National Festival of Railway Modelling Show at East of England Showground

Last weekend saw the 2nd National Festival of Railway Modelling at the East of England Showground in Peterborough. Before we start we should say a big thank you to the Market Deeping model rail club who helped to set up and marshall the show - well done guys!

Anyway back to the show - once again the show was split between two halls with the model train layouts in the main hall along with some traders and experts who were in the atrium and the main hall. These experts were on hand to answer any questions on model railways and also to demonstrate how to make trains from brass kits amongst other things. You could even see Microsoft Train Simulator being demonstrated with some bespoke rail journeys that had been designed.

Last year the show really suffered with the catering but it is pleasing to report that that has been sorted out this year. For a start they provided an additional stall to serve food and drinks and the restaurant was also signed better. There was also a van providing hot food outside so that was much better.

With regards to the layouts there were 30 layouts on display from the Spalding entry Alanbeck Junction to the wonderful The Gresley Beat. The Gresley Beat is a large layout with many scratch built buildings on it which are magnificent. Set in the era when the Gresley locomotives were running up and down the East Coast it is no surprise that the layout has a Heartbeat type feel to it.



A popular layout was Sutton Folly as shown at the top of this page. This layout has been especially designed for children to be able to take part with 4 controllers up front for the the kids to control the engines. The children can also to a point switch points and also look out for the special features on the layout which include a rabbit which dives into a hole when the trains go past, a man in a urinal (not many see that one!), two policeman chasing a thief between two houses and the Beatles on Abbey Road. All in all a cracking layout and one that is designed to be played with and to have great fun!

I must admit it didn't seem as busy as last year but then we did go on day 2 rather than day 1 so it may be that many people had gone the day before. Despite that though it was a great event and I look forward to going again next year.

If you missed this event then there is some good news and that is that there is another event that takes place on 14 and 15 November which has the same number of layouts as this show and that is the Spalding Model Railway Club Exhibition and given that that is quite a large local show then it will be worth going to that one.