Llanfair 2026

Wales is lovely, but it's a long way away, and the roads are wiggly. The trip was worth it though, as Llanfair show continues to improve. The atmosphere was great, especially in the gym, where Indian Hill Railways set off the fire alarm with the coal-fired locos. 

I arrived early to drop off the Corris loco with Accucraft after the Garden Rail review. Then, back outside to join the queue to pay to come in, and bask in the sunshine whilst booking another day out on my phone. 

Inside, there were plenty of layouts, with everything working well. The Telford tram shown above really appealed, being meths fired and quite old. There was a matching coach which appeared later .

Trade was really good. As is my usual plan, I chatted a lot, and picked up a couple of items for GR reviews in the future. 

Kes had brought along a selection of locos from here late father's Compton Down Railway, and these always resonate with me. No expensive live steam, lots of make-do and bodge, including one sat on a Hornby 0-4-0 O gauge loco. My favourite was Sampson - live steam, but with stick-on decoration which is wearing/weathering nicely. It's really taken on the look of a working engine that gets a wipe down with an oily rag. 

And there was cake. 

After my early start, I needed a cup of tea, and used it to wash down a bacon butty once I realised they knew how to cook the stuff. No just defrosted meat here!

Lunch was a turkey and cranberry roll, followed by Victoria Sponge. Chosen because a couple of people, knowing my interests, recommended it, and they were right. My only moan was that both the ticket desk and cafe were cash-only, or I'd have brought some Welsh cakes and bonag for later consumption!

The thing about Llanfair, is that it's part of a bigger event, and I really wanted to make the trip to Welshpool for the narrow gauge railway show before it closed at 5pm. It can take half an hour to drive there too, especially if you get stuck behind a steam lorry as I did a couple of years ago...

Held in the shed at Welshpool station, the show is a bit of fun, but there are always a few quality layouts to be seen, and again, good chat to be had. I'll be photographing Andy's VoR layout seen about later in the year, so it was handy to catch up. 

The layout that really caught my eye though, was Little Knittington. 

I'm sure many people will scoff at it as a silly knitted model, but look closely, there is so much detail in here. The time and effort taken to create it must have been immense. As for the imagination, more than your average fine-scale layout I suggest. We need a bit of this at normal shows, if nothing else to appeal to the general public who will probably see it for what it is - fun. 

Anyway, another good show. There are plenty more photos over on Flickr.