A day out in Bognor

On Saturday I took the boy over to Bognor for the second "SWING" (St Wilfreds Industrial and Narrow Gauge) show, having been last year and heard on-line the layouts that were to be there I had high expectations - and was not dissapointed. Perhaps as a fan of all things narrow-gauge and industrial in railway terms that should not be a surprise, but there were 11 superb layouts (not a dud one there) in this small, friendly show. A good range of scales and themes too. OK I had seen about 3 of them at other NG shows recently, but all were worth seeing again. The hall felt a little less crowded and cramped than last year, which was no bad thing and I suspect due to better planning and smaller layouts rather than number of exhibits, I also understand numbers were slightly down. But it was a great show of layouts and well worth a trek accross the county! Here are a few pictures, see the whole set here.



I enjoyed all the layouts so much it would be hard for me to pick a favourite, however perhaps the most impressive layout in terms of modelling was "Selsey Town Station - 1925" in 0 scale by Keith Smith. I understand this won best layout and it is easy to see why. Not only was the modelling of the unusual loco's and stock (including the Colonel Stevens railbuses) carried out to a high standard, but also the scenic work, and it had really captured the character of the Selsey Tramway (that was not too far from where the exhibition took place).



The first photo above is Nick Pidgley's "Touchwood", his first layout in 0-16.5 scale. Having seen my cassette fiddle-yards in action he decided to try it in the larger scale, using the pipe cover for double 22mm diameter pipes rather than 15mm as I used in 009. As you can see below it does work, he has also fitted his fiddle yard with neat shelves for storing cassettes, and had a good idea of using "T" section plastic pushed into slots at the end of the cassettes to prevent stock from escaping. Tom Dauben's "Dunbracken" layout was also at the show, now featuring the same cassette system - I really should have patented that idea!!