Last weekend was the 2010 Workington Model Railway Exhibition held at the Moorclose sports centre. Held on the first anniversary of the cancelled 2009 show when catastrophic flooding hit the county of Cumbria, washing out many bridges, devasting the town of Cockermouth and claiming the life of a policeman doing his duty, this was a very well attended show with over 1450 people coming through the doors over the two days. Angie and myself were there with our 'Midsomer Mardy' British Z layout making one of its rare appearances at shows this year. Most of this year we have been taking our Nickel Plate Road based 'Cuyahoga' layout out and it was nice to fire up the U.K locos and stock and give them a run. I shot quite a lot of video on the Sunday as this was the last appearance of the layout in its current form. Although it crams a lot of detail in the 4ft by 2ft 6 inches (including the 6 Z scale murders hidden on it) it has always suffered by having hiddden sidings that were too short really. These limited the length of the trains and with the development of some new trains including 8 car HST rakes and 16 wagon long container trains it has become time to do something about it. Over the next few months I'll post progress reports on how it is going. Here is the link to the video where you will see class 47s and 56s in various liveries. LNER Pacifics 'Flying Scotsman' and 'Mallard' and our infamous cardboard sided class 90 electric! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-kNYRgXwWo A very good weekend was had by all including more than a few beers in the 'Henry Bessemer' pub in the evenings. now that everything is back in store I can settle down and get the winter modelling projects started. Cheers KEV
Thank you for taking the time to shoot and share the video. I found it very amusing listening to some of the background conversations - especially the "is this N scale the smallest? - no, this is Z scale which is smaller than N". If I had the proverbial dollar (pound? Euro?) for every time I have had that conversation, I would be quite a bit richer than I am! LOL! That is the part of train shows (exhibitions) that I enjoy the most even though sometimes it seems as if I am giving the same speech for the umteenth time. Although the layout scenery is very nicely done with lots of details, I did get a chuckle out of the "paint it black" back side. That cuts the scenery work in half! Lindley
I enjoyed your video Kev, and while on youtube, seen several Midsomer Murders episodes posted. Did the Midsomer Murders on your layout match the TV episodes?
In England most exhibition layouts have hidden sidings at the back or at either end. The scenic section at the front becomes, in effect, a stage on which to display the various trains. It is quite amusing sometimes seeing people peering round the corner trying to see what we have hidden round the back rather than being patient and waiting for the next train to appear! One mistake I did make though was to paint the area black. If you are trying to put MTL wheeled stock or Marklin wheels that are chemically blackened on the rails you can't see the flanges. This is a real disadvantage on a Sunday morning when you have had a few pints the night before!!! In respone to Roberts question the murders are not based on any particular episode of 'Midsomer Murders' just our twisted sense of humour! cheers KEV
Since not imbibing the night before is NOT an acceptable alternative, I suggest very bright lights. But then again that may cause headaches early on a Sunday morning! Woe are the Z scaler's problems! LOL! Lindley
Nice module. What's with that London riot barracade ?? Is the public that rough there . Thanks for posting the vid, always more informative than pix. .
Thats not there to keep the public out, it's there to keep the exhibitors in and stop them escaping to the bar!
