Gauge O Guild Kettering 2023

[simond]

Tetbury was very well modelled but everything was pristine and clean and single shades of colour (the road was a light grey for instance) and this spoiled the illusion for me. Would love to spend a day on it with paints and weathering materials. At the end of the day though I recognise that it's personal choice.

Ditto Harbourne St Mary. Beautifully modelled, lots of lovely detail, including ground signals, but immaculate rolling stock apparently straight out of the box, no crew, no coal, no weathering. This generated some debate in the car on the way home, as one of our crew doesn’t like weathered stock at all.

I’d love to get that lot dirty enough to look used, though I appreciate too that it’s a personal choice. (And that there were probably too many panniers for Chris )

 

[Jon Fitness]

Was quite impressed with it all. I agree, some of the layouts looked a bit polished but plenty of people there and lots expensive looking boxes going out of the door. Found most of what I wanted and I was impressed by what I saw on the Dapol stand. Wish I'd taken some pix of the Hunslet austerity tanks as they looked very nicely detailed.

 

[Kev T]

I do spend time watching the layouts, particularly those that do shunting to see how well the chosen couplings work. 3 links tend to be the default but are generally a faff (and out of the question on my 1m deep boards). Was pleased to see one layout with Dinghams and I'm almost certainly going to go for those

We use Dinghams on our club layout with initially variable results. We've found in practice that using strong magnets under the baseboard and very very careful alignment is essential to get them to work well. We're happy with them now though.
Kev

 

[Jordan]

Tetbury was very well modelled but everything was pristine and clean and single shades of colour (the road was a light grey for instance) and this spoiled the illusion for me

I was hoping Tetbury might still be a 'work in progress' layout. It was 'too' clean as shown but has great potential and weatherd nicely could be a real 'showstopper'. The passenger service (with coaches) I observed was a bit odd, to say the least - it pulled into the far loop, away from the platform, then the loco ran round it, and shunted it to the station afterwards, which took a lot of time. Not what the real railway would've done, surely?
On the other hand the 4-wheel railcar just oozed atmosphere in the station, although it waddled along like crazy on it's way to the fiddleyard!!

Kudos to both the 'big' layouts for shunting the goods yards - from what I saw Harborne St Mary was shunted with a bit more 'purpose' than North Foreland, e.g. vans to the goods shed, etc rather than a goods train just shoved in the yard & left.
North Foreland did suffer from a lot of "digital" operation, i.e. finger poking, although there was some on Harborne St Mary too which was running 12vDC. I think layouts just suffer Gremlins in Exhibition situations - the stress of transport, set up, and were they in the hall overnight, in low temperatures? It all creates issues that arise later when there's an audience.
I enjoyed the Micro layouts too, especially the Light Railway, Dunwich Tramway. I like the imagination that goes into small freelance layouts like that.

 

[SimonT]

I think layouts just suffer Gremlins in Exhibition situations

They don't have to. You have to test, test and test some more to break things to expose the things that are wrong and you fix everything. Peter Kirmond and I have been doing it to each others layouts for years. With Aberbeeg stock only came off the track due to biological failures (points set wrong), same with Laramie and it will be the same with This is York. And yes, it can be very unpleasent as your failures are shown up.

 

[Eastsidepilot]

Ditto Harbourne St Mary. Beautifully modelled, lots of lovely detail, including ground signals, but immaculate rolling stock apparently straight out of the box, no crew, no coal, no weathering. This generated some debate in the car on the way home, as one of our crew doesn’t like weathered stock at all.

I’d love to get that lot dirty enough to look used, though I appreciate too that it’s a personal choice. (And that there were probably too many panniers for Chris )

I wasn't at the exhibition, but judging by the photo's above of some of the layout's I'm afraid the lack of weathering( not just the stock but everything else, buildings etc.) just leaves me cold, totally un-realistic . I probably would have carried on walking past.
As Simon says we all appreciate the fact that it's personal choice but exhibitions to my mind are a showcase for the art of creating a visual scene, to some extent a moving picture depicting what a living breathing railway was not a collection of pristine models which you'd normally see on a shelf.

