I've only been to two but they were like chalk and cheese in many ways. The first I went to was in a school hall on a Sunday AM. Probably not the most popular time but especially with few people around there seemed to be plenty of space. The second (which is what prompted the post) was a Saturday AM. The event was very well attended but the way the stands and layouts were laid out made it extremely difficult to move around (narrow aisles) given the numbers present. There were stands in the entrance hall, on the stairs, in the corridors, wherever a nook was available. I was also disappointed by the layouts. My first event had a range ranging from small representations of a station with only a few tracks to large "train set" layouts and also from N to what I think was O (three rail) while the second was all small station layouts.
As you can probably tell, my preference was for the first one I attended. Do others have a view?
My view is that you enjoy what you enjoy. Personally, I tend to avoid "village hall" type exhibitions because they tend to be train-set type layouts. That's fine, but not my scene.
Your second exhibition sounds not unlike RailWells, a show I enjoyed yesterday afternoon :-)
Point taken "you enjoy what you enjoy". And I couldn't possibly comment on whether I was referring to Railwells or not. It was the general point of how crowded the second exhibition was and how that crowding was made worse by the space available and use of the space that struck me particularly.
Well, I certainly prefer exhibitions with a variety of layout types, both in terms of scales/gauges and conceptually. Obviously, it's harder for a smaller exhibition to get as good a variety as a larger exhibition, but (with the exception of specialist events such as the Scalefour shows, which have a different focus) there's no reason why any exhibition shouldn't at least have all the popular scales represented and try to get a good mix of layout types.
I've never been to Warley. How does it compare with the MMRC exhibition, in terms of enjoyability?
My experience is that larger exhibitions tend to be more overcrowded and less relaxed than smaller ones, but obviously that's offset by the quantity of layouts on show.
I don't know about the MMRC exhibitions, so can't compare, but I find that Warley is much more pleasant on the Sunday. Saturday is just a shove-fest, and I don't enjoy it at all. The trade stands tend to be blocked by people looking and not buying, but discussing every tiny detail of a 50p widget with the trader, who is wearing their best patient expression. Waving tenners around gives them an excuse to break away from the bore and look relieved :-) When you do get to the front and manage to make your purchase, no-one will let you out because everyone's frightened that if they move someone else will get in front of them! I used to go on Saturday for the second-hand bargains, but I quickly discovered that "bargain" and "Warley" don't go together in the same sentence :-)
Again, if you go to Warley then go on the Sunday. It's a completely different atmosphere to the Saturday, and very enjoyable. You really do need the whole day, and don't rely on getting cash at the NEC - I had to queue at the one and only available cashpoint for well over half an hour last year because I went to the show on impulse! Oh - and if you don't take your own food, then just put the cost of NEC catering down to experience :-)
Some randomly specific exhibitions do seem to choose totally unsuitable venues. However, this was discussed on P4_talk, and others like the venue as much as others dislike it, if we were talking about, say, for instance, Railwells.
Every year I wonder whether to go or not (it's only 20-odd miles away), and every year I do go and enjoy it! It's a more refined shove-fest than the Warley show - "Excuse me, excuse me, thank you, excuse me" rather than 'sharpest elbows wins' :-) Putting a trade stand behind access doors on a stairway has to go down as one of the daftest ideas ever though, doesn't it?
That's worth noting. I'd been thinking of going to Warley this year, as it's not too far away from me and I'll actually be at home that weekend (it's clashed with something else every other time I've thought about going), but I'd assumed that Saturday was likely to be a better choice. Maybe a change of plan is called for.
The best show I've consistently visited (now for around 35 years) and never yet been disappointed is the annual exhibition in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, held on the last full weekend in November.
It offers easy parking, a main line railway station within (around) half-a-mile with connections from most of the UK, value-for-money entrance charges, extremely good layouts and balanced trade. There's also a good pub and chippy withing a couple of hundred yards.
The last 2 or 3 'Warleys' have been on the same weekend as the Clothes Show which means the roads, carparks, trains and NEC have been heaving with people and only a small part of the NEC has been accessible to Warley customers drastically reducing the eating places and rest areas available. Thankfully this year the slothes show is the next weekend.
