Banrail 2013

After yesterdays finescale fandango, time for a trip to a more traditional local show. I've been visiting Banrail for many years as it's just down the road. Previous Banrails have been held in a school with exhibits dotted around various classrooms, this year they have a sports hall and the first impression is "Wow - This looks loads better"

Schools may be cheap(ish) to hire but classrooms are a pain both for organiser and visitor. Putting everything in a single room makes an enormous difference to the event.

Anyway, we took a tour of the trade first and while there weren't loads of specialists, that didn't matter. More to the point there wasn't an overload of box-shifters. In fact some really interesting goodies found their way into the Parker rucksack including a pile of cheap books from the RCTS.

I was very tempted with a 1980s plastic kit for a lifting bridge from Hornby. It's the first example I've seen in the plastic and if I'd been confident all the bits were there, I'd have snapped it up for a very reasonable 30 quid. Mind you, the same trader has two Triang Giraffe cars including a mint boxed one with both ears on the giraffe!

Anyway, the layouts included a couple of interesting N gauge models - Dentdale is a long Settle to Carlise model with towering viaducts and descent length trains circling the continuous run. Some excellent model buildings show that not everyone buys ready to plonk resin items.

City Basin Goods is a work-in-progress model of a 1970s blue diesel yard. The modelling so far is really nice and when I sat in front of the baseboard at eye level with the ground, there are some cracking views across the oil depot.

Of course there were other nice models including some Japanese Z gauges and a new TT model, but I must move on to the bit you are all interested in - refreshments.

I'm pleased to report that the cake on offer was delicious. Since I'd taken my Dad we tried two flavours - chocolate and lemon drizzle. Both were superb. Had we stayed later, the pork batches smelt very inviting too. Indeed, they smelt so good, I had to leave City Basin Goods as my tummy was rumbling!

OK, this isn't a major event but in the new venue it's a great way to spend a few hours. People are sniffy about local shows but here there was free parking and an entrance fee of a fiver leading to a few hours entertainment. You can't really go wrong.

Banrail photos on Flickr.