Wednesday 26 September 2012

Model Rail Live

Sorry it's taken a little while to post a review of Model Rail Live, but the last day or 2 have very much been catch up time.

The weekend of the 22 and 23 September heralded the 3rd Model Rail Live at the famous and highly regarded Barrow Hill Roundhouse in Chesterfield. Barrow Hill is of course known to lovers of full sized railways, but for the third year running it was also to host model railways too, something which very much makes it a show with a difference that hopefully can appeal to all the family and not just old men with smelly breath.

This year I took the Polbrock along, my little Model Rail project layout that is currently being serialised in the magazine. My quest being to extract those with a fondness of armchairs out of them, alternatively hopefully it will show those who think that a model railway needs a huge space, that in fact something can be built in a small area not dissimilar to a tropical fish tank. I also wanted to showcase modelling techniques that maybe look tricky but are in fact very simple. Despite the layout's tiny size, I will thrilled with the interest it generated from a wide range of different people, and also enjoyed chatting to readers who may have been following my printed jottings.

Arne Wharf my OO9 gauge layout was also taken along, but sadly unlike Polbrock which performed really well, Arne Wharf didn't like the slightly dusty atmosphere, the tiny loco wheels clogging with gunge every 10 minutes or so. So, after an hour of so of much cussing I decided to leave the layout as a static exhibit which surprisingly had little impact on the number of people looking at the layout.

Luckily the event remained pretty well rain free apart from the last hour or so, just as well really considering much of the event is outside; the end of the show marking the beginning huge amount of rain that has caused all sorts of flooding in northern areas since.

All that's needed now is to thank all the readers of this blog who popped by to say hello and had nice things to say about the layouts - thank you!I must also thank Peter Harvey of PH Designs who gave up his Sunday to help me play trains.

5 comments:

  1. A tantalizing porthole to what must have been a great weekend. THANKS for sharing. I do envy those blog readers who were able to "pop by to say hello." How inconvenient it is to be stranded in Canada! Your web site is a generous gift - and so you know, I am WAY OUT of the arm chair now. THANKS.

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  2. Chris,

    Is their a picture or plan of the fiddle yards available? I think I can do a metre long micro and have it sitting above my computer desk but I'd like to know more about how the fiddle yards work.

    Your carpentry has inspired me!

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    Replies
    1. Iain,

      They're just cassettes, you can see them on the photo above, just click for a bigger view. Alignments is simply with fishplates.

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    2. Thanks Chris,

      Very simple and uncomplicated and as luck would have it I have a few cassettes.

      Cheers

      Iain

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  3. Thanks for posting this, what a fantastic blog you have.

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