On Saturday I visited a small charity show in Shoreham-by-Sea, held in a church/hall and organised as part of a local arts festival - there was a flower show in the community centre opposite, and a photography society show at another church nearby. It had a small collection of layouts, including the local N-gauge modular layout which doesn't inspire me much, but does at least have trains running and some Thomas characters to keep my Son happy! There was also the obligatory modern-image DCC-and-sound 00 layout, a couple of N-gauge layouts and a couple of traders.
One stand had this compact 009 layout (by Geoff Peters), with nice buildings and clearly with lots of operating potential although it wasn't doing much operating. There were some micro/pizza layouts on show with it, the aim to show what can be done in a small space.
Rheineauz (Z gauge) by David and Iris Guscott featured the Rhine running right down the middle, busy with riverboat traffic - on the move! The river was perspex or similar, and had a chain running underneath with magnets attached. The boats were pulled along, doing a U turn at each end. Simple, but very effective! This layout used Z gauge to it's best potential, with trains running along both banks of the river, big girder bridges crossing the river and other tracks at each end, lots of German houses and even the steep vineyards lining the river valley. The boats looked the part too, despite their small size, some of the freight barges even had a car perched on the aft cabin just like they often do on the Continent. It really captured the feel of the Rhine, Neckar and other German rivers, and the interest of the viewer.
Bourne (009) by Graham Stenning was for me the layout of the show. OK I may be biased in favour of 009, but the scenery and buildings were nicely done, the stock well put together and interesting, and it ran well too. The Bourne Valley Railway is well known on the exhibition circuit, but I don't think I've seen this part of the extensive layout before.
Another view of Bourne, the daylight coming through the windows didn't make photography easy but I think this photo has come out well.
It just goes to show that even a local charity show can turn up some interesting layouts.
It just goes to show that even a local charity show can turn up some interesting layouts.
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