esngblog

On the Monday, Maxine and I went into town hoping to visit a museum or two.  I had generously decided against the tram museum, on the basis that Maxine had seen enough trains for the week.  However, that didn’t work out, as we found that the museums were mostly closed on Monday!  But we had a good walk round anyway.

We travelled in on the newish U6 light rail, which we also used to get to the Messe during the week.  It’s an interesting 45 minute run through fields and suburbs, then a precipitous drop into the city centre through a winding tunnel and then through steep streets.  In my photo below of our local station, out in the fields, you can see the Messe in the distance. 

It’s an easy walk across to get to the halls nearest to the station, but an awful extra walk to the halls at the far end – where we were.  The walk across the fields can be tricky at night, as Sean discovered one year returning slightly worse for wear from the Thursday night party, and finding himself in a field of cabbages.

I was very impressed by the vending machine by the station – it sold useful things like bread, eggs, and vegetables, things for a quick but real supper!

This interesting building was a history museum – shut of course!

A fine church, and around it a Christmas market being set up.  The markets weren’t open for another few days – we always find this when visiting the show.

The Market Hall was very much open and was a fun visit, full of local produce, and home furnishings upstairs.

And a walk through a park area before returning to the station for the trip back to the hotel.

We did have an embarrassing moment when asked to vacate a coffee shop, when the two of us ordered one coffee.  As it was a balmy 17C, we opted for a sit down on a convenient bench to watch the world go by.  Although the closed museums was a disappointment, it was interesting to walk around part of the city.

Tuesday morning, we left before 9am for the journey home.  550 miles, and 11 hours door to door (including Eurotunnel and loo stops.)  Actually a simple and comfortable journey, especially as Allan had arranged du luxe seating for Maxine in the back of the van!  It’s also an interesting run, with a lot of things to look at.

And so to next year.  I’m sure we will be there in 2025, all being well.  It’s not a conventional model railway exhibition (though it is an N gauge convention), but it’s a fun week spent with friends.  We may need to build a module or two, though, to ring the changes in our display.

In past years, we have returned home on the Monday, directly after the exhibition.  However, this time around we decided to stay on another day and get into the centre of Stuttgart.  Most years, there is just too much to do at the show to escape for long!

Maxine and I went into town, but Allan and Derek took what turned out to be the better option with a visit to the tram museum, quite close to the central station.  Stuttgart’s trams were metre gauge, but became standard gauge in the 1960’s, when the system began to expand (and is still expanding) into an integrated tram, light rail, and metro systems. 

Allan’s pictures are all taken in the museum, with the odd sneaky shot into the workshops through an open door.  I understand that the city has maintained a loop of metre gauge track to allow the preserved trams a little outing.  I doubt that the horse gets out much, though!

An overview…

Trams old….

Trams new…

An interesting ro-rail lorry….

And something that I’m not sure what it is, but it looks useful!

A few buses…

A nice little tram layout to finish.

Maxine and my excursion will complete the Stuttgart epic in the next post. 

Before returning to Stuttgart, a quick report on Wednesday’s meeting.  When I got there, just the three members were sitting wondering whether we’d be running any trains.  But by 7:30pm, a few more straggled in, so we put the layout up, and we ended up with nine people at the meeting.  I took just a few photos.  It was a busy evening….

Derek tested his new Co-Bo, and Allan his departmental coaches.

Meanwhile, back in Stuttgart, a few of Allan’s pictures from the show….

Lunchtime featured the very acceptable NCI soup….  or Allan’s currywurst!

Different views of Thursday night’s party…..

Allan’s train and the changing faces of Doverscourt….

An international, transcontinental, selfie.  By Kim (right).

There was a sprinking of snow on the van a couple of evening as we returned to the hotel.

Of course, watching trains can be boring!  Though Maxine spent a lot of time exploring the other halls at the Messe – pay once, visit all exhibitions.  What a good system.  I thought the Premier Inn translation may have lost something – or perhaps was very accurate?

We stayed an extra day in Stuttgart this year before driving home.  So my last Stuttgart posts will be of what we found….

Today’s selection has some photos of the many other modules.  Some are there most years, others were new to me.  

This wonderful station and surrounds appears most years…

First visit from the Portugal club and a very attractive stand-alone layout.  I liked the forest backdrop.

A lovely little terminus….

Bridges….

Ruins….

The circus and ice hockey!

The Danes are good at junctions and loops….

Other junctions….

It was interesting to see some other modular systems on display….

Finally, Jurassic module and train….

A few pictures today of our modules.  They will be familiar to regular readers!  As I’ve said, we took about 32′ of railway – I was surprised just how much there was when we linked it all together.  And generally speaking, it all worked very well, with just a few derailments along the line.  The section before us had a section of single track, so trains seemed to come along in waves.  Fortunately, the four-track N-mod section allowed us to store about six trains if we were unable to send them back down the line.

Our section started with Richard’s bridge and airfield.  He had left his excellent distribution depot at home, as it is in need of a few track repairs.  During the show, Richard added some youngsters having a kick-around to his football field.  They were extremely small and difficult to spot….

Next came my droned up airfield, complete with demonstrators….

The ESNG clubhouse (we wish), with cameos of past and present members in the car park, and a branch of our favourite curry house on site….

And my junction from N-club to N-mod standards.

