This show, as been the norm in recent years, features a showcase area of layouts that have appeared within the pages of Hornby Magazine and I shall once again assisting Hornby Magazine Editor Mike Wild operate his St Stephen’s Road layout, that we last exhibited back in September at the Swindon Railway Festival at the Steam museum.
As I have posted before St Stephens Road is based on a fictitious location in North Cornwall nominally just north of Launceston where a Southern branch meets the Western Region with the station having a dedicated platform face for the Southern line. A junction and combined goods yard allows for workings between the two regions such as freight including china clay trains. The layout is now DCC controlled and features sound fitted locomotives, including a couple of Bulleid light pacifics complete with smoke units. I course try and spend most of my time operating the Southern Region side of the layout!
If you are attending the show and say hello as it is always nice to meet those of you whom take the time to read my ramblings in this part of the blogosphere.
Although the 20 layouts attending will generally share the theme of ‘that other railway’ I shall be there assisting Mike Wild of Hornby Magazine (whom sponsor the event) operating his St Stephen’s Road layout.
An M7 pauses at St Stephen’s Road before continuing up the Southern branch
St Stephens Road is based on a fictitious location in North Cornwall nominally just north of Launceston where a Southern branch meets the Western Region with the station having a dedicated platform face for the Southern line. A junction and combined goods yard allows for workings between the two regions such as freight including china clay trains. Mike has recently converted this layout to DCC control and will also feature sound fitted locomotives, including a couple of Bulleid light pacifics that make an an appearance on the Southern Region side of the layout.
If you also wish to come over to the ‘darker side’ please say hello. The event open at 10am each day and the admission also includes full access to the STEAM museum and its collection of full size locomotives. rolling stock and artefacts.
The show is filled with 25 layouts, with Fisherton Sarum flying the flag for the Southern along with the Thornbury Hill Model Railway Group’s 4mm scale Southern Region layout Thornbury Hill. Hornby Magazines own St Stephen’s Road layout, on show is also a Southern / Western Region joint station set somewhere over the border from Devon.
A view across the front of the shed (c) Hornby Magazine / C Nevard
Also present are almost 30 traders including display stands from Hornby and Bachmann showcasing their latest models. Demonstrations from Hornby Magazine contributors include Paul Chetter, on DCC Sound and Phil Parker on building just about any kit that that takes his fancy.
I shall be kindly joined by fellow members of the High Wycombe and District MRS, Roger, Mark and Daniel along with my Mum and Dad to operate the layout for the weekend, and I express my thanks in advance to them all. Hopefully the work and amendments made to the layout over the last few months, documented on these pages, such as the turntable and box van uncoupling will be effective throughout the show.
The shows venue is right in the town centre, within walking, and almost sight, of the railway and bus stations at the Hartlepool College of Further Education, Stockton Street, Hartlepool TS24 7LB. It is open to the public on Saturday between 9:30 and 17:30, and on Sunday between 10:00 and 16:30. If you are planning a visit,and it is well worth doing so, please come and say hello.
Steel, Steam & Stars is a nine day long gala event on the Llangollen Railway, between Saturday 21st and Sunday 29th April, organised to raised funds for the 6880 Betton Grange Society, as a major means of raising funds for the building of this brand new locomotive. The event assembles a large line up of locomotives, including guest locomotives, such as Tornado and the majority of the Llangollen Railway’s own fleet. In addition there will be a variety of other attractions including a timetabled freight train with accommodation for passengers in three brake vans, a steam & vintage rally, a beer festival, a display or miniature steam and model engineering, and for 2012, trips along the newly extended railway towards Corwen.
The steam & vintage rally will be held in the field adjacent to the station at Glyndyfrdwy and will feature traction engines and vintage vehicles, along with a large marquee hosting a model railway exhibition.
An M7 pauses at St Stephen's Road before continuing up the Southern branch
The model railway Exhibition is sponsored by Hornby Magazine and will feature a number of top quality layouts, including the magazines own St Stephens Road layout.
The model railways layouts will be operating over the two weekends of the event and I will be assisting Hornby Magazine editor Mike Wild operating his St Stephens Road layout this coming weekend.
St Stephens Road is based on a fictitious location in North Cornwall nominally just north of Launceston where a Southern branch meets the Western Region with the station having a dedicated platform face for the Southern line. A junction and combined goods yard allows for workings between the two regions such as freight including china clay trains.
It certainly looks like it should be an impressive event with plenty of variety and action, so come along and say hello and help raise some money to go towards getting 6880 Betton Grange into steam (and yes I realise this is supporting an locomotive of the ‘other’ railway but it is still a good cause!)
Firstly an apology for the lack of posts last week but as regular readers will know I have been travelling a fair bit, so this post is a bit of a catch up on a couple of events and items of acquisition news that have occurred relevant to the hobby in the last week or so with respect to Ian Allan, Hornby Magazine and also RMweb.
Model Rail Scotland with St. Stephens Road.
It was a good weekend operating St Stephens Road, Mike Wild’s Hornby Magazine layout at Model Rail Scotland.
