Thursday 11 August 2016

Pevensey Bay Heatwave

At the end of last month I took Awngate to the Pevensey Bay exhibition, and how remiss of me not to have reported back! Generally the layout performed well, but I did have an unusual number of unplanned uncoupling incidents - something the Microtrains couplings don't normally suffer from. It was a fine summer's day, which meant it got rather warm inside the village hall, and I wonder if that was a factor - weakening the springs or reducing the friction perhaps. At one point I also had an isolation switch which was on in both positions... but was working normally a few minutes later.

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No problems with the locos though, and here's the new Hudswell Clarke making ready to depart with a passenger train.

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Although not a large hall it was packed with layouts. Next to us, and the winner of the public vote, was Salzgrabe, an HOe salt mine scene, by Andrew and Simon Chant. It had 4 separate circuits with trains running on each, plus loads of details and working features. My son commented that it wouldn't be interesting to operate (I've trained him well!), that's true but it's an exhibition crowd pleaser and nicely done.

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Eastbourne Remembered was a very small, simple, but interesting tram layout of the long-gone Eastbourne trams, by Derek Smith. I didn't even know they had trams! Although listed as OO it's clearly 009, and I notice from the photo that the controller is built to look like a tram controller!

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This fine P4 layout is a model of Seaton by Simon Harris. The scenery is well done but really could do with some kind of backscene, the locos and stock is excellent.

That's just a few highlights, there were lots more excellent layouts and I was happy to see Narrow Gauge well represented, so feel free to browse more photos of this event.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Michael, I'm glad you enjoyed watching Seaton at the Pevensey Bay show. The layout was built as my entry in the Scalefour societies 2005 18.83 layout building challenge and took just over 2 and half years to complete. Remarkably we are still improving and adding to it even though we have a much bigger pre-grouping project called Blackfriars and LCDR layout set in 1873. For instance the gantry hoist for moving the limestone blocks was a recent addition and mocked up a show in April. In terms of your comment on a lack of a backscene that was a conscious design decision as the landscape behind was fairly flat and none of us were skilled at landscape painting/perspective. It certainly makes it easier to transport without one. We have also recently added an extended screen around the fiddle yard (which also used to be completely visible) and will be including a blue sky scenic break as the trains go off scene when we exhibit at the REC show in Woking on the 10/11th September 2016. The Pevensey Bay show was only it's second outing this year as the layout had been in storage for about 6 years. It was indeed a hot but very enjoyable day. The club members were so friendly and helpful and it was a lovely part of Sussex to visit. Simon

Michael Campbell said...

Thanks for your comment Simon, and well done with the layout. I find even a plain backscene helps remove distractions for the viewer, but photographs particularly benefit. Just my view though!

Unknown said...

I also meant to add that like yourself I've been bitten by the O-14 bug as I've always like small industrial locos and it seems the perfect scale. Just need to find a suitable industrial effort to model and make use of the kits I've been stockpiling!

Unknown said...

You make a valid point so perhaps it's time to consider adding one even if it's just plain sky and not much higher than the station building; food for thought.