WMR&ES christmas show 2016

on thursday and friday nights, the club i belong to held our annual christmas show. we did fairly well in both donations and sale of items from the garage sale stock. we just set out a few items that might have a chance of selling.

we had layouts in the extension for the first time.

i havent bothered with photos of the fixed layouts, since they never change much either in scenery or rolling stock. they can be viewed here http://wanganuimodelrailway.weebly.com/

this is my friend blair's NZ120 scale layout, running new zealand locos and rolling stock. he got it a year ago, but this was its first public running.
at the other end is his thomas christmas layout, which i have photographed before. it can be seen at his site: http://buzzzsrailwayworld.weebly.com/mod...youts.html


these next 3 belong to allan and fay, a lovely couple who do a lot of shows. they are good people to know, always willing to lend a layout or 3.

fay's n scale


allans HO scale


HO tri-ang


this one was donated by the son a deceased member. it needs some work and wasnt running, but the base is meant to rotate in one direction, while the train moves in the other.


joe's n scale. some of the buildings light up, along with the lamp posts. this was the first time we saw this layout, and quite a nice one it is too.


and now the baby of the bunch, mel's Z scale.


i elected to stay in the main room, as the table i was using is a pain to get in and out the door. i ended up using a trestle table as well as the usual one, as my collection has grown too big. i ran both 9v lego and tomy plarail, using the new trains from geris.

i ended up writing a "can you find" list, due to the amount of new characters i have added recently. kept visitors busy for a while.


birds eye view of the whole thing.


9v lego. i had trouble with this stopping for no obvious reason. on the second day, i ran it without the tree car, as it creates so much drag. the tree rotates and it takes quite a bit to make it work.


plarail with a last minute addition of snoopys bi-plane, in honor of the snoopys christmas song. all of geri's trains ran amazingly well. i dont think anyone noticed that three of them had thomas characters on the sides.

[Super]

Massively awesome.

Great to see the addition finally put to use, good thing its summer. Does it have heat?

Is that the same Blair that let you ride along in the Diesel? Did he build that layout? Its hard to tell from the picture as it makes it look flat but I would guess the topography is much more pronounced in person.

That was a fantastic idea of yours with the "Can you Find" list, something you should consider always doing. This way it makes the guests study and notice a lot of your fine detailing that they might otherwise overlooked. Great jub Sun. Is your Layout bigger than the one last year?

cheers, super.

the extension isnt heated, but we dont go out there often either, so it doesnt matter. our winters dont include snow, so dont get overly cold.

yes, thats the same blair. he didnt build that one, it was bought by his partner last christmas. the middle section is quite raised as the track curves through a tunnel underneath it. from a childs height, you likely wouldnt be able to see over the top to the other side.

yes, the list is something that will remain in place now and be added to. my display is probably half as big again as last year. hard to tell, as last years table was wider.

Awesome set of layouts there Sun and yours must have taken ages to setup with so many bits and bobs contained in it

Nice to see a Triang set/layout as well, those old trains were really made to last and just don't seem to die. I've got some that are between 40-50 years old that I picked up cheap off eBay at some time and they just keep running. Sure maybe they don't have the same level of detail as the newer Hornby 'super detail' engines out of China. But I would lay odds that the triangs will still be running even when a lot of the newer Hornby's have bitten the bullet lol!

Cool seeing a Z scale layout as well, I really love Z scale for the level of detail in such minute rolling stock. It's just a shame its not as readily available over here as you'd like, the stuff I have is all from Jauce or similar and I don't think there are any British outline made in that scale.

Thanks for sharing!

thanks, nigel.

it took maybe 4 hours to set up, give or take. i put out the bulk, then realised i was missing my sled dogs. came home, found them and then decided to add the tomy as well.

yes, the tri-ang stuff just keeps on going. alan has quite a collection, because everyone brings him bits that their parents had and no one else wants.
our president, paul, is an electrician, and the new regs mean all leads and transformer boxes must be tested and tagged before use at some larger shows. so he was kept busy with alans old boxes, and they all tested fine, despite their age.

the z scale was popular, with many saying it was cute, lol.