Next, Derek’s ‘Dovercourt’.  This clever module has interchangeable scenic sections, allowing the tram depot to become a building site and new housing through the show.  As you can see, we have too many trains stuck in the station….

Round the corner with a club corner, also built by Derek.  The building on the module is a replica of the old NCI Stuttgart clubhouse.

And through Saggers Sidings (that had 4CEP EMUs, then Thomas and Friends) parked, and down to the return loop at the end of the line.

I think we were pleased at the appearance of our section.  I guess we’ll have to build a new module or two for next year, though.  Next time, I’ll post a few pictures of the many other modules on display.

Wednesday morning, we didn’t hurry into the exhibition centre.  We knew that our modules had to join on the end of German, Finnish and Spanish club sections.  We also left Maxine to have a slow day, pottering and visiting the local Aldi and Lidl stores, to see what real German ones looked like.

We should, of course, have known better.  The German club arrived about mid-day and were quickly putting up their modules.  The Finns arrived in due course, but the word was that the Spanish had had a five our delay in Munich, and wouldn’t arrive till after 5pm.  Their modules were there, in large packing cases, as they had been delivered on the Monday.  The hall closed for the night at 8pm.

We muttered a bit and thought about it, but decided that since we were on the end of the line, we could easily set up our 32′ or so of modules on the Thursday morning before the show opened.  After all, that’s what we do in half-an-hour on club nights, isn’t it.  Besides, we had a table booked at a beer house/restaurant for 6:30pm.

So we left for dinner, in the centre of Echterdingen.  I’d never been there before, and there were some pretty old (or reconstructed) buildings and a fine church.

The restaurant had a good atmosphere, and the beer and the food were also excellent.  We obviously made the right choice abandoning the Messe for dinner.

Thursday morning we were in the hall as it opened at 8am, and all modules were set up and working by 9:30am.  The show opened at 10.  We had one small electrical hiccup, when we forgot to add the insulated fishplates between sections.  This was not surprising – my N-Club modules had worked last year, and two of them had been to TINGS.  Most of the the N-mod modules are in regular use at club nights. 

We then operated trains all day, though I slipped back to the hotel to collect Maxine, who had spent the morning exploring again.  The modules ran very well for the four days.  We had the occasional derailment, but relatively few considering the wide variety of trains that ran over our tracks.

Playing trains is quite hard work, but the NCI show isn’t all hard labour. On the Thursday evening there is a ‘booth party’ – a sort of lock in – where all the exhibitors set up a table with some local delicacies. So you can enjoy an excellent chilli from the German US railroad modellers, Swiss raclette and Toblerone, lots of interesting cheese, pastries and wine from all over Europe. The hard core can head to the Danish and Finnish tables for raw curried herring, vodka and schnapps!

For the second year Allan and Richard set up the Old English Tea shop, with proper cups of tea, Tunnock tea cakes, Cornish pasties, Walkers crisps and the like. All well received, though a certain amount of education was required for our European friends into the mysteries of pasties.  Unfortunately Brexit prevents us from bringing our traditional barrel of Sussex ale, but Sean managed to smuggle in two small party kegs, that soon disappeared. 

To finish today, here are the intrepid ESNG team, Richard, Derek, Jon, Sean and Allan!

Next post, I’ll post about the modules.

The next stage of our holiday was to take a DB ICE from Berlin down to Stuttgart.  We took a taxi to Berlin Ostbahnhof, rather than the main Hauptbahnhof – nearer to the hotel and a fraction of the platforms all at one level.  It was also the starting point for the train, so less of a scramble for seats.  I had booked seats, but was a little confused by the fact that there was no coach 13 in the train.  Waiting for our train there was plenty to see passing through the rather cold station.

It was snowing as we left Berlin, and rained for much of the journey. It was very comfortable travelling DB 1st class, in the quiet coach. Not much more expensive than 2nd class, so worth it for a long journey.  Plenty to see, but the weather messed up most of my photos.  It was comfortable, as you can see.  The train also reversed direction twice, at Frankfurt and Mannheim, that gave us a glimpse inside the driving cab.

Some terrible photos of the trains on the trip…..

It was meant to be a 6 1/2 hour journey, but consistently lost time later in the trip, and we were an hour late into Stuttgart.  No worry, as it was comfortable enough.  On arrival at Stuttgart, there was a less relaxing walk to find the S-bahn entrance (that had all changed since I last used it, due to the massive new but incomplete station being built underground) and a stroppy taxi driver from the airport to the hotel.  We arrived to find Derek and Allan enjoying a beer in the hotel lobby, having arrived from the UK earlier and unloaded all our railway at the Messe.

Next day would be the set-up day for the show.

Maxine and I got away for nearly two weeks, combining a trip to Berlin to see Ruth & Cory with the usual visit to Stuttgart.  Having special assistance at Gatwick took us on a buggy to some rather obscure parts of the airport, and we were loaded into the side of the plane!

Arriving in Berlin, the family weekend included a boat trip and lunch with Cory’s home made (and hot) noodles.

Tourism also included the oldest restaurant in Berlin, dating from 1611 (though obviously not original, thanks to the RAF)….

And a rather excellent Samurai  museum – a large private collection beautifully presented.

There were, of course, lots of trams to see….

Then off to the station for the long trip south to Stuttgart.  To be continued….