 

[Eastsidepilot]

The passenger service (with coaches) I observed was a bit odd, to say the least - it pulled into the far loop, away from the platform, then the loco ran round it, and shunted it to the station afterwards, which took a lot of time. Not what the real railway would've done, surely?

I have always understood the practice to be that the train enters the station to allow passengers to dis-embark and then the stock would be propelled back out into the loop, run round, then the stock propelled back into the platform to await departure.
Am I right in understanding that a passenger train could not be shunted with passengers on board or is that something I've mis read in the past ?

 

[MoatLane]

It worked like that at many places where the loop wasn't in the platform, eg Amlwch. No running round with passengers aboard unless coaches at the platform and brakes on...am I right?

 

[MoatLane]

I wasn't at the exhibition, but judging by the photo's above of some of the layout's I'm afraid the lack of weathering( not just the stock but everything else, buildings etc.) just leaves me cold, totally un-realistic . I probably would have carried on walking past.
As Simon says we all appreciate the fact that it's personal choice but exhibitions to my mind are a showcase for the art of creating a visual scene, to some extent a moving picture depicting what a living breathing railway was not a collection of pristine models which you'd normally see on a shelf.

I sort-of understand why people leave their models in pristine condition. Wagons I have no problem weathering but coaches are something else, and there are several that I haven't been brave enough to tackle. Also, there's a perception that weathered models 'lose their value', which is probably true if value worries you.

I felt the same as you on seeing Aberayron in 7mm years ago, beautifully recreated but with private owner wagons obviously hand-polished to sparkling. But, it's your choice...

 

[Richard Gawler]

I have at least three highlights from the show: meeting folk from WT; seeing a live steam Pacific hauling eighteen coaches and at some speed on the test track; and being able to meet Mr Adams and buy one of his exquisite transit boxes.

The only downside was a mate giving me £100 in cash and a shopping list. I fulfilled his shopping list using my debit card, which of course left me with the cash, and so many opportunities to spend it . . .

 

[victorianman]

I was hoping Tetbury might still be a 'work in progress' layout. It was 'too' clean as shown but has great potential and weatherd nicely could be a real 'showstopper'. The passenger service (with coaches) I observed was a bit odd, to say the least - it pulled into the far loop, away from the platform, then the loco ran round it, and shunted it to the station afterwards, which took a lot of time. Not what the real railway would've done, surely?
On the other hand the 4-wheel railcar just oozed atmosphere in the station, although it waddled along like crazy on it's way to the fiddleyard!!

Kudos to both the 'big' layouts for shunting the goods yards - from what I saw Harborne St Mary was shunted with a bit more 'purpose' than North Foreland, e.g. vans to the goods shed, etc rather than a goods train just shoved in the yard & left.
North Foreland did suffer from a lot of "digital" operation, i.e. finger poking, although there was some on Harborne St Mary too which was running 12vDC. I think layouts just suffer Gremlins in Exhibition situations - the stress of transport, set up, and were they in the hall overnight, in low temperatures? It all creates issues that arise later when there's an audience.
I enjoyed the Micro layouts too, especially the Light Railway, Dunwich Tramway. I like the imagination that goes into small freelance layouts like that.

Re the comments on the stress of exhibitions, obviously shaking a layout around in a van/car, the changes of temperature etc. as mentioned are all valid reasons why problems can arise with even the best designed and constructed layouts ; look at F1 cars hauled from country to country in a season or the loss of spacecraft because of very minor failures which were all checked out as ok before the action started. . What doesn't help, though, is being given a limited set up and fault finding time; I'm sure exhibitors on here have been told ' don't arrive before such a time,' only to arrive and find everything has been set up long before, so losing valuable time for checking, small repairs etc.. Also, for security reasons one can be thrown out of the venue quite early on set-up night, so leaving only a limited time the next morning between breakfast, ablutions, finding the venue again, parking and getting inside before advance ticket holders appear in front of the layout. Anyone who exhibits should be open to constructive comments as well as praise, both of which Jordan has offered above and they all deserve respect for being willing to entertain us all whilst possibly getting egg on faces firmly placed above the parapet.

