It was another busy weekend, with a baptism at church and lots of preparation, but I thought that I needed a morning out, so joined the Dawes bus to the Chatham show. A very pleasant morning, and a pretty good show. No layouts with a massive ‘wow’ factor, but a lot of very good ones. Perhaps too many OO roundy-roundys, running out of the box stock – but that’s a matter of personal taste, and I do prefer small, finescale layouts.
After previous years fights with the in-house catering, we made the good move of having a bacon roll immediately after entering the show. And a coffee in a tin NAAFI mug. The photos that follow haven’t captured every layout, just those that caught my attention. And presented in the order that I saw them. No favouritism here!!
Bristol Harbour (OO). A diorama, but with working dockside cranes – all scratchbuilt, with none of that 3D printing involved.
Solden (HOe) is based somewhere in Austria…..
Swilleybegs (On3) is familiar from the exhibition circuit, but there seemed to be more Irish railcars on show than the times I’ve seen the layout before. A lovely little line.
Tan Y Coed (OO9) is a 25 year old layout, that has been refurbished several times. It still looks good as a typical Welsh narrow gauge line. I think that one good point of the show was that most, if not all, of the narrow gauge models were ‘serious’ layouts – no joke rabbit warrens!
I’ve been hoping to see Dinsdale 1830 (his local village, not Monty Python) for some time. Built to 1/76 scale, 4′ gauge, it’s a delightful bit of ancient railway. All on a circular 4′ diameter board. I’m tempted…
Bulldog Quay (EM), a small, simple layout with some lovely shipping.
In contrast, Scarlington (N). I think this is a large N gauge layout that succeeds, as it sets the complex city trackwork into the scenery.
Filisur (RHB) is a close to scale representation of this Swiss station, before the snow melts for the summer.
Addleford Green (OO), based on Hawkhurst.
And to finish for today, Japan in Bloom (N).
esngblog 