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And finally, the micro layouts.  These were mostly entrants to the Diamond Jubilee Challenge layouts.  The 2mm Scale Association ran a layout challenge to celebrate their Diamond Jubilee in 2020. Entrants were required to build a small 2mm scale layout where the footprint of the scenic area must fit within a rectangle 60 centimetres x 9.42 inches. The dimensions chosen reflect the peculiar mix of imperial and metric that is so typical of the British railway modelling scene and represent the 60 years since the 2mm Scale Association was founded and the 9.42mm track gauge used to represent British standard gauge track in 2mm finescale modelling.

No doubt a 2 year delay to the jubilee enabled a few more layouts to come close to finishing!

End of the Road is a remnant of the Milwaukee Road, a couple of sidings at the end of an old branch line.  This layout featured real US finescale, as the track was built to the correct (for them) 9mm gauge.  And the sound included a large bass speaker under the layout, that massively improved the quality of the loco sounds.

I liked The Coal Hole, though still a work in progress, cleverly modelling part of a loco shed.

British Oak models a real location in West Yorkshire, but is heavily compressed.  The NCB industrial lines deliver coal to the canal barges below.

Ale Dock models a corner of the Burton-on-Trent beer railways, and came all the way from Australia for this exhibition.

Callington is based on the real Southern branch terminus in the Tamar Valley.

Clyde is set in the shipyards of Glasgow.  Altogether a rather clever concept!

Line No 16 Ripple is a standard/narrow gauge line in the Kent hopfields.

I liked the conservatory on the back of the house on Merchant Bridge.

Port Jubilee was still in its box, but I pinched this from the 2mm website.  This is a classic Inglenook shunting puzzle track plan, with three sidings capable of holding 5, 3, and 3 wagons. The setting is rail served pier somewhere on the Scottish coast. It has an oval baseboard.

Last of the layouts are two narrow gauge models.  This little Irish pizza (is that one with potato rather than pineapple?) came to the ESNG show a few years ago.  It’s Z gauge, but using 2mm finescale standards.

And the last layout was definitely my favourite from the show – even better than Freshwater.  I’d read about it on RMweb, and followed its construction, so it was a treat to see it in the flesh – and it was even better then the pictures threatened.  Gakunan is a Japanese industrial railway near Mount Fuji.  The builder hangs this little layout above his desk in the office, and as at the show, a railcar shuffles to and fro automatically.  He’s wondering whether to program it to run according to the real timetable!  This shows the full layout, with a small ‘keyhole’ to concentrate the view of the layout.

The model is built to the correct Japanese gauge of 3′ 6″ – about 7mm in 2mm scale.  This is quite easy to do if you build your own track, and use the Association wheels that can be regauged.  There’s still some overhead power lines to add, but the detail is already delightful.

All these little layouts gave a lot of inspiration as to what can be done in a small space.  Maybe I’ll try a little something myself……

Also on display was this lockdown project…

We’ll end with a picture of 2mm finescale at its best.  A scratch built SDJR 2-8-0 on Evercreech Junction.  I’ll never achieve this sort of modelling, but I came away from my visit to the show suitably inspired to do more, and, if possible, do it better.

Today, we’ll look at the ‘medium’ sized layouts, that takes in anything that isn’t tiny and isn’t enormous.  These are the sort of layouts that the average punter could build – not ‘lifetime’ layouts like those in the my last post.

St Ruth is familiar from the exhibition circuit, but is always worth another look.  I love the semi-relief buildings of the town in the background, and the way the features of the beach have been captured.

The layout makes good use of ‘N’ rolling stock, rewheeled, but these lovely early GWR steam locos can be seen lurking in a remote siding, along with some early carriages.

We come to one of my show favourites – Freshwater.  Isle of Wight, Terriers, small branch line terminus – what isn’t there to like?  I’ve seen this layout many times, but there’s always something new to see (though Ian Morgan says that it’s nearly finished now.)  This time there are a lot more flowers and vegetation to be seen.  On the platform (third from left in a white shirt) is the slightly rotund layout builder.  He claims that extra plastic was needed to 3D print him!  Mind you, we had much the same conversation at ESNG a few days earlier.  This ended with, “I’d never have a model of you on my layout.”  Charming!

