Waverley Model Railway Club's Exhibition 2022

OK folks - time now for the overview of the Waverley Model Railway Club's 2022 Exhibition in Melbourne held over the weekend of 11-13 June. There were some nice layouts at this exhibition so let's get into those straight away.

Victoria Bridge (HO scale) was a terrific layout with great scenery and plenty of train action. This layout is from the Waverley Model Railway Club and featured Victorian Railways passenger and freight trains. The layout is a double track mainline, with station and yard facilities. The highlight is the bridge on one side of the layout, loosely based on the Taradale viaduct on the Melbourne to Bendigo line. Layout operation is via digital command control (DCC).

 

 

Another large and fabulous layout was the The Beechie, an On30 layout from the Sunbury Model Railway Club. This layout is a fictional narrow gauge layout as seen on the Beech Forest line in the Otway Ranges in Victoria. This layout is associated with the On30 layout exhibited at Ballarat mentioned in the previous blog post.

Collinsille Riverland Railway Company (HO scale with broad gauge and narrow gauge track) was another beautifully constructed layout with a plethora of fantastic buildings across the full space of the layout. The layout is based on a fictional coastal river port and includes a multitude of buildings scratchbuilt from plans and information about the tramways, trains and surroundings from all over Australia. That said, there is a strong sense of place in this layout with the beautifully modelled and painted timber structures. There are a multitude of small scenes scattered throughout the layout which heightens the visual interest and appreciation of the skills involved in this layout's construction.

At the other of the scale, in terms of size, was the small Inglenook layout, Port Flora (HO scale). I really enjoyed this little layout with its simplicity but entertaining shunting movements. The layout uses the familiar card system from which specific freight wagons are assembled into a small train. These type of layouts demonstrate that a small, high quality layout is very achievable if one takes the time and thought over its construction and scene setting.

Genesis (OO scale) from the Waverley Model Railway Club was a British layout making its exhibition debut. The scenery is nicely done with that characteristic English flavour.

Hollow Glen was another OO scale layout based on a fictitious English castle in the northern border region of England and Scotland. The layout is deliberately set a low height to better engage some of the younger exhibition visitors.

Another British layout, but this time N scale, was Brocklebank.

 
Another N scale layout was the Swiss-themed Langweiss.

Grainger's Bridge, Hillsborough and Outback Return was a US N scale modular layout from the Waverley Model Railway Club. These modules are made by individual club members. The photo below shows one of the modules.

Railways of Japan (N scale) was a modular layout featuring some iconic Japanese scenes in both rural and urban areas. The modules were full of lights, colour and action! The modules are made by members of the Australian Japanese Model Railway Group.

 

The Waverley Model Railway Club should be congratulated for putting on a very nice exhibition.

Hobsons Bay Exhibition 2011 report

On Saturday I visited the Hobsons Bay Model Railway Exhibition in Collingwood, Melbourne. I arrived at about 11am but there was still a good queue to get in, an hour after the doors were opened. The entrance fee for adults was $8.

There were two halls in which the layouts and commercial stands were situated. In the first hall, I felt a bit cramped as I waded through a crowd of people at the second-hand stall and towards the first layout I spied. This layout was called Leopold (HO scale) and featured a single track Victorian Railways line with a station and a yard. This layout was being exhibited by the Sunbury Model Railway Club.

The layout next to Leopold was Tybrook, also in HO scale. Tybrook was a typical exhibition layout featuring a wide selection of Victorian prototypes from the 1940s through to the 1970s. Tybrook featured a station, goods yard, and engine facilities. In addition, Tybrook had a number of structures fitted with working lights.

The other layout in this hall was the compact Leafy Bay. The rest of this hall was filled with commercial stands, including Alco World, ARHS Victorian Division, Broad Gauge Bodies,  IDR Castings from MicroModels Hobbyland, Lyndon's Basic Trains, Orient Express, Outback Model Company, SDS Models, Southern Rails, and Spirit Design. A demonstration of scratchbuilding and model making was also on show.

In the second hall were more layouts, including the excellent Korumburra from the Victorian Model Railway Society. A feature of this layout was the station and detailed yard infrastructure. A good selection of VR trains were in operation to keep the public entertained.

Victoria Bridge was another fine Victorian HO scale layout; with a curved station and extensive yard facilities, industrial sidings, and a loco depot. On the other side of this layout was a long bridge that was a great spot to watch the trains go by. I spent a good portion of my time looking at this layout.

Nowa Nowa was a small VR N scale layout with fiddle yards at both ends. The fiddle yards used a traverser, popular among UK exhibition layouts. A photo of the layout and the traverser are below.

Other layouts included the well-travelled Brisbane Water NSW prototype layout in HO scale (Epping MRC); Jembaicumbene (HO scale, NSW prototype); Australia on Track (HO scale modular layout featuring a range of Victorian and South Australian trains); Dewsbury (HO scale, Victorian), and Jenke (another VR HO scale layout).

The second hall also had an extensive selection of commercial stands, including: Auscision, Aust-n-Rail, Austrains, Blue and Gold Models, Dotric Station Blue, End of the Line Hobbies, Eureka, J&K Hobbies, PSM, Runway 13, Steam Era, Sonic Miniature Tools, Train World, and Veteran Models.

Fellow Canberra NMRA member, David Bromage, was also at the exhibition on Saturday and he has a nice selection of photos from the show - click here.

Lunch was available from the canteen, and the prices were very reasonable. A sausage sandwich and a can of Coca-Cola was $5. Some exhibitions charge inflated prices (often to cover professional catering costs) for food and drink but the Hobson Bay exhibition offered a good selection of food at fair prices.

Whilst I enjoyed the day, I thought that the exhibition had too higher a percentage of commerical outlets to layouts. One reason for this was probably because the organisers exhibit only Australian prototype layouts and perhaps there aren't a lot of quality VR/NSW/SAR layouts that the organisers could choose from.

I felt the exhibition was a tad one dimensional, even though I appreciate that the organisers want to showcase Australian prototype model railways. The layouts pretty much followed standard exhibition loop to fiddleyard, although both Leafy Bay and Nowa Nowa tried something different with traversers. Given that most of the layouts were running popular VR and NSWR locos and rollingstock in HO scale, I thought that there was an air of sameness about the exhibition that was a bit disappointing. Having examples of prototypes from other parts of the world would have provided a nice contrast to the Australian examples. However, I understand that other exhibition viewers may be more parochial than I am when it comes to model railway layouts at exhibitions, so this is only a personal viewpoint.

Nevertheless, I was happy to have made the trip to Melbourne to get a taste of some quality Victorian layouts on the local exhibition circuit.