Personal best/worst exhibition moments

[Kipper]

I might have mentioned this before, but:

I was at a show and one picture framed layout was positioned quite high up, so as to give a good view. The lighting was also very intense, so the room it was in seemed quite dark. A step had been placed in front, so that kids and shorties could get up and see the layout. One bloke came charging in and, blinded by the illumination, completely failed to notice the step, tripped over it and went hands first into the layout. Not the layout operator's favourite person!

[tadpole]

My layout is nowhere near exhibition standard, so it goes nowhere, but i am happy to show it to anyone who's interested.

So why is it that i can play for hours on my ownio without a stall, derailment or scheduling error, but as soon as someone else is looking, nothing moves, and as soon as it does move it derails at the first opportunity, and it was the wrong train anyway? 

[Caz]

That's Rule 2 of model railways.  When Woodbury came to see my layout, it had been running faultlessly the day before, as soon as he arrives, one loco stuttered all the time and another jumped off the rails, I reckon God doesn't like model railways and gets his own back when he can.   

[scotsoft]

Tha syndrome is not restricted to trains, as soon as I switch a camera on to video me flying my helicopters, it is like I am just starting out instead of flying them for over 30 years 

cheers John.

[moogle]

Oh the burger and onions smelling rucksack wearing brigade are the worst thing at exhibitions. 
At least as a punter you can escape them, no such chance as an exhibitor! 

Nearly as annoying are the nitpicking rivet counting brigade.
Many years ago I was running a OO scale layout with a club I belonged to at the time.
At this one exhibition, one of the above mentioned asked me what period the layout was set in.
I replied with late 40's to early 50's so we can run both SR and BR stuff.
He then pointed to a model of a post office van on the layout and said that they didn't use that model until 1956
so it shouldn't be on here! Cheeky so and so!
I said 'Oh, right. Well, thats a bit before my time as I wasn't born til the 70's.'
He walked off in a huff! 

I had 2 great moments whilst exhibiting a small layout I had, Great Buckland, at the NGS 30th anniversary exhibition back in 1997 at Bletchley.

One was where this guy was trying to get all the layout in a photo and kept stepping back until he could. (It was only 3' x 18"!)
He stepped back so far he collided with the Graham Farish stand opposite.
Someone on the stand appeared from nowhere to ask if they could help and he said 'No, I'm just taking photo's of that layout!' 

The other was a guy who asked loads of questions as he had never built a model railway and was just visiting as it looked interesting.
He went away and came back a few hours later with a Peco starter set and some 2nd hand stock and a controller,
thanked me for my inspiring layout and advice and that he was going home to build his own version.
Now that's what I call a happy result. 

[longbridge]

That's Rule 2 of model railways.  When Woodbury came to see my layout, it had been running faultlessly the day before, as soon as he arrives, one loco stuttered all the time and another jumped off the rails, I reckon God doesn't like model railways and gets his own back when he can.   

Don't think the big fella in the sky has anything to do with it Caz, something always goes wrong when a few mates do the rounds of each others layouts, we think its an inevitable fact of life.

[Pete Mc]

Right,I've had a good read of this thread and feel I have no option but to mention the funniest moment I have ever experienced at a model railway exhibition.

It was also experienced by Mick(Newport Nobby),Davieb and the chaps operating the layout North of England Line at the 2010 Wigan Model Railway Exhibition.
One word is all I need to say and that is all I'll say becausw those who were there that day know exactly what happened and commentwd on the Wigan Exhibition thread.

That word is LOLA.

Sorry davieb if I've brought back you're PTSD,he was quite severely traumatised by the event and actually thought it was stalking him,cos it kept appearing where ever he went for a while afterwards.

Worst one was when our club was exhibiting at a bus enthusiasts wxhibition in Sheffield.I was operating a club members layout(quite badly as far as I can remember) when a chap came up and commented that a particular horse drawn carriage would  never have been swwn outside a LMS era raulway station.I was gobsmacked and Pete,the layouts owner looked kike he wanted to take the bloke out back for a chat with a closed hand,he was so patronising.Hard crowd to please are the bus people.

Pete

[davieb]

Right,I've had a good read of this thread and feel I have no option but to mention the funniest moment I have ever experienced at a model railway exhibition.

It was also experienced by Mick(Newport Nobby),Davieb and the chaps operating the layout North of England Line at the 2010 Wigan Model Railway Exhibition.
One word is all I need to say and that is all I'll say becausw those who were there that day know exactly what happened and commentwd on the Wigan Exhibition thread.

That word is LOLA.

Sorry davieb if I've brought back you're PTSD,he was quite severely traumatised by the event and actually thought it was stalking him,cos it kept appearing where ever he went for a while afterwards.

Worst one was when our club was exhibiting at a bus enthusiasts wxhibition in Sheffield.I was operating a club members layout(quite badly as far as I can remember) when a chap came up and commented that a particular horse drawn carriage would  never have been swwn outside a LMS era raulway station.I was gobsmacked and Pete,the layouts owner looked kike he wanted to take the bloke out back for a chat with a closed hand,he was so patronising.Hard crowd to please are the bus people.

Pete

Thanks for reminding me Pete 

Just as i was starting to forget the whole episode 

Now i will have to have a large scotch to get to sleep tonight 

dave 

[Sprintex]

I reckon God doesn't like model railways and gets his own back when he can.   

"Lord, why do you hate my trains??"

Can't remember when but watched someone mess up their points and an 8 coach HST tried to park in a bay platform at scale speed of about 125mph, made a mess of the buffer stops and killed a few figures as it mounted the platform, not to mention the stack of hst coaches with scrapes  if Ionly I'd had my 

That's REALLY not funny! 

I only say that because it happened to me at the 2009 AGM Layout Competition, although luckily in the fiddle yard. 2+8 HST going at full pelt pushing found a small part of track I hadn't stuck down properly. As it went over the 'bump' the whole lot left the rails resulting in carnage and three lost coupling springs! Since I only had four trains chipped for DCC anyway that reduced the stock by 25%  Had to quickly steal springs from other coaches to get it running again. THAT is why I came up with the idea of gluing all my coupling springs in 

Best moment for me was at Royston Show last year. Looking at a pretty good N gauge layout (can't remember the name, age ya know ) I asked the lady operating what they had used for the water as it was particularly impressive, and also where did they get the cruiser boats as I had not seen them anywhere? She replied that the water was good quality yacht varnish applied in layers and was over 15 years old! But she couldn't remember where the boats came from but would ask her hubby when he came back from the tea bar. Thought no more of it but 20 minutes later we were passing that room and she came rushing out to tell us that they were Graham Avis models and we ended up chatting for about half an hour about model railways. Really nice 


Paul