STUART JORDAN talks about our biannual show, which took place on 6th - 7th September 2014.
After long months of planning and organising it was suddenly the last week in August and we had seven days to go to the show. During the week the marquees were erected to the front and rear of our building to house the dozen or so layouts that were exhibiting, as well as the societies and manufacturers that were coming as well.
Tolzdorf, an Alpine/Bavarian N Scale Layout. (Click the images to see a larger version)
On Friday afternoon the first of the exhibitors arrived to set up, and the race was on to get the shop packed to the gills with stock ready for the weekend. We also had a Gaugemaster area to set up in the back marquee with DCC Concepts, Deluxe Materials and Nick Duxfield (ex-colleague and all round scenery expert) available to answer any questions on digital, modelling materials or scenic modelling respectively - as well as Gaugmaster staff demonstrating Gaugemaster Controllers and the Prodigy and Z21 Digital systems.
Gaugemaster staff were on hand to give advice. (Click the images to see a larger version)
Dawes Creek, an Australian N Gauge layout recently featured in Continental Modeller. (Click the images to see a larger version)
Saturday morning dawned and with a last few adjustments the show opened to the public, with the Gaugemaster warehouse staff guiding the eager public into the car-parking field just over the level crossing from the show. There aren’t many Model Railway exhibitions that include a 1:1 Modern British Outline layout right outside the door....
Eager visitors crowd the back marquee. (Click the images to see a larger version)
The middle of the day was busier than we had ever imagined, with around 3,000 people visiting throughout Saturday alone. Sunday was a little quieter, but still noticeably busier than our last Open Weekend back in 2011.
American N Gauge in the form of Solent Summit, a modular layout that can be as big as 30ft x 30ft! (Click the images to see a larger version)
Chichester Model Engineers provided train rides all weekend in front of the Buffet Car Cafe! (Click the images to see a larger version)
When the show closed at 4pm on Sunday evening the race was on to break everything down. The exhibitors sorted out their own pitches, and all the GM staff helped to take down the Gaugemaster area in the back marquee and the Buffet Car Cafe.
The Large American G Scale Layout Broke Brick Mountain won the best in show prize, voted for by members of the public. (Click the images to see a larger version)
With it's impressive number of scratchbuilt buildings and many vignettes of Wild West life, this layout really caught the public's attention. (Click the images to see a larger version)
After an exhausting but fun weekend we’d like to thank everyone who came to see us over the weekend. We would also like to thank the layout exhibitors, manufacturers, magazines and societies who gave their time and came to exhibit and helped enormously to make the Open Weekend 2014 the great success that it was.