This year is the 75th ‘birthday’ of the Bury St Edmunds Model Railway club.

To celebrate they put on a special exhibition in the cathedral, with 19 layouts and 11 traders.

Here are a few of my personal highlights… Click on a photo for a bigger image

Purgatory Peak, Macclesfield Model Railway Club, On30. A large, imposing model of a narrow gauge mainline in South Western USA in the 1930s. A very ambitious layout, well executed. The depth of the scenery and backscenes really give the impression of mountains and valleys. The buildings and trestle bridges are superb.

York, 2mm finescale, Peter Kirmond. From a large layout in a large scale, to a small one in a small scale. York is presented in a ‘letter box’ format and the viewer looks into the layout as though they were standing underneath the roof of York station. I have never seen a model like this before. Impressive and very effective.

Cratfield Mid-Suffolk Light Railway, 7mm Scale, Tony Goff. It the MSLR had opened beyond Laxfield there might have been a station at Cratfield. This layout is beautifully modelled and really captures the atmosphere of rural Suffolk. The stock is made to a very high standard and is a pleasure to see. The open wagon converted to a van really existed. Great modelling.

Obberkaer, 1:87 finescale, Geraint Hughes. A Danish-themed layout set in the 1950s. Lovely modelling and a lesson in colour balance. The colours and tones are so beautifully controlled and blended in this layout, it’s a delight to look at.

New exhibition layout by Bury St Edmunds MRC. This probably won the prize for the biggest fiddle yard of the exhibition. Plus, it won the ‘most naked layout’ prize. It interesting to see a work in progress but it made me wonder about the pros and cons of showing such early stage layouts at exhibitions. I suppose when you’re 75 you can do whatever you like 🙂

A model railway exhibition in a cathedral was definitely a new experience for me. The exhibition was packed and I’m sure it was a big success for the club.

The cathedral is beautiful. I hope the Bishop is getting a cut of the takings to put in the maintenance budget 🙂