Roadshow Reports

Abingdon is commonly known as the former home of MG Cars, an ancient abbey and the River Thames,

but many of us may not know that it also has a thriving model railway club with its own premises close to the busy A34 dual carriageway. It was an honour for our club to be invited to attend their spring Abingdon show at the college. They also have a further event in Didcot in the autumn, a town that is very familiar with most people interested in railways!

Our roadshow manager Val, liaised with their staff to ensure a smooth running event which included free bacon butties.

For about 2 weeks before the show many road signs in a 10 mile radius were adorned with advertising posters and nearer the time AA direction signs were erected, you begin to get the impression that this is not going to be a small club show.

In the college we were allocated a room all to ourselves, almost at the end of a corridor yet we were busy with visitors almost as soon as the doors opened.

As usual at roadshows we had a variety of visitors, older who commonly asked 'is this really steam?'

and younger ones who said 'please can I have a go!' this group kept Adrian busy most of the time with an ever lengthening queue. Davids 'Arfer' cut away loco again proved invaluable for mechanical working explanations.

The new Hornby coronation coaches brought along by Jack received lots of attention and looked stunning behind various garter blue engines. Nigel brought along a variety of Sir Nigel Gresleys and coaches to emulate

the whole train as it runs in preservation.

Sunday was another very busy day with queues outside our room to get in, the smell of steam and oil wafting along the corridor pointing people our way. The show attracted approx 4000 adult visitors, a credit to the hard work of the organisers, our roadshow manager and team.