My final post on ‘Ally Pally’ is to look at O gauge, the ‘senior scale.’  There seems to be a vogue for O gauge shunting layouts at present.  The Model Railway Club’s Happisburgh Goods (pronounced ‘Haze-burr’) models a Great Eastern Railway goods yard in BR days.  It was originally part of the full terminus layout that was on the exhibition circuit for a number of years.  The main layout was sold, but the good yard lives on.

Dubmill Sidings was a long, rambling shunting layout in BR days, that featured some excellent diesels, generally left at random in sidings.  I really liked the (?Heljan?) Falcon, precursor of the ubiquitous Class 47s.  There was also some very nice rolling stock on display.  I have always liked the ‘Prestwin’ hopper since I made an Airfix kit of one.

Back to Ireland for Arigna Town.  A bucolic branch line, Irish style with an interesting selection of locomotives and rolling stock.

Belbroughton is a small (for O gauge) branch line terminus, with some distinctive pointwork to get into the fiddle yard.  I liked the warehouse hiding the fiddle yard.  A pretty well standard ruse, but very neatly done.

Hemyock is a Scale7 model of the terminus of the Culm Valley Light Railway, latterly run by the GWR.  The terminus features a milk processing plant beyond the platform end.  Unfortunately, poor lighting in this part of the hall, and the wide O gauge baseboards prevented me getting a photo of this part of the layout.

Maske is a model of a station on the north-east coast of England, running NER and LNER stock.  I liked the breakdown train out to rescue the stray wagon.  The cows look uninterested – perhaps it’s a common occurrence?

The Stodden Hundred Light Railway completes the O gauge section.

There were a couple of G gauge layouts at the show.  Not altogether realistic, but lots of lovely models that look good because of their size.   Here’s one shot of Hampton’s End.

I missed a few layouts with my camera, but I think this was most of them.  Looking through the photographs again, it showed what a good show it was.  Isn’t it strange that our memory always tells us that last year’s show was always better?  I suspect I’ll be going back next year, as it’s a good day out.

And did I find any bargains?  I came away with a few things, a Dapol Isle of Wight Terrier and a Stove 6-wheeler parcels van, some small clamps from one of the tool shops, and a couple of cheap, unboxed, Southern Pacific bay-window cabooses.  Not a bad haul, really.