Leeds Model Railway Exhibition

It had been a long time since I'd visited a model railway exhibition and luckily, scanning the exhibition calendar for the year, found that during the window I was going to be in the UK, the dates of the 67th annual Leeds show fell perfectly.

For me, the point of an exhibition is to show of the best that the hobby has to offer in terms of amazing skills and artistry, not just the layouts, but demonstrations of techniques and a chance to see the top quality layouts that make the pages of the modelling magazines.

The show took place at The Grammar School at Leeds, (yes, that's really what its called!) which is right on the northern boundary of the city on the way to Harrogate so after leaving home at 8.30am, walking 2 miles and making two, one hour plus bus rides I finally arrived just before lunchtime at one of the top private schools in the North.

The show was being run by Leeds Model Railway Society, and was part fundraiser and part chance to for the members to show off their models. Usually at these events, there ar about half club layouts and half invited guest layouts, Then there are the trade stands, of which there were many, most of whom seemed to be dealers selling second hand items around which milled the thongs, looking for a bargain. As well as building model layouts, many people are simply collectors, who never actually run their locos.

The show, although not the largest, had a happily surprisingly varied range of models depicting different periods and gauges, as well as a couple of US themed layouts. All good. What wan't so good is many weren't the greatest layouts I'd seen. There were few standouts. This is isn't a criticism of the modellers and exhibitors but a criticism of the Society and the standard of the general exhibition. With an £8 entry charge and the place being packed out, I'd have thought they could have paid expenses to get at least a couple of really well know, top layouts there.

Anyway, there was still plenty to admire, so let's take a look...

'Copper Wort' in '00' gauge by Peter Goss

I loved this layout. The first thing that impressed me was that it was built in a circular form, many layouts are straight, end-to-end or ovals but this was much more interesting and created so many individual viewing points. What was also wonderful is that it was a 'complete' scene. The industrial backdrop that is a fictionalised version of the Burton upon Trent breweries, had equal billing with the railway that ran through it and the clever use of greyscale backscenes only added to the atmosphere.

The imposing buildings on this layout were fabulous representations of the industrial heritage of the area and must have taken thousands of hours to create.

Everywhere you looked there were tiny details that caught the eye. Look through the lit, upstairs window and the tiny figures, dressed in period clothes. Let's not forget, this is a scale of 4mm to a foot so the skill and eyes needed to paint those guys who are just over 2cm tall is outstanding.

Not a single train in sight on this last shot in which the warehouses and factories own the scene.

Next up, a couple of shots of 'Hyde Lane Stabling Point' in 'O' Gauge, based on an actual location close to Wakefield.

The use of the larger 'O' Gauge allows the modeller more scope to add the finer details that may be missed on a smaller gauge. In many ways, though, this means the modeller needs to be even more skillful to reproduce accurate representations of his subject as it's easier for the viewing public to see.

I love the more prototypical track work of 'O' gauge, it simply looks more realistic and with clever weathering, makes it incredibly life-like.

Look closely at the English Electric Class 4 in the foreground. See the headcodes and the gentle weathering of the locomotive?

Blow up the picture further and you can see the grease on the buffer beams, the grime on the vacuum pipes and windscreen wipers that barely touch the dirty windows!

To give you some perspective, this model would be around 18 inches long.

Amazing modelling. These smaller, depot syle layouts are popular with British modellers as they take up so little space in a small English home and can provide a perfect, yet manageable canvas for a modeller to push the boundaries of their talents and skills.

This is a layout in my favourite period of railway history. Called 'modern image'. its set in the days just after the end of steam in the early 70s to mid 80s and is very popular, as like me, it was the golden age of the railways for the 50-something, post steam generation!

Going back in time, and staying with 'O' gauge, this small, steam based end-to-end layout by John Housely features the 'Izal' factory in North Sheffield at its heart. (Oldies will know Izal, youngsters, Google it!)

Notice the difference in the track work. The previous layout hand made built and painted trackwork whereas this looks like 'off-the-shelf' permanent way.
Still a great model, but the track makes a huge difference to the overall appearance and realism.

On an end-to-end of this type of layout, there will always be a fiddle yard on a hidden section of the baseboards where the operator can lift new locos on and off to run out into the viewable part of the area.

Here is a shot of the Izal fiddle yard!

For the fans of American 'railroads', there were a couple of layouts to drool over.

Firstly, 'City Limits' in 'HO' gauge by Roger Nicolls which is set in a small railroad yeard on the outskirts of Chicago.

Again, it's the weathering that really gives this layout its run down, grimey, industrial atmosphere and really show what can be achieved on just 10' x 2' baseboards.

From a photography perspective, getting close-up and personal with my cheap Mi Camera phone shows its limits. I should have been in manual mode and adjusting the depth of field settings to get a focussed shot acorss the whole picture.

A small criticism. I have a friend who lives in Chicago who if she is to be believed says that therewould never be such a sunny, blue sky there!

Secondly, for the fan of big American steam engines, 'Laramie' in 'O' gauge by Peter Kirmond would definitely appeal. This layout was simply an engine shed and turntable created to show the modellers collection of US 'Big Boys' and other heavy traction.

The great thing about this layout was that it was displayed at chest height, allowing you to get a great view of the impressive motive power at eye-level as they were simply shunted in and out of the depot!

I'm personally not a huge fan of US Railroads but from a heavy -engineering perspective, this was superb.

And talking of engineering...

The next exhibit wasn't even a layout, but instead a beautifully crafted scene based on the old Hunslet engine builders in Leeds.

This was sublime. Not a single propriety bought item in the scene. Everything was scratch built in metal.

The gantry cranes all worked and it was great to see this work-in-progress, actually being worked upon as a demonstration of what can be achieved by the modeller.

As you can see, this model has been featured in the national model railway press, and deservedly so. Model engineering at its finest!

A couple of shots of 'Marsh Green' in 'OO', a steam based layout set in the Southern Region by Roger Epps, really highlighted how a good back scene can a model railway up the reality league tables.

It's a nice enough layout, but as you can seee in the next photo. The photographic backscene really adds to the overall effect as your eye is automatically draw across the tracks to the landscapes beyond the railway.

And again on this picture of 'Skipworth' by Ken Nelson, he has also tried to add perspective to an end-to-end layout by suggesting that the railway continued over a level crossing and through a tunnel.

If we zoom in, just to show the layout. the effect becomes even more pronounced. Remove most of the colour from the photograph and...

And just to highlight how much difference the back scene makes, I'll contrast it to Shaun Taylor's 'West Street Station' layout.

Everything in this picture is ready-made and available in any model shop and without being critical is simply a trainset that many could create quite simply at home. It does however show what could be done and enjoyed by anyone who fancies taking up the hobby.

Finally, this was another work-in-progress to demonstrate handbuilding finescale 'N' gauge track.

'N' Gauge is as scale of just 2mm to 1 foot and the tracks have a gauge of just 0.54'' or 9mm.
Every single part of this complex trackwork is hand made and soldered into place by an old guy called Mark Henshaw who despite his age has obviously got much bettereyes and vastly more patience than I.

There were other layouts, mainly 'tail-chasers' but I just wanted to show the hobby at its most skillful and artistic best, which I hope I achieved. I felt it rather sad that most of the people people there were clamoured around the trade stands, looking for bargains than enjoying the layouts on display but I guess it is what it is. Perhaps in another post, I might make a social comment on the hobby and its current state.

Thanks very much for dropping by and any questions, I'll do my best to answer in comments.

@nathen007

PS You wait all this time for a post about model railways and two come out together! Check out this great post from @cmplxty