16mm Society AGM 2014

Peterborough showground. Home of the best chocolate cake in the world. Or at least it used to be three years ago. Sadly there's not sign of it. Perhaps some lucky git ate it all before I got there.

Anyway, cake quality aside, I was at the showground for the 16mm Society AGM. A big hall full of garden railway goodies.

Actually, it wasn't quite a full as it has been in previous years. High stand fees seem to have caused a few traders to drop out. There were certainly people missing from last year such as IP Engineering, Glendale Junction, Tuxcraft and Flexiscale. Doubtless there were others who I couldn't name.

Not to worry. I'm not looking to add to my stock of garden railway kits at the moment. I only went to have a look around.

A show gets my seal of approval if there is a model that makes me want to go away and reproduce it, or at least my version and this was the case here.

Sadly, my photo is a bit rubbish as I don't think the camera has ever recovered from being dropped on the cobbles at Scarborough. Never mind, you get the idea. A 16mm scale pizza layout just over 3 feet across.

Plenty of detail on display. Some quality modelling despite the novelty subject matter. I'm already thinking how I could use take the idea and produce my version of it.

Of course, there were plenty of goodies to tempt the wallet. A 7/8th scale laser-cut kit for the Groudle Glen electric loco Sealion is high on the list.

I have the 16mm scale version of this Yatton Engineering kit the stash to build but despite not being that much larger, the 7/8th version looks even better. Of course the Accurcraft steam Sealion already on order does kind of push my thoughts in that direction anyway.

Anyway - head over to Flickr where the photos are. The square wheel Bagnall is especially clever.