esngblog

I couldn’t resist just one more post.  Here are three videos.  The first two are of the ESNG portion of the show, The first is of Union Street.  The tube train is in the station and will depart (automatically) in due course.  On the main line, the Hogwarts Expressed is followed by a Blue Pullman and the Brighton Belle.

The second is of the dreaded tunnel, site of Quintinshill 2014, the sad location of Thomas’ tragic demise.

Finally, the perils of driving to Stuttgart – or how to dodge flowerpots on the autobahn!

And, as always, it’s quicker to take a layout down than to put it up.  Two hours after the close of show, the van was packed.  It was then back to the hotel for a well earned dinner.

Amazingly, there was still some beer left!  And this was despite wheeling it over to the Finns at lunchtime, who unfortunately were unable to ‘Finnish’ it.

Allan and Derek set off early Monday morning in the van, and took 12 hours door to door back to Redhill.  We unloaded at the church hall, and Derek’s house, by 18:30 leaving only Allan’s own bits and pieces in the van.

Maxine and I had a leisurely breakfast, packed, checked out, and strolled to the airport.  We had some excellent views of London from the air on the approach to Heathrow.  I never tire of flying across London and spotting all the landmarks, and of course the main line stations.  This time, I excelled myself, spotting the church in Shadwell where we had been to a wedding a few weeks before.  After a quick transit Heathrow to Redhill, we were home by 14:15.

And that’s the Stuttgart pilgrimage over for another year, and this blog will go back to normal…..

One really good thing about the Messe is that you pay once (a very reasonable 12 Euros) and you gain entrance to all eight halls.  Our NEC could learn from this.  It increases the visitor numbers to all shows, as even if you come to visit one, you are likely to drop into the others.  Over the years, I haven’t visited the other halls much, but Maxine and I spent some time exploring most of the other halls (we didn’t bother with the electronics – to avoid computers for the weekend – and baby – past that – shows).

This delightful old car was at the Messe entrance.

Next to our hall was the craft and games exhibition.  Half the hall was full of games of all sorts.  The other was full of wool, beads and other craft activities.  I could have taken up any number of new hobbies.  Then I decided that railways were bad enough!  So we watched the local punters trying out board games before buying (brilliant idea), were buzzed by an airship and cut down by a Star Wars Stormtrooper.

Next off to look for free samples in the food and drink show.  Not much drink to try, but plenty of cheese samples, lots of interesting salamis and sauces and dips.

Finally to the home and garden show, all three halls of it.  Perhaps the least interesting, as we weren’t interested in buying a new (German) kitchen or building a new house.  Still, I got my shoes cleaned with some miracle product and the Stuttgart Water Company display was interesting, especially as it was offering glasses of cold water.

The full size hydrants are actually quite light, and are pedal bins.  I suppose the one good thing about the furniture displays was a chance to rest aching legs and feet!

Although the N-Club convention and modular layout dominates the train section of the Stuttgart show, there are always some other self contained layouts to look at.

There are usually one or two modular HO layouts on display.  This one featured a railway bridge spanning a floor-deep gorge.

Apart from ESNG, the UK was represented by this little two-level shunting layout (sorry, Pauline, I forgot what it was called).  But as you know, gentle reader, I always like railways on brick viaducts.

There were several small and scenic layouts on display, including this delightful French harbour scene.  It’s a continuous layout, perhaps only 4′ long, with the main line weaving its way through the dockside.

This Norwegian layout was slightly larger, but it’s an unusual country to model, and the combination of mountains and sea made for dramatic scenery in a small space.

A single-track N-mod system has some excellent scenic work.  I love the water wheel and sluice gate – the picture is much larger than the real thing.

And of course, apart from the displays of trains, boats and planes, for the civil engineer there were the radio-controlled muck shifting models.  I’m told that psychologists say that civil engineers are generally well balanced people due to the fact that they never leave their childhood sandpits.  How you account for Mr Bean, Yasser Arafat and Osama Bin Laden (all civil engineers by training), I don’t know….

There seems to be an American layout at every show these days.  Perhaps not surprising, as the quality of the models, and the value for money, is high.  I started modelling American ‘N’ about 15 years ago as the models coming out of the USA were of much better quality than the early UK offerings.

There was some USA stock on the second-hand stalls.  I came away with an early Kato F3B.  I will repaint it in Lehigh Valley colours, and will be happy even if it is a poor runner.  I want it to run between an RS2 and an RS11 Alco, so it could just as well be a unpowered unit.  I was relieved when one trader sold his new Kato Illinois Central E8A+B and 11 or so coaches.  I added up the price for all four bits of the train and decided I couldn’t justify buying it – but kept going back for another look.  The VIA blue and yellow version that replaced it on the stand was nice, but not as beautiful as the chocolate and orange IC train.

But back to the layouts.  This simple module is an essay in understatement, and so realistic.

The main American layout was an N-trak circuit.  This three-track module system has been connected to the N-club modules some years, but this time it was an independent display.  This allowed a little super-power to be on display, with five units heading a 150 car goods train.

But my favourite layout was a Canadian Pacific based model, logically situated on the Canadian Pacific coast.  This ticked all the boxes for me.  It had a simple design, with long narrow modules, plain scenery but with well modelled focal points – look for the bear, the afters from a train crash, the wood chipping plant and the bridges and causeway below.

But best of all was the working car float, that moved through real water to take cars from one bank to the other of the bay.