Erith Show - January 2012

Today I attended the Erith show, which was the first show I visited last year (see my post on that exhibition here: Erith Show 2011)

Last years show was held in a primary school which was a cramped but fun venue, with lots to explore and find.  This years show was held in the Bexley Business Academy, a sixth form college and a very modern venue.  Unfortunately it was still a very cramped venue, perhaps the Erith club are slightly agoraphobic!

There was certainly plenty to see, and a good selection of trade stands, including both Signal Box and Penguin.  Unfortunately Signal Box only had a small selection of US outline, and it was all hidden away behind their main table so difficult to browse.

US Layouts were represented by a selection of different layouts, with the largest being the Erith Society's own 'Riversdale' layout depicting 1940's California.

The second hand selection was thin on bargains, with many of the US stock being distinctly overpriced, old white box Atlas engines at £50 anyone?  I did find a nice Athearn F59PH for £30, but without owning any coaches it would only be a white elephant for me.

I stocked up on slaters plasticard and girders, to use as part of my upcoming bridge project, as well as some small profile 'U' channel shapes to use for guttering on my current structure projects.  I plan to add guttering to the Rix bungalows I will have at the front of my module.

I also picked up a couple of old but unused plastic trees, a very sorry looking Faller outbuilding and a great selection of American magazines which will keep me in reading materials for a while!

I'd never heard of Mainline or Prototype Modeller, but the amount of information in these magazines is really outstanding, and they were priced very keenly.  I would have bought more but I had to carry them home!

Here are a few pictures of the various layouts.

Riversdale - HO - Erith Model Railway Society
The largest US layout at the show, and a very nicely put together scene.  The only thing that let this layout down was a lack of weathering on the stock and buildings, and that many of the buildings seemed to be plain plastic rather than painted.  It was certainly a great advert for Walthers kits as most, if not all, of the structures on the layout were Cornerstone kits. 

Whistling Woods - HO - Ian Waredraper
This was an interesting layout, with a bias towards trackage rather than realism, it reminded me of the kinds of layouts you used to see in the windows of train shops, with several trains running at the same time across the different levels of track.

Deyton Heights - HO - Andrew Smith
This layout was a very small switching board, really more of a diorama than a layout.  The scenery has been detailed to simulate a night scene, with plenty of small lights and an enclosure to keep the daylight out.  One downside of the design was that the layout was very difficult to view past the shoulders of the operator and more than one onlooker. 

Most of the other layouts were British outline, although several of them were very nicely detailed including these examples which caught my eye.

Ottosschwande und Schweighousen Shiefer Steinbruch - N Gauge - Iris Guscott
This layout had a very effective slate effect using real slate bedded into the landscape, overall the layout was perhaps a little grey as the entire thing was the quarry with no other landscape visible.  I think if there had been a little more countryside to this layout then the overall effect would have been much more balanced.

Aldford Brewery- OO Gauge - Mark Hedgecock
I really liked this compact layout, which featured a canal lock and warehouse district.  The hidden staging on either side and the L-shaped track plan made for some very interesting viewing and the detail on the scenery was simply superb.

Nant-Y-Glow Mine - 16.5mm Gauge - Nick Wright
This compact mining layout was absolutely packed with detail, including some great use of old Corgi toy cars, and the scenery had a superb muddy, mucky feel, it really looked like the kind of run-down old mine you would expect to see in a backwater mining operation.  A fantastic layout and one of my favourites from the show.

Ashdown Junction - 00 Gauge - John Papworth
This layout featured some nice scenes, including a bustling locomotive restoration yard, complete with 9F being transported away on two low-loader trucks.  There was also one of those weird looking new Freightliner 'Powerhaul' Class 70 diesels.  Really odd looking locomotives. 

So, aside from the navigation problems and the cramped venue, the actual content of the show was very good indeed.  I would have preferred some lower prices at the second-hand trade stands, but seeing as I really shouldn't be buying any more rolling stock that was probably a good thing(!)