DEMU Showcase at Burton on Trent

An excellent show! Demu Showcase is the annual exhibition put on by Diesel and Electric Modellers United, intended to showcase layouts and models built by those that believe the universe didn't end with the end of steam in 1968.

It's ironic that the first locomotive I saw when I walked through the door was a k*ttl*, in the shape of an O gauge model of a preserved rebuild Bullied pacific.

All the layouts were of excellent quality, ranging from tiny "shunting planks" to big multi-track main lines. They also represented a range of eras. We had a couple of layouts from the increasingly popular years immediately following the demise of steam traction, featuring those unsuccessful and short-lived locomotive classes that were soon to follow steam power into history; the Scottish class 17s and 29s, or the Western 14s and 22s. In contrast we had layouts representing the present-day post-privatisation scene.

My preferred scale, N gauge was represented by the soon-to-be-retired Acton Mainline, one of the best examples of modern day urban modelling I've seen in any scale, with intensive operation on the four track mainline out of London Paddington back in 1989 when a lot of commuter trains were still loco-hauled.

The other star layout was the magnificent Mostyn, just about the only big 4mm finescale layout on the exhibition circuit. Like Acton Mainline, it's an accurate model of a real location, on the north Wales coast main line. This one goes further back, to 1977, the days of class 24s, 25s and 40s.

Pengwynn Crossing has always been a favourite of mine, based as it is on Cornish china clay operations in the 80s, with nice models of some of the distinctive and unique wagons used for this traffic. The N Gauge Society might even be releasing a kit of the Traffic Services Polybulk.

There were lots of familiar faces present, and it's easy to spend as much time chatting as watching the layouts. Among others I chatted with Martyn Read, Alan Monk, Steve Grantham, Pete Shaw, Niggle Spate, Ben Ando, Bryn Davies and the infamous Roechard Wibb, some of them regular commenters on this weblog.

Finally, I have to remark that I got there and back on trains that ran on time, including two Virgin Voyagers that weren't overcrowded for once. The only problem was the wretched Stockport blockade, which meant a rail replacement bus and a detour to Manchester Piccadilly, adding quite a bit to the overall journey time.