With the Elsecar Heritage Centre full of builder at the moment, the Yorkshire garden railway show has had to decamp to Barrow Hill roundhouse for a couple of years.
From my point of view, this means it's less distance to travel, and a roundhouse is an interesting venue. It's years since I've visited, but pleasingly, there's still lots to see, with some nicely grubby locomotives at home. Not bulling each machine up means they have taken on the air of a working machine. OK, not the filth that modellers love, but not fresh out of works either.
Layouts and trade were threaded between the tracks, no easy job, as the floor is far from even, which must have made leveling up a nightmare, although they did a much better job than the government has at "levelling up", and the later has an entire department including several well-paid politicians to do it. All our lot needed was some bits of wood!
I didn't notice any major omissions from previous years, although the venues being so different, it's hard to tell. I certainly managed to leave some money behind, as did my Dad. But then it's no fun to leave a show without a box under your arm.
The only downside was the catering. Very good, but the queue took ages to clear. From joining it at 11:30, it took an hour until we had eaten, and that just a sausage batch and oversized profiterol.
This wasn't the fault of the staff, there simply weren't enough of them. Oddly for me, I coveted the salads dished out to the two guys (who didn't look like salad botherers) on the table. Beautifully presented, their only moan, like us, was the wait. Nipping in for a cup of tea wasn't an option, as many from the trade found to their cost.
Apparently, talks are already taking place to sort this for next year - add a small tea bar, and there will be much money to be made, and many more happy visitors.
"Would you like to be scanned?" asked Dean Punchard of Design Scan Print 3D. It looks like I'll soon be available to buy, as a file for 3D printing, for his patreon subscribers. I've been promised the files, and will see how they print. I also picked up a couple of his cheap figures, which I'll paint and report back on here.
Overall, it was a good show. I've always enjoyed Elsecar, and moving to Barrow Hill hasn't done it any harm. Sadly, time and weather were against me exploring more of the outisde, or perhaps I should do a bit less chatting!
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