Ally Pally show

The queue for tickets was pretty impressive...

Peter

The queue for tickets was pretty impressive...

Peter

It was quiet first thing but filled up quickly I had advance tickets but my son had to queue for 35 mins at 11.15. Tee publishing failed to send an extra ticket even though asked before Xmas

The model aircraft flying in the corner was good, otherwise usual turnout of usual exhibitors.

Mike

I know Arc Euro did not bother this year, and I could not justify the time or cost :( See you at Harrogate hopefully ;)

There was virtually no queue at 10.00 (two or three people in front of me), but by 11.00 the foyer was full with a zig-zag queue and the tail was out the door and down the step (thankfully it was not raining much).

As to the show, I thought the much hyped "A variety of scale models and demonstrations" was rather half-hearted, do the organisers really want to become a "show of all the modelling talents", like the old Nexus organised Ally Pally show? If so, they really need to attract some traders and a decent display of static models.

I thought there seemed to be a lot of boat models and related traders to my eye.

As far as model engineering traders, there seemed to be a lot of standing seling very similar items at similar prices.

I did see Bob Symes near the Gauge 1 Society stand, Mr. Symes must qualify as one of the 'grand old men' of the hobby, who people may recall from his appearences on Tomorrows World back in the day!

MH

Should read,

"As far as model engineering traders, there seemed to be a lot of stands selling very similar items at similar prices."

I agree with all you say. I think the Ally not pally management excel at creating queues. One refreshment kiosk had just started to boil the water for their urn at 10 30 am. These take a long time to heat up. Then they run it dry and refill with a new batch of cold water and punters have to queue again while the urn heats up. I know of other organizations who have made a breakthrough in urn operations by constantly topping it up. This may be a step too far for the Ally Pally. They also revel in creating a seating shortage. In previous years there were more seats available. Its like a yearly game of musical chairs. I envisage us old model engineers competitively dancing around the few available chairs over the broken tile floors at future venues. Regards Alan

You make a good point about seating, I think it's fair to say that most model engineers (certainly on the Friday) were, umm, more mature.

Though quite a few sported pony tails.... ;-)

MH

hey ...i thought he had gone to his own model maker ... did a search............ he hasn't

found he has a you tube page

enjoy

all the best.markj

I saw Bob Symes also. He looked surprisingly well. I remember the TV series & still have the book that went with the series.

As to organisaton , I was standing next to a steward with a radio and at

10.45 Friday there was an urgent call to someone because a Cash machine had run out of money!!

As to the show, I thought the much hyped "A variety of scale models and demonstrations" was rather half-hearted, do the organisers really want to become a "show of all the modelling talents", like the old Nexus organised Ally Pally show? If so, they really need to attract some traders and a decent display of static models.

I thought there seemed to be a lot of boat models and related traders to my eye.

As far as model engineering traders, there seemed to be a lot of standing seling very similar items at similar prices.

I did see Bob Symes near the Gauge 1 Society stand, Mr. Symes must qualify as one of the 'grand old men' of the hobby, who people may recall from his appearences on Tomorrows World back in the day!

MH

In article , snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com writes

Thanks to you and the others for the report. I had thought of going today, but on the basis of these comments I decided not to bother. Roll on Harrogate, I suppose.

David

Harrogate is THE best show of the year. If, as a paying punter I was restricted to one show a year it would have to be Harrogate and it's not the closest to me.

I would second that. Harrogate is definitely the best of the bunch.

Regards, Tony