esngblog

Saturday, and exhibition time again (avoiding cleaning my youngest’s new property.) Allan couldn’t think of a suitable breakfast near Fareham, so we diverted to the Station Yard Cafe in Alton – for the usual excellent breakfast. We then trundled down to Fareham on a completely new road to me – the A32. An old-style ‘A’ road, single lane winding through pretty countryside and the occasional village.

The show was excellent and well worth the visit. I’ll start with two familiar layouts that are always worth another look. Beijiao (HO) models NE China in 2001. Lots of interesting stock and I always enjoy the shop fronts and ground floor businesses in the backscene flats, as the remind me of Hong Kong in the 1980’s and 90’s.

Also familiar is Wimborne (OO), a lovely slice of BR Southern Region.

I really liked Kirkby in Ashfield MPD (OO) – a minimum space cameo shed scene, that was not overpopulated with locos, and had no deafening diesel sound effects!

A little OO9. The primitive chapel at Garreg Wen….

And the dense undergrowth at the end of the Talyllyn at Nant Gwernol….

An old favourite, Portsea (TT), Portsmouth harbour in real 3mm scale. It’s an old layout, but has been continuously improved and extended, and is full of green EMUs. What more can one ask for?

More next time – or perhaps after the next ESNG meeting!

The next day, Allan went down to the coast to visit the Worthing show. Here are a few photos, in very random order….

We’ll finish off the Folkstone show with another batch of layout photos. Five Mile House (OO) models the East Coast main line in 1935. Trains in the landscape, and a pleasant watch. (The layout is a lot longer than my photos suggest!)

Lovely detail in the workshops of the Abbey Light Railway (O-14).

Addleford Green (OO).

Staple & Ash (OO) a busy station on the East Kent Railway.

Holmeshurst (O).

Rookery Lane (OO).

Oakbourne (OO).

Tinkers Hill (O).

Oakley Lane (O).

Halden Lane (OO).

Clayton West (OO).

And last but not least, Tramlink.

And so on to Folkstone. We’ll start with Nick Falconer’s venerable Konigshafen (N), returning to the Folkstone show after 30 years – and still running well. This is a different layout from the Konigshafen that went to TINGS – Nick has used the name across his German layouts.

I always enjoy seeing Fence Houses NCB (OO) with it’s grimy coal wagons and interesting industrial steam.

And Janes’ Creek (EM) is always a pleasure, with a mixture of ships and pre-grouping, SECR, trains.

Dydley Junction is a real quart into a pint pot – 4′ x 2’6″ in N. Lots of complex trackwork, but it doesn’t look overcrowded.

Great Tey (OO) is a very well observed bit of East Anglian railway – GER in BR days.

And more layouts next time.

Another morning out with some ESNG members, taking in two Kentish exhibitions. Having gone around the Folkstone show, Allan suggested dropping into Headcorn on the way home. Two very different locations and venues, but both rather different.

The Folkstone show is held in the Leas Cliff Hall, right by the beach. It’s a bit of a warren, with exhibits on three levels, and one could pub-crawl your way around the show – there seemed to be a bar on each level! But this was the view from the walkway around the lowest hall.

And Nick Falconer’s Konigshafen. The only problem with the view is the sun……

The Headcorn show was held in the local Baptist church. Rather like ESNG in Earlswood Baptist, they took over the whole building. But unlike the more modern Earlswood, this is a lovely old church dating from 1819. Catering was rather simpler, on a donation system for the tea and (real) coffee!

Today, I’ll post a few pictures from Headcorn, then spend a few posts on the much larger Folkstone show. One feature of Headcorn was the number of N gauge layouts.

I liked Aylesford, a simple but very well modelled tail-chaser. The hidden part of the circuit was at the front of the layout, so you looked across the rural scenery to the station. This worked very well, though it prevented having hidden sidings – though one could sneak a loop or two under the hidden section (painted grey.)

Switzerland and snow….

A rather clever pizza layout, and an even more cleverly presented quarry (all OO9.)

This O gauge steam shed switched from day to night….

More N gauge….

For our final TINGS selection, we’ll start with little and large…. A neat little tram layout.

And the diminutive French Verneuil-les-Vignes….

In contrast, the Northumbrian NGS group’s Long Hirston, a very large N-mod layout.

East Anstey Station on the North Devon line.

St Mawes Jetty.

Two Locks….

Beechwood….

Irgendwohn Hauptbahnhof (what a mouthful) – a T-track layout.

There were some other layouts, but none that caught my eye. A very good TINGS this year and it was fun exhibiting – but rather expensive as I had too much time to go shopping!

Where to start? There were quite a few layouts that caught my eye. A favourite was the double layout, St Andrews and Guard Bridge. I especially liked the viaduct of Guard Bridge and the way the line curves away into the backscene.

Kernow Consolidated is cleverly built on two levels, with a fine viaduct, and captures the atmosphere of South and East Cornwall.

Pauline McKenna’s Muhlenfelder captures German trains in the landscape.

Bordesley North was part of the 2mm Association roadshow, and is a very neat micro-layout, again on two levels.

Hawes Junction models the station and viaduct at Garsdale on the Settle and Carlisle line. A very long and very impressive bit of modelling!

Gloucester was making its exhibition debut. The station has one of the longest platforms in the UK. There’s still work to do on this model, but it’s already a most impressive layout.

Final selection next time…..