Today we have the final selection of photos from the Canterbury show.  They may be last, but are definitely not least!  If any exhibitors read this (or any other of my blogs), this is personal preference and any criticism is personal too.  I strongly support Rule 1 – it’s your railway – but it may be different from mine!!!

Lisworth Bay (N) is a very nice Southern major branch line, with echoes of Swanage and all those other holiday resorts in Devon and Cornwall.

Wittenden has an interesting mix of narrow gauge – On16.5 and On9 – all nicely presented.

Santa Maria (HO) was well modelled modern Swiss rail.  The overhead was most impressive.  It did have a few issues at the start of the show requiring application of a hot soldering iron!

Minimum space shunting at Coalhouse (OO).

Another Southern branch terminus at Bletchinghurst (OO).

I’d seen Frittenden Road (O) recently, at the Maidstone show.  Attractive light railway modelling, Colonel Stephens style.

I remain unconvinced by Brief Encounter, the monochrome model railway.  It’s clever, getting all the shades of grey right, but it still doesn’t capture the atmosphere of a well composed black and white photograph.  Or indeed the flash of colour of a train passing through a dreary industrial landscape.  Still, as I said, each to their own…..

I was taken with Four Feather Falls (OOO), all using (working) Lone Star models.  This was perhaps the commercial start of N gauge, and the models were still running very well.  I recall as a 9 or 10 year old visiting a friend and enjoying playing with the push-along version of Lone Star trains.  Still great fun.

Last and most definitely not least was the Lego layout.  It’s brilliant what you can do, realistically, with Lego and I especially liked the Blue Pullman.  Really, Lego trains are another branch of our already varied hobby.

So that’s Canterbury done for this year.  A pleasant morning out with friends and a very good show with some most excellent layouts.  And I didn’t spend much – just picked up a couple of second hand wagons.