Uckfield 2023

Yesterday I was at the Uckfield model railway exhibition helping Robin Edwards with his O14 layout Tony's Forest. I've seen this superb layout a couple of times and it was a pleasure to operate. As the name suggests, it is set in a forest which is beautifully modelled with big trees, undergrowth and flowers. There's also a quarry loading screen under which wagons can be loaded. 

Uckfield has a reputation of showing high quality layouts, and this year was no exception. My favourite was Rodmell Green, a 009 layout by Allen Etheridge on its first showing. This showed industrial narrow gauge with appropriate stock and muted, gently weathered colouring giving a consistent finish. 

Inside a shed, the skips were unloaded using a mechanised arm magnetically lifting loads out. Allen said he'd been inspired by the method I used on Thakeham Tiles having seen it in use at Uckfield a few years ago, although his unloading arm was motorised rather than using a manually operated mechanism as I did. 

This year's show was in part a tribute to the late Iain Rice, who did so much to develop approaches to layout design and exhibiting through his books, as well as techniques for building finescale models. The show included no less than 5 layouts (in P4 or EM) Iain had built or been involved in building, including Hepton Wharf and Butley Mills which I remembered featuring in some of his books, and the impressive Longwood Edge, although my favourite was one of his later layouts Trerice. This is a compact and characterful layout with its China clay dries. I did see this layout with Iain operating at a previous Uckfield show, and it was nice to see it still being used in new hands. 

Another nice compact but interesting layout was Arcadia in the unusual S scale (1:64) by Richard Barton, based on Colonel Stephens practice. In this scale everything must be hand-built, and everything looked and ran perfect. 

Another compact and characterful layout was Ewe (OO) by Rob Gunstone. The track plan is simple, the same loop and two opposed sidings as Chris Ford's Dury's Gap, with a Wisbech and Upwell tramway setting on the banks of a waterway. The lush scenery threatening to overcome the tracks, grey big sky background, and nicely weathered trains worked together beautifully. 

In the last 15 minutes of the show I ran one of my O14 locos on Tony's Forest. I'd crudely fitted a pair of Greenwich couplings to my Hudson Hunslet in place of my usual Microtrains, which surprisingly worked with Robin's stock. It did look rather at home in the forest. 

So an excellent show, an enjoyable day, and a big thanks to Robin for letting me play with his layout. There are more of my photos of the event including other layouts here.