I'd often heard of the Ally Pally show but never attended it, so today I took the tube over to North London to visit the show for the first time. Alexandria Palace is similar to Crystal Palace in many ways, a hill overlooking the city with a TV Antenna.
The venue is a large glass-roofed hall and it was packed with exhibits covering two large rooms with over forty layouts and stands to browse through.
There were several US layouts alongside the various continental and British models, and I was particularly impressed with the large multi-module freemo setup from RS tower.
It was a little difficult to spectate as the layout doubled back on itself a few times and the inner run was not as accessible to spectators.
The front section of the layout featured the same town scene that was at last years NMRA convention, and it's a nicely detailed scene with multiple mainlines and even some street running for good measure.
The layout that interested me the most was the excellent 'Sweethome Alabama' from Jon Grant, this is a layout that I have seen on numerous websites including Jon's own Youtube blog at https://www.youtube.com/user/JonGrant4472
The layout is much longer than I expected, and it packs in an enormous amount of authentic US railroading detail, with lots of nicely detailed scenes and a nice selection of buildings and vehicles.
The quality of the modelling is second to none and the layout certainly drew a crowd of admirers throughout the day.
Another model of interest was 'Overlord' a British outline layout depicting the preparations for D-Day with some beautifully detailed boats and military equipment.
Overall the show was definitely a very worthwhile visit, the range of exhibits and traders was great, and the BRM stand and video presentations were really excellent.
The show runs for the whole weekend, so if you are in the London area then I highly recommend checking it out tomorrow or put a note in the diary for next years show.
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