Sunday 25 October 2015

Chichester Lions Exhibition

Saturday , October 25th was the date of the Chichester Lions model railway show. Always an entertaining little show with a strong leaning towards entertaining the children there were, nevertheless some very nice exhibits.

Naturally, BRMRC was well represented. Following the children's entertainment theme Aldingbourne Central was there as usual and, also as usual, proved very popular with younger visitors. We also had two Club member's layouts there. Outstanding, of course, was Paul Hopkins' and John Wakeman's Portsea appearing in the December 2015 Railway Modeller, together with my own Slindon Vale railway which I would like to believe is also something a bit special.

Quite apart from these and a one or two other lovely "proper" model railways, backing on to myself and Paul was a running display of model trams in, I believe, the traditional sale of 3/4" to the foot. Old trams tend to be a wonderful example of Victorian engineering and art and I always find it wonderful to see these beauties recreated in such amazing detail.

An enjoyable show with, I believe, a good footfall in a good cause and plenty of our members there either assisting with our exhibits (for which I thank them) or simply as visitors.

Wednesday 14 October 2015

Autumn is busy!

The Junior section of the club have entered a challenge to build a diorama of a theme of their choice, several were in progress at yesterday’s club meeting and there are some interesting features in them all. They have to be completed in December, and will be considered as part of the Junior achiever award at the Club’s AGM and award ceremony in May 2016. We hope to have an area of the club’s annual exhibition in January will be set aside to display these models.

And talking of which, make sure you have the date for our Annual Exhibition (9-10 January 2016) in your diary. Continuing our theme of constant improvement you really mustn't miss it! We are close to finalising our list of traders, layouts and others and will soon post a list on the website.

Paul Hopkins' and John Wakeman’s new 3mm layout Portsea, is previewed in the current edition of the Railway Modeller, and the full layout article will be appearing in the December edition of the Railway Modeller. Look out for it in the newsagents in early November.

 Paul’s layout Redford Junction featured in the Hornby magazine no 77 (November 2013), was exhibited at the Great Electric Train Show at Gaydon over the weekend of October 10th & 11th.  Redford is modelled to a scale of 3mm : ft, and this is the first time a layout of this scale has been exhibited at this exhibition.  Redford Junction is also booked to appear at the Warley NEC exhibition in November.