Zedex 2014 Sunday October 5th saw the tenth anniversary Zedex convention where the top Z gauge modellers and layouts assemble for a one day show dedicated to all things Z and Nm. It was held this year in a new venue ‘Didcot Civic Hall’ in Oxfordshire. This was larger and closer to public transport being a short walk from Didcot railway station. The show was once again organised by Peter McConnell and the Oxford Model Railway Club and was deemed to be a great success by both exhibitors and visitors alike. The ladies once again took care of the catering to their usual high standards Attendance was very good once the show opened following the usual setting up period. Some of the visitors had travelled a great distance to attend including one chap from Germany and another had made the long journey from Totnes in Devon. Many of the layouts had featured in the pages of Continental Modeller and Z-Track magazines and included ;-Breitenfurst Ost, Kendorf, Spitzingsee, Neuffen, Green valley, Switzerland on the move, Wintherthern, Zuppertal, Gottingen Sud, St Frazal le Chateau, St Tugdal, Vlcetinec, Shasta, Mini Missoula, and Sankei valley Full list is as follows Annstadt Ann Silby Wellingborough Somewhere in Switzerland; a double track secondary route with both passenger and freight traffic Bahnhof Breitenfurt-Ost Chris Manvell Isle of Skye A fictitious Bavarian mainline junction station c 1910 with many trains of historical interest in busy surroundings. Crowded platforms, sheep and storks aplenty Bray Temple Anthony Waitzman London British outline with 3D printed rolling stock on mainly Marklin chassis and painted professionally. Brize end Brian Yallop Ipswich A British outline layout with all hand-built buildings and rolling stock. Coffee Table Mark Dowell Grimsby A mountain scene comprising a double loop with full catenary. There is no fiddle yard so all aspects may be seen. Here is a good example of what can be done in a small space. Double Bluff Julia Craig-McFeely and Tony Heathfield Oxford A mystery layout from our club members; Marklin stock, Rokuhan pre-ballasted track Göttingen Süd Piers Milne Birmingham A privately built line in Lower Saxony, interchange between standard and metre gauge around 1950. Sugar beet was its principal commodity. Green Valley Richard and Hazel Woodbridge Swindon A ‘quickie’ layout built to show that one does not need a lot of space for a Z gauge working layout. Harz Derrick Webb Didcot A narrow gauge railway in the German Harz mountains, with a branch serving a former V2 base. Mini-Missoula Gareth Rees Salisbury Inspired by the Montana rail link. This small layout was originally built to try hands-free un-coupling. Kendorf Ken Jones Birmingham A small town in Germany with standard and special trains passing through. Mulliphant. Castle and Mulliphant Roddy Mullen London A town grew up around a castle on a river bend, a station was built; a lively scene constructed for Roddy’s grandchildren. Neuffen David Dash Chatham A freelance preserved railway somewhere in Europe, American stock is among the ‘preserved’ item. Oberammergau Graham Jones Northampton The station at Oberammergau, famous for its passion plays, is the inspiration for this layout. A little modeller’s licence allows for some interesting operation. Sankei Valley Peter McConnell /Andrew Burchett Oxford A constant stream of Japanese passenger and freight traffic in a picturesque setting. Shasta Kevin Smith Askam in Furness Z Bend track; a modular layout representing the Southern Pacific Shasta division after a merger with Union Pacific. St Frazal le Chateau Sy Newitt Oxford A village in rural France served by both standard and metre gauge SNCF in about 1960 – 1970. St Tugdual - Côtes du Nord J Rodger Main Chesham A small metre gauge layout based on St Cast on the northern Brittany coast in the 1950’s. Spitzingzee David Burbidge Swindon A fictional line in Bavaria which climbs from the lakeside up the hills to a high level station. Passenger traffic is mainly diesel railcars, freight is varied. Switzerland on the Move Chris Atkinson Broxbourne A Swiss main line through a tourist area with different modes of transport to be seen.. The Pizza Mark Fielder Feltham A simple scenic test track with hand-built track; stock runs on Marklin Z chassis AnClár A small piece of remote and rugged rural west Ireland is represented here Vlčetinec Blair Hobson Kidderminster This layout represents a modern Czech narrow gauge (760mm gauge) line. The buildings are scratch-built , the rolling stock is kit-built or scratch-built on Z gauge chassis. WSLR Brian Denton Wantage A fictitious narrow gauge line from Claris Junction to Camard Newtown, with scratch-built track and rolling stock . Brian shows the progress he has made since last year’ appearance. Zuppertal David and Iris Guscott Liss A small scene inspired by the Wuppertal Schwebebahn in Germany. This overhead and passenger railway runs over rivers and roads; a two-track railway above it carries both freight passengers. There was a good selection of traders with Andy from Z-Panzer attending for the first time with a stall and there were a couple of demo stands as well. Demonstrators . Julia Adams demonstrates engineering in miniature, Ted Carter shows how . to make miniature trees, Phil Morris makes light weight scenery. . Traders Sales counters Mount Tabor Models from Cromford Derbyshire. With