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Today, I’ll start with the ‘fun’ layouts.  Perhaps not the most prototypical, but designed to give the operator a lot of fun just running trains.  Both these are American layouts in N, although Quarry Falls allows a few other trains to sneak onto the layout.

And Rocky Mountain Rails is a classic figure of eight layout.

Lisworth Bay (N) is a lovely slice of the Southern Railway west country, justifiably a regular on the exhibition circuit.

A quick mention for the lovely Janes Creek (EM).

Summer Springs on the New Cut (OO) captures the Norfolk Broads – it does exactly what it says on the can.  (Important warning – never throw your children to the ducks and swans – you may never get them back!)

Dual gauge on Moos OBB (HO).

And finally, our friends at the West Sussex group were running their modular N gauge, named “N E Where” for the occasion!

Once again, I didn’t get to the Erith show, having been to Southampton on the Saturday.  Once again, Allan has sent me a good selection of photos, and I’ve selected a few that appealed.

Great Tey (OO) captures the GER in Essex, and looks a good place to watch the trains go by.

Similar in character is Old Oxendale Sidings (OO).  Both these layouts do suggest what could be done with several N-club or N-mod modules?

And I may as well add the simpler but similar Hope Sidings.  A good advert for the hobby to the younger generation.

Keeping on the theme of sidings, but on a much smaller scale is London Road Sidings (OO), a self-contained cameo of diesel refuelling point and a couple of sidings.  When I saw this layout I was impressed with the support system – just raising the layout a couple of feet on the usual catering table found at shows, bringing it to eye level.

I think that I’ve enough photos for another set tomorrow, so I’ll finish with Smithfield (O), exhibited by the similarly named club just up the road from us in Merstham!

A final set of photos from Southampton…..

I really liked St Holdens (EM).  I’ve always had a soft spot for the Great Eastern Railway, especially their beautiful blue locomotives.  This layout captures a typical Norfolk station really well, and brought back memories of visiting family in East Dereham.

Faller Stadt (HO) was a fairly typical roundy-roundy, but there was considerable interest from viewers in the Faller bus system and the vehicles driving around in the background.

Tittesworth (OO9) is a neat demonstration for MERG computer control and products.

An excellent idea at the show was to have a classroom set aside as the ‘junior’ room, with several ‘have-a-go’ layouts, plus this rather fine Lego layout.

Upbech St Mary (EM) models another of my favourites – the Wisbech and Upwell tram (incidentally also Great Eastern in origin.)

Brankstone (OO) is a fairly typical, but well modelled shed layout.  We all have too many locomotives, so a shed layout does have a lot going for it!

Last, but most definitely not least, the excellent Southwark Bridge (N).  Real London railways as I remember them from my teens and beyond.

We stopped for refreshments at the show.  The catering is good, but the queue for the coffee was immense, as the coffee machine was on a go-slow.  I did try their breakfast.  OK, but a bit dry, and the tasty bacon was a bit tough – it bent the prongs of my disposable fork.  So we then headed for a café at the Eastleigh Miniature Railway for coffee and cake, and in the case of Messrs Dawes and Atfield, an enormous breakfast burger.  There were some rather fine locos parked next door….

Well, that’s Southampton done for another year.  Worth the visit, and a pleasant morning out with friends.  I now have to decide whether to sign up for Alton next weekend.  It’s usually a good exhibition, but life is so busy at the moment!

Onward!  I was going to write this up last night, but we were suddenly invited out for a curry by some old friends.  You can guess my priority here….

Some fine O gauge modelling on Staindrop, picturing the ex-NER in south-west Durham around 1928.  I liked the scenic work, bridges and station, sometime difficult to convince in the larger areas of O gauge.  The nicely varnished facia to the baseboards also impressed!  It’s those small details that really set of a railway.

Also in O, the tiny St Kew Highway, exhibited on the Gauge O Guild stand, shows what can be done in the senior scale on a micro layout.

Kinmundy (EM) represents an ex-Great North of Scotland Railway branch in BR days.  This line is notable for the frosty scenery.  A simple dusting of white paint over the scenery, and some added sparkle give a most realistic scene.  However, the initial spray over the already modelled scenery must have taken some courage!

A side room had a display of the late Iain Rice’s layouts.  This seems quite the thing at the moment, but is very welcome.  Iain was a master modeller (and writer – try some of his layout design books), but was also, I think, a master bodger!  His articles always convinced me that I could make something like this.  All in P4, and minimum space layouts, we have the clay dries of  Tetrice (with a fiddle yard suspended by a chain off the main layout!!), Hepton Wharf, a tiny pioneer of the cameo layout, and Longwood Edge, an experiment to see whether the integrated cameo format – boards and backscene forming a box structure – would work on a larger layout.

And now for something completely different!  Sandy Shores Light Railway (OO9) is a flight of fancy set on the sand dunes of the South coast.  A fascinating little line with a convoluted track plan – and some very well done coastal scenery.  The operator told me that it’s rather interesting operating it!

Danbee (O), a GWR branch line.

And to finish today, the miniscule Kleinstadt (Z).