Yesterday the East Midlands Narrow Gauge Modellers held their annual exhibition, Narrow Gauge NOW.
It’s probably the biggest narrow gauge exhibition in the UK. There were more than 55 layouts and over 25 traders.
It’s huge, very well organised and definitely worth attending.
Here are some pics. Click on them for larger versions.
Ahmadpur Junction, On30, Stewart Blencowe.It represents the Ahmadpur–Katwa line in West Bengal.It really captures the atmosphere of India.Great stock, different from typical UK stock.Bratton Fleming, 009, Keith Pinder and Andrew Thomas.Interesting vignettes.Super station scene.Alfriston, 009, Neil Davies.A fictional line, running through real places in East Sussex.With a little flavour of the Welshpool and Llanfair. Great buildings, and one of the best exits to the fiddle yard that I’ve seen.The two bridges are a nice touch, one for rail, one for pedestrians.Karolina Falls, On30, David Bailey.Highly detailed, American layout.Really attractive On18 mine scene on one side of the layout.The falls are made from real water that runs continuously. And there were no puddles under the layout !Also using real water: the 16mm modellers were running live steam locos 🙂Lambert Road, O9, Andy Booth.Andy makes very engaging rolling stock, such as this little railcar.As well as highly detailed scenes throughout the layout.The Automata workshop features a disused dodgem and Zoltar the fortune teller.However Andy’s real love is creating distinctive buildings.If you look through the peep hole you can spy on the kissing couple. Ooh err missus !The Lindsey Joint Railway featured this rather lovely swing bridge module.Colin Peake brought a selection of O9 microlayouts, including “To The End…”Also by Colin “The Headshunt”. It’s great to see commonplace, but rarely depicted, railway scenes modelled so well.The final micro from Colin Odsock Corner an O9 pizza layout.Colin is great at creating details that bring the scene to life.The more you look, the more you see. I love the discarded carrier bag on the parcel shelf of the mini.Porthllechen, 009, Kim Dowden.Clever use of multiple scenic levels: from harbour, to quayside, to mountains.A postcard from Mallorca.And here’s the layout that it inspired, in TT9, by Andy Gautrey.The Smoky Bottom Lumber Company stand had an excellent selection of models.Trifoulou, Nm, Piers Milne.Based on the Reseau du Vivarais in the Ardeche in South East France, lovely N scale modelling.Ynys Atgofion, 7mm scale, by John Roberts is a work in progress and you can tell it’s gonna be great when it’s completed.
I spent a lot of time looking at layouts and even more time talking to people. If you go to an exhibition strike up a conversation or two. I always learn lots from the exhibitors and the other visitors.
It was especially nice to meet up in person with people that I normally talk to online. Special shout out to: Justin, Andrew, Colin and Andy. Really good to see you and chat with you!
Many thanks to the East Midlands NG Modellers for a great day out 🙂
