Out of bed at 6:30 AM. question the wisdom of having a few beers the night before. Pack up the car, organise breakfast and head off. make it to the show by 9 AM. Load out gear and meet some of the VCC guys and girls. Settle in to the bench and start work when the show opens at 10. wonder why its so quiet, discover Mark and I are facing the quiet part of the hall when I turn round. See some old friends and get to put some names to faces (Muir, you dashed off with the Ka before I could have a closer look :v). Managed to go the entire day without injury as well.
Right, so what was there?
'Has anyone seen my train?'
Wellington 9mm layout. Was originally made in Christchurch in the early 1990's and has lasted quite well. A 'large' collection of locos and wagons, some of which were still being worked on when I left on the Saturday night.
OK, so not quite the same but pretty close. My Cb perched on a 9mm scale Johnson 16 wheeler. Several people commented over the weekend about how it is much smaller in real life than the photographs show.Finally I had to include this. Its a German gauge 1 layout. As if that not bad enough, the shear size of the thing is unbelievable. The grey bit in the middle distance is the back side of it, and there's a fiddle yard on the left.
But wait, there's more. The small child obliged by not moving between shots so you can see the rest of it, where the other end eventually stops behind the concrete pillar.
Its not only the size that gets me, but the gargantuan cost of it all (German models are not cheap).Still I guess they could afford the empty warehouse to have it set up in.
There were also a good selection of traders and second hand book shops. Its defiantly one of the 'go to' shows on the New Zealand modeling calendar, with a wide selection of odds and sods.
6 comments:
The cost of German models is horrendus: I've been to a couple of shows locally and I reckon I can build a whole layout for the price of on train from Märklin.
I wouldn't mind but the models here are brilliant in technology but frequently poor artistically, and in some cases really tacky, with a few exceptions.
I'll stick to 1:55 scale and a tiny baseboard...
Yes, the Marklin 1 layout was insane, but my 8 year old son was mesmerised by it...easily his favourite layout at the whole show! Even beat out the lego layout....
marklin 1 control centre with it's PCs/ monitors/ cameras and more wiring than weta workshops a little over the top for trains going round and round - and a yard full of krokodils...
mind you, kudos to them for spending major dosh on their trains, peoples like that keep the manufacturers manufacturing.
Sorry MD I had to dash off with my K rather rapidly because I thought you might want to see it up close. Your tracklaying was fascinating to watch, and I thought that you made it look very doable - not easy, but doable, and the payoff is the fantastic work what you'd made.
Highlights were Mr Trackgang with a rather stupendous layout, like the type one has always wanted, and he's one of the few that actually got it together. The guys a talent (and good with kits!).
Kerosine creek for just the wow amazing factor.
And, for me, the british 'freemo' shelf style layout, with it's numerous little stations and fiddle yards. Great combination of 'lets assemble it how we want today' with big dollops of operational fun.
Interesting comments from Andy in Deutschland about their local scene...
Apart from being the wrong 9mm NZR scale, not a bad blog (it pays to know you to help crack the code of course). I was actually looking for images of railway bridges in the Manawatu Gorge and somehow ended up here?
Was still working on those locos the next day, the broken leg and temporary loss of the other fat controller due to a heart attack somewhat limited my preparation time...
Enjoyed catching up even if it was only for a short time,
Rgds Brent
So, all railway searches lead to this blog then?
And I'd argue that the scales with a 9 associated with them make far more sense than the other scale. At least our respective followers have decided to choose either detail or the big picture, rather than some middling compromise.
It's a Price 16 Wheeler the Cb is sitting on from the look of the bogies
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