Exhibitions

[Adam1701D]

Always a very thorny subject. I must admit that I probably wouldn't be able to tell if a track plan was accurate or operationally correct and would be more interested in the scenics and stock (a bonus if they are using any Electra products  )

My beef with some shows is the lack of space to circulate and overcrowding in some venues. I am the first to admit that I hate crowds and have found myself feeling really trapped and freaked out at some shows where you just get wedged by some exhibits. The St Albans show in the Alban Arena was horrible (though they are moving it to a better venue in Stevenage next year) and the Spalding show, although excellent, has been really wedged when I attended. By contrast, I have no problems at the bigger shows such as Ally Pally and Peterborough Arena.

Not been to Warley for some years for the above reasons...

[Chris Morris]

Not been to Warley for some years for the above reasons...

As a Warley club member I have been to both days of every Warley show. If you hate crowds Saturday is best avoided but Sunday is usually quite comfortable. Yes there are plenty of visitors but nowhere near as many as Saturday. I have to get round the hall to speak with people and I can zip round easily on Sunday whereas I kind of have to go with flow on Saturday. I also think there are less rucksacks on Sunday.

[Chris Morris]

Just a quick observation whilst on this subject -   Who decides the height of the exhibition tables ?   I'm speaking from the point of view of an uncle with a train mad 4 year old nephew.    I really enjoy taking him to shows and exhibitions,  but have to make sure to take a step stool along so he can actually see anything  !!  (usually to envious glances from other parents).    Of course the best view for the majority is to have the layouts at a height where you don't have every visitor bending over,  and you will ever please everyone,  but again,  we need to promote the hobby to the next generations too.

Some exhibitions provide stools for little ones. Warley and Stafford do. I'm pretty sure Sutton Coldfield do as well and I am sure there are many more. Usually there is a £2 deposit which is refunded on return.

[Malc]

My pet hate at shows is the lack of moving trains. Some layouts have fantastic scenery, but nothing is moving. I look at it for a bit and wait to see what happens, then if nothing is moving, move on. Usually the smaller roundly layouts are more interesting as you see plenty of trains.

[Graham Walters]

Going back to the OP, and being part of an exhibition managing "committee" I have to agree with him, it takes me only a few minutes to walk around our own exhbition, all too often nothing is happening, no trains are moving, there is a failure on alot of layouts for the operators to interact, only a couple if any layouts have brought a step for the younger visitors to get a view.

There is so much wrong with our hobby and (some) of those in charge, that I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall, we have the same traders every year, the same type of layouts, you mention a layout of the month from BRM or Model Rail and they look at you with blank faces.

How can we encourage younger people to join the hobby, when those senior members are still advocating stud & probe as a means of controlling layouts.

What I  want to see is a layout working how things do today, computer control etc, but we very rarely see the actual workings of a layout at exhibitions, it's all hidden away.

[alibuchan]

We always try to keep something running on Kinlet Wharf even when there is something going wrong! It might be a train running slowly or something shunting in the little yard. But you can always tell that somethings gone wrong.

The biggest annoyance for me are the layouts where nothing makes sense. A couple of years ago on 1 single layout I saw, an A4 pulling a rake of EWS, Nissan hut type steel wagons, a steamer reversing backwards coaches first, down the front of the layout at a fair old rate of knots (if they stuck a dummy 67 on the back it would have been fine), a 66 pulling a long rake of GWR 4 wheel wagons. It was a shame as the scenery work was quite good, with a southern style feel to it., but not a single piece of southern rolling stock could be seen, and every single piece of track was dead straight and parallel to the edge of the board.

Keep to one era and area and it increases the look of the layout. Obviously preserved layouts can get away with it. Throw some curves in to the track plan they give it an interesting look.

Alistair

[Yet_Another]

How can we encourage younger people to join the hobby, when those senior members are still advocating stud & probe as a means of controlling layouts.

What I  want to see is a layout working how things do today, computer control etc, but we very rarely see the actual workings of a layout at exhibitions, it's all hidden away.

Graham, it's just a hobby. In hobbies, people do what they enjoy. Give it another 30 years and everything will be run off neural nets, with the odd 'quaint' layout using antiquated DCC equipment.

But there will always be a technology curve that most of us are behind, just because we will use what we are comfortable with.

My bugbear as a visitor is not being able to see fiddle yards. For me, it's as much of the layout as the scenic part. I suppose that's the difference between a casual member of the GP who just wants to watch the trains and someone actually interested in the construction and operation of a layout.

[Graham Walters]

How can we encourage younger people to join the hobby, when those senior members are still advocating stud & probe as a means of controlling layouts.

What I  want to see is a layout working how things do today, computer control etc, but we very rarely see the actual workings of a layout at exhibitions, it's all hidden away.

Graham, it's just a hobby. In hobbies, people do what they enjoy. Give it another 30 years and everything will be run off neural nets, with the odd 'quaint' layout using antiquated DCC equipment.

