The boys from the Beds and Buck Narrow Gauge Modellers put on an exhibition at the Leighton Buzzard Railway today. Pages Park station was a great venue, there were lots of layouts and the visitors (young and old) were really interested in the displays.

Pride of place, right opposite the enterance, with a welcoming smile went to John Rees and his Old Oak layout. Everytime I see his layout John has done more work on it. John has added grass and sheep. All good layouts have sheep on them!

David Gander brought Green End which featured the ‘Narrow Gauge is Fun’ sign you see at the beginning of the blog. David mentioned this was the last time Green End will be exhibited. I think I’ve heard that before, but I was worried it might be true so I asked if I could operate. David kindly let me. It’s a nice layout to operate, simple controls that are easy to understand, and everything works well. Even I didn’t manage to crash anything!

Everyone likes a ‘landie’….

Danny Figg specialises in small or unusual layouts and he brought an interesting selection. Here’s Newnes Street Bridge a layout built for a competition at Expo Narrow Gauge.

This is the Owoh Nine Wells Watercress Farm. This working layout is built in a box file and measures approximately 34 x 24.5 cm.

Danny is creating a 1:32 scale loco from an inexpensive plastic toy.

Also, Danny brought “Emmenthal Incline”, a working incline layout built by Dawn Figg. It makes eveyone smile.

Brian Key exhibited Ilfracombe East. It represents a fictional extension of the Lynton and Barnstable Railway. It is really well modelled and the stock is lovely.

A Kerr Stuart in Southern Green…?

Brian’s layout even features the competitors every narrow gauge railway fears – charabangs!

All of the locos, stock and buildings on the layout are scratch- or kit-built, although Brian has recently invested in a Heljan loco. The detailing on the loco is excellent. Brian tells me he ran it for over an hour on his test track yesterday and he is very chuffed how well it runs.

Late in the day I spotted this very nice railcar, but I didn’t manage to get any details about it from Brian.

Tony Clarke’s Mirkwood is a narrow gauge railway serving a small slate quarry and village in Wales.

I’ve seen the layout a couple of times and everytime I see it I’m struck by how well modelled it is. Look at these gardens.

The buildings are kits or scratch-built by Tony.

I like the village store.

The quarry is very atmospheric. I believe Tony used real Welsh slate.

Exhibiting layouts at a narrow gauge railway was something new for the Beds and Buck group and was very enjoyable. I spent four hours there, and the models and conversation were so good, I didn’t even look at a real locomotive!