If there is one thing I like to find at a model railway show, it's this: Quality chocolate cake.Never mind interesting layouts or varied trader stands, give me some good cake and I'll forgive a lot of things. Judging by the number of views cake recives on Flickr, you lot feel the same way.
The good news is that the Peterborough show saw some of the best choccie cake I have ever had the pleasure of devouring. And I am a conneseur of the stuff. Never let it be said that I don't check things out properly either, I tried 3 different slices and each was as good as the others, the top was creamy and the body slightly moist. At £1.50 for a decent lump they were a bargain too. I seriously considered leaving the layout at the hall and just filling the back of the car with cake...
Anyway, back to toy trains. We pitched up at the showground with Flockburgh and found our spot easily enough. Carrying the layout in wasn't too strenuous and everything was soon set up and working. After a quick snoop around we headed off to the Holiday Inn which was our accomodation for the weekend. Booked in we went next door to the Harvester pub for food and discovered that everyone for hundred of miles decend on the place to eat which left a heck of a lot of us from the show hanging around waiting for tables to clear. The mangeress was working hard trying get everyone through as quickly as possible.
Saturday started with a 9:30 opening, although we were far enough back in the hall that the first people leaning on the barrier didn't arrive until after 10. Even then most people were in full on shopping mode rather than looking at the trains. Those few that did just looked grumpy and wouldn't talk to us. Just like proper enthusiasts at every show you go to...
After lunch the crowds were thick enough that some real humans had appeared. Suddenly the show go chatty and the time flew by. The layout behaved itself apart from one switch blade coming off a tiebar. The J50 had developed an urge to leap off the track on one crossover about 1 in 5 times but we just stuck it in the showcase and used something else.
Sunday was even slower to start - the second day is always quieter. Again there was chat and lots of shoppers. We had a few more incidents which I'll recount during the week for your "entertainment".All in all though it was a good show. All the layouts were good and the trade was pretty impressive too. BRM shows in the past have been a bit RTR box-shifter heavy but there was a lot of specialist traders offering thier wares which made a really well balanced event.
2 comments:
Dropped by on Sunday (chatted about modelrailway.tv among other things) - nice to talk to you, wish I could have chatted longer, but I had two ten year olds in tow. :D
Nice to see you Mike and Keith who also dropped by. It's always good to know people read this stuff !
Post a Comment