Zedex 09 report and pictures

Having got my layout safely back home and into the workshop I can now give you an overview of Sunday's Zedex 09 gathering of Z scale enthusiasts ( and for the first time the Nm contingent in force) at Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor village hall. Organised by Peter McConnell and the Oxford and district model railway club it featured 21 exhibits and four trade stands plus a members sales stand.
It was busy with visitors from the outset and we had to persuade Peter not to open early as many of us were still putting our rolling stock out. Soon the hall was thronged with people and stayed busy until mid afternoon when it thinned out sufficiently to allow me to get from behind my layout and do some exploring.
A scene from the stage looking over the main hall]


Organisers Peter McConnels French layout called La Caisse/Die Kiste was set up on the stage and has just been featured in Continental Modeller magazine


Graham Jones, well known in U.K Z and the founder of Zclub GB was there with his Knownaim City switching layout which he has recently extended


Ann Silby who has produced some fine layouts in the past showed her new Belgian layout Silbeeke


Please keep coming back to this thread as I may not get everything on that quickly. I have to go back to 12" to the foot railroading tomorrow!

 

Tony Waitzman is another of those who has been steered away from modelling European railways in Z by the sheer reliabilty and appearance of the latest USA offerings in Z. His 'California Dream' layout is work in progress


David dash was showing his 'Neustadt' european layout


Tom Buck surprised everybody by arriving with a brand new shrink wrapped door which he then proceeded to put on trestles to support his 'Schom' layout. Never let it be said that Z modellers lack ingenuity!


'Oozing Control' was a portable test layout featuring DCC with computer control which Richard Keed is using as a test bed for the construction of a larger layout.

 

Like myself Neil Parkhouse has decided to use Peter Wrights turnouts on his 'Halfe Eerbaut' layout


This looks like being a very fine layout when completed.

Not the easiset layout to photograph was Paul Kents 'Osterburken' a three track multi layered mountain scene which featured in Continental Modeller back in 2005


John Baines had his 'St. Niklaus' layout in a case


Another U.S.A themed layout was David Dawes 'California Coast' set in the mid 70's to 80's which also featured in this month's Continental Modeller.

 

Chris Atkinson set his layout in the Mittelland between 1980 and 2000 and called it 'A small part of Switzerland'


Ken Jones was showing his 'Yn Y Coed twinned with Unter den baumen' layout which he can run either as a German Z layout or a French metre gauge or a Welsh narrow gauge !


My own humble offering 'Cuyahoga' a layout based on my favourite Nickel Plate Road was being operated by Colin Burns whilst I took the pictures. Those who have seen pictures of this layout before will notice that one area has been retro'd back to the late fifties by the elimination of the intermodal yard and the construction of the coach servicing shop.




As it was only a one day event I did not put up the curtains around the layout. This allowed those who were interested to bend down and look underneath to see how we had powered the Peter Wright turnouts with Fulgurex point motors.

 

Nm. fellow travellers on Z gauge track!

Zedex 09 featured an interesting selctiion of Nm layouts concentrated in the side room of the village hall.
Piers Milne had his Oberdorf II Alpine layout


A very nice layout was Simon Newitts 'The Salt Marsh' set on the west coast of France in the 1970's


Rodger Maine brought along his 'The Matric Meanderer' set in the Alps Maritime near Cannes.


Work in progress was Brian Dentons Canard Newtown which features hand built track representing a fictitious West Shropshire light railway


also present was 'Ridley' a low cost layout by Tom Lancaster which I failed to take a picture of! Sack the reporter....

In the side room there were modelling demonstrations by Julia Adams (buildings), Frank Credland (Trees) and Terry Hadler (Airbrushing).
Traders included Roland Kimmich from Railex with his bespoke, exquisite models of early German locomotives, Ian from Mount Tabor models from Derbyshire, Richard from Model World @ Oxford and making their first appearance Geoff and Alison from Contikits. I hope they all found it worthwhile supporting the event.

In conclusion I would like to thank the organisers for a very enjoyable event that does seem to be establishing itself quite nicely. The club were doing a survey of the public during the day to gauge what appetite there is for this annual event at this venue. I hope the feedback was positive.

Next Stop MEDFORD 2010.
Be There or be Square !

 

Thanks Kev. Guess I should have planned a better business trip so see all those fine layouts and ideas.
.

 

Looks like you guys all had a blast. You Z scalers are really impressive--the layouts are all first rate and I know it takes alot more "enginuity" to come up with locos/cars/structures and track than us N or HO guys have to do. Thanks for sharing the pics!

 

Thank you very much for the timely report and photo's. Nice to see what other folks are up to out side our West Coast Cocoon ) Looks like there are a fare number of US prototype modelers there.

thanks again

Joe
MTl