Roadshow Reports

Last weekend the club Roadshow Team travelled to Staffordshire, Statfold country Park is near Tamworth, and has many attractions for all ages and interests.

The layout was erected in the usual efficient manner on the Friday as usual, and I arrived on the Saturday morning, even before the show opened we were running our engines, but soon the crowds arrived and we as busy as ever. Being a location with its own narrow gauge steam railway, many of our visitors knew how steam engines worked but were still fascinated to see the oo cutaway mallard made by David known as Arfur, and commented on the marvels of miniature engineering. Here is Arfur on top of the newly made loco display stand made by shop manager Nick.

Throughout the show the tannoy system was playing 1970 music, abba, Eagles etc. great for those of us from that era! Also at intervals…

This event was held in the Engine Shed visitor centre next to Highley station on the 16 mile SVR railway. This was the second time that the club has visited the SVR, but my first.

We had a full Roadshow team of 11 or 12 members manning the stand overseen by Roadshow manager Val, who ensured that we all looked smart in our club sweatshirts and that the event ran smoothly.

Our Roadshow layout was 'stationed' between the several steam locos and historic coaches, which includes blue 600 'Gordon' , LMS 8F which spent much of its time in the Middle East, King George V1 coach and a postal coach which was involved in the great train robbery.

As well as running the club locos many of us brought our own renamed and rebuilt engines, at one point I counted 5 Duchesses of various types, the Duchess being one o…

So this time it was the London Festival of railway modelling, at Alexandra Palace, which means it is my local show. Despite the weather being fairly good, it was a freezing show with myself, Andrew and George in coats for most of show, especially on the Sunday. It was so bad it took its toll on our engines who were bit rough Sunday morning.

As is always the case with the BRM shows the crowds were large, meaning it was a very busy show for us. I know from the people I spoke to there were many people very keen on on OOLS. Over the weekend we had many people talk to us about what they wanted and building include people using the system in O gauge, LMS princess coronations and some very different foreign machines. It was very nice have such discussions over the live steam and give helpful…

As always, the first show of the year was the big one – The festival of British railway modelling in Doncaster. A great show for us all since it nicely located in the country it allows a lot of the roadshow team and club members to come. Also, being in Yorkshire meant Maria could do her usual bakes for us to enjoy.

Both the shop and the loco sales did particularly well making. Little wonder giving the amount of members who came to see us after so long without a roadshow. People will have been very much in need of parts and a strong desire for more engines.

One highlight of the weekend was the words Chris has been waiting to hear for many years – “can I please borrow you hammer” from Eric. Poor chris was nearly in tears with laughter.

It was many birthdays among the roadshow members over…