Photos with videos to follow

Today I went to my "local" club's annual show in Blyth, Northumberland. There were 40 layouts and a number of trade stands as well as demos. I ended up spending more than I intended, but not as much as I could have. Personally, I think the show gets better and better although it is now getting cramped so is moving next year to a bigger venue in the town. The following is only a taster of what went on, the quality tempered by my coming to terms with a new camera. I will post the videos a soon as Photobucket downloads them and I can turn them the right way around!



The Thomas layout which has won best layout for the last 3 years. Got a lot of votes this time around.



The Mecanno Society show their talents every year and as a long term admirer of the product I am always amazed at what they produce.



Gifford Sidings fiddle yard, an O gauge layout which I could have watched for hours. Some lovely smooth, slow running locos. I hope the video came out.



Courcelle Part, a French O gauge proto 43.5 scale layout. I haven't worked out what proto 43.5 is yet. Notice how he uses the back of the building as an extra siding from the traverser.



Hazlebury Yard, OO gauge. DCC loco and point control. Watch out for the videos of this one, hump shunting that actually works!



For those of us struggling for space how about N gauge in a box file?



Or how about N gauge in a shoe box? This is named Clark's siding, after the shoe box in which it was made!



For the copper tops amongst us! Nevertheless, a very impressive MPD albeit with some strange looking engines. Maindee Engine Shed in OO from South Wales.



Aagh. They've invaded the north east!



Phew, that's more like it, O gauge and a real engine.



What a nice surprise, an OO gauge layout depicting Rothbury, my home village, in the days before the line was closed. Although somewhat compressed, it gives some flavour of the limited layout of a typical country branch.



A turntable was used on the prototype at Rothbury to release the engine and also for it to gain access to the loco shed.



More copper tops I'm afraid. What they're doing so far from home beats me. This is part of Bishop's Quay, an OO gauge LMS(a redeeming feature)/GWR joint line.



Fellburn, an OO gauge NE layout showing the once common overline signal box placement found in this part of the world.


Whitley South Dock, coal staithes in OO gauge. Very impressive and very big.



Roarkes Landing, American HO and none the worse for it.



Oldham King Street in O gauge. The murky lighting was not intentional but came out atmospheric.



That's what it really looked like. The DMUs had smoke units fitted along with DCC and the sound and smoke effects were amazing. Unfortunately the camera couldn't pick them up, nor the smell of the burning oil.



Kepier Colliery in OO gauge and my favourite at this show if only for the brilliant pit head landscape and the memory of an industry, like steam locomotion, that is now dead in this part of the world. I'll let the pictures say it all. There were a few elderly men, ex miners who stood a long time while I was filming, watching this particular layout as they talked about their own experiences. I wish I'd recorded that as well.









 



Finally, Cotting Vale, a freelance N gauge layout which young children were encouraged to try out. Anything could happen and generally did. A good time was had by all. By the time I left it was packed out and the stands appeared to be doing a good trade. Here's to the next 40 years. The rest of the pictures of these and the other layouts featured, as well as some of the exhibits, are at

http://s303.photobucket.com/albums/nn136/mojo1-2008/blyth%20mrc%20show%202008/?start=0

and the videos will follow soon.

I hope you enjoy. I did.

 

fantastic set of pics,Mojo.You seem to be getting the hang of your new camera.Really looking forward to the videos!
 It looks a really interesting show.

Cheers,John.B.

Well, here come the videos. Any jerkiness in the locomotive movement is not down to me or the camera, rather the way Photobucket seems to handle the files. It's the first time I've really appreciated how difficult it is to get decent shots when faced with variable lighting, and a jostling crowd. However, overall the layouts were running very smoothly, with one notable exception!

 

Gifford Street Sidings in O gauge. If only.









These 4 are of Browney Banks viaduct, relatively modern OO gauge with lots of trains running all the time.



Roarkes Landing in American HO. Watch out for the arc welder flashing in the shed top left as the loco passes it.



Whitley South Dock in OO.



Fellburn, OO North Eastern.







The fact that the strange looking engine stalled and refused to move despite much finger poking was absolutely nothing to do with me, nor was it staged, just divine intervention!





I wouldn't recommend this with Jackson couplings or Kadees. The ramp has a raised decoupler at the top-as each wagon reaches it so it takes off down the slope. Some nifty work with the DCC point controller and each wagon went on its merry way. I felt a bit sorry for the imaginary cattle in the cattle trucks though.





Rothbury again, and things go slowly, and much more smoothly than the video makes out. If anyone has any ideas how to defeat the way the vids are "corrupted" by the host site then I would welcome suggestions.

Very good Mojo, watched a couple of Vids- the rest to watch tonight. The only that spoils them IMO, is the background niose of people but that is to be expected at an Exhibition.

 

 some very nice photos and videos there Mojo. Looking at the Oldham King Street pics you could almost say it had just stopped raining thumbs

Love that Class 105 on the O Gauge Oldham King Street.  Really looking forward to the Bachmann OO version even if they never came anywhere near Cornwall!

Mojo thanks for posting all the photos and videos some impressive stuff again with the show photos it gives us ideas for our own layout.

the hump shunting one is interesting to watch not seen that done before

cheers Brian

Mojo

Thanks for taking the time to upload all your photos and video's, looks like a well supported show, as for the hump shunting, I will leave that to the experts.

Mojo1 thanks ,some very good layouts  and the vids did not jerk or jump
so you got that right.
as for the hump shunt, was ok but a bit to long a run and certainly to fast.

:doublethumblol::cool:

mojo

great pics

i can't work out why a chicken is standing on the oldham platform:hmm

 

pic 18

Hi Mojo. 1   True it does look an excellent exhibition , but it is an awful long way to go. On the off chance of a bargainBest wishes. Kevin

…………….. and a Tardis to get there  


Ed

 
    
    Tardis used, Question removed 

Matt C.            

Might be a good subject for a new thread Matt, but not tagged on the end of this one.

Just causes confusion date wise.