go, bags packed, let the show begin. 

I will not have my layout there (as it has been shown last year) but I will do a little demonstration on plastic kits. 

 

You are in the area (Milton Keynes)? Why not coming to have a look? 

 

Hope to see some of you there!

 

 

[rob D2]

The new location would have been great if I still lived in Towcester !

 

Wishing you a great exhibition 

[BMacdermott]

Many thanks to all for a very enjoyable show!

 

Brian

[1E BoY]

Thanks to everyone at Milton Keynes MRS who worked really hard to put on a succesful exhibition and to everyone who came along to support us and enjoy the trains. 

 

Thanks also to the team that helped to get Bowlers Croft over the line. 

 

For the record we shall be back at The Ridgeway Centre on the 8th June 2024. Please book the date in your diary.