The last few years I have gone on the Saturday by train from London arriving before 9.00, pick up a coffee at the station before joining the front of the advanced ticket queue, buy a programme from one of the 'patrolling' sellers and decide which stands I need to get to first. As soon as the doors open I have about 20 minutes to get to these and buy what I want before it gets crowded. It's then a slow wander round as it gets more crowded breaking off for a bacon roll and coffee. Between about
11.30 and 2.30 it is very crowded and some of that time I get a passout and either go to the upstairs rest area if accessable to read the literature I've collected, take a walk outside if it is dry or go back to the station and take the free overhead shuttle train to the airport where there are cafes, shops, seating etc which are less crowded. The crowds disperse during the last 2 hours of the show allowing me to get close to the layouts, take photos and talk to the operators. At the end of the show, if the clothes show is on, there is no point in trying to catch the train as the platforms, stairs etc will be packed with teens, (I assume there will be long queues to get out of the car parks and traffic jams) so I go to the airport and have a leisurely meal. By 7.00 pm the station is less crowded and I can then get on the train, although last year I had to get into first class on the Virgin pendollino which stopped just outside the NEC asking athe standing passengers in 2nd class to move down the train into 1st class to redistribute the weight as the driver was getting an error which stopped the train from tilting. I usually get home about
10pm exhausted but happy with the day.
This year I have a RiscOS show at the Warwickshire heritage motor museum on sat 1st Dec so will go by car and stay over night in Birmingham before going to the NEC on the Sunday, so I will see what the Sunday of the Warley show is like from a motorists view.
I too am feeling that I'll go on the Sunday this year too to avoid the somewhat over-hyped and considerably over-crowded Saturday. AFAIC, the only reasons to go on Saturday are to get second-hand bargains or to get a chance of getting a new release if it's made available at the show and is likely to prove so popular that it's sold out before the Sunday. But with the common problem of errors that often need correcting with today's new models after they're initially released, I am less interested in that reason. As for second-hand bargains, the Bachmann stand often has a selection of it's own returns, but even those are often not that much below the dealer prices for the same item new, and as their returns are 'sold as seen', there's no option for getting a defective item replaced. Other second-hand dealers also seem to have over-inflated prices for items, making them less attractive unless there is a very specific thing wanted (which is rare in my case).
Good reasons to go on Sunday include less busy, but also the layouts have had a day to settle down and hopefully iron out any running problems. A less good reason (but not necessarily bad) is the likelihood of there being more kiddies around, as with most model railway shows the families tend to go on Sundays rather than Saturdays (but I don't know how much this applies to Warley as I've not been on a Sunday before).
Not been to that; I thought the Stafford exhibition (which I'd call biggish medium) earlier this year was pretty good. The most recent show that I went to was the Bakewell event; that's on the small side but it had some really good layouts on show and was very good value for money. The other advantage of a small exhibition like Bakewell is that it doesn't take too long to get around, that means my wife doesn't mind coming with me as she knows she's not going to get bored while I try to see everything possible before leaving! For a summer day in a nice town like Bakewell that's almost the perfect day out - the morning looking at model trains, leave at lunchtime to get something to eat nearby and then spend the afternoon in the countryside. A reasonably local exhibition that can be done in half a day with not too much travelling time is ideal, in that respect - I think that some exhbition organisers would be better advised to keep their events small and cheap so that they can be fitted into a normal weekend without having to worry too much about time or money rather than trying to cram as many layouts in as possible and then ramping up the admission price to cover the cost of it all. I'll only go to one, maybe two, big events a year as I need to justify the time and cost (to my wife, if not to myself!), but I'll go to any small exhibition within easy reach so long as it doesn't clash with something else I'm doing.
I have to agree with Mark about Bakewell and I enjoy the one in Derby, not the main one in the Assembly Rooms, too dark and tight to get around, but the club one they have in Mickleover.
Our son loves model railways but hates crowds so the smaller shows are good for us.
If we go to Stafford again I will go to the agricultural market in Bakewell first and get one of those electric cow prods first :-)
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