Author

Timothy Watson

Date

15th October 2014

Reading Time

2 minutes

Well we have certainly had a very different weekend to the normal model railway exhibition!  After a hectic few weeks of work with a major re-wire of the front boards (a fall-out from the Preston show 6 months ago) we got the layout moved to the Kings Cross Granary square complex on Friday 9th for their “Steam Extravaganza”.  The layout was exhibited in the ‘Crossing’, a large exhibit space close to the Central St Martins school of Arts entrance.

 The aerial photograph shows the layout during setting up, taken from the offices in the Granary Building.  Yvonne & Peter Chappell and myself are visible in the image.

The pubic came to see ‘Gresley Beat’ (4mm OO) and CF, along with other outdoor steam attractions aimed predominantly at a young audience. There were 9000 of them.  It was so refreshing to have a public that was truly appreciative of the quality of modelling on show and who were amazed to see their area represented in model form, as it was 75 years  ago.  The trains were admired, but probably incidental.   I think they could understand the quality of the individual models on Gresley Beat but they didn’t engage as well with the model as they did with CF.  We saw people checking out CF using Google Earth on their smartphones.  The number of comments and anecdotes from locals was never ending: I think the Club is going to be very busy at our next Open Day on November 16th (layout setting up on Sunday 9th).

The layout settled down to run well on most lines, although we now need to be fettling the down goods to make sure it’s OK – especially on the brass track round the back.  With the re-wiring now started, it is an ideal opportunity to re-organise the wire feeds and sectioning in the fiddle yards at the rear.

Our newest train on the line was the ‘Flying Kipper’ from Matthew Wald.  It was running on the up goods, behind the Baldwin and can be seen on its entrance into the Goods Yard.  This train started life as some old Graham Farish fish vans but they have subsequently been filleted and narrowed to make a very effective fast fitted train.

Work progresses on the buildings on Randall’s Knob, with Tom Knapp beavering away in San Francisco on the London Christian Mission building and Richard Wilson sketching out the other block of shops, houses and offices.

Finally, it was pleasing to note that the layout was awarded the ‘Geoff Jones Layout Trophy’ by the 2mm Scale Association, for the second time, at their AGM on Saturday 11th October.