York Model Railway Exhibition.   [A dose of realism].

This weekend is our local show. Its also one of the largest and a fixture in the exhibition calendar. For years now I have had a stand doing modelmaking demo with a bit of sales thrown in.  Its evolved over the years to now have a standard spot [stand 116] on the top floor forming a narrow gauge enclave with the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association and the 009 Society.

There are now three of us making an exhibition of ourselves over the weekend, Adrian Gray, Phil Traxson and myself. Its turned into a bit of a social event for us and a chance for a good gossip with the visitors.

In the past the stand & display has filled the back of a Volvo estate and has taken several trips with trolleys by to able bodied people to shift it in and out.

The dose of Realism?

If you’ve read the previous two posts you’ll know about my wonky leg. I’m typing this just back from todays visit to the coven of nurses to have the compression dressings changed.

I’ll spare you the gory views of the leg but this is the dressing whilst its clean and fresh. Things to note:-

• I can’t get a sock on
• I have only one pair of shoes that fit.
• Jeans don’t fit
• Can’t walk far or for long

So the dose of realism is that our stand this year will be a minimalistic affair with just a bit of a display and three of use drinking tea, chatting and doing a bit of modelling. Sales may just amount to a couple of magazines.

I usually cart all my soldering and metalworking kit along to the show causing disruption in the workshop before and after the event.

This year to  keep things light and easily portable I have this box of bubble wrap and am thinking this will be a chance to do something different whilst also getting a model done that customers have seemed determined to keep me too busy to get built.

Now I do have a vested interest in this model as I am custodian of its prototype and have supplied quite a lot of detail for the design of the kit.

It also fulfils the need for a quickly available loco for the garden railway for those quick opportunities for a play without the faff of getting a steam engine out.