Sunday, April 01, 2018

The London Festival of Railway Modelling 2018

BRM stand

Look at me!

I've got a nice corner of the BRM stand, just inside the door. On show, we have Didsbury Green, four Dave Rowe Emmet style dioramas (loaned by Green Scene) and a selection of Cake Box projects. It's a good job I was happy there, because the show was so busy. On Saturday, the only place I ventured while the event was open was the stand selling sausage rolls 50 feet away. Then I scooted back to the stand to carry on chatting.

Lots of people were interested in the layout. Many wanted to know about the baseboards (ModelRailwayScenery) and the box the thing fits in for transit (Really Good Box Co.). The station building (Hornby) and engine shed (Wills craftsman kit) also generated lots of discussions as neither is straight from the box. Quite a lot of people talked DVD too and generally, they seemed to like it. Apart from one bloke who came up and announced, "I like the DVD but the latest one was crap!" - which I think was meant as banter. He went away happy after a few minutes anyway. Three people even wanted to take my photo - but I wasn't the most famous thing there.

SilverLady

That honour goes to "Silver Lady" from the Channel 4 TV show The Biggest Little Railway in the World. Accompanied by her handler Laurence, Charlie, Simon AC Martin and Andy, everyone seemed to want their picture with her. Now looking a little battle-scarred, she took it all in her stride. Having someone pitch up at the stand demanding, "Where is Silver Lady" in a slightly desperate tone was funny. I quickly directed the lady to the stand behind ours...

This wasn't the only brush with telly either. Channel 5 has commissioned a new challenge series and I interviewed producer Pat Doyle. You can watch this on YouTube.

Sunday was quieter as expected, but I was still kept busy all morning. After the sausage roll run (with crisps - get me living the high life!) I did manage to stroll around to have a quick look at some layouts and traders.

Ever Ready

This was a flying trip around though. Chatting with the team running the children's area after seeing one of their "customers" early in the day, did set me off on a bit of a buying mission. We'll come back to that in the future.

I was very tempted by possibly the maddest model railway item I've ever seen - a Marklin Tip-Kick set. Basically, a van with a couple of holes in the side, strange shape football and large footballer whose head you push so he kicks the ball.  I assume the game is to get the ball in the van as it travels past on the layout. Is this why Germans are so good at penalties? 

Anyway, a very busy weekend. The show looked good and people seemed to be enjoying it. Sorry there are not more photos, what I have you can find on Flickr. 

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