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And a few more photos of the rest…..

Swillybegs (O-21) is an exhibition regular, but always worth another looks as a lovely model of a slice of County Donegal.

Loughborough Midland (OO).

Northleach (P4).

Corsham (N).

Brixcombe (P4).

Two Bridges Up Sidings (OO) is close to home – somewhere on the Brighton main line near Three Bridges, I assume. Usually lots of third-rail EMUs to be seen, but today there was an impressive lineup of diesel traction.

Wolfstatt (HO) is set in the Austrian Alps.

Well presented OO9 on Hexworthy.

And larger (O-16.5) narrow gauge on Bowaters Paper Mill.

Lochty (EM), a model of the goods only terminus operated by the North British Railway.

Smalldale Quarry (N).

Part of the Buntingford branch (GER) in N. The beaucolic Braughing and Standon.

The clubs new N-Fine layout, Okehampton, looks like it will be a stunner when complete. Well worth displaying as ‘work in progress’. Allan obviously liked the storage loops (and so did I).

One more set of photos to come…..

One letter changed in the name and a week later. I’d have liked to get to this show, but a flu jab and decorating my daughter’s new property got in the way. But Allan supplied the usual photographic record of this rather good exhibition.

Starting with Ventnor (O). Or perhaps the ‘Essence of Ventnor’. A very much compressed version of this unique station, but with all the character of the original. It would be enormous if to scale (as the 2mm and P4 versions that may occasionally be seen), but is a sensible way of modelling the station in a large scale.

Another layout that I’d like to have seen (and will catch up with one day) is Nazareth Portland Cement (N), set in the NE of the States, the area that I am interested in.

I’d also have liked to see Haydon Square (O). A sort of East End Minories, with plenty of goods and newspaper traffic, and a splendid wagon hoist to reach the gloom underneath the arches.

2mm Finescale on a large scale – Buxton close to full size.

I like the look of Montrarole (HO), set on the Italian coast.

To close today, an old favourite, Friedrichstrasse (HO). An impression of an area of Berlin that I know well (and have passed through it both on S-bahn and ICE trains.

And so to the next batch of excellent layouts. Penworth is a worthy Pendon in N gauge.

I rather liked Watts Lane (O9), a modular estate railway, perhaps only spoilt by the shortage of running trains. But I appreciated the concept of ‘linked cameos’ – potential for N gauge here?

Minimum space O gauge shunting on Wood Street.

Lacey Dale (N). High level for continuous running, low level for shunting.

Ropley (OO) is a closely to scale model of the station on the heritage Watercress line. Excellent modelling, but for some unknown reason it’s never been one of my favourites. Perhaps I’m just not excited by models of heritage railways?

And to finish, a random selection from the other (very good) layouts….

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.