Canberra Model Railway Expo report

The Canberra Model Railway Expo is over for another year. A decent selection of layouts were on display covering a range of prototypes and scales, from N scale to G scale.

I managed to spend time at the exhibition on both Saturday and Sunday. A great part of the time at the exhibition was chatting with a bevy of railway modellers from interstate and from the local Canberra region. But I did get to see all the layouts too, including Geoff Small's new layout Oddwalls (following three photos).

Oddwalls (HO scale) continues a fine tradition of exhibition layouts from Geoff (he has previously exhibited Mullet Creek, Smaldon Curve, and others). This layout is 4m long and uses the same fiddleyard as in previous layouts. Geoff uses a simple layout configuration (double main line with a couple of sidings) but demonstrates significant thought about landscape and townscape, quality detail, and very realistic scenic composition using a range of commercially available structure kits and accessories. Oddwalls was on its first showing and will be appreciated by fellow modellers when they get their chance to see the layout in the future.

Other layouts on display included:

Waterfall from the Illawarra Model Railway Association (HO scale) continues to impress as a quality NSW layout with fine attention to scenic detail. The trees at the rear of the layout look superb and this layout continues to improve at each outing. Spending time looking at the layout always reveals a fine example of railway modelling and chatting with the Illawarra blokes is always a pleasure. In the scene below, we see some NSWR diesels awaiting their call to duty.

The next layout photo shows the full length of Nicholls Siding. This layout (HO scale) is about 7 metres long and features four main running tracks that offer plenty of action throughout the day. Nicholls Siding features Australian prototype trains and uses digital command control (DCC).

Jembaicumbene is another HO scale layout that features NSW railway prototypes. This layout has been around for several years now but still runs superbly. The feature of this layout is the curved station nestled within a busy town and industrial scene. In the photo below, we see a CPH railmotor just leaving the station.

As way of contrast, the next photo shows an EL with a grain train speeding through Willigobung (HO scale). Willigobung is another layout that has been around for a few years now but I hear a new exhibition layout is currently under construction by the south Canberra lads. In the meantime, watching a parade of different trains snake around Willigobung was certainly enough to keep the punters happy.

638 Mile is an Australian HO scale (NSW) based layout featuring a fictitious rural location. The layout shows a country branchline with a range of locomotives and rolling stock from the 1960-70s period.

Another HO scale layout, but this time of US prototype, is Twelfth Street Yard. This layout from the ACT Model Railway Society uses DCC, but was originally operated using standard analogue control. Twelfth Street Yard has been on the exhibition circuit since 1999. It still holds plenty of interest with a variety of through trains, switching and interchange tracks, plus street running to a tight urban industrial precinct. The photo below shows some switching in action.

Enoshima (N scale) is a large and highly detailed Japanese layout featuring fast trains, high density living, and all the colour and light associated with big cities in Japan. Whilst I have scene this layout several times now, I always like to take in the density of detail this layout has to offer.

The Canberra Monaro N scale group displayed their large AusTrak layout featuring locos and rolling stock of prototypes from both Australia and overseas. AusTrak modules are individually built by members of the club. The standardisation of module design and construction means that these modules can easily be joined together into an operating layout. The station in the photo below is clearly a NSW prototype, albeit at the time I took this shot, long US modern era trains were having a run.

Representing OO (4mm) scale was Bridport South Western. I have seen this layout a few times now but I enjoy the audio commentary that this layout provides and the old world charm of its 1890 era. I also admire the trackwork and the use of a small traverser at one end of the layout to bring trains on and off the layout.

The larger G scale garden railway representative was Leonville Junction; always a great hit with the kids due to its fast action and multitude of cartoon and television characters scattered throughout the scenery.

The exhibition was entertaining and a great opportunity to catch up with fellow railway modellers. The new layout Oddwalls was a highlight. Some other layouts were let down by poor lighting and I am not convinced that school venues are the most suitable for model railway exhibitions - a bit of a rabbit warren to some extent. Nevertheless, I understand that exhibition organisers have to use what venues are available and at a suitable cost. Also, good venues are difficult to find.

In addition, it does appear that new quality layouts coming onto the exhibition scene are the exception these days. I can understand why to some extent - new layouts take time and cost money so it's not easy to keep building new layouts. However, I do wonder whether recycling the same layouts each year will have any impact on future attendances. That said, I do know that there are a couple of new layouts under construction by modellers in Canberra that could debut next year at the 2012 Canberra Model Railway Expo - we'll have to wait and see if these layouts keep to timetable!

Thanks to the organisers for an enjoyable weekend and I do hope it was a success for you as well.

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.