It was good to see a number of teenagers from the local high school model railway club taking part - last year they showed their layout, this year they were helping with operating layouts and stewarding. Great to see younger people getting involved and showing such enthusiasm.
As usual there was a range of top quality layouts on a range of themes and scales, but with a particularly good Narrow Gauge influence, a total of 5 of the layouts being NG. A long-standing favourite is David Taylor's Charmouth in O16.5.
Fen End Pit, in SM32 by David Barham, goes one better than Thakeham by using real sand. This is loaded using a working drag-line excavator (Joshua had a go - and it wasn't easy to control!), and tipped into a working conveyor and screen. Oh and the modelling is brilliant too.
Midland in Bristol (O gauge, Richard Ellis) came second in the MRJ/Wild Swan/Ian Rice "Cameo" competition. The detail is superb, and the unified slightly weathered appearance adds atmosphere and realism. That said it is little more than a diorama, operation is very limited and the trains almost incidental, perhaps inevitable in this scale given the limited size, but the modelling is the highest standard.
Another Cameo competition entry is Bottom Works Sidings by Chris Matthews in OO, featuring a steelworks branch and exchange sidings. It's an excuse for grimy industrial locos and freight shunting, plus DC electrics (why not?), but the bleak wintry setting really gives it atmosphere.
Blueball Summit by Andrew Bartlett is a superb example of finescale modelling and scenic work. The viaduct and village below is an impressive centrepiece, but the whole layout is to a high standard. Oh by the way, it's N gauge - but you really can't tell can you? That says it all.
So that's just a few of the good layouts, but there was one more that I'll share in another post...
great pics and more inspiration!
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