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A little more from Portsmouth.  Pwllhelli (P4) shows how a modern, rationalised, terminus can still be interesting – add some engineers trains.

The Boston Model Railway Society brought  Tytton Hall Yard (OO) south.  Always good to see a new layout (to me) from another area of the UK.  The layout’s primary feature is a fully working rapid coal loader for MGR’s, whilst the mainlines above are busy with both passenger and freight traffic.

Sillhurst (N).  Good to see a Southern branch line in N.

More modern freight at Tidworth (OO).

And China clay at Trenance Down (OO).

Lastly, Fareford East (OO).  Sort of N-mod on steroids!

My quieter week turned out to be just as busy as the previous ones, so I passed on a visit to the Portsmouth show.  As usual, my faithful reporter sent me a few pictures.  And I, as usual, have selected some of my favourites!  It is always interesting to see which layouts Allan has taken more photos of – and how they are sometimes different from the ones that I would have concentrated on.  No complaints at all – one of the joys of our hobby is the range of interests and layouts under one large umbrella – and we usually still talk to each other.

I would have been in agreement with the excellent Sud Harz (HOn3).  I especially like the way the backscene of trees has been blended into the relatively narrow baseboard.  And it’s a ‘real’ narrow gauge railway, so a good proportion of todays photos come from deepest Germany.

Now, I’d have probably taken more shots of Feltham Road (OO).  This is one of the few shed layouts around that really works, being a condensed version of Feltham shed in its latter days, and filled with lovely ex-Southern locomotives.

I also find Splott (P4) rather interesting.  There is a place called Splott in South Wales, and the subdued lighting and grimy works capture the area (as it was) rather well.

And so to Fredstone Lane (N).  A large N gauge layout that uses the small scale to pack in loads of tracks and keep trains running to entertain the masses.  It’s all very well done, but I’m sorry, but I’d rather see the trains having room to breath in the countryside.  But so what, it’s a good layout, and that’s my problem……

More next time!

We’ll start today with some rather fine models of ordinary houses and buildings.  On Wellbridge (OO)….

And Wantage Tramway (P4).

And also Penworth (2mm finescale.)

More buildings on Holmeshurst (O), most of which have family connections to the owner, whilst the Ford railcar shows prototypical stability on the rails!

Modern image on Collingwood (OO).

Shed scenes on Oakley Lane (O) and Upper Blackburn (OO).

Cedar Canyon Junction (N).

Shunting at Gas Street Yard (O).  I hope that those milk churns are empties!

And finally, branch lines with Halden Road (OO) and Westerham (O).

After a rather hectic week, I opted for a morning out and away from things and took a train with Mr Dawes over to Tonbridge.  It’s a 32 minute run through some lovely Kent countryside, and much more relaxing than driving.  I always have mixed feelings about the show due to the long, long, queues to get in.  However this year we left a little later to avoid the opening rush, and there was no queue outside the building.  Maybe they have got more efficient on the door, as the halls seemed as busy.  As can be seen from the tea room….

As usual, it was a pretty good show, so here goes with two posts worth of highlights.  This time around, I’ll start with the layouts that caught my eye.

I’ve seen Kamiack Falls (HO) before, but this seems to me to be a US railroad modelled with a UK approach.  It’s set somewhere in the east of Washington state, and the fall trees immediately catch the eye.  Short trains switch and pass through at scale speeds.  The only catch with this is that I had to wait a long time to get the picture I wanted!

I’ve seen Janes Creek (EM) at a number of shows recently – but it is still worth another look.  Here I just took pictures of the lovely ships modelled on the layout.

Brinklow (N) models a station on the Trent Valley Railway, running next to the Oxford canal.  Excellent scenery, and a regular service of trains all set up with realistic formations of stock. 

Cessy-en-Bois (HO) is an immersive little bit of the south of France, where it’s rather hot and things happen slowly, if at all…..

Modern china clay at Wheal Elizabeth (P4).

And last for today, The Bedlam Brewery Company in On16.5.