Banbury Model Railway Show 2008

Fortune smiled on me at this show - if I hadn't spoken to Mercian earlier in the week I wouldn't have realised that it had changed weekend to take place at the start of the month instead of the end. So it was that after a short drive through the mists on the back roads of south Warwickshire and North Oxfordshire I made the annual visit to Banbury Model Railway show.

3 quid (2.50 for old people) to get in give you a free programme and entry to a model railway show in a school. The event fills the main hall and 5 classrooms. 14 Layouts. 11 traders. 1 long corridor with a tanoy playing music from (I think) "That's what I call 70's porn film soundtracks Volume 1".Rather than try and describe everything in details I'll just enthuse about a few of the exhibits that caught my eye.

First up was Rowell Sidings, a OO layout which made very effective use of SuperQuick cardboard buildings. With the rise of the pre-painted resin model these have lost favour but here you could see just how well they can work if put together nicely and accessorised with suitable posters and street furniture. Also of note were the baseboards that allowed the line to cross over a road with the drive to the station rising up from this.

In room 2 there was "A taste of the Algarve". Since I've never been to Portugal my opinions on the effectiveness of the buildings and scenery are entirely based on the stuff seen on the telly and in the papers. That said, it looked very good. The architecture was right. The streets were higgledy-piggledy. All the walls were white stucho and the tiles were orangey brown. The model glowed like a sun drenched town should do. OK, the railway side of the display was very limited, just a loop in the station. The running wasn't great while I watched either - but none of that mattered as the wealth of detail rewarded a good look. I'm not one for foreign prototypes but this was great.

The other stick in the mind model was Two Sisters Farm, a 1/32nd layout based on a Lincolnshire Potato railway. The stock was a bit weird narrow-gaugey but the detail was amazing. Sheds were fully fitted out inside. Tools littered the ground but not in a random way. The weathering was of the highest order. I love this sort of thing - tiny, incredibly detail models where the build has had to make everything.

To be honest, for the last couple of years, if Banbury hadn't been a short run down the road I'd probably not have bothered. This time it was a good 'un. I've missed ouyt several quality layouts and not mentioned the trade at all but what was there more than made it worth the trip.

Anyway, never mind the words, look at the pictures.