Last weekend, I took a trip to the model railway show at Knowle Mills, Keighley. A bit of a spur of the moment decision, after spotting the advertising banner.
Originally, I was planning on going up to the Tanfield Railway Gala, but circumstances got in the way and I had to stay around home. This was a decent consolation prize mindyou.
In terms of railway exhibitions, this is a bit different, in that it's more of a Clubrooms open day, with lots of under-construction projects. I'm afraid I didn't get the name of this 009 layout, but it had lots of interesting features like a working level crossing...
...and a boat which sailed around the river.
A nicely detailed N gauge American layout. Yellow Land Rover (Wins The Game).
Speaking of things American, the centre of the room was hope to this massive HO scale layout- huge trains, working sounds.
One downside of being in a mill; my phone was really struggling to cope with moving targets. Should have taken the SLR.
Bears!
Then onto the massive 0 scale layout, "Ravensbeck".
Lots of really nice cameo scenes on this one.
If this impressive layout did have a downside, it was the lack of a backscene, which made photography a little tricky.
One layout which didn't have that problem was the superb, atmospheric "Echoes of the Black Canyon". Mirrors at each end, thunder and lightning effects, and a deep, deep scenic backdrop.
Then "Hope Street". Another creative, beautifully detailed layout. I love this cameo with the horse-drawn coal dray.
I was going for that mill-town atmosphere with another 0-scale layout, "Coverdale"
I wish I hadn't seen this one though, because this not only takes my personal choice of 'layout I'd like to build', but also the one tempting me to spend a lot of money... I have a few bits of Dublo, and my Grandads-brother had an awful lot of Dublo when I was a kid. Something magical about tinplate trains clattering and roaring about.
I feel like it's tempting me to build something retro. I prefer this sort of thing to the really scenic modelling; I've a soft spot for little trains racing around and around a layout.
Yeah, might have to get myself a Hornby Dublo Co-Bo, even though the last thing I need is another project...
Overall, a nice show. A good atmosphere in the place, even at opening time, and I like to see projects underway, stuff actually being built. The junior section had a nice layout too (I couldn't really photograph it, as it was surrounded by kids, though that in itself is a good sign for the hobby). A proper variety of layouts too, British and Foreign, and scales from Z up to G.
A quick stop to watch the Pacer roll past on the KWVR on the way back to the car.
As is tradition on blogs about visits to model railway shows, here's the swag. A right mix of stuff; the milk tankers are just because I like them (I had a Wrenn catalogue as a kid, and always wanted some. To link to the earlier pics, Wrenn took over the Dublo range, so there's a link there). The wagon kit on the bottom-right is blog-fodder, the people are for a BRM project, the box van and goods shed are for the next Hornby build, the signal-box interior for another future BRM. The horse was a weird impulse purchase; it might end up on the garden railway, it was just on its own on a sales stand I felt a bit sorry for it!
This battered, but lovely-running Minitrix Warship had been bought to the chassis for a Hornby project next year, but it's growing on me. A paint-strip and respray might be in order instead.
The real bonkers, impulse purchase though. It was my Birthday recently, and when I saw this on the Ellis Clarke stand, I had to get it. I've wanted a model of "Evening Star" since I was little (I had an Airfix kit off my late Grandfather's also-late Brother, Verdun- the chap with the Dublo layout, mentioned earlier). I have no use at all for this loco, and not even a layout to run it on. But like I say, as soon as I saw it, I had to get it... I might end up having to build a project around the loco, to justify keeping it!
No comments:
Post a Comment