St Stephens Road at Model Rail Scotland. A layout based on a Western / Southern Region interchange station in North Cornwall. I even managed to spend most of the time operating the Southern Region side of the layout although occasionally I had to switch to that oif the other railway! The exhibition, organised by the Association of Scottish Model Railway Societies, increased in size this year by approximately 50% by utilising part of a second hall at the SECC. It was a shame the two halls were not next to each other but the additional space and wider aisles certainly seemed welcome. I do not know if the numbers visiting were up on last year but trade at the Hornby Magazine stand seemed pretty good especially on the Friday.
Abingdon Exhibition with Hinton Parva.
Last Saturday was the last of four shows in five weekends operating four different layouts as we exhibited the High Wycombe and District Model Railway Society’s Hinton Parva layout at the Abingdon Model railway exhibition.
Hinton Parva keeps the viewing public entertained at the Abingdon show.
The HM&DMRS was well represented as we also had our 0 Gauge layout Blandford St Mary at the show too.
Hinton Parva is 32′ long and operates to an hours sequence involving more than 60 train movements, by nearly 30 rakes of stock requiring 7 operators at any one time. With movements occurring all the time along the entire length of the layout not just on the main and secondary lines but also the MPD and goods yard certainly ensures that there is always something for the spectator to see!
The layout performed extremely well, and we all had a good day. It was also good to see a number of the younger members of the Society as part of the operating team and generally out performing many of the not so younger members, it bodes well for the future of the hobby and the Society.
Key Publishing Acquire Ian Allan Magazines including Hornby Magazine.
Key Publishing Ltd. have announced the acquisition of the Ian Allan portfolio of magazines from Ian Allan Publishing Ltd. The purchase involves seven titles published by Ian Allan (Buses, Classic Aircraft, Combat Aircraft, Hornby Magazine, Modern Railways, Railways Illustrated, and Vintage Roadscene) together with a number of Annual publications.
Hopefully this is a positive step for the publications and will enable the magazines, especially Hornby Magazine to continue its growth and influence in the model sector. Full details of the acquisition can be read here.
RMweb now comes under the ownership of Warners Group Publications plc.
RMweb started by Andy York in March 2005 and has become the busiest online railway modelling community in the UK with a membership of around 15,000. Andy York will continue to lead the site’s development and management into the future for Warners. RMweb will continue to be free to read, free to join and free to participate and will still welcome contributions and topics from all, including those from / about other publications and manufacturers.
Continuing my current schedule of 4 exhibitions in 5 weekends with 4 different layouts we have now reached (say in a Geordie accent) ‘week 4’ which means assisting Mike Wild of Hornby Magazine with his St Stephen’s Road layout at Model Rail Scotland being held this coming weekend Friday 24th to Sunday 26th February. This three day show organised by the Association of Model Railway Societies Scotland (AMRSS) will be 50% bigger than ever before, utilising for the first time, two halls at the Scotland Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) in Glasgow. Traditionally this show comprises of layouts from AMRSS member Societies with a small number of guest layouts from further afield along with full trade support including the leading manufacturers. The increase in floor space has enabled a greater number of layouts, including more non AMRSS layouts and more trade stands to attend.
An M7 pauses at St Stephen's Road before continuing up the Southern branch
This will only be St Stephen’s Road second exhibition appearance and the first for me operating it so a fast learning curve will be needed, before the show opens to the public on Friday Morning, especially as it has 4 fiddle yards!
The layout is based on a Western Region branch line in North Cornwall nominally just north of Launceston (those that know me will know that this is a challenge for me on a number of levels!). In reality both the Southern and Western had lines in this area and indeed at Launceston each had their own stations.
The Western Region side of St Stephen's Road
The saving grace with St Stephen’s Road, from my perspective, is that the station is also where a Southern branch meets the Western Region with a dedicated platform face for the Southern line. A junction and combined goods yard allows for workings between the two regions such as freight including china clay trains.
Fisherton Sarum attracts the crowds at the Doncaster Festival of British Railway Modelling a couple of weeks agoI am happy to report that exhibiting my own layout Fisherton Sarum, a couple of weeks ago, at the Festival of British Modelling Doncaster show went very well. The layout, except for very first thing on the Saturday morning before it warmed up, worked well and appeared to go down quite well with the viewing public despite being quite a distance from traditional Southern Railway Territory. In fact, and somewhat surprisingly considering where we were exhibiting, three visitors to the show commented on the fact that they, like my own Dad, had bunked the shed in their younger days!
Berrybridge will be at the Stafford Railway Circle Exhibition on 3rd/4th February. Picture copyright Mike Wild
This coming weekend (4th/5th February) sees the Hornby Magazine layout Berrybridge making an appearance at the Stafford Railway Circle show, and I shall be assisting Editor Mike Wild for the weekend. Hornby Magazine are also the sponsors of Model Rail Scotland at the Glasgow SECC, and their layout St. Stephen’s Road is being exhibited for the three days of the show between Friday 24th and Sunday 26th February. This will be my first time operating St. Stephen’s Road, based somewhere in the South West, and I am negotiating operating the Southern Region branch line end of the layout rather than that of the other region! Model Rail Scotland is organised by the Association of Model Railway Societies in Scotland and this year will twice the size of previous years taking in two halls.
Hinton Parva where a Midland / Eastern Main line meets a Southen / Western Secondary line.
