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The second half of my Wycrail visit…..

It’s an unusual UK show with two Norwegian layouts on show.  Svanda (HO) is a pleasant change from the GWR branchline, though the track layout is similar to any European branch or secondary line.

Sankei Valley (Z) is only 2.4m in length, but this tiny scale allows a lot to be crammed in.  It’s set off well by a quality backscene including (cliché) Mount Fuji. A fun layout!

Quite a contrast with Trinity Dock Street Bridge (OO) that seems to have scenery that is entirely black, grey or brown – even the water.  But this is probably pretty accurate for Hull with a nasty fog blowing off the Humber!  Lots of cameos and detail and endless shunting make this an interesting layout.

Vale View (O) is a minimum space layout, but I liked the way the backscene blends into the layout proper….

Back to Norway and Norge (HO).  The fishing village is well done – and can you spot the working bicycle?  Another cliché in the making, but talking to the operator, the next one is a working rocking chair for a house veranda.

I seem to have missed all the trains on Whitmoor (N)….

You could guess Llangenydd (OO) is in Wales – the bus almost on the bridge has been held up by the sheep!

Burton Bradstock (EM) models BR western region in the 1950’s.  Nice to see a layout set near to the ancestral home of the Bartlett’s…..

Lovely fall trees on Kamiack Falls (HO), modelling the Burlington Northern in Washington State.  All very atmospheric with some slow switching going on.

Ilfracombe (East) (OO9) models a might-have-been Lynton & Barnstaple Railway branch.

Thornfield (OO) is a branch terminus somewhere in North Somerset.

I really liked Treloar Sidings (O).  The visible section is only 8′ long, but is an attractive goods only branch built for the china clay traffic.

Finally, Feltham Road MPD (OO) is based on the Southern shed at that location.  I liked the roofless engine shed that had seen better days, and the backscene that evoked south-west London.

Overall, a high quality and interesting show.  The school makes a good, airy venue, and the exhibits were well spaced out making access easy.  I was pleased to run into a few friends on either side of the displays, and it was a very pleasant morning out.  Far better than watching the rugby, anyway….

Last Saturday offered a difficult choice.  Watch England in the rugby world cup final, or drive 50 miles in wind and rain to the Wycrail exhibition at High Wycombe.  I had a bad feeling about the rugby (correctly) and wanted to deliver some flyers, so I took to the M25.  It was really nasty driving, but the roads were pretty empty.  It had nearly stopped raining by the time I got to the show, and a 10 minute queue for opening time was made acceptable by the school having a wide canopy over the entrance.

Inside, there were three halls of exhibits.  I started with the largest models, The Whiteleaf Tramway (G scale).  An indoor setting showing what could be built in a typical garden, there were a good number of tram models on show.  Including that unusual beast, a British Railways tramcar (interurban) from the Grimsby & Immingham Electric Railway.

Belbroughton (O) is a joint LMS/GWR branch line in BR days.

Bristol Good Shed (O gauge including broad gauge) models part of Brunel’s timber goods shed at Temple Meads, and includes standard, broad and mixed gauge track.

Kidmore Fork (HO) is illustrated in its entirety below.  A switching layout that can be set up at home and provide an hour’s shunting as and when….

A quiet moment at Lynth-Haven (OO).  Actually, a very quiet moment, as they had had one of those embarrassing moments when all lights, points and signals work, but the trains won’t move.  I noticed later that all was working again.

Portwen (O:16.5) is an attractive freelanced narrow gauge line set on the Camel Estuary.  I liked the harbour, where the seagulls outnumber both humans and trains – most prototypical!

Salinas Valley (HO) is a small USA switching layout.

Lakebank (TT) is a Furness Railway branch line in LMS days, set in the Lake District.

Upper Oreful Street (OO) has an interesting history.  It started as an architectural model that was about to be scrapped as the scheme wasn’t going ahead.  Rescued, and with tram tracks added, it’s a delight.  As well as the trams, there are road vehicles that pass through the scene.  It’s all in a glass case and controlled by computer (except the odd nudge for a tram that stuck).

Always good to see Kyle of Lochalsh (2mm fine scale)

Trowland (S scale) is a another favourite.  Could be it’s the mixture of Midland & Great Northern prototype, an North Norfolk setting, and being built in S scale that I like?  The little 4-4-0T locomotive in the last picture must be one of the prettiest locos ever built, in a beautiful livery – the colour of the gorse along the Norfolk heathland.

Gilly and Peter North of the West Sussex Mob were there, with some of their modules including Gilly’s scrapyard.  They had a lucky escape on the M40, surviving a blow out just short of High Wycombe.

Haversham Central (N)

Rest of the photos next post.