This weekend was the delayed NMRA winter meet, moved from it's usual Benson location to a hall in Northampton.
The meet was mostly focussed on traders and bring-and-buy with only a handful of layouts.
There seemed to be a really good turnout and the hall was very busy, it certainly seemed like more of a crowd than Benson usually attracts.
There were plenty of bargains to be had at the sale tables and as usual I picked up a few goodies.
Several trailers, containers and three kits - a pair of old Milepost 501 Furehaf Z-Vans and a partially built and slightly damaged Lonestar Trailmobile 40ft flatbed.
I also picked up a couple of blue box locos, a basket-case GP50 and a nicely painted GP60, both of which will become donor locomotives for my planned SD60 kitbash which I hope to have ready for this years convention.
The GP50 was clearly destined to be a super-detailing project before it was abandoned, presumeably when a more detailed rtr GP50 was announced. The frame has been very nicely milled and filled to allow space for piping and frame sides.
I'm mostly interested in the shell parts, but the trucks, motor and frame may see use in another project, either it's all good fodder for the parts collection along with some GP38-2 parts that were also in the box.
I got started on the Gas Station build after spending an hour or so searching through boxes for my supply of sheet styrene and some other useful odds and ends.
I really need to have a clear out, I found my plastic sheets at the bottom of a crate containing yet more engines I'd completely forgotten about including a Genesis Union Pacific F7 I'd bought with the intention of repainting as a Rock Island unit.
I used a file to clean up the worst of the molding flash and then superglued the main walls together. The parts are not a great fit so I will need to fill a few gaps before painting it.
I'm not keen on the kit roof as the gable looks a bit odd and there is no easy way to remove it because the entire roof is cast in two parts, so I will build a new roof out of styrene. I also decided to build an extension at the rear of the building to bulk the size up a bit.
The styrene base piece will simulate a concrete apron for the forecourt and will hold everything in place while the build progresses.
I built a simple interior floor piece which I will detail with a sales counter to give the illusion of detail when looking through the large front windows and began cutting the walls for the rear extension. This will be detailed to look like wooden siding using styrene strip.
A rather belated updated on this years NMRA winter meet at Benson in Oxfordshire back at the beginning of January. It's the first meeting of the year and the small hall is always packed with layouts and traders.
This
years layouts included the excellent Red Hook Bay, the Gosport modular
club, a Japanese layout and a New South Wales based outback line among
others.
The show is always worth a visit and the second hand area upstairs is one of the highlights, this year I picked up some Heljan building kits.
If you haven't been to an NMRA meet yet then I highly recommend checking out the Spring Meet at Weston on Trent on 26th April.
This years exhibition schedule got off to a good start with the NMRA winter meet at Benson in Oxfordshire.
I drove up to the small village early on Saturday morning and spent an enjoyable couple of hours browsing the secondhand stalls and watching trains on the many excellent layouts. I also took a turn at the throttle on Dan Spalding's 'Galatia, Kansas' layout.
I'm on the lookout for suitable rolling stock for Godinez, but there wasn't much Rock Island to be had, other than some old Athearn blue box kits which aren't detailed enough for the layout, I don't want to take on a lot of super detailing projects so I'm looking to pick up some more modern models for the layout.
I did pick up a couple of old Details West boxcar kits for a quid each, they should be suitable for repainting into Rock Island versions.
The top floor of the hall was filled with bring and buy tables and I picked up a selection of Morning Sun reference books on Rock Island for a very keen price, and much cheaper than importing from the US.
Here are a few pictures of the various layouts that were in attendance. I forgot to take a note of the names as I took the photographs, so apologies to any modelers that are mis-credited!
‘Mill Falls’
HO - Mike Carter
‘Windsor, Colorado.’ HO - Peter Everitt
The Worcester N gauge modules
'Simply Narrow Gauge’ On30 Keith Willows
'Sankei City' Japanese Layout Z - Keith Willows
‘Roestock’ - Ian Turner
‘Saw Pit Creek’ HO - Bearwood Group
‘Galatia, KS’ HO - Dan Spalding
One of my favourite areas of any model railroad show is the secondhand sales tables, I'm always keen to pick up a bargain or a bag of bits for the parts bin and this weekends Benson NMRA meet was no exception.
The bring-and-buy tables were packed with all kinds of kits and bits, including a huge collection of 'O' gauge and a massive selection of Walther Amtrak coaches, along with the usual Athearn blue box and other assorted HO stock.
I picked up a number of cheap items that caught my eye, although all of them are very definitely going to be filed in the parts bin or added to the 'to do' list.
This Railpower SD60M (bizzarely painted in Warbonnet scheme) was a great deal at only £6, worth it for the trucks, plow and cables alone, I will probably strip the shell and rebuild it as a different roadname at some point.
This Dummy GP60 was only £3 and will make a good parts loco, or I may add a motor and sell it on.
A dash 9 shell minus one of it's fuel tank sides for 50p
Four DPM/Rix buildings for £9, these will clean up nicely to fill out my next freemo module.
A vintage Heljan/Con-Cor kit for a Ford C Auto Transporter. All the parts seem to be there, including the transfers and instructions. This was £3 but I'm already thinking that it might be too rare to build and perhaps would be best sold on to a collector instead.
There were several more items that caught my eye, including a number of Athearn blue box Railbox cars at £2 each, but I opted to save those for another day (i've got several on the to-do list already) and having reviewed the sheer number of projects waiting in boxes here in the house, I reckon I might need to do a bit of a spring clean and sell on some of the less likely projects before my next purchasing trip.
