After a busy wedding weekend and a few days holiday by the sea in Poole, I thought a side trip to an exhibition would be good.  SWING (Small and Wonderful Industrial, Narrow Gauge and light railways) exhibition down in Worthing, and organised by the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association looked good.  Not all narrow gauge, and it turned out to be well worth a visit.

A highlight was to see Canada Street (EM) again.  I’ve seen it a good number of times before, but Saturday allowed me to get a really close look at this lovely layout and talk to the builders.  They were treating the show as a relaxing weekend after the crush of EXPO EM the previous Saturday.  The dockyard scene and the BR period rolling stock are well observed and very well weathered.  On Saturday, the locomotives were from the south, and Canada Street was somewhere near Southampton.  It’s generic look, and typical wagons, mean that it can change region.

My other highlight was Bunkers Lane.  Built in O9 – 7mm scale, 9mm gauge – this layout is based on the Leighton Buzzard sand workings, and has both trains of hoppers and preserved passenger trains.  O9 represents miniature, estate and industrial railways with gauges between 15″ and 18″.  It produces a very compact model, with lots of detail.  I’m tempted (but only after my sugar cane railway amongst others….)

I especially liked the double-sided main layout, and the looped fiddle yard at one end.

Waalhaven (HO) models a Dutch yard somewhere near Rotterdam.  It’s the turn of the century, and privatisation has begun to change the liveries seen in the area.

More layouts next time….