Manchester Model Railway Exhibition 2007
The 2007 Manchester Model Railway exhibition was held, as usual, in New Century Hall in the centre of Manchester. This show traditionally features layouts of a very high standard, and this year was no exception
I’m not normally a fan of narrow gauge steam layouts. I find too many of them to be random hodgepodges that lack any sense of verisimillitude. Bridport Town is an exception; it’s set in a specific location in Dorset, with most of the non-railway buildings based on real structures. Another touch hat lends authenticity is that the scratchbuilt locomotive fleet are neither models of motive power well-known and associated with other lines, nor the sort of dubuous freelance concoctions you often see on narrow gauge layouts. Instead they’re based on drawings of proposed locomotives that were never actually built, in this case a Hunslet 4-4-0T intended for the Lynton and Barnstable
The World War One Baldwin was a common loco on a great many English (and Welsh) narrow gauge lines. Large numbers were shipped to France during the war for service on military railways. These rough and ready beasts were available cheap after 1918 for any railway in need of motive power.
Lapford Road is based in the Exeter to Barnstable line in the late 1970s. The blue diesel era is now as much ancient history as any steam railway; class 25 locomotives are long since gone from the main line network. Indeed, the surviving preserved examples have now been museum pieces for longer than they were in main line service.
Woodhouse was a large O gauge terminal, very much a classic steam branch terminus layout featuring the odd early diesel, such as this class 17, a model of an attractive prototype. Unfortunately the full sized versions turned out to be almost totally useless, and were consigned to the scrapheap after less than a decade of use.
There were only a couple of N gauge layouts in the show; this was one of them, Bassenthwaite, set in the lake district. Although fairly small (it’s little more than a train-set oval with some additional storage roads for exhibition use), it still displays some excellent scenic modelling, especially the late itself.
October 11th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Nice shots!
Just out of curiosity, what camera are you using.
I’m presuming it is the same body as used for your 12-inch:1 foot scale railway photos, but perhaps different lenses?
Not that I know much of these things, but I’m having to learn quickly!
October 11th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Yes. All the photos on this blog (including those from rock concerts) are taken with the same camera, a Fuji S5000. It’s not an SLR, but a so-called “bridge camera” with a built-in zoom lens. When I bought it three years ago digital SLRs were outside my price range.
I set the camera to 800ASA 1M mode, and took all the photos handheld without using flash, relying on the layouts’ illumination. Just about every layout had it’s own spotlights. Had I taken a tripod I could have used a lower shutter speed and got some better depth of field for sharper pictures.