Well its now a week before this years Zedex 2013 at Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor Village hall. Now firmly established as the must see show for anyone modelling Z in the U.K and the near continent this years show features another strong line up of Z and Nm layouts. Confirmed are European layouts Bad Feriendorf Neuffen Winterthen Somewhere in the Alps Switzerland on the move And U.S prototype layouts Missoula Riverside Mini Missoula Broadpass Alaska Shatsa Waitzeville Japanese layout Sankei valley and French Nm layouts St Frazal le Chateau La halte du Pont Roman also present will be a selection of demonstration stands and traders The day is very pleasant as you meet many old friends that you only see them once a year at this event. I will be taking Shasta along which is now sceniced on both sides so as to support the Z-bend convention. At last weeks Barrow Hill live event I once again found myself set up in the fantastic environs of the Deltic Preservation Societies main shed at Barrow Hill in the company of D9015 'Tulyar' now nearing the end of a full retoration. This 3,300hp Co-Co was once the mainstay of the East Coast main line express passenger services and is powered by two 18 cylinder Napier 'Deltic engines. Also present was English Electric 'Type 3' Co-Co 37 703 awaiting work At both this show and when out the weekend before with Cuyahoga at the Fleetwood show I gave the AZL Mikado a good work out to see how it would perform in a show environment. Video of the results can be sen at [video=youtube;syKrGB2DWLM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syKrGB2DWLM&feature=share&list=UUI6p-eLL5zX3K226z27Josg[/video] I'll do a full report on Zedex after the event Cheers KEV
report coming soon and I have posted disc with pics and overview to Rob Kluz today as well. Just fighting with youtube at moment getting video uploaded which is about 13 minutes long and then I'll start banging stuff on here KEV
O.K here we go... First, exactly as forecast, the weather was awful in the south of England on the Sunday of the show. this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the exhibitors though and many of us ignotred peter McConnel's request and turned up early whilst the lads were still marking out the hall. I'd spent the prevoious day at the Foxfield Steam railway and reckon I brought the weather there with me there were a lot of engines in steam for their autumn gala but the weather certainly hit attendances on the Saturday We opened on time and there was a steady throughput of visitors for the first couple of hours later on when it got quiter I was able to go and take some pictures around the show more soon KEV
Let's start with peter's own layout 'Sankei Valley'. Peter switched to modelling Japanese Z a couple of years ago and his layout featured in the most recent edition of Continental Modeller magazine Peter has made extensive use of card kits of japanes buildings to give the layout an authentic flavour Pete was running a mix of Rokuhan, Tenshodo and Plus J stock
next up is the layout by Brian Yallop Regarded by many as one of the most innovative modellers in British Z, Brian was showing his new layout based on the former Great Eastern railway. Brize End is apparently Brian's test track! more soon Kev
I was showing Shasta again, now in its new form with the fiddle yard fully sceniced. I've added a small maintenance shed which we have dubbed the 'Stonysmith' shed as it was a good place to display some of the 3D printed designs he has on Shapeways. seen undergoing maintenance are the Difco side dump, the ballast hopper and the new BN Fuel tender Shasta has a 'shed load' of bookings for next years show season and will soon be featuring in both Z-Track and Continental modeller magazines more soon KEV
Now I usually leave the video till last but Ang and I are having a weekend away in Southport so I haven't got my notes with me so here is the link to the video diary. What a fight I had getting it to upload! Couldn't work it out at first until I looked at the MP4 file size and realised it was 1.56GB! So I scaled it down a bit and had a bit more success [video=youtube;tud6B5ukWjo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tud6B5ukWjo&feature=share&list=UUI6p-eLL5zX3K226z27Josg[/video] Once I'm back at base I'll keep adding the pics KEV
Another layout that featured recently in Continental Modeller magazine was J Rodger Mains's 'La Halte du Pont Roman' representing a metre gauge-standard gauge junction Nm Built as a micro layout for a competition staged by Afan Also in Nm was St Frazal de Volavent by Sy Newitt which came as a substitute for his St Frazal le Chateau which was unavailable Sy was showing an impressive collection of N and Nm stock and is also becoming a keen exponent of 3D printing Sy concentrates mainly on the railwyas of rural France but is threatening to produce something quite spectacular in British Z in the Future. Brian Denton is working on an Nm layout with scratchbuilt track and rolling stock. Known only as WSLR at the moment we look forward to seeing it fully scenified in the future more soon KEV
