Of to Crich Tramway village for the annual model tram exhibition. And, this is difficult to write. It wasn't very good.
Normally, I'll be positive about a show. Any show. But this one. Oh dear.
Walking in, the were some excellent Lego trams. You can tell the boat and dreadnaught easily enouhg, and that's pretty hard to do in bricks. The owner was letting people drive too. It's the perfect first sight for a very public show. The only cost to get in was the museum admittance, so there would be plenty of non-enthusiasts exposed to the hobby for the first time.
Another highlight was Kennington Tramways, a layout I photographed for BRM years ago. It looks brilliant, and works well.
There were also some 3/4 inch trams running up and down a length of track. Pretty much all you can do in this scale, but they look good. A mine-based model railway was very average, but it worked and the operators were chatty, always a good thing.
The Model Bus Federation were represented by a diorama showing a garage, which most people ignored for the model fire engine putting out a smokey fire next door. Quite cleverly done, and appealing to the kids.
KW Trams brought an excellent selection of kits for trams in many scales, and road vehicles. A future magazine project was aquired.
After that though. Hmmm.
30 feet of Tramway and Light Railway estates sales didn't take any money off me, and you know how easy it is to sell me stuff from a second hand stall. Quite a few big ticket items with built and unbuilt kits plus RTR foreign trams, but very light in interesting bits. Not taking cards wouldn't help either. Not many people carry a few hundred quid with them nowadays.
The bookseller was finding the same thing. I bought three interesting, and cheap books. Being able to pay by card would have liberated another 12 quid for a book on Toronto trams, since I've ridden on them.
Finally, there was a tram-building demo complete with small, and working, albeit with mahoosive pans on the top of the trolley poles, Brimingham tramway. The demo is transported in a suitcase. How do I know? Because said suitcase was dumped on the table amid a pile of clutter. My workbench is a mess, but I'm not appearing in front of the public at a show.
And that was it. If you had travelled specifically for the show, you'd likely be disapointed. It all looked so tired. What happened? I've certainly been to TLRS shows in the past that have been much livelier, and several times the size. I hate to criticise, as I know that all the work is done by volunteers. That said, years ago, the policy was not to pay expenses for layouts. Perhaps people have decided that it's not worth paying to travel and put themselves up for a couple of nights?
Or, maybe the truth is that there aren't any model tramways out there to exhibit. I hope not, as I'd love to bring more to people's attention in magazines. I guess I love tramways, but appreciate the overhead makes building them tricker. Maybe another problem is the glut of diecast trams available. If you like trams, perhaps this tempts you to collect, rather than build?
We know there are some great things happening in the model tramway world. Mark Casson is, perhaps leading the way. EM gauge with onboard RC.
ReplyDeleteBut, it is a big but, much of it feels like many OO9 layouts. Cjiched and very much models rather than serious attempts to model a specific scene. We've all seen the "square" layout with a depot in the middle, or the street of cardboard kit terraced houses
To be fair, a tram depot in the middle of a layout is no different from the endless MPD's churned out by people wanting to show off their loco collection. At least they are quieter!
ReplyDeleteThe big problem is I'm just not seeing tramways at exhibitions. Grime Street is great, but it's not been followed by other layouts. OK, overhead is very tricky, but use pantographs, and it's not impossible to achieve reliable running.
I still think one of the best was Wolverhampton Tramways, from over 30 years ago!
In a way, what tramway modelling needs is an outsider to show how it can be done by observing the prototype, not what others have done. For that matter, P.D. Hancock of Craig fame wrote some incredible articles about model trams many years ago.
ReplyDeleteAs Mark is exploring, separating power from the overhead actually benefits both realism and running.
What is odd to me is if you go to an exhibition where a reasonable tram layout is on display, it attracts children. They can relate to it whilst also being fascinated that it is something that has gone but in recent memory
I've never understood the desire to pick up from the overhead. All you are doing is reducing reliability. There are two rails. Two-rail pickup is easy and well-understood. No one can see electricity, or where its coming from.
ReplyDeleteHistorically I think it was used so you could have more than one tram in the same section? But agreed, it is sacrificing realism for no benefit.. But for realism you still need it to work physically, which isn't easy.
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