Nottingham Show Report

Went to the Nottingham Model Railway Exhibition today, and spent far too much money.

Met up with a few of the usual suspects, like Martyn Read, Stu and Gareth Beyer. No sign of Bryn or Roechard Wibb

Some impressive layouts, such as 'Deepcar', 1970s Woodhead line with a procession of freight hauled by pairs of 76s, the always impressive 'Dewsbury Midland' from the Manchester club, another 70s blue-era layout, this time with lots of 25s, 40s, 45s, capturing the flavour of 1970s West Yorkshire. In the smaller scales there was the 1990s 'Totton', well researched with some nicely-researched stock, and the wonderful scenery of 'Kingswear'.

There were also a number of American and Canadian layouts.

So what did I buy?

The long-awaited Minitrix grain hoppers are very nice, if pricey. Only sold (so far) in sets of four, these are just about the most detailed N-gauge freight wagons I've ever seen. The '2001 exclusive' set are for wagons registered with SNCB (Belgian railways), two with different 'Cita' logos, one in 'Transcereales' and one unbranded in grey. The Cita ones at any rate are appropriate for a British outline layout.

The Habblins long bogie sliding-wall van is another nice model. Although it's a Continental prototype, it's very well scaled for a British layout again, larger than the Roco van, but smaller than the massive Arnold vehicle.