Andy isn't from our slightly weird world, he come from among other things, the world of video games. Possibly the only group who might be considered "odder" than railway enthusiasts.To BRM, he brings skills at making excellent publications. For railway modelling info, he has a gallant team, including me, who are supposed to know about this stuff.
This doesn't mean he isn't keen to learn and the visit to Nottingham was part of this.
We arrived to a car park bursting at the seams. With incredible good fortune we bagged the last space as someone left. Had we ended up on the park'n'ride, arrival would have been later as the bus running the service sprang a fuel leak just as the show opened and there was a delay while a second was summoned.
Inside was quieter than I expected, but mostly because of bus issues. It allowed me to introduce my new boss to Ian Futers behind his layout Lochty Road. If you need a first exhibitor to meet, Ian is a pretty good bet as he's been doing this for years.
Part of the plan was to chat to the trade and for this I managed to arrange an introduction to John and Pat at Greenscene. Here Andy had his first go at modelling with a tutorial on static grassing. The results were good so I'll leave him those bits on the layout.
To be fair, I assume it went OK. I was distracted by the Gee Dee stand opposite who had the new Airfix Quickbuild VW camper on sale. When I stopped trying to buy (no card machine so cash was mentally reserved) a fuzzy green patch was in evidence and I took a picture.
We carried on around the hall in this way - N Brass, Dart Castings, Ten Commandments, Cheltenham Model Centre - all were happy to meet the new man and fill him in on the way they see the hobby.
It was also a first look at layouts in the flesh. He's been out to a couple of home models but now we had a huge variety of exhibition versions. There was a lot of N gauge on show and one favourite was Mills Bridge.
Very much under construction, they have managed to build in a proper northern haze through clever colouring. A roundy-roundy, once circuit is 2mm finescale, the other N gauge. Don't think I've ever seen this before.
Much smaller, but very inspiring was the OO Ashbourne Midland.
This is MY sort of layout. 6ft long but with plenty of operating potential. I could imagine myself enjoying building this a lot and it wouldn't be out of reach for a moderately keen beginner. Normally operated from the front, at shows, the owner stands behind in the conventional manner.
In O gauge, there was some ingenious wagon loading.
And if I hadn't left my programme in Andy's car (Hint: Don't leave it in you back pocket or it falls out on the way back to the station) I'd give you a name for the model. There was a nice Ford Railbus on it too.
And that I have to take photos of the cakes or you lot get upset.
Despite being a leisure centre, food was pretty good. A cheese and tomato baguette with Diet Coke and red velvet cake for under a fiver. Not to be moaned about.
The other exciting feature of any show is of course, the second hand stall. Again, there were looks of concern when I pounced upon an absolute bargain - a Zero One controller, slave and two chips.
All for £2!
I'd have bought the Airfix GMR version for £3 as well if I hadn't been worried about carrying them both home on the train. All the DCC would can want for a fiver? Who says this stuff is expensive?
All in all, a good day out. Since he was still at work a few days later when I went in for a meeting, Andy wasn't scared off so perhaps we are less odd than we think?
Lots more photos over on Flickr.
5 comments:
I'm sure there are a number of hobbies far more "odd" than railway modelling and video games - in fact, I could think of a number right now (and they probably wouldn't interest any of us in a month of Sundays) - but let's not go there. Seriously, let's not go there.
As for exhibition catering, a number of visitors have established a different routine:
* Find the nearest Lidl (or Aldi - some of their fresh cakes are quite tasty) - and stock up.
* At the venue, find the bar - then moan about the high prices and poor range.
* If all else fails, find a "proper" Wetherspoons.
* A few hours later, stagger to the bus stop or railway station.
Changing the subject, it sounds like somebody might be getting some soldering (and wiring) practice in the not too distant future. Don't worry - it's the best bit of railway modelling. (But then, I would say that, wouldn't I - after all, I've been into that sort of stuff for rather a long time!)
I'm assuming you went there on the Saturday?
I was there on the Sunday on the merg stand and it was rather busy really.
A good show, getting back to its best after a few years at a less than ideal location which alienated traders and visitors to some extent.
Hopefully next year will be even better.
A good selection on show there.
As for video gamers being odd, you can't really compare the two imo. These days video games have either higher or nearer budgets to Hollywood films and it is a very busy industry. Also very diverse, with its own selection of morons and such (much like model railways in that respect sometimes like all things).
Intrigued re your comments about the ZERO 1 and GMR system. Please explain how this is compatible with today's DCC (which I can't get my head round but my son can!). Could this be the basis for a magazine article?
Not sure Zero 1 or GMR are compatable with today's DCC. I will be checking this out at some point, unless someone can confirm this?
You Brits have so many wonderful small shelf layouts, and I never tire of seeing them online. I can relate to that guy on RM Web who has a dozen of them. Yet the American press seldom promotes anything other than "bedroom-sized" or basement layouts, filled with spaghetti.
Keep up the good work on the sub-hobby of cake at exhibitions.
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