Manchester Micros

There is an active Facebook group about Micro Layouts. Well there are several. Outside of the garden I've no interest in building a big layout. I don't dislike them, two of the first layouts I knew well were massive. One was Teddy Boston's, the other was a model of Quorn & Wodehouse that matured as the hobby did. 

But I like a layout that can be built by just one person and works without a single train moving. I prefer a cameo layout, with the theatrical presentation, over a simple micro.

So there were a lot of layouts for me to like at Manchester, despite my negative tone.

It is worth thinking about the pros and cons of micros.

What is that Welsh word?  Hiraeth. The railways I remember and should be nostalgic about, and I am in a way, are the last days of steam in the North West and BR blue in the Midlands. Going home for Xmas in an inter-regional buffet car, sat on a plastic chair, eating a pre-packed BR fruit cake slice.

But the railway I mourn is the quiet country branch that was gone before I was old enough to know it.

So often, micros scratch that itch for something unknown and now lost for ever.

Sorry, what was I saying? Where was I?

Oh yes, micros. Forget all that. It doesn't need much to happen on a micro for it to be interesting. Often, nothing happening is interesting in its own way, because you can take in the life around the layout.

And the audience can talk to the builder/operator. They can ask practical questions. And they can go away and build their own version.

So, in no order here are some of the micros at the Manchester show. If I had to name a favourite, it would be Old Parrock, but I know a lot of people love Littledean. College Halt is an outlier. It had some interesting scenic ideas, but didn't quite work. Or, it doesn't work yet, but it will with some weathering. Where it scored highly was engagement with the audience, as did all the micros, and, most of all, this is the layout I think most people went away thinking "I could do that"

Trerice is an oddity. I think we all know it was built as Iain's final home layout, and the subject is very much of the area he loved. Very much a Rice layout, and perhaps cruelly overtaken by the recent improvements in commercial models.

Old Parrock

Littledene

College Halt

Trerice