Thursday, November 13, 2008

Facing the press


0-4-2 on Melbridge Dock
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
One of the boxes to filled in on a Warley(NEC) form is a request for details of your local papers. This information is used to alert the press that a model railway from their area will be appearing at a national exhibition. They will send along a top reporter and the show gets publicity.

So it was that we set up Melbridge Dock yesterday.

This did have the benefit of allowing us to test the model ahead of the show. One dry joint and a sticky point motor were the only problems encountered and quickly fixed. All the locomotives ran around the model successfully. It's amazing that after 20 years the model still performs this well without any serious maintenance.

In the afternoon Jaz the photographer turned up and we posed in all the typical local press ways including "Look it's a locomotive !" and "I must examine this steam engine more closely". To his credit he did his best to fit in as much layout as possible. Knowing the snapper helped and the road vehicles on the model were (for the photo) predominantly VWs as both Jaz and I share a love of the marque.

Of course we now await the results as they appear in the paper. You can never be sure what the picture editor will decide to use. A few years ago I organised a press call for an Easter competition at work. The photographer went away with some excellent shots of one of my colleagues (an attractive young woman) holding a cute spring lamb. They made most of the papers except one, who decided that that festive weekend would be better illustrated by a scruffy student hidden in some grass. That is why you end up with so many gurning idiot pictures in the local press...

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