This coming weekend (23rd / 24th November) is the annual and 21st Warley National Model Railway Exhibition being held at the NEC in Birmingham. This is one of those events you either love or hate; but tens of thousands of modellers visit across the weekend, and this year will be able to see 87 layouts and over 150 trade stand stands including all the major manufacturers.

In fact there will be 88 layouts as this year Hornby Magazine editor Mike Wild will be taking his Topley Dale layout, that was previously built around his office, on its first and last public outing. Although not a proper railway company (insert smiley of choice) layout being a based on the Midland Region I shall assisting Mike all weekend with its operation so come and see us on Stand A49. We shall be operating the layout using the Hornby Railmaster DCC system including its integration with smartphones and iPads and this will be a hands on demonstration to allow you to see and try for yourself the features of the control system.

Topley Dale was originally built as the Hornby Magazine Yearbook No.5 project to show what could achiveed around a typical spare room but just get back to the usual theme of this blog this years yearbook has a very Southern theme with Mike’s latest layout 12 Trees Junction set firmly in 3rd rail electric and London transfer freight territory and is well worth a read.