esngblog

We’ll start our look at the larger scale layouts at the Gaugemaster show, with Allenton in HO.  Just 6′ of shunting layout, with a timewaster Timesaver track plan.  Somewhere in deepest Cotton Belt territory, a Southern Pacific switcher is hard at work.

I love this first photograph (though I say it myself) as it brings out the detail in this little layout, and how foreground buildings have been used to frame the locomotive and make the layout seem larger.

Also in HO was Red Hook Bay, another layout I’ve seen before on the exhibition circuit.  Lots of craftsman kit structures and masses of detail.  It’s an interesting contrast with Allenton.  Both are highly detailed, but Allenton goes for the grimy look, whilst Red Hook Bay has that pristine clean look that real railways never had, but is how we remember them.  Both approaches are completely valid – Rule 1 applies, ‘It’s my railway’.

British OO was represented by Nene Wharf, a goods branch set in the Fens of Cambridgeshire.  An attractive switching layout, UK style.  I liked the sense of place, especially helped by the backscene showing the billiard table flat countryside.

OO was also represented by two small loco shed layouts, the slightly larger Raphingley Road TMD and the minimalistic (but none the worse for that) Jake’s Yard.  Both were excellent little layouts, giving a chance to view the BR blue diesels on sale in the Gaugemaster shop!

Forleigh was also in OO, and included a preserved line and engine shed.

O gauge was represented by Belbroughton, a small branch line layout set in Worcestershire and running LMS and GWR trains.

Finally, G gauge was on show in the form of Hampton End.

There were a number of modelling demonstrations to see, plus a few society stands.  The SCNF Society had an impressive model of a viaduct towering over the seaside and beach.  The subversive ESNG members asked why they hadn’t painted a burkini on one of the bathers, then surrounded them with a riot squad…..

All in all, a very pleasant show with plenty to look at.  I missed the ‘scale’ layouts in EM and P4 or 2mm or Scale7.  But Gaugemaster tend to sell in the commercial gauges, so their own show has layouts where you can buy similar items in the shop next door.

It was a good way to spend the weekend.  And there’s another expedition to look forward to next Sunday – a trip to TINGS, the large N gauge show near Leamington Spa.  I can find all the detail bits and pieces I need (or think I need) there.

Today we’ll look at the small scale models at the Gaugemaster show.

First off is the N gauge layout Kayreuth.  A regular on the exhibition circuit, Kayreuth is a modern image German layout set in western Germany.  There are multiple tracks and circuits (a peek behind at the fiddle yard is rather interesting), but the layout is also full of little cameos, like the road accident and the river traffic below.

My personal favourite – so much so that I invited them back to next year’s ESNG show – is Kuritu, an N gauge Japanese interurban layout.  A small, portable layout, either built on or the size of a half door, it is double sided, with a dividing backscene down the middle.

One side has a congested Japanese street scene, giving way to rural fields and cherry blossom…..

On the other side, paddy fields and a temple are adjoined by the railways service depot….

The street scene can’t be much more than 6″ deep, but the buildings have ‘depth’ to them…

In the front marquee, Rusbury Basin is a four track, ‘watch the train go by’ layout.  There are two double track circuits passing through rural England.  Much the same idea as our ESNG modular circuit.  Better and more consistent scenery, but no Japanese bullet trains!

Next to us, along with Kuritu, was Lincoln, a tiny bit of the Milwaukee Road in Z gauge.  I loved the USAF air base in the foreground, but the occasional jet sound affects lost their novelty after a while – just like the real thing?  There were also realistic sound effects from the locomotives, but these were provided by a speaker under the layout.  This is a good scheme for any small layout, as the bass sounds are not directional, so the lack of moving sound is not obvious.  I guess Z is pretty impressive, but they haven’t managed to get a speaker in that tiny loco – yet.

The trains ran impeccably, and there is lots of detail even at this tiny size.  It shows what can be done in Z to build a realistic layout.

Also in Z  was a slice of the Swiss mountains with Viscosoprano.  The name is longer than the layout…..

Next, and last, Gaugemaster post will look at the larger scale models.

It’s Monday night, and I’m still slightly shattered after a weekend exhibiting with ESNG at the Gaugemaster show.  The Gaugemaster model store holds this free exhibition every other year.  The show is at Ford, near Arundel, near Ford open prison, home to such luminaries as Geoffrey Archer.  It is in the middle of nowhere, but is next to Ford station on the busy south coast line.

We understood that club-member Sean was driving two trains through Ford on the Saturday of the show.  Allan trotted out to see if he could wave to him (or at least make some hand signal), but unusually for Southern, the train was on time and he missed him.

Our weekend started on Friday, loading up modules and controllers and a power box and curtains and all we need for a show.  Ford is a gentle 75 minutes drive from Redhill, but as we were early someone who shall remain nameless suggested lunch on the way.  So we ended up having Breakfast at Tiffany’s – at least an all-day breakfast in the café of that name in West Hove.  Then a simple 45 minutes drive along the coast became an hour’s crawl due to some faulty traffic lights on the A27.

Still, we got there eventually, and had the layout up and running in a couple of hours, and then returned home.

Saturday was an early start, 6:45am, but there were no traffic problems and we were in Ford in plenty of time to clean the track, put stock out, and test things.  Most trains were run by the usual suspects below – Derek, Allan, Paul, Dave and, behind the camera, myself.  We were grateful on the Saturday for help from Simon, Matt & Tommy, and Neil, and a cameo from Graham.  Sean passed by without the train, but with the family in tow, on the Sunday.

We were wondering how to ‘theme’ the layout, and took the easy way out – a typical club night, where anything and everything goes.  So here we have a Japanese bullet train in the background, and Queen Victoria’s personal train in the foreground (a piece of whimsy by Derek.)  At one point her horse box derailed and she was not amused….

Paul filled Eric the Roundhouse with Japanese locos, that generated a lot of interest.

My Kato Penn Central rake ran for most of the day without any trouble.

On the Sunday, we let Paul loose with a kaleidoscope of bullet trains.  They were a great crowd pleaser, and we had requests from the punters, “to run the red/blue/white one.”  Our speedometer board clocked one at 294km/hour.

The Saturday was a long day, shop hours from 9-5:30.  Sunday was more civilised at 10-4.  We had taken everything down and had the cars packed in 45 minutes.  After a gentle drive home, we unloaded what we could, and were sitting outside the Ruchita with a beer earlier than expected.  The usual excellent curry followed to complete a fun weekend.

So that’s the ESNG view of things.  There were plenty of other layouts at the show, and I’ll cover these in my next two posts.