The N Gauge Show

Spent yesterday at the N Gauge show held at a place called The Warwickshire Exibition Centre, near Leamington Spa. This venue turned out to be a converted cowshed in the middle of nowhere! Fortunately the organisers did organise a bus shuttle to and from the nearest railway station (without which I would not have attended). While you might not think a converted cowshed might make an ideal exhibition venue, the quality of the hall inside was a lot better than the impression you got from the outside.

The said cowshed contained a wide variety of layouts, British, German, American and Japanese. And of course, loads of traders, ranging from RtR box shifters to suppliers of specialised kits and bits.

Most people were drawn to the Bachmann stand near the front entrance with it's display cabinet of preproduction samples of long-awaited new models. For fans of the post-privatisation scene there was 170 DMU in three liveries (SWT, Midland Mainline and Central Trains), for kettle fans there was the LNER V2. And for all diesel era modellers there was the HAA coal hopper, a much needed model; the long discontinued Minitrix model has been fetching silly prices on eBay for several years now. As well as the all-new models they had some reliveries on display too; most significant were the blue and grey Mk2s.

New entrant in British N, Dapol, didn't have a stand. But Maurice of Osborns models did have some samples of the Great Western Autocoach, and very nice it looked. A bit early for my chosen period for British modelling, though.

Two layouts that impressed me the most were two of the smallest; Hedges Hill Cutting, just over five feet long representing a short length of third rail electrified line somewhere in South London, through which passed a variety of southern region EMUs and diesel-hauled freight trains. The focus was on high detail urban modelling.

The other small layout was a total contrast; Woodhead. Also electrified, it was an accurate model of the western Portal of the now closed Woodhead tunnel, set around 1970 just before passenger trains ceased on the route. Almost the entire locomotive fleet was made up from class 76 electrics.

There were plenty of other good post-kettle layouts; Drem, Stapleforth Mainline, Princes Street Gardens, Elgin, Hartshill Bank, and the massive six track Kings Park.

Of course, the traders did grevious harm to my credit card; there's an Arnold Re4/4 in EBT (Emmental Burgdorf Thun) livery, plus a pair of the more modern Re460s in "SF" advertising livery. And, for a different country in a different era, a couple of Dapol BR gunpowder vans. All it needs is a decent class 24 and I can see a Cambrian Coast layout coming on.