The advert in the local rag said "Garden Railway Show" and announced an event taking place at Stoneleigh this weekend. Of course I knew this was the 16mm association AGM - because I went last year. You can't blame them for making it seem more populist though, that hall is frighteningly expensive to hire and you need all the punters in the door you can get.
Once the very reasonable fiver had been handed over at the door (no free entry for me as I'm not a member) I wandered in to find that the event had grown in size from last year. And that was impressive.
Around the edge of the hall there were trade stands. And in the centre there were trade stands. And somewhere in there you would also find 10 working layouts. As I said, a lot of stuff.
The 16 millers are a laid back bunch. Because they share so much with the G-gauge workers, both scales were to be found, at least on the sales stands. The layouts mostly showed off very nice radio controlled steam trundling around. It was pretty well behaved too.
The modelling was good too. On the competition table some slightly cartoony, but lovely, trains mingled with the super scale items. On the layouts it seems weathering has arrived on the electric trains at least.
Top marks to Timpdon Lake railway which really looked good. Featuring proper scenery that would have been good in a normal exhibition it was home to a neat gimmick - there was a hole in the road and a button next to it. The sign told you to press the button to find out why the road was up - whereupon you got a squirt of water from the burst pipe !
Most impressive were the crowds. The place was packed. OK so the average age was over 50 but then this sort of modelling encompasses engineering and that's not been a young mans (and it's pretty much 100% men) hobby. To many this sounds the death knell of this pastime but then I don't think there was ever a time when an event like this would be full of strapping youths.
Words can't really get over everything to be seen here, so go and look at some pictures on Flickr and even a video or two.
3 comments:
Hello Phil,Thanks for your positive comments about our show. The link has been posted on our website. I'm sure the organisers will be pleased to hear this sort of feedback from a non-member.
Regards
jon rowe
Hello Phil, 3rd time of trying! Thanks fro your positive comments about our show. The link was posted on our Yahoo chat group. I'm sure the organisers will be pleased to read this sort of feedback from a non-member.Regards jon rowe
Jon - Always happy to give credit where it is due. That event was great fun. I met a lot of people who I knew and they were all enjoying it too.
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