40th Farnham Model Railway Expo.

I did not need inspiration and I did not need to buy anything. So, why did I go? It was a spur of the moment thing. Wandering around the house on a quiet Saturday unable to put mind to any task in particular.

Now here is an odd thing. Ten of the twenty layouts on show were N gauge and 2mm Finescale. We are lead to believe that the most popular gauge in the UK is 00 and yet only two layouts there was of that ilk. (There were HO, P4 and EM as well but all in the minority). Does this indicate a shift of interest by enthusiasts to the smaller scale?

Nothing stood out as strongly inspiring among the layouts (probably because of my mood this day). However, I did like Tucking Mill (2mm finescale). It was best in show for me because of its character,  detail and quality of build.

Recently I have been creating N gauge model trees from scratch for our Thornycroft layout so it was this aspect of the N & 2mmFS layouts on show that drew my attention and I have to say Tucking Mill had the most realistic models in this respect.

Unusually, I found the trade stands of most interest. Such great variety of stock offered by the 25 small traders attending was quite astonishing.