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A fourth, and perhaps (!) the last report from Abrail.  I review the remaining layouts before deciding on another post.  It does show how good an exhibition this was – and there were still another few layouts that I didn’t feel inclined to fight the crowd to get a look.  Today, we’ll start with another familiar layout, Leicester Belgrave Road (OO).  The Great Northern terminus in Leicester is modelled near to closure.  I’ve always liked the way the line is looped around to get to the fiddle yard – making room for the yards and looking quite realistic.

Some US railroading with the Port Washington Terminal Railroad.

Broadwell (OO) has some interesting cameos – I’ve never seen carriage cleaning modelled before.  There’s also a fine station building and bascule bridge.

Oulton TMD (OO).

A pleasant little bit of OO9 with Llanfair Rhyd.  (Especially the authentic north Wales sky!)

And a smattering of pictures from some of the other layouts.

I will stop at this point, as most of the other layouts I’ve got photos of have appeared on the blog from other exhibitions.  All in all, an excellent show, and worth the effort to get there.

Onward, ever onward.  There’s still plenty to share from this excellent show!  My best layout name in show was ‘Hartburn’ (EM), which is a real place in Northumbria.  Which does lead onto the subject of strange or rather rude names for layouts.  I’ve always liked the ideal of the ‘Queen Camel’ branch, one of many Camels on the eastern edge of Dorset.  Anyhow, back to Hartburn…..  My sort of the layout,. and I liked the bleak backscene.

Rossiter Rise (OO) is a regular sight at exhibitions at the moment, and for good reason.  Due to the layout location, I think, we had the extra treat of inspecting the fiddle yard.  I’d like to record that the elderly gent in the background is NOT one of our younger club members….

 Another of my favourites, appearing again, is Harton Gill (P4).  Excellent industrial scenery and those strange Harton overhead electrics.

Let’s return to the 2mm room.  St Ruth is again familiar, a fine layout based on Penzance.

And another slice of seaside, with Burnham-on-Sea.  Note the fiddle yard using brass strip for rail – a common 2mm finescale trick, from when you had to scratchbuild your track.

And to finish for the day, two N gauge layouts, the large Newvaddon Parkway, and the très petit Verneuil-les-Vignes.

Apart from Bath Green Park, the main hall held a number of large layouts, and these would have been just about worth the price of admission.   Starting with Faringdon (P4), a close to scale model of the GWR branch terminus.  I’ve been following constructional articles of this layout – especially the scenery – in Model Railway Journal, so it was good to see it in its most excellent flesh.

Possibly on one of its last outings was Grantham – the Streamliner Years (OO).  This is a layout that has grown on me, but it is a very realistic picture of the east coast main line in LNER days.  It’s not just about the streamliners, the local passenger and goods workings are just as well modelled.

Next, Plumpton Green (P4).  I met Barry Luck years ago going to a meeting at Southern Water and finding that we were both modellers.  Plumpton Green is a smaller LBSCR layout than his last on, aiming to be lighter and more transportable with increasing age….

I’m delighted to see that Canada Street (EM) is still being exhibited, despite the untimely death of its builder.  A perfect slice of British Railways yard and docks, its strength is that locos from any region can be operated on the generic – but beautifully modelled – rails.

And finally today, Melton Molbray (North) (N).  A layout that I’ve seen a lot, but it’s such a good model of a real location, and shows the strengths of N gauge, modelling a real location in a reasonable (if rather large to my eyes) space.  And full of cameo scenes and great buildings.

Looking back, it was 2015 when I last visited this show.  Although still at the same location, it’s grown considerably since then, now being spread between three buildings of the college, and sometimes on two floors.  A nice feature of the show was the way layouts were, where possible, grouped together – for example there was a floor of 2mm and N gauge layouts, though some others were spread elsewhere.

I’m getting ahead of myself – Mr Dawes and Mr Atfield were going to the show, so I tagged along.  It was a bit of a journey, as Google told us part of the M25 was closed (it wasn’t) and it then took us to a small car park rather than the real college building.  A short queue to get in, and although the show entrance was £15, this was not unreasonable considering the number of very good layouts.  It was a bit of a scrum in places, but that’s a successful show for you.  The only complaint was the catering, with massive queues that we gave a miss to, but that’s a function of the college, not the club.

And it was a delightful day for a trip into the Chilterns.  I think that we saw between 30 and 40 Red Kites circling above roads and towns.  Wonderful to see, as 50 years ago, one would head for west Wales to see the handful left in the UK.  And back to railways!  I’ve got several posts worth of photos, and I’ll start, as usual, with a few especial favourites.

Midholme (N) is just 6ft long and models a typical station on the single track section of the Somerset and Dorset near Bath.  A compact model (with fiddle yard looped behind) that looks far larger than it really is.

Always good to see Nick and Königshafen (N) on the road.  He always seems to have added a few new bits and pieces to the layout.  And even better, we may have negotiated the loan of an N-club end loop for exhibitions later in the year.

The Royal Albert Bridge (N) is as fine a piece of engineering as the original.  I think I last saw this layout under construction – good to see it nearly complete.

A real favourite was Llawryglyn (EM), modelling the Cambrian in pre-grouping days.  A typical Cambrian twig-off-a-branch and I doubt whether it would have ever seen two trains in the station at one time – or even two a day!  I especially enjoyed the period locomotives and rolling stock.  Realistic sheep, too….

Finally for today, the magnificent Bath Green Park (OO) modelling the last quarter-mile into the old Somerset and Dorset terminus, including the station, loco shed, and just part of the extensive goods yards.  That’s something like 60′ of layout….