Doncaster Show 2004

Spent yesterday at the Doncaster Festival of British Model Railways, held in the conference centre at Doncaster Racecourse. It’s a big show, but does tend to have too many traders and not enough layouts. As one who’s more interested nowadays in modelling continental Europe I was disappointed to see not a single layout with a non-British theme. On the other hand, as someone who still has a interest in the British post-steam era, there were plenty of modern era layouts; wall-to-wall GWR branchlines it was not. I liked the minimalist Avonmouth Road (see below), and Prices Street Gardens, a classic urban location on the western approach to Edinburgh Waverley station, featuring a scale model of Edinburgh Castle; this is really the sort of thing you can only do in N.

Being a UK-centric show, my wallet got off lightly. The only item of Swiss rolling stock I bought was a Minitrix SBB baggage car, although I did also buy four Bachmann HEA coal hoppers for my next British layout. Bachmann’s policy of batch production means you have to buy them while they’re available; if I’d waited for four years until I actually needed them, I would find they were no longer available.

I have a few pictures: there would have been more, if I’d remembered to charge up the spare set of camera batteries.

Who says 0 gauge needs a lot of space? This is the entirety of the layout! It’s a very well-modelled piece of urban decay, set in the late sixties. In a few years time this area will be covered by out of town shopping centres, with no sign there was ever a railway there.

Closeup of the locomotive, a BR class 07, a type built for shunting in Southampton docks

A general view of the main hall. The layout in the foreground is Selsey Beach, set on the south coast in the present day, with a fleet of kitbuilt third rail EMUs in NSE and Connex liveries. Behind it on the left is the large Runswick Leamside, a big diesel era crowd-puller, set just before privatisation.