Derby Show 2004

Another weekend, another train show. This time it was the Derby show.

I was a little disappointed in this years' show, while still good it wasn't quite as good as previous years. Perhaps it was because this year focussed on American outline modelling rather than continental European. It's probably because I've never spent any time watching trains on the left hand side of the Atlantic that American layouts, however well modelled don't really appeal to me. It's also the two best American layouts, "Pueblo Falls" and "Bethany Wells" have appeared at many shows over the last couple of years, and I've seen both several times before.

For me, the best layout was the superbly modelled "Farkham", an urban layout set in an industrial part of northern England in the 1990s, with some very good urban scenic modelling; the office block under construction, alongside decaying Victorian structures.

My credit card did not escape unscathed; M G Sharp were there, and so were the Kato SBB Re6/6s. I'd already bought one in the newer red livery, now it's been released in the older dark green colour scheme (some of the real locos still carried this livery at the time of my last visit to Switzerland in 2003)

My journey suffered significant delays in both the outward and return journeys; outwards there was a 20 minute delay on the Virgin Trains connection from Chesterfield caused by a 'fatality at Northallerton'. Coming back, I had a long wait at Sheffield because First Trans Pennine's 158 had broken down somewhere (perhaps it died of shame from the horrid First 'livery'?)