I took my life in my hands and visited my first model railway exhibition since covid this afternoon. Uckfield is one of my favourite shows, so I slipped down there on Sunday afternoon, hoping (reasonably successfully) to miss the crush.
In the end I visited for 45 minutes or so. Enough time to see everything, and chat to a few people that I knew, before it all seemed a bit too crowded. As always a good show and some excellent layouts. My only criticism was not the show, but the punters. When there are numerous signs politely requesting mask wearing when moving around the hall, why are so many people ignoring it? I’m sure most of them weren’t exempt, just rude and bl**dy minded! Still, it was great to get back to a show after 18 months or so, but I shall be selective which ones I go to this autumn.
But what about the trains, they said!
We start with Marmagne, a French branch line in H0. An attractive scene made even better by those wonderful French railcars. I love the ones with the driver sitting in the roof!
Great to see Graham Bridge exhibiting Southwark Bridge. A lovely London terminus in ‘N’, and Graham has obviously used lockdown to add some more EMU’s.
Into the main hall, and Axebridge in 00-9.
One of the show highlights was John Greenwood’s 2mm layout. He has a grand plan to model the western end of the Southern Railway, including Wenfordbridge, Bodmin, Boscarne, Wadebridge and Padstow. Wadebridge, and the close to complete Padstow, made the trip from his loft to Uckfield.
I’ve seen Wadebridge before, but it bears another close look. Some lovely scratch built locos are in the engine shed – especially the 2-4-0T Beattie well tank and the 4-4-0 T9.
Padstow is very clever, with the line laid out to loop around the estuary to include the long girder bridge and link up to Wadebridge.
I liked Llawryglyn in EM, a bucolic part of the Cambrian Railway somewhere near Machynlleth.
A less bucolic part of Wales is shown in Llandowdno (00), somewhere in north Wales in BR days and close to closure.
Finally for today, Horsethief Bridge in ‘N’. American modelling at its best – and simplest – with long trains travelling very slowly at scale speeds through the countryside. It took about five minutes for a train to travel from one end of the layout to the other – it’s a big layout, but that’s still a crawl!
More layouts next post.
esngblog 
Hi,
I sadly missed the Uckfield was exhausted from Greggs show the day before at Beckenham.
I dont think people were being rude, bl00dy minded or ignorant, they are just probably awake ‘Red Pilled’ and like many, me included, who don’t buy into the NWO, DS, BS, MSM narrative about the Rona.
Yes there was a Biological attack on the World released from China Yes some people died from it, but not enough. Yes the NWO’s plan is to inject the world YES the vaxxine is the Coronavirus.
So before you call people selfish, think about the selfish people that force children to wear a face nappy on their face breathing in all there own germs and breathing in the same toxins they just breathed out, same applies to adults. “ Breathing uses chemical and mechanical processes to bring oxygen to every cell of the body and to get rid of carbon dioxide. Our body needs oxygen to obtain energy to fuel all our living processes. Carbon dioxide is a waste product of that process. – Nursing Times”
That being said, excellent report as allways.
PS you might want to avoid Tolworth Showtrain, or wear a gas mask lol
Kind Regards
Doctor Ms Stephanie Dearden (President of Tooting Broadway) (Not a real Doctor or President, its the in thing nowadays you know)
Ribblesford Midland/Daisyfield Traincare/Cicely Bridge TMD/Farringate Tooting & District Model Railway Group, Epsom & Ewell MRC, Croydon MRS. North Downs MRC 14 Effort Street Tooting Broadway London SW17 0QR
Sent from my new iPad 9.7
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Obviously we have different views of the covid situation. I think my main complaint was the rudeness of people who ignored the clear and polite signs asking masks to be worn. A little common courtesy does no harm, even if you disagree.
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