Tuesday 15 September 2009

Worthing Model Railway Exhibition

On Saturday I got chance to drop in on the Worthing MRC show with my little boy. It was at a new location this year, and oddly most of the exhibits and stands were in the corridor! (Albeit a wide, long corridor). The layouts were of a reasonable standard, and overall not a bad show.

One superb layout I had previously seen at EXPO-NG a couple of years back, and was pleased to see again, was Pelporro (45mm Gauge) by Brian Taylor. That backscene is amazing, and it is incredible what can be fitted into such a small space in what is normally considered a garden scale!


Another layout I liked was Cwmorgoth Copper Mining Company (O-16.5) by Jean-Luc Pineau. It was a Welsh copper mine featuring a working counterbalanced incline, and some nice internal-combustion locos, again in a very small space.


You can see more of my photos of some of the layouts here. As ever taking photos of layouts with a 2-year old in tow is tricky, especially getting good ones! However he did enjoy watching the trains, in particular a large modern-image OO layout with working colour light signals and lots of trains passing, and a G-gauge setup with Postman-Pat riding on a carriage. Well, that one was aimed at the kids I guess!

8 comments:

stephen said...

I really liked Cwmorgoth Copper Mining Company at Amberley a couple of months ago. Hopefully we can get it to ExpoNG before long.

One-Ten said...

I especially enjoyed Cwmorgoth too - superbly done.

I was there operating Peter Wisdom's Skeims Hill - that's a great picture of his model of Forest Row Station.

Michael Campbell said...

I liked Skeims Hill, it's nice to see pre-grouping layouts. The station building is very nicely modelled. I'm just pleased when a photo comes out at all with a 2-year old attached to my knee or in my arms!

Iain Robinson said...

I hadn't seen the Cwmgorth Mining Company...really good, thanks for posting the pics. I know what you mean about going round with a 2 year old...I have many happy memories of going round shows with my son at that age.

Chris Ford said...

I though Cwmorgoth suffered a bit with where it was positioned. We were down in the light part of the hallway with our own lighting, Luc was stuck in a dark and gloomy corner and was easy to miss.

Michael Campbell said...

Yes, it was a very dark corner, one reason the photo's are so poor (flash was the only option), it would have benefited greatly from its own lights. The venue wasn't that great in some respects really.

Which layout were you with?

Chris Ford said...

With all due respect to Mike and the other Worthing MRC organisers; it is a new venue and they are still finding their feet. My personal view is that the whole show may have been better off in the one two-level room. Eeyore and I were behind Unnycoombe halfway down the hallway.

Michael Campbell said...

The split-level hall was difficult to utilise, the corridor where most layouts and traders were felt crowded in places, had patchy light, and the pillars made for some dark corners.

However the show was good, I think it has improved (in terms of quality of layouts and traders too) over the last few years. And the venue did have better parking this year!