This coming weekend sees the annual Railex Exhibition organised by the Risborough and District Model Railway Club at the Stoke Manderville Stadium. Railex has rightly gained a reputation for being one of the top shows in the country with 16 quality layouts and an impressive range of specialist trade stands. This year is no exception and the floor plan and full line up can be found here.

This year I again have the honour and privilege to be operating one of Chris Nevard’s layouts in the shape of his latest master piece Polbrook Gurney  once a sleepy Cornish Halt but now extended to include a colliery and moved to North Somerset! So not Southern, but fear not, there might just be the odd visiting engine on loan (if I can sneak one on when no one is looking)!

Southern fans don’t worry as normal service will be resumed on the blog next week back with the proper railway week. However  to help me survive the weekend there will be a couple of high quality Southern Region layouts at the show in the shape of ‘St. Merryn’ (North Cornwall) in P4 and Phil Hutchings’ delightful 3mm layout ‘Sandown’ (as in the Isle of Wight); both these layouts are set in the early 1950’s.