National Festival Of Railway Modelling

National Festival Of Railway Modelling

18 October 2008

The first annual National Festival of Railway Modelling took place at the East of England Showground in Peterborough on 18th & 19th October 2008. Upon arrival one was struck by the size of the exhibition building and the available car parking. In fact there was room for 2,000 cars at the venue which was probably all used as there were some cars parked in the fields surrounding the car park area.

For advance purchase ticket holders the entry was a breeze as you basically walked past the huge queue of people who were buying tickets on the day to a separate booth and you were given your passes there.

Each person then received a free 32 pages festival guide and details of how to pick up a free DVD of top modelling tips to improve your layout. Onto the show and there were 30 layouts in differing gauges, demonstrations by exhibitors and many trade stalls. All in all there were over 170 exhibitors at the show. The children’s area provided a chance for the little ones to have some time out and listen to stories or to do some colouring.

Pete Waterman was also on hand during the day to sign copies of his new book – A Train Is for Life and also to officially open the show at noon on the first day. That said A Train Is For Life was sold out by the time that the show officially opened and consequently there was a rush to get some more stock delivered prior to the closing of the first day of the show.

The British Railway Modelling Theatre was also a popular part of the show with over a hundred people attending the first talk by Peter Marriott on how to start railway modelling for adults and children. Further topics covered by other speakers were how to construct model buildings, further applications of DCC, open forum – Q&A, the art of making accurate permanent way, how to assemble etched brass kits, how to construct a baseboard kit and scratch building locomotives.

The layouts on display were stunning and some of them are featured in the video below. Those railway layouts on display were Halston Junction, Castle Hill, Seawall, West Brent, Stoke Summit, Clutton, Vine Street, Hartshill Bank, Campbeltown & Machrihanish RLY, Askrigg Bank. St. Aidan, Loughborough, Hassell Harbour Bridge, East Quay, Chapel Pill, Arrowmouth, Somewhere In England, Cheddar, Hadley Green, Wingfield Junction, Paston Ridings, Hampton End, Underground Ernie, Dundle, Ardson, Wansbeck Road and the outstanding Whiteleaf Light Railway. Another layout of sorts was the UK Train Sim demo which included 3 screens of differing routes that the trains were being run.

All in all this was a great day out with there being plenty to do for all members of the family. The only downside was the catering which frankly was a disaster. The show guide stated that food and drink would be served all day but unfortunately all of the baguettes and cakes ran out around 1.00pm so if you didn’t bring some food with you then you either went hungry or went to the bar where the queues were horrendous. It would be safe to assume that they were caught off guard by the number of people attending the show and the demand. Hopefully this was resolved on day 2 and if it wasn’t then this is something that definitely needs looking at for next year’s show.

The next National Festival Of Railway Modelling will take place on 17th and 18th October 2009.

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