 

[Tim Humphreys ex Mudhen]

Having helped exhibit Love lane I'm very sympathetic to the issues of setting up and running a layout. However all rolling stock should be checked out before the event. Finger poking is generally down to loco pick-ups and electrical shorting which can be sorted in advance of the exhibition. I do appreciate how much effort it takes into producing and running a layout and have probably damned Love Lane on its next outing

Tim

 

[simond]

Reflecting on my earlier comments, I guess it’s much easier to sit here and say “he’s out of tune” than to play the violin myself. I’ve never built an exhibition layout, though I’ve done a couple of shows as support, and lost a crankpin on a loco that had previously done many (real) miles. I’ll not criticise the running, I didn’t see any “ooooh” moments.

Personally, I don’t believe that competent weathering makes a model less valuable, but it’s always going to be in the eye of the beholder. Incompetent weathering is often available on eBay. On occasions it appears they’ve used a muck spreader, rather than an airbrush…. My own efforts vary.

But my locos have crew on the footplate, and coal in the tender.

 

[Eastsidepilot]

........... and have probably damned Love Lane on its next outing

Tim

SSSHHH !

Col.

 

[Scale7JB]

Went, saw, said 'meh', ....
No, it wasn't that bad. Only spent a little bit on scenics & a couple of handy fascia holders for my NCE Powercab throttle.
Bring'n'Buy was a disappointment, much smaller table area than previous years. Stood next to someone as they bought an Atlas boxcar from there, old steam Era type so not of interest to me*. Distinct dearth of American stuff of any sort anywhere, really; Ellis Clark had a rare Atlas F7 A&B set but at £200 each - for unpowered dummy locos!! - ah, no thanks...
Took bad photos of the layouts, will post some later. Pleasantly surprised that they weren't all Micro Layouts this year!!
Bumped into a few WT-ers I know, and obviously missed many others!!

*Edit - the boxcar, not the buyer!! although he might have been as well...

Anybody have any idea what livery the Atlas F7 A/B units were in at Ellis Clark?

I have sent them an email, but i'm guessing they are busy unpacking from the show at the moment..

JB.

 

[djparkins]

I have always understood the practice to be that the train enters the station to allow passengers to dis-embark and then the stock would be propelled back out into the loop, run round, then the stock propelled back into the platform to await departure.
Am I right in understanding that a passenger train could not be shunted with passengers on board or is that something I've mis read in the past ?

Not so! - there is a prototype for everything!

After Bournemouth West was closed, the rear six or so coaches of a Weymouth to Waterloo express would arrive from Bournemouth Carriage Sidings and the loco hauling them would detach and returrn to the sheds or into the up bay platform. An 04 Diesel Shunter would then attach itself to the rear of the train and pull it backwards into one of the central sidings opposite the loco shed. The 'ex-Weymouth' portion would then arrive behind a Bulleid Pacific and the rear six cloaches would then be propelled forwards and attached to the rear of the front four coaches with a controlled crash [or so it seemed to me!]. The 04 would then detach to await it's next turn of duty, and the express would depart for Waterloo. The shunting movement would often include passengers that had boarded plus a contingent of spotty schoolboys including Your's Truly! This useful practise enabled us to 'cop' the locos on shed. Happy Days.

DJP

 

[MoatLane]

I was thinking only about running round; but DJP is right: there were many places where such moves happened with passengers on board. Anywhere where trains were joined and divided, such as Exeter Central, Okehampton, Halwill, Pontypool Road. And I imagine most 'portioned' trains involved movements with pax on board.
chrisB

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Dividing trains with passengers on board still occurs today albeit with DMUs - Crainlarich where the Glasgow Oban/Fort William trains divide for the two destinations and reforms on the return journey.

I think there are some services on the Southern Region where this also occurs.

 

[MoatLane]

Machynlleth, Salisbury, Haywards Heath

 

[Jordan]

Anybody have any idea what livery the Atlas F7 A/B units were in at Ellis Clark?

I have sent them an email, but i'm guessing they are busy unpacking from the show at the moment..

JB.

Sorry for the delay mate, just replied to your PM too.
They are Pennsylvania RR. I assume that means they are maroon - the boxes were closed & rather hidden behind the stand. I just asked what they were.