Newbury MRC Expo 2017 Pt. 2

Newbury MRC decided to move their annual exhibition from February to October but rather than wait 20 months to the next one they staged it in October this year just 8 months after their February event.

Fuelled from my thoroughly enjoyable visit to the Farnham show in Aldershot earlier this month I decided to go to Newbury but with some trepidation as it is a much smaller show and with two in the same year I wondered whether there would be sufficient exhibits to make it worthwhile.

Well, it had about the same number of traders and exhibits as usual. Two or three layouts I had seen before and some looked a little 'tired' having been on the exhibition circuit for some time (I guess). Nevertheless there was a good variety of gauges and locations.


Unusually, my best in show does not go to a model railway but to a harbour village diorama (4mm scale) exhibited by a demonstrator of scenic modelling methods, namely Roy Hickman of 'Scenic Modelling'. His standard of modelling is very high using card from cereal packets and other scrap materials to make this diorama taking about 300 hrs and costing less than £7 in materials (not including people and vehicles). The photo shows about 25% of the whole.

A model railway layout of note was 'Southwick' (00 gauge). Plenty to see on this 18' vista (2nd photo),  including locomotives with sound.

Most of the locomotives were very heavily weathered, which for me was a touch too much though.

Farnham 43rd Expo. Oct 17

I was not too fussed about going this year but as little bro' was keen I tagged along for company - and I'm glad I did. Farnham is one of the larger shows in the south spanning 4 halls of an Aldershot school.

Why I enjoyed it was because of the standard of modelling that seems to be going from strength to strength. Most layouts were clearly built for exhibition and staged in a very theatrical manner.

Very difficult to choose a best in show. All of these shown here deserve high merit. But, I opted for Wadebridge (2mm finescale) simply because I fell in love with the Cornish town on visiting it this summer. We stumbled upon remnants of the station building (1st photo above) and Goods shed that oddly are now surrounded by housing. Here on this fine model can be seen the entire railway environs as it once existed and it is a much larger complex than I imagined. A fair part of the town is included, parts of which we had walked including the bridge over the river Camel.

Other exhibits of note:

 Denton Brook (7mm scale) is in the same vain as 'End Of The Line' reported in the Andover Expo. review since it too uses remote control vehicles. This time a  lorry and crane that is capable of moving cable drums without human intervention.

Arigna Town (7mm scale) very picturesque.













Addison Road (0 gauge). Yet another from the larger scales. They seem to have won my heart at this years show. This is a deep layout backed by a most impressive line of London terraces. In fact only half are shown in the photo. In front is the station throat. Not all of the platform length is modelled. The break is cleverly disguised by the station building footbridge.