Five hours in a car is a long stretch, at least for someone who hates long motorway journeys as much as I do. But the York show is worth the discomfort every year.
First of all there is York itself, a fabulous city. Small enough to walk around comfortably but with enough interesting things to see to fill a few days. There are even a couple of very good model shops about 20 minutes walk apart. I managed to acquire a Russian plastic kit for an Oakley class lifeboat along with some other bits and pieces. A nearby craft shop furnished me with me with a much needed new easy to read steel rule. Even the dolls house shop in the same road is useful if you want details for 1:12 scale model boats !
Over the bank holiday weekend the buskers are out in force so there is no shortage of entertainment. In fact even if you don’t go to the model railway show you have a good time.
The show itself takes place at the racecourse – about 20 minutes walk from the centre of town. A shuttle bus runs between the station and show as well during the day.
I’m not going to try and describe the event properly, suffice to say that all six floors (OK, three floors and three mezzanines) were full. The quality of exhibits was better than average with some huge layouts for those who want to watch the trains go by, and smaller models for the more discerning amongst us.
Trade is also good. The biggest omission in the show is a huge RTR supplier. You can get standard off the shelf items but York has always been a modellers show so the emphasis is on supplying parts for people who make stuff. This suits me down to the ground. I like a bit of RTR as much as anyone but when you go to some shows and see ten stands selling the same items you have to wonder why they bother.
Maddest product of the show award must go to the packs of individual leaves on sale from Greenscene. John was busy demonstrating them by building a wall climber plant. It looked good and was suprisingly quick. He claims it’s quite relaxing as well !
To be honest we only had about three hours and that’s not enough. Next year perhaps a weekend needs to be made of it again.
Oh, and the picture shows one of the great Yorkshire delicacies – a Yum Yum – available from the better class of baker. Another reason to head north at this time of year.
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