Last weekend I took Loctern Quay all the way to Doncaster for the Festival of British Railway Modelling exhibition. While it was a long trek it was good to be at a big show, and despite its small size the layout attracted a lot of positive comment. Many asked about the buildings, and I could point out the nearby Petite Properties stand!
Here's my friend Tim Sanderson showing how not to operate the layout by standing right in front of it, though to be fair this was a quiet moment and Tim was learning how it works. Tim had brought his own small 009 layout The Old Quarry - we fit the two layouts and three of us in one car
The Old Quarry is an attractive scenic layout with a simple track plan, and some ferociously tight curves!
A big show such as this can host large layouts, but I am always drawn to the small layouts, such as Ladmanlow Sidings, which is modelled on the Cromford & High Peak railway. This shows that a simple layout with simple but effective scenery can ooze atmosphere.
Leysdown, an EM gauge layout by Adrian Colenut, is another layout that has a simple concept beautifully executed.
Some of my favourite layouts in the show were in smaller scales. Blueball Summit in N-gauge shows an incredible level of detail for such a small scale, with consistency and effective composition, and well-modelled trains too.
Sandy Bay was another remarkable N-gauge layout, this time set at the seaside with a harbour and fishing village as a backdrop to the viaduct. This end-view gives a different perspective to the attractive scene.
Heybridge Wharf makes effective use of the unusual scale of 3mm:ft in a harbour scene, with fine modelling of a sailing barge as well as the buildings, and of course the trains themselves.
So the long journey was worth it for a good show, it was nice to see and speak to lots of visitors, and good to see Phil Parker and Colin Peake.
