Exhibitions, do you like them

You've met Jerry then ?

Anon

Who ? Never heard of him / her /it.

Bevan

Wigan. Lots of layouts and traders. Easy parking, just a pity it is so close to christmas and had a Wigan home game on that weekend. One of my favourites.

I think Manchester thinks it is bigger than it is, and I don't like the new venue for Preston - I feel I may have missed some bits with it being in a few small rooms as well as the bigger ones.

I likeld Leigh when it was at Lowton - small but very friendly atmosphere. Not too sure about the new site yet.

Mickleover is a great little exhibition as is Bakewell but the Derby venue is too dark.

The folks at Mickleover & Bakewell are VERY child friendly which what matters most to us.

Stafford .... we may go again this year but it's too busy and some of the exhibitors should not be allowed to take their layouts as they are too protective of them. Last year @ Stafford our son walked up an alley way behind a layout to look at the rolling stock in the fiddle yard. He was shouted at but had done nothing wrong, other members of the public were there and he just followed.

Chris

Never been to Mickleover, but I agree that Bakewell is an excellent small exhibition and very family-friendly as well. The location and date help, of course, as it means you can have an enjoyable day out where the exhibition is just one part of it.

I think some exhibitors can be unreasonably mistrusting of children, yes. But, on the other hand, I'd never let my daughter wander into a behind-the-scenes area even if other people were there. Exhibition layouts are expensive and often quite fragile, and if something does get damaged then that affects not only the exhibitor but also the rest of the public who've paid to see the layout running. Having been behind the layout myself at exhibitions I'm familiar with the feeling you get when a child (or some adults, for that matter!) gives the impression of not having sufficient respect for the layout. The potential for calamity flashes before your eyes, and it's difficult not to overreact sometimes if the child's parents don't appear to be about to intervene.

Mark

sufficient respect or paranoia ? I do understand your point but ......

The problem I see at many exhibitions is that children cant get to see the layouts because there are rude people blocking their way for hours on end.

Had our son show any signs of insufficient respect for the layout he would have been told but he is brilliant, even if I do say so myself. He even tells other children not to touch !

The children have to pay to get in so let them see the layouts, they hopefully will the next generation to fill our shoes in this hobby.

Suggest people 'rope off' any areas not open to 'Joe Public' and they come to see the layouts not get shouted at.

Chris

"Misc" wrote

After 40 years or so in the hobby both as a modeller & a trader I can literally claim to have visited hundreds of shows. I have to say these days that shows generally tend to leave me pretty cold, and it's rare that I visit a show these days which really gets me excited or inspired.

I suppose the real problem is that the overall standard of layouts has become so good, and as a result everything appear to be much of a muchness, making it so much more difficult to create a layout which stands out from teh norm.

It's only the latter which really inspires me, and in the past year or two the only layout which has really had that impact was Hull club's new 009 narrow gauge 'Crumley' which featured very recently in one of the modelling magazine. This really puts a whole new perspective on scenic presentation.

The trouble is that level of impact is extremely rare, and unless I see something approaching that standard at any show I tend to leave disappointed.

John.

wrote

I could be pedantic and say it's not in Yorkshire, but in the County of York.

John.

As far as I'm aware there is currently no official "County of York".

York is an ancient borough. It was never part of the former West, North and East Ridings. In 1835 it became a municipal borough, and in 1889 a county borough (independent of any county council). In 1974 under government reform it became a non-metropolitan district in the County of North Yorkshire, then in 1996 it regained unitary status as The City of York, with some expansion of its former boundary.

York is the county town of the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, under the Lord Lietenant of North Yorkshire.

"MartinS" wrote

Now I thought the county town of North Yorkshire was Northallerton.

John.

Come with us, you'll get a whole new perspective on how to view them. One of the reasons I prefer to go to see real engines at GCR in Loughborough rather than say York or Butterly is the GCR will get 2-3 special (for me) engines per year rather than whole lot. That way can focus on the newcomer and each visit is still special.

Cheers, Simon

Until they show some reason they dont deserve it I dont see why children should be treated with any less respect than adults.

The most entertaining layouts for his nibs tend to include operators that will talk to him as an adult. It all seems to go together. Interesting layouts have interesting/friendly operators who put on a show and enjoy themselves at the same time.

Cheers, Simon

I have to agree !

Our son likes ALL the layouts but for me the ones with the 'extra' detail stand out.

One I recall had animated workers, another three were @ Bakewell last year, a mixture of everything with funny scenes ( even mermaids ), other at 'N' again had scenes with a story to tell, the other at 'O' has a fully working coaling stage.

Some layouts detract from the hand-built loco's they are attempting to display.

Chris

The *ceremonial* county, not the administrative county.

"MartinS" wrote

Mmm, that's a new one on my, but I bow to your knowledge.

John.

No need to bow to me, see Wiki.

On Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:43:23 -0500, MartinS said in :

Ooh, careful. I'd be failing in my duties as a Wikipedia sysop if I didn't point out to you that the so-called "traditional counties" mob have set up shop there long since, and anything you read about English counties should be treated as if it were an editorial in the Daily Mail written by a member of the "Association of British Counties" (oh yes, that exists).

Guy

The ceremonial county of North Yorkshire (defined below) is not the same thing as the "traditional" North Riding of Yorkshire.

"York, Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland are unitary authority boroughs which form part of the ceremonial county for various functions such as the Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire, but do not come under county council control. Uniquely for a district in England, Stockton-on- Tees is split between North Yorkshire and County Durham for this purpose. Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, and Redcar and Cleveland boroughs form part of the North East England region."

I remember my first exhibition (Merseyside) and the impact that the Welsh narrow gauge layout had on me. It's still one of the best I've ever seen and that was 30+ years ago.

I don't get to see the UK exhibitions since I live in NL but the thing I find here is that the same layouts are seen over and over again. I even don't go to Eurospoor each year for this reason.

That said, the last exhibition I went to was in Den Bosch and it was much better than I expected. There were decent layouts from the UK (EM/P4) as well and the best layout in the exhibition was a North American logging layout by a Brit - much to my surprise as I don't normally like that sort of layout.

Ah well, live and learn...

-- Rod