Exeter show 25th October

[Monty]

Found this online, probably more out there or to come...

 

[SevenOfDiamonds]

I shall be there too, as one of a small team displaying the Whiteleaf Railway (43-foot end-to-end under catenary). This is an extended version of the 45mm gauge layout we exhibited at Bressingham last month, where we started to bring our Gauge 3 section back into use. With the extra length we will have at Exeter, we will have a destination for our "standard-gauge-on-narrow-gauge" transporter wagons.

It's always difficult to impart a "garden railway feel" when exhibiting a layout in an exhibition hall. The Whiteleaf Railway/Tramway layout is set at a level appropriate to a railway built on a low wall in the garden (much appreciated by children and those in wheelchairs), with curtains representing brickwork, but at Exeter we added a new feature with a "fence and foliage" backdrop behind the operating area . . .



As I wrote earlier, we also resurrected the use of the Gauge 3 track in the Penn Street module, where standard gauge coal wagons could be shunted onto narrow gauge transporter wagons . . .



. . . for a journey to the opposite end of the narrow gauge line where, what in other configurations is our water mill siding board, has been transformed into a coal yard . . .



A very similar layout, but bent into a "u shape" (because the hall isn't wide enough) is due to be shown at Henfield Village Hall (West Sussex) at our final outing for 2025, in 5 weeks' time, on Sunday 30th November . . .



. . . though, on that occasion, we won't be erecting the catenary (so running as a more-convential Light Railway) because that is only really feasible if we are able to set up on the previous evening.

We are still debating how many exhibitions we will be able to attend in 2026, due to the dwindling numbers of those of us remaining fit enough to deliver, put up and take down the layout. What we need is some "new blood". Any volunteers? We've been invited to the London Festival of Railway Modelling in March 2026 (standing annual invitation, because with a modular layout, we can take something different each year, whereas most clubs only get invited every two or three years) . . . and see that mainstream model railway show (assuming we attend in 2026, and get invited again in 2027) as the best place for us to contribute to the G Scale Society's 40th Anniversary celebrations in 2027. Crystal ball, anyone?

All the best

David