Warley thoughts

I remember going to an exhibition in the late 1960s where the Thomas layout was absolutely wonderful, and accompanied by a tape-recorded commentary IIRC. It was operated by some elderly gentleman in a dog-collar :-)

Perhaps modern Thomas layouts should emulate that one. I've got the details of it in an old "Model Railway Constructor" somewhere.

On or about 2003-12-08, John Sullivan illuminated us with:

I've a suspicion that was probably one of the Awdreys. Certainly one of the highlights at Warley two(?) years ago was taking my then four year old to hear Christopher read some of his stories in one of the Tallyn(?) coaches.

The layout operator would have been the Rev. Awdry - the author. He was still exhibiting his Sodor layout in the early-to-mid 80s since I was invited to exhibit my layout at his local exhibition, the proceeds of which went to benefit the local girls school of which he was a governor. He had his layout on show and still working. That was about the time he was getting involved with Britt Alcroft because I remember them appearing at the exhibition and being shown round all the exhibits.

Jim.

I was dissapointed by the lack of layouts ( 52 yr. old kid).Nice Dutch layout though. I personally thought the Bachmann stand expensive (sorry Rich). It was a lot easier to shop after 5.30 when the rush had gone. my only real moan was not having enough cash on me. Liked having Hall 1 as it was much easier to get in. Well done again Warley but please let,s have more layouts for us kids.

I remember that the Chatham show (when it was in the old warehouses) used to hand out ' portable hop-ups ' for children. I copied that idea and have since had one or two with me when I exhibit my layouts. I do NOT want to make the layouts lower as I think a good (eye-level) viewpoint is very important...

Guillaume Veenhuis

"Xbase++"

Nobody has mentioned the "build-a-kit session". peco (was it?) had donated a series of sheds or something and there were about a dozen kids at a time all individually supervised making these things. brilliant.

the step up stools (£2 deposit?) were ample height for small (3 or 4 yr olds - mine has two at home for handwashing /playing in kitchen sink duties) kids - if people let them through to the front.

ken

Step up stools?

I thought that's what all the little kids were for!

-- Cheers Roger T.

On or about 2003-12-08, Jim Guthrie illuminated us with:

Was it father (W) or son (Christopher)? Both were/are Revs I think. Each wrote some of the books.

In message , Mark Ayliffe writes

Actually, it was W.

Mark,

Very definitely Awdrey Senior. The original books were written by Wilbert (the father) just after WW2, and he was a feature at a lot of exhibitions from the 50s onwards with his 00 'Sodor' layout.

Jim.