John Sutton's December show has been running for a few years, and is an enjoyable addition to the festive season. This year, it's outgrown the Rowington Village hall venue, and has moved down the road to Lapworth. Slightly more space both inside and outside. Despite this, the event was busy in the morning, and (I'm told) not quiet in the afternoon.
The mix of four 16mm and G scale layouts, plus some quality trade, is well worth the fiver entrance fee. Profits from the event are donated to the local air ambulance too, so it's all in a good cause.
Despite the small size of the layouts, there was always a couple of live steam locos circulating, and none of use seem to have asphyxiated, nor burn our fingers with inadvertant poking at chuffers. To be fair, there were sensible notices to warn people off - this sort of show can attract those who wouldn't know better, and we don't want their first experience of the larger scales to be a bad one do we?
Not everything was steam of course, Haffenstadt is electrically (DCC even!) operated LGB, 16 feet by 2, so a doable size if you fancy a winter project in a garage.
Of course, Christmas is on the way. The show is a perfect place to pick up a present or two, and a few layouts managed a little festive decoration.
And being a local event, there is some excellent cake to be consumed.
Not from the enjoyable 16mm layout Glendreich, but from the canteen.
The only problem with the cake was that I sat down and people kept wanting to talk to me - it was a good 10 minutes until I could tuck in!
Finally, the first appearance of a colaboration between Timpdon and Boot Lane. Due to be released at the Warwickshire show in March, I've put my order in already. I'd been thinking how a railcar would be useful for our club steaming days...
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