Harrogate Show
This is the third year I’ve attended “Festival of British Model Railways” at Harrogate. Last year my visit formed part of a rather busy weekend, of which the exhibition was probably the least significant event.
With just the show, and no gigs in the evening, I’m afraid this years event was a little underwhelming, and I’m not sure this show is really worth a two-and-a-half hour journey across the Pennines.
Not that there weren’t some good layouts. Basingstoke is one of the largest and most complex N gauge layouts on the exhibition circuit, and it runs as well as it looks. It’s set in the mid-sixties before electrification when the main line out of Waterloo was one of the last strongholds of steam, and the four-track main line serves up a constant procession of trains, mostly steam-hauled, but with some “Warship” class diesels on trains to Exeter.
These two views show the whole of the scenic part of the layout.
Not all layouts are immense monsters. Steve Grantham’s 4mm scale “Heavy Traffic” is typical of the small shunting layout built my many modellers.
Again, these two photos show the entire layout. Layouts like this are inspirational in that it goes to prove you don’t need a huge space, or need a lorry to transport it.
This view of the layout and it’s operators (Steve is on the right) shows just how small it is. The crowd barriers are a reminder that this building is often used for agricultural fairs.