Another thing to note is how the rolling stock has progressively become more authentic.  Originally, the goods vehicles were typical Southern Railway stock, but Ian has slowly replaced them with models of the wagons that actually ran on the Isle of Wight.

Moretonhampstead was a small GWR terminus on the edge of Dartmoor.  A bucolic scene with few trains, but plenty of very well observed scenery, and rolling stock, to enjoy.

Llangerisech is a familiar layout on the southern exhibition circuit.  Somewhere in North Wales, it features a mixture of GWR and LMS, converted ‘N’ and scratch built locos and rolling stock.

Ivybridge is a simple continuous layout, built to showcase the owners scratch built coaches.  But it is a model of a real south Devon station, and features the lovely viaduct at Ivybridge.

Evercreech Junction is not really a medium size layout, as a near-scale model of the site is rather large.  But this is a club layout in progress, and gave a chance to look at baseboards, point control and all the other parts of railway foundations.

Last post on the show next time will feature the micro layouts.

Plenty of blogging to get on with.  I’ve got another set of photos from Germany, as Ron once again goes in hunt of the elusive strudel – and no doubt immediately eats it.  But first, an account of a most excellent exhibition – it must have looked good for me to drive 310 miles in a day to see it.

Postponed for a couple of years due to covid, the 2mm Scale Association finally got around to it’s Diamond Jubilee exhibition.  And it was very good.  I’d seen a lot of the larger layouts on the exhibition circuit, but it was fantastic to see them all in one place.  And, as you will see, there were plenty of new ones, especially the little ones, that were well worth a look.

A feature of the day was the chance to talk to the builders and exhibitors.  Unlike many shows, I found everyone very open to talk and share ideas and skills.  And the venue in Derby was interesting too, with its railway heritage as a college built by the LMS.  One of the most elegant venues I’ve visited.

Last and not least, I drove up to the show with Simon, and enjoyed the company for the three hour drive each way (and around the show.)  We talked so much that I came home with a sore throat and promptly tested myself for covid (fortunately negative.)  So onto the layouts.  We’ll start with the ‘biggies.’

No Diamond Jubilee would be complete without Copenhagen Fields.  I’ve seen it many times, but there’s always something new to see, or just to revisit.  It’s been over 30 years in the making, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea (including the famous C.J. Freezer, I understand), but it’s a wonderful model of a slice of north London.

Newly build is a slice through the facilities behind the station.  Some period closets here!  None of those tacky German Sexy-Scenes here; just a gentleman having a quiet think whilst reading the Daily Sketch.

Less easy to spot at most exhibitions is the fiddle yard.  Almost as complicated as the maze of tracks seen at front of house.  Note the ‘track’ here.  It’s all made of brass strip.  Simon informed me that it was difficult to form the curves in the brass without vertical distortion.  So a member of the MRC invented a machine, a bit like a pipe bender, to form the curves.  That’s 2mm for you….

Next in line we have the ‘Northern Copenhagen Fields.’  Fencehouses has been in the making for almost as long as ‘the fields.’  It’s a model of a real station on the original main line to the north, in the depths of the Durham coal fields.  Rather than an urban scene, with many trains approaching Kings Cross, we have a rural setting.  A long section of straight track includes the small Fencehouses station, colliery exchange sidings, and part of the colliery itself.

At one end of the layout, the Victoria viaduct is a great spot for trainspotting.

Last of the larger layouts is set at the other end of the country – part of John Greenwood’s model of the Southern Railway’s withered arm in North Cornwall.  Wadebridge shed is full of delightful scratch built Southern locomotives.

The town shows an eye for scenic modelling, too.

Padstow terminus is work in progress, and is cleverly built so the distinctive bridge over the estuary takes the model track in a U-shape to prototypically join up with Wadebridge.

One feature of the show was a chance to see projects in progress, and inspect things like the baseboard construction.  Next time, we’ll take the medium sized layouts, then after that the small and micros!