MATT LOVELL reports back from this recent show at British Motor Museum.
On Friday the 6th of October, Stuart, Craig, and I all drove up to Coventry to set up a stand for the Great Electric Train Show for the 7th and 8th of October, 2017, at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon. We as Gaugemaster have supported this show for a couple of years now with stands of different shapes and sizes. This year we were set to construct a stand of 24ft x 6ft, full of the finest model railway items.
We arrived at the motor museum in good time from the south coast (apart from the M25 - Ed) and started to unpack the stand from the van. We each had our own areas of the stand to construct and once the main infrastructure was put up we each got to work on our areas. After only a couple of hours the stand was set up and ready for the show to open the next day.
The stock on the stand varied in scale from N Scale Figures, building kits, and locomotives - including the new versions of the O Scale Class 08 Locomotives from Dapol. We also had on display a variety of Kato N Scale Starter Sets and Track Packs, as well as a selection of Märklin MyWorld Starter Sets.
One of the ranges that we had on display was the Fordhampton Kits; these were very popular with customers throughout the show, especially with the recent release of the GM412 Gasometer kit. Another one of the popular items we had on display was the Roco HOe Starter Set that has been featured in recent model railway magazines, but now no longer available from Roco.
On one side of our stand we were able to display and demonstrate the Train-Tech Sensor Signals and other electrical items such as their Smart Lights. We had lots of customers asking questions about them and after a quick demonstration and explanation on how they work, a lot of people considered them for their railway.
We also had on display the Kato K10-1295 N Scale Eurostar in the classic white and blue livery, which seemed to be a very popular item even with the younger enthusiasts. Also available were Gaugemaster exclusive Dapol items, of which at time of asking only the OO Scale Class 73s are still available.
That's enough about our stand, what else was there at the show?
As the visitors walked into the show they were met by a large OO gauge layout called Chilcompton which was a 1950's Somerset and Dorset themed railway built by the Redditch Model Railway Club. This layout featured a long through station and a very nice detailed country scene including an overgrown siding area. At the other end of the layout was a detailed country house scene with weathered buildings, a garden scene and a detailed hillside.
A very nice layout for the opening of the show.
Moving up the escalator the visitors were faced with our stand and the smiley staff that accompanied it.
The show was spread out though the whole upper floor of the museum there were lots of layouts ranging from N to O Scale. There must have been over 25 layouts at the show in all shapes and sizes and showing different themes, from open country sides to compact industrial yards.
One of the layouts which I liked the look of was the shunting puzzle in one of the conference rooms. I liked this one purely because it was a compact layout with lots of detail in a small place. I also liked the fact that it used the Gaugemaster Backscenes, GM195 Seafoam Trees and the Metcalfe Tower Style Brewery kit. It also used the Metcalfe MEPO243 Stone Tunnel Mouths to edge off the layout.
This was a great layout using straight off the shelf products which shows you do not need to purchase lots of expensive products to make a model railway.
Another layout which caught my eye was called Ashdan Junction. This layout had appeared in BRM Magazine and it was easy to see why with the amount of detail and effort which had been put into it.
One scene with I thought stood out was the Airfield, this scene featured two Harrier jets and use of the Faller Car System as seen with the small Landover driving around.
Another scene on the layout which I thought was a nice touch was the allotments in the corner. This scene was very nicely detailed with wild grass, foliage and a mixture plants and grass tufts.
There was also a children's play area using the Noch N14368 Play Equipment and the Busch playground equipment. An ideal scene for any spare corner of the layout.
Another layout I liked was called Bradford City Road. The weathering on this layout was excellent and the use of Kadee couplings allowed for an easy shunting into the sidings and station bays on the layout. I also like the use of the use of the Peco Overall Roof as it added a true mainline station feel to the scene. It also allowed for some great atmospheric pictures to be taken.
Judging by the plaques attached to the frame of the layout I could tell that this was a very popular layout and a great addition to the show.
In closing, I thought that the selection of layouts at this show was great as it had something for all sorts of modellers and enthusiasts.