JAMES HICKMAN reports on the return of this show at Alexandra Palace in London.
The weekend of 19th-20th of March saw the return of The London Festival of Railway Modelling at Alexandra Palace in London. Gaugemaster last visited this show back in 2019, before the pandemic, so it was nice to return to this iconic venue and reconnect with everyone; customers and suppliers alike. When we entered the hall and began to set up it immediately felt like the pandemic had never happened. Everyone was happy and excited for the prospect of one of the first big shows in England and to welcome everyone back.
The set up of a show is never glamorous, but we did find the odd moment to take in the venue. The large stained-glass window, the Palm Court, and even the ice rink makes this a very unusual but welcome deviation to the usual venue for a large model railway show.
The show opened at 9:30am Saturday to advance ticket holders. The big change to our stand since the 2019 show was the addition of a larger Train-Tech area, after our acquisition of the brand in October last year, and I was positioned here to advise on their amazing products.
Although we were very busy throughout the weekend, there is always a chance of getting away from the stand for a few minutes to have a look around; we are all enthusiasts ourselves, after all. It was nice seeing the mix of layouts at the show including one set in the Arun Valley (a real location near our HQ) called Arun Quay. Although a fictious location, it does pick up all the feeling and looks of the area and combines the features of many buildings that still exist into the design.
The layouts showcased a wide variety of scales, outlines, and eras and although all of them were lovely models, there were a couple that stood out to me for different reasons. The first of these was Rossiter Rise in OO Scale. This layout is based around the underground of old and features a unique view. Most layouts feature buildings, and some modellers do include interiors too. Sadly, sometimes these can be overlooked but Rossiter Rise presents their sheds along the front of the layout. The outer edge of the layout acts as a window into the building, allowing the viewer to see all the goings on.
Exbridge was another layout that does things differently. What stood out here is the fact that there was very little straight track on the model. Instead, the track-work meanders through the scenery and follows the contours of the landscape.
If you have read any of my previous articles, you will know I do appreciate attention to detail. That is something that cannot be said has been missed from Copenhagen Fields. This is another London based layout, built in 2mm finescale. Construction of this layout began in 1983 but now can be seen in its full glory. The layout is full of hidden and realistic details. There is a tramway that runs along the front of the layout that immediately caught my eye.
My first thought was that it was nice to see a working historic tramway, but that it was missing catenary. Since looking closer at the model and discussing it with a more learned colleague, I found out that this was prototypical as the trams here actually picked up power from a subterranean third rail.
The reason this layout first caught my eye was the shape. The majority of layouts tend to use either rectangular or circular boards, this did neither and in fact had a very irregular shape.
This layout also features a forced perspective in that the front of the layout is modelled in the typical 1:144 of N scale, but towards the back of the layout this reduces to 1:250.
It wasn’t just the layouts that caught the eye however, there were announcements and where else would Accurascale choose to announce a London based locomotive; the Brush Type 2. We brought you news of these earlier but in case you missed it, information on these can be found here.
Dapol also announced a range of new items and new liveries for their range including a new steam shunter, the Hawthorn Leslie in OO Scale. Many of you may have seen the announcements there or on our website since, but if not, you can find them here.
Overall, this was a welcome return for us to Alexandra Palace and we are already setting our sights on The International N Gauge Show and Warley later in the year. If you didn’t make it to Alexander Palace this time, hopefully we will see you at one of the upcoming shows, or in store.