Forestville Model Railway Exhibition 2017

Last weekend I attended the Forestville Model Railway Exhibition hosted by the North Shore Railway Modellers' Association (NSRMA). As I hadn't been to the Forestville exhibition for over ten years, I made the trip up to Sydney to see what was on offer. There were sixteen layouts on display and eleven commercial outlets.

The layouts that caught my eye included the following:

Bethungra Spiral (HO scale) from the Epping Model Railway Club. This layout continues to showcase some exceptional rural NSW scenery and the interesting prototype track plan based on the Main South Line at Bethungra. A good selection of trains paraded through the layout during the day.

Guildford Model Railway Group exhibited their layout Goulburn (HO scale) which is always a delight to see. The layout is 6.5 metres long and 2.8 metres deep. The main station building is a key feature and looks terrific. Once again, a good variety of trains flowed through Goulburn to keep up the model railway action. Interestingly, this layout runs on traditional DC power.

Another large layout was Morewood (HO scale) which features four main lines and ten sidings. This layout was very popular with the kids who loved all the action and colour this layout offered.

The Yard (HO scale) from Alistair McMaster is a fictional NSW-themed layout featuring a cement plant and associated railway yard facilities. This layout is DCC using the popular NCE system. Peco code 83 track is used throughout, including insulfrog turnouts. The layout provides a good demonstration of sound-chipped NSW diesel locomotives from DCC Solutions.

Another NSW-themed layout was Back of Beyond (HO scale). This layout represents a small rural town with a narrow gauge connection supplying logs to the local sawmill.

 Koolabar (HO scale) represents a fictional NSW branch line from the 1960s. The single main line saw a range of trains crossing at regular intervals to keep the punters interested.

Stumar's Roundabout (HO scale) was an interesting tiered layout featuring six separate scenes. Jurassic Junction held a particular fascination for the kids.Walker Models were atop, stand 22.

In O scale, the British Uley Junction was a work in progress. The layout is point-to-point based on Great Western Railway (GWR) practice and covers two distinct periods: Edwardian and the 1930s. Buildings that are yet to be constructed had mock-ups in place and this is a good way to visualise things before embarking on scratchbuilding projects.

The National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) was represented at the exhibition with the Kansas City West Bottoms layout. This layout is a small switching layout just under three metres in length. The track design allows a good range of switching opportunities to keep the interest of both the operator and the public.

Another small layout was Steve's Follie (HOe). This narrow gauge layout utilises N scale track but HO scale throughout.

In N scale, there was the 7.5 metres long South Bend and Hilltop from the Hills Model Railway Society which was a very nicely scenicked layout where trains moved between three levels in a folded dog-bone track arrangement. A smaller N scale layout was Mosquito Hill measuring 1.2 metres by .45 metres in length and featuring logging operations. And Waterman's Cove was a US-themed N scale layout featuring a working cable car and multiple tracks in a holiday wonderland.

Other layouts included Malfunction Junction, Jersey City Waterfront, and Bullo Pill.

Commercial exhibitors included Austrains, Casula Hobbies, Eureka Models, Forest Miniatures, Hobbyland Hornsby, IDR Models, Matt's Ballast, Model Railroad Craftsman, Modeller's Warehouse scenery supplies, Southern Rail, and Walker Models building kits.

Beecroft MRE 2010

I had to go to Sydney today to sign some papers after getting a call last night from the real estate agent selling our Sydney home. Driving from Canberra to Sydney and back in a day (that's seven hours all up) isn't my idea of fun until I realised that the Beecroft Model Railway Exhibition was on this weekend. Amazingly enough, the M2 tollway exits onto Pennant Hills Road not far from where the exhibition was being held!

Not one to let opportunity pass one by, I managed to spend a couple of hours at the exhibition to make the trip to Sydney really well worth the effort.

The exhibition was held in a small hall on the corner of Copeland Street and busy Beecroft Road. I parked the car at the railway station car park and walked the short way to the hall. The hall was one of those special buildings trapped in a time warp from the past (i.e. my early childhood) but nevertheless functional for a small exhibition such as this. There was also a second-hand stall where I picked up a copy of Ron Preston's book on the 32 class for $40 - thank you very much!

I have included a sample photo of each of the layouts on display, minus a possible "Thomas" layout that I think was in a separate foyer off to the side of the main hall.

The first layout that greeted visitors upon entering the hall was the US-prototype layout Springfield in HO scale. I hadn't seen this layout before. The layout featured some nice kit-built industries and townscape while keeping the punters happy with plenty of train movement. The layout was operated using NCE DCC hand-held controllers. When not in use, the  controllers fit between the two knobs on the side of the layout as illustrated in the first photo (lower left).

Nearby, was a Hornby three rail layout and a small garden layout. Interestingly, my 10 year-old daughter thought the Hornby three rail layout the most interesting of all the layouts on display!

Moving around the hall counter-clockwise I caught up with Anton Bognar (Anton's Hobbies) who was displaying his HO scale European layout, Ochsenhausen. Next to him was the layout Back of Beyond featuring Australian N scale.

The next layout was Grischun, a Swiss standard and narrow gauge layout (HO scale) making its exhibition debut.Grishun was built by former Canberra-resident Greg C. and it was great to catch up with him there since we haven't chatted face-to-face for almost ten years! Grischun was up to Greg's usual fine standards and exhibition organisers should mark this layout as one to grab next time around! The scenery is terrific and there is enough train action on three different levels to keep everyone happy. Some nice HO standard gauge and HOn Bemo traction locomotives were particular highlights.

Next to Grischun was the well-crafted Mullet Creek layout in HO scale from Geoff Small. Mullet Creek shows some lovely waterway scenery based on the Hawkesbury River area north of Sydney. This layout also featured catenary and, like the prototype, always seems to get in the way when taking photos!

The simple Rydal Hill was next, demonstrating the virtues of a small layout when space is at a premium. The layout is a single line with a short dock at the rear of the station platform. The "banana" ends (illustrated in the second photo), brings the track on both sides of the scenic section around to the fiddleyard at the rear. I could easily imagine the scenic section at the front as a layout module connected to a small fiddleyard at the rear by these curved ends.

I had such an enjoyable time that I didn't notice that two hours had passed and we had to be on our way up the road to Hornsby and the real estate agents, stopping at MicroModels Hobbyland to pick up the fishbelly MLV produced by IDR castings (the last one in the shop folks!). Ian is casting some more of these MLV kits so make sure you get one this time around.

The drive home to Canberra was uneventful. I was so bored with the drive and keen to get home that I didn't even stop at Goulburn for the habitual scan of Goulburn railway yard and station. Nevertheless, the Beecroft Model Railway Exhibition gave the trip some entertaining focus and was well worth the look.