Manchester Model Railway Exhibition 2008
It doesn’t seem a whole year since the 2007 event.
The Manchester show always concentrates on high quality, and this year’s was no exception. It was very much into big layouts this year, and a good proportion weren’t kettle-based either. I’ve seen the excellent 4mm slice of south London “Vauxhall Road” before, with impressive architectural modelling and real urban atmosphere, with the frequent EMU services passing on the a high curving viaduct above the streets.
I’ve also seen the German HO layout “Ediger Eller” before; I thought the scenic modelling was excellent (And I travelled on that line in the summer) but it lost verisimilitude for me by running trains from widely-separated eras side-by side. 01 pacifics and Class 485 electrics just don’t mix I’m afraid.
“Stainmore Summit” was the best steam layout for me, representing the bleak and windswept summit of the now-closed trans-pennine line from Barnard Castle to Penrith, modelled as it was in it’s last years before closure.
Loscoe Yard in G scale was impressive, an simple ’shunting plank’ featuring a locomotive servicing facility in an urban US setting. In a smaller scale it would have been very much ‘ho hum’, but scaled up to 1:29, it impressed.
But the highlight had to be another larger-scale layout, Apethorn Junction. 7mm scale, fully DCC, all locos equipped with sound, the thing just oozed atmosphere. It really gave the impression you were standing by the lineside in about 1971 watching the trains go past. To see a class 25 slowly rounding the curve with a rake of vanfits slowing to a signal stop looked more like the real thing than a model. Made me kick myself for not taking my camera.
Although this show tends to be about layouts rather than traders, my credit card managed to get mugged by Mr Bachmann and Mr Dapol.