Hey On the second layout in the video (Switzerland on the move by Chris Atkinson), I can see some home-made rolling stock. I'm very interested in the SBB RBDe 540 and how it's built. Are there some better pictures of this model? Unluckily, the quality of the video is not very good. Greetings from Switzerland Julian
Paul Kent travelled up from Newport in the Isle of Wight to show his 'Winterthern' layout which is et on the German-Swiss border. The layout has been the subject of an upgrade recently and is a multi level set up Richard and Hazel Woodbridge from Swindon were showing 'Somewhere near the Alps' and it is their first attempt at a Z layout more soon KEV
Now Julian from Switzerland asked about the stock and I would suggest getting hold of the July 2013 issue of Continental Modeller as Chris Atkinson's layout featured there I must be honest I didn't have time to take any close up photos of the layouts as I had my own layout to run as well more soon KEV
Now the nice thing about Zedex is the variety of approaches to Z layout building represented Mark Dowell from Grimsby brought along his coffee table layout and there were two brief cases layouts on show. Eric Jones brought along one example And Roddy Mullen brought along a different variation Eric also brought along his ultra simple 'Broad Pass' layout which is based on the Alaska Railroad Not the easist layout to photograph however KEV
Z Gauge stalwart Graham Jones brought along 'Fryton' british outline layout based on the North Yorkshire moors after the savage Beeching cuts of British Railways closed many branch lines and singled others Graham is also exploring the possibilities of British Z and an example of the new 'Hymek' diesel hydraulic was seen in action Also representing the British scene in South Central London albeit with mainly german stock was Roddy Mullen's 'Cheyne Central' which has a teminus station and three suburbamn stations fitted into an incredible small space more soon KEV
back on the USA theme Gareth Rees brought along his switching layout 'Mini Missoula' which as you can see sits on top of an ironing board. One or two of the layouts struggled with the rather bouncy floor and Gareth was no exception but once it settled it ran very well. Gareth is a big fan of the Montana Raillink which shows in his choice of stock Also modelling Western Montana was Richard Burbridge with his 'Missoula Riverside' main line trains are joined by a Budd RDC which provides a passenger service to Helena
Dave Dash, from Chatham, was showing his 'Neuffen' layout which envisages a preserved railway somewhere in Europe Also on the European theme was Ken Jones compact Kendorf layout based on German Practice
Another ever present exhibitor is Ann Silby from Wellingborough who was showing her 'Bad Feriendorf' layout based on the Mittel Rhein in Germany. Ann uses Kibri and faller kits to capture the essence of german architecture Tony Waitzman has made good prgress on his Waitzville layout which uses Rokuhan track and points. On show were his AZL Challenger and Graham Jones AZL Big Boy as a demonstration of Z superpower. Tony and I were both showing the new AZL Mikado he with his Southern example and me with the Nickel Plate version Once again Julia Adams, Ted Carter and Terry Hadler were doing modelling demonstrations and there was trade support from Ian from Mount Tabor models Graham Jones with his NMRS Models Jerry from Freestone model Accesories Julia from N Gauged There were many topics of conversation amongst the assembled people present. I took along an assembled but unpainted example of Gerd Kurz's might etched wood chip hopper to display alongside some of Stonysmith's 3d printed rolling stock and Robert Ray's magnificent Thrall door boxcars. Sadly I was unable to complete my sound equipped SD40-2 in time as a full size derailment at work kept me out of the loop for a few, very long, days The AZL locos obviously caused a stir although surprisingly there did not seem to be any of the heavyweight coaches at the show The rapid expansion of available british outline locos and coaches 3D printed by Shapeways should encourage a lot more U.K modellers to have a go at Z DCC hasn't really got a hold over here but that may change in time And I confess I'm not gettting very far persuading people to go down the Z-bend route but I'll keep banging the drum until they listen! Anyway Sterling organisational work was done by memebrs of the Oxford and District model Railway Club and we are indebted to the members wives for, once again, providing the refreshments and keeping us fed and watered. NOW THE BIG NEWS. NEXT YEARS ZEDEX 2014 WILL BE THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY SHOW SO WE ARE ALL GOING TO PULL OUT THE STOPS TO MAKE IT THE BEST EVER. THERE ARE PROMISES OF EXCITING NEW LAYOUTS BEING PLANNED FOR THE EVENT AND i HOPE TO TAKE A BIG GROUP PHOTO OF EVERY EXHIBITOR TO RECORD THE TEN YEARS WE HAVE BEEN SPREADING THE Z-GAUGE WORD. It will however, be Peter and the club's last year in charge as they claim they are getting too ancient to do it and they are now looking for another club to take over the reigns for ZEDEX 2015. Cheers KEV
