Birmingham Show part 2

Dock at Brum
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.

Day Two: Arrived at the show about 8:15. Tried to park behind the hall but couldn’t get a space. Luckily there was parking in the public car park at the side which turned out to be absolutely ideal.

After a quick wander around looking at layouts and chatting we somehow managed to buy a couple of Bachmann On3 model locomotives from different traders – both called Pat ! I blame the guy next to us with his On3 layout. At least I would if we didn’t have so much stock already and vague ideas for a future project…

The show opened at 10 with no rush of people. In fact it stayed quiet until lunchtime. Worst of this was that no-one talked to us for over an hour. They came and watched but never spoke. Spooky.

You would think this wouldn’t matter but trust me, it does. You see, with a little one-man operated layout, it’s nice to have a chat. We like to feel that we’ve helped people by answering their modelling questions, or even just given them a chance to talk to someone with the same hobby. Families are better that this than enthusiasts. The later seem afraid to show ignorance as though the whole show was some sort of test of strength.

Still, once things picked up a bit we chatted and operated happily. The layout worked well with none of the sticky pickups and dry joints of yesterday.

Melbridge groupies even turned up. One guy (sadly it’s middle aged men not nubile young women that we get as groupies ) spent over an hour talking and watching. It’s gives you a nice glow when people compliment your work, although obviously this isn’t why we do it…

Lowlight at the end of the show was an annoying child who had obviously drunk his own body weight in Sunny Delight or similar. He ran around the front firing stupid questions, remarks and suggestions. Granddad looked on occasionally but did nothing to control the little sod. At least one visitor went away and came back later admitting that the little spawn of Satan had caused him to give us a wide berth for a while. Quite why people think it’s someone else’s job to look after their offspring was explained by a very late visitor who turned up with 25 minutes to see the show and commented, when with 5 minutes to go we had pretty much run the stock off the layout, “You’re working to a tight contract”. He actually thinks we get paid to be there !

Now we get expenses but it covers fuel and not much else. If you think we do this for anything other than love and the occasional ego stroking then you’re wrong.

Anyway, the child caused a new operating method to be developed. A small number of wagons were continuously shunted around despite his requests every ten seconds for new and more locomotives. The plan, unsuccessful as it turned out, was to bore him into clearing off and annoying someone else. I’m not sure this is an MRJ approved tactic, but it’s more legal than hitting him with a sharp object.

At the end of the day we managed to get everything down and into the back of the car in exactly 30 minutes. The handy parking worked well.

All in all, a good weekend.