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And so to the other, non-modular layouts. We had an interesting variety on show.

Nick Falconer brought along Bahnbetriebswerk Königshafen for its first show.  The layout represents a small German locomotive service depot (Bahnbetriebswerk or Bw for short) with facilities for diesel and electric locos. A steam museum now occupies the old turntable and engine shed. The depot is intended to join in with larger modular systems following N-Club International’s standards, however here the main through lines are served by a pair of automated fiddleyards.

Martin’s Dav-Tree was still a bit of a plywood prairie, but he was able to bring along a lot of the buildings to give an idea of how the scenery will look.  And it will look excellent when complete.  This long layout gives long modern trains a chance to stretch their legs.

Neil brought along Stonecombe, a very neat and compact branch line terminus.

Sean’s Forrestone looked, and ran, as well as ever.

Dan Hull kindly came along to fill a gap after a layout dropped out.  He was showing off some of his lovely kit and scratch-built models, many from 3D prints.

Dan was also wearing his Rapido UK hat, and brought along the prototype versions of the proposed Class 28 Co-Bo and Conflat P.  Both look excellent and the Co-Bo runs (and sounds) very well.  If you’re interested, get an order in soon, to make sure that production goes ahead.

Finally, I put my two lockdown layouts in the refreshment room as dioramas, correctly guessing that I’d be too busy to run trains.  Cazenovia has the dubious distinction of having been to two shows (one virtual) and collecting two plaques without a train moving.  It does work – really it does…..

And so to next year.  I’ve begin thinking about it, I’m afraid.  It’s a difficult decision.  It would be good to hold a larger show, perhaps having a try at using Reigate College as we nearly did in 2020.  Or do we hold another low-risk show at the church, that will be a whole lot easier to arrange?  I guess you will find out here in due course!

I didn’t take many photos of the show, as my phone spent the day connected to our e-commerce terminal.  But I did sneak a few shots just before opening time.  So today it’s the N-mod layout, next time the other layouts on display.

We set the main modular layout up in the church, with a fair sized 3×2 module layout.  It’s strange looking at this photograph to think that 24 hours later I’d be sitting at the back of the hall operating the PA system (and keeping awake after the hectic Saturday playing trains.)

A feature of this show was that many of the modules were new ones, built during lockdown and beyond.  On the left here is Dave’s canal basin scene, one of the older modules on show.

Derek’s first club corner.  The clubhouse in the middle is a model of one in Stuttgart and named after a late ESNG member.  These new corners have super-elevation on the track, that looks great watching trains tilt as they go around, but is a pig to clean the track – you can’t do all four lines together.

Derek’s Doverwood has removable scenic sections.  These houses can be a building site or a variety of other plug-in scenes.  It’s the only module where the scenery moves faster than the trains.

Frenches Road has a passing resemblance to the local scene.  The disused branch to British Industrial Sand is in the foreground.  On the road itself, the Chai(r)man’s milk float passes the Treasurers house, complete with sheeted caravan and battered Ford Mondeo.

No exhibition is complete without ERIC the roundhouse there.  Each time we exhibit ERIC it is filled by a different member, or to a different theme.  This time Allan displayed his EWS and DB diesels.

My ‘Saggers Sidings’ had progressed a long way since it was last at a club meeting, a month before.  Here a couple of DMU’s stand in the carriage cleaning sidings.

Derek’s second club corner has the usual interesting cameos to see.  I hope we remembered to remove the drawing pin box (used to put the curtain around the layout) before opening time!

I’ll put the rest of the pictures up in my next post.  In the meantime, Brian’s usual excellent video shows all the layouts operating, and plenty of people around the halls.

Fast forward to this morning.  Crossing our local railway bridge, a Class 66 and ballast train was waiting in Earlswood station.  I waited to see it accelerate away effortlessly with a long train of wagons.

Well, it’s all done and dusted.  A few tables to return to the church I borrowed them off, and I need to return my bits of railway to the loft room.  That might wait a couple of days whilst I spring clean the area whilst its missing a few things.

I’ll post some pictures (and Brian’s video) next time, but today is a rest day – apart from setting out all the chairs in the church this morning, and I suspect I’ll look at the accounts later.

But we had a very successful day.  I didn’t have any idea how many people would come along, but we cleared about 120 adults at the door.  Not many older children, but a good number of small, free entry ones, who generally either enjoyed Thomas or a piece of cake with the refreshments.

Just a couple of observations today.  We tried e-commerce and a card reader for the first time.  It generally worked pretty well, with just the odd glitch, and was especially useful for expensive club shop sales.

The other interesting one was that pre-covid, there would have been a queue at the door for opening time – presumably to fight for any shop bargains.  We had one person yesterday, that was a bit worrying!  What we saw was a steady flow of people through the day, with just a few less in the afternoon, and of course the usual ‘dead’ last hour.  Perhaps some enthusiasts are timing their visits to shows to avoid the crush hour?  Or perhaps we pulled in a good number of local people, being situated in the middle of housing, and having a banner on the church railings beforehand?

I did enjoy seeing acquaintances from a range of places – model railways, church (including our toddler group), local community, and an ex-work colleague.  I talked too much, drank a lot of coffee, ate cake, carried out troubleshooting (generally with the e-card reader or the coffee machine) and built up an appetite for the traditional curry after the show.

Pictures follow next time.

Not many posts in recent days.  Maxine and I had the weekend away, and now its the final countdown to the ESNG show on Saturday.  The usual pre-show glitches do, of course, occur – we’ve had a layout drop out (for very good reasons) but have found a replacement.  And of course covid has laid low a couple of members.  Still, I’m sure it will happen, one way or another.

I’ll be back posting next week…..  probably!