But there will always be a technology curve that most of us are behind, just because we will use what we are comfortable with.

My bugbear as a visitor is not being able to see fiddle yards. For me, it's as much of the layout as the scenic part. I suppose that's the difference between a casual member of the GP who just wants to watch the trains and someone actually interested in the construction and operation of a layout.

A very good point Tony, and yes I agree the hobby is evolving on an annual basis, we are already seeing adverts for loco's with rechargeable battteries in them, it wont be long before that is the norm.
The issue is there are a lot of people out there who don't want to see or take these changes onboard.

[Dr Al]

How can we encourage younger people to join the hobby, when those senior members are still advocating stud & probe as a means of controlling layouts.

What I  want to see is a layout working how things do today, computer control etc, but we very rarely see the actual workings of a layout at exhibitions, it's all hidden away.

I think there's a balance here - a well executed, maintained and planned  "stud and probe" based layout can be far better than a poor DCC/computer controlled layout. I think broadly dissing the traditional control styles is unfair - they have plenty still to offer.

To first order I think the most important thing is that exhibitors come prepared - sure failures and unexpected problems occur, but too often it seems (as a viewer) that stuff wasn't planned, execution wasn't great (primarily bad baseboard track joins - seems to be a disease that affects far too many exhibition layouts in all scales) and that's why there's nothing working.

Cheers,
Alan

[NeMo]

What I  want to see is a layout working how things do today, computer control etc, but we very rarely see the actual workings of a layout at exhibitions, it's all hidden away.

I think there's a balance here - a well executed, maintained and planned  "stud and probe" based layout can be far better than a poor DCC/computer controlled layout. I think broadly dissing the traditional control styles is unfair - they have plenty still to offer.

Dr Al is spot on here. Frankly, for a simple layout I fail to see what's wrong with manual points and DC control. If nothing else it keeps the costs down, and one thing we all agree on is that the hobby is relatively expensive (and perhaps becoming more so).

But I'd ask Graham Walters just who the "senior members" might be? There are great modellers for sure, and some modellers who make waves in the hobby by dint of their frequent articles or appearances at exhibitions. But I can't think of any modeller whose claim to fame lies on their use of DCC or motorised points! It's all about the synthesis of modelmaking and scenery, and that ability to create a believable model of a time and place.

Cheers, NeMo

[paulprice]

When we exhibit, we are more than happy to let people see the fiddle yard of the layout, sometimes I think its more interesting that the scenic side.

In fact I usually use this as an excuse to let someone have ago at the controls,

[JasonBz]

I don't like the all singing computer control style; it brings the operation of trains and signals/points together too much -In big railway operation they are completely separate functions and to my mind should be so on model railways.

[Portpatrick]

My two pennies worth is I like making the models, be it scenery or stock, running trains bores the  out of me, so that's why Tormouth runs on the computer, its also easier because of the track configuration (double to single line) to allow the computer to take the strain, points and signals interlocked so a train runs as it should and stops where it should, be that in a platform or at a signal.  Of course the layout does and is regularly run in manual mode as some operators prefer this.

Great article in Model Rail by the way.  Photos are superb.

[NeMo]

I think that's the key thing, isn't it? I love making scenery, and I'm starting to enjoy scratchbuilding buildings and kit-building rolling stock. No attempt whatsoever is made to be realistic about running trains beyond putting the right sort of coaches or wagons behind the loco.

So my ongoing layout is all about handcrafting as much as I can, experimenting with gradients and connections between baseboards. But the points are manual, and control will be DC.

Yet I totally understand people finding different things interesting, and wanting to run their layouts in different ways. That's what's great about this hobby. There's no "correct" way to build a layout.

Indeed, I'd go further that the hobby needs to stress that there are lots of different aspects people can focus on. Some will want the computers and DCC and sound effects. Some will want to make things. Some will want to paint things. Some will want to dive into operations and will be happy to buy everything readymade. It's all good.

For me, the ideal exhibition will have layouts that stress different aspects. Technology, craftsmanship, aesthetics, nostalgia, fun... whatever! 

Cheers, NeMo

My two pennies worth is I like making the models, be it scenery or stock, running trains bores the  out of me, so that's why Tormouth runs on the computer, its also easier because of the track configuration (double to single line) to allow the computer to take the strain, points and signals interlocked so a train runs as it should and stops where it should, be that in a platform or at a signal.  Of course the layout does and is regularly run in manual mode as some operators prefer this.

[Yet_Another]

It's all good.

For me, the ideal exhibition will have layouts that stress different aspects. Technology, craftsmanship, aesthetics, nostalgia, fun... whatever! 

Actually, I think there's a strong case to be made for some of these different aspects to be considered separate hobbies - eg. the depth that one can go in DCC and computer control is really divorced from building realistic scenery, and I've seen comments on the forum where people have made this observation about themselves.

But that's another discussion. And also a justification for joining a club