A Tale of Two Exhibtions. Part 1

Living in the fens you become very aware of changes through the year. In Herefordshire and Warwickshire it tended to be either green and wet, or green and dry. Here the crops change rapidly and so do the colours of the fields. The sky closes in then opens up, the trees, and yes we do have trees here, come into leaf over an extended period of weeks. And , of course, you can't live here without becoming very aware of the infinite variety of winds.

The other things that mark the is the succession of  shows and exhibitions. Village shows, county shows, Xmas fairs and the big events at the county showgrounds and the Springfield conference centre.

April brings the 16mm show at Peterborough and the Spalding Model Engineering show.

Driver for a fiver

The original Brick

How much is that doggy in the window?

Matt Nunn's new product. It just needs a 16mm version of Samson to haul it

3D printing, as here by PDF, is enabling new scale products to be made at a reasonable price

a 7/8ths version of a loco that in 16mm graced the cover of Dan Boreham's seminal book on Narrow Gauge Modelling

Another example of the products available from the trade. A Leek & Manifold station 

There will always be a place in my heart for Big Big Train/Novo conversions

How I coveted this as a teenager!

Tony Hills layout has appeared here before. It continues to make quite a stir in the 16mm world.

Pocklington Nurseries. Based on a real line

I still have a weakness for 016.5 models of the GVT. If I had room for a permanent layout  Roy Link's GVT in 8x10 would be my choice. I do have a 16mm GVT loco somewhere....

I didn't have long at the 16mm event. Compared to last year I thought it was slightly easier to see things, with most of the gangways big enough for two mobility scooters to pass. Trust me, that was happening a lot.  I was really disappointed with the paucity, though not the quality, of entries for the Model of the Year competition.  What was very encouraging though was the variety of products now available from small traders, especially for those favouring the small and delightful kind of prototype.

I'm very much in favour of the trend towards increased accuracy of scale that has become evident in recent years. It is hard to know what to say when someone comments that other model railway societies look down on 16mm whilst at the same time justifying a complete mish mash of scales.

Having said that there is still something about some of the early meths fired heritage locos that I love. I had forgotten that when trying to photograph them running you need to keep an eye out not only for trains running on the other track, but also for the owner hurtling round the outside to keep the beasts in check.

All in all a good event. As usual it would have been nice to see less layouts featuring double track and/or "comic cameos".

In part 2 I'll look at the Model Engineering show.