Marklin Kibri Rokuhan and more. Ian attends many exhibitions and offers a good mail-order service. We thank him for his generous support to help with the costs of today’s event. Freestone Models and Accessories We welcome Jerry with Z scale back-scenes and card kits together with bits and pieces so useful to modellers in all scales.. N-gauged a local trader and club member. Julia has top quality new and used Z rolling stock for sale - lots of Marklin; sells N gauge too. AllZandone Bob and Jane return to us after a year or two break with their top quality and often rare new and used Z gauge stock; ebay trader Z-Panzer Andy joins us for the first time with his range of Z scale military models. JB’s Model World Jon brings a range of stock cases in which to secure/hoard your expensive rolling stock, together with items helpful to modellers in general. next post some Pics
Roddy Mullen brought two layouts this was one of them The other was a small suitcase layout Show regular Tony Waitzman has recently had some bad luck with his USA ayout and presented for the first time a layout called Bray Temple. Andrew Burchett from the Oxford club was operating Sankei Valley. The running of this layout has been much improved by the switch to Rokuhan track There is a growing interest in Japanese Z in the U.K and I think we can expect some new layouts appearing soon more in a mo' kev
Brain Yallop is also a stalwart of Zedex over the years and his exquisite british outline layouts with scratchbuilt locos and stock are always admired David ad Iris Guscott are already known for their Rhine layout with moving barges on the river/ This year they showed a new layout with a working representation of the famous Wuppertal overhead railway Derrick Webb had his 'Harz Hamblin' narrow gauge layout working well Chris Manvell showed his Bahnhof Breitenfurt Ost The posters on the front showed the formations of some of the trasins he was running
Gareth Rees brought along his ironing board mounted swiitching layout and is seen here chatting to show supremo Peter McConnell On my own 'Shasta' layout, which as you are aware did not appear in its long form as I ran out of time, I gave Eric Jones new acquired AZL Big Boy a running in turn on the fron of the intemodal train. The wide curves of Shasta really suited this engine and it ran faultlessly. It only missed a beat when we got too ambitious and attached the big Autorack train on the back and found it slipped if we approached the super-elevated curves of Shatsa Springs too slowly
Blair Hobson had chosen to model modern Czech narrow gauge with his Vlcetinec layout David Dash was running both USA and European stock Richard and Hazel Woodbridge had their new layout J Rodger Main had St Tugdual More soon Kev
Mark Fielder showed his simple circular 'The Pizza' Seen at a more appropriate hight this yar was Mark Dowell's coffee table layout. On Sy Newitts St Frazal le Chateau a Nm railcar passes at speed Piers Milne wore appropriate headgear to operate Gottingen Sud! A few captions to check and I'll put some more pics on Kev
One of the disadvantages of living in the Lake Disrict is that I live a long way away from Oxfordshire so I always try to make a weekend of it. The area in the U.K known as 'The Cotswolds' is an interesting place for railfans to spend some time. I'll be starting a thread on the International Railways forum of Trainboard shortly but as a taster here are a couple of things I got up to on the Saturday. First the Narrow gauge festival at the Goucestershire-Warwickshire Railway at Toddington where they had three locos in steam has a ride behind the 8F 2-8-0 on the standard gauge line and then a few miles further to the east Castle Class 5043 'Earl of Mount Edgecombe' on the Cotswold Explorer' railtour blasting through Moreton in the Marsh station Followed by a couple of pints of real ale (Adnams Ghost Ship) in a country pub, check into the hotel in Didcot and then spend an hour photographing at Didcot station on the Great western main line. Very Pleasant! Video of Zedex at [video=youtube_share;kgXVKOspeJg]http://youtu.be/kgXVKOspeJg?list=UUI6p-eLL5zX3K226z27Josg[/video] and GWR day out at [video=youtube_share;Tsvry-AhOTs]http://youtu.be/Tsvry-AhOTs?list=UUI6p-eLL5zX3K226z27Josg[/video] Cheers Kev
Kev thanks so much for sharing all of this with us, really great to see what is happening across the pond
I do agree. I should have to come for the next editions...:teeth: After all UK is not that far from the stinkin' cheese eater country... Dom
thanks for your kind comments At Zedex we are pretty much talking to the already converted but it is still frustrating when so many people tell you 'I've had some Z scale for years but never got round to starting a layout' If we could get half of them to get stuck in we'd see a big upswing in Z in the U.K Certainly by showing some of the smaller simpler layouts we hope to encourage them to have a go. Once I have the extension board for Shasta finished (see update picture below to see how far off I was having it ready for Zedex although I did get the Cotton Belt GP20 and Espee GP7 running for the show) I am starting a new British layout based on Tapton Junction in Derbyshire which I hope will spread the gospel even more cheers Kev
Continental Modeller - December 2014 issue - features Roddy Mullin's Zedex layouts in a 2 page article with photos.
