Expo Narrow Gauge, Swanley, 31 October 2015 Part 2
Nov 29, 2015 • Public
Photo: 115 La Valise, or to put it plainer, The Suitcase. The title is clear enough but what it didn’t describe was the delightful little Gn15 layout that was housed in the suitcase. Superb modelling by Thomas Schmid .
Photo: 116 A close up of Thomas Schmid’s La Valise, featuring a wharf, a pier, a crane and stone being loaded into a barge, all in 1:22 scale and all in a small suitcase. Fascinating! .
Photo: 117 La Valise, Gn15 in a suitcase by Thomas Schmid .
Photo: 118 Super modelling in a large scale but in a small suitcase by Thomas Schmid .
Photo: 119 Lucien Laceur (Sixtifs to his friends on NGRM-Online) comes over from France regularly to attend ExpoNG so it was doubly pleasant to welcome him again, this time with his wife, Edwina, also a skilled modeller, and their little HOe layout Craquetôt .
Photo: 120 Lucien Laceur informed me that the small coaster moored at Craquetôt is named Cinq Ans in recognition of the 5 years it took him to build this layout – fair enough, that’s as good a reason as any! .
Photo: 121 A street market is being held at Craquetôt. Judging from the amount of people there, I think it must be early morning or late afternoon! .
Photo: 122 Craquetôt, a charming little HOe layout by Lucien and Edwina Laceur .
Photo: 123 Edwina Laceur built this little diorama, also in HOe, called Calvados .
Photo: 124 Adjoining Craquetôt and Calvados was a small display case with some innovative and very original models scratchbuilt by Lucien Laceur .
Photo: 125 Lucien described this scratchbuilt little steam boat in the NGRM-Online forum. He made it sound very simple, it certainly isn’t, very skilled would be a more accurate description .
Photo: 126 Jon Potter with his Festiniog Railway 009 layout Plas Halt .
Photo: 127 Plas Halt is about as simple as a layout is possible to be, being just a halt on a passing line, but keeping it simple means there is a huge scope for developing the scenic features and running a fascinating variety of prototypical trains through the scene – top marks on both counts for this layout .
Photo: 128 A simple line running through the scenery on the visible side of the layout does not necessarly mean that it has to be equally simple on the operating side – as seen by this comprehensive and spacious traverser fed plus continuous “test track” line behind Plas Halt .
Photo: 129 Two Hunslets, Lilla in black and Cackler in red, built by Jon just before the show, pass Plas Halt with a goods train headed by a pair of quarrymen’s coaches. Both locos are built from Five79 (ex Chivers) kits and Lilla has been modified with a straight footplate, with the resultant taller cab. Both locos are mounted on the Minitrains F&C outside frame chassis .
Photo: 130 I think this is my favourite photo of the whole report, sometimes they come out right, sometimes they don’t. Large Hunslet Linda, is in 2000's condition in Penrhyn livery, and still awaits the fitting of a front pony truck, heads a Double Fairlie (I think Livingston Thompson, but am not sure) on an up passenger service towards Tan y Bwlch .
Photo: 131 A longer distance view of the Hunslet double header down goods train passing Plas Halt. Plas Halt is a real location on the Festiniog, below Tan y Bwlch, an absolutely ideal location for this type of diorama layout as it has curved cuttings at each end and a small stone embankment in front of the halt, making it also ideal for photographing the trains. An inspired choice for any Festiniog enthusiast with relatively limited space for a layout .
Photo: 132 Yoshiya Kobayashi (on the left) with colleagues from the Japanese Modellers Group. It goes without saying that the group came all the way from Japan to show a fascinating display of top quality small scale modelling and also brought a tempting array of items for sale – which rapidly disappeared from what I could see. I know a few fellow modellers who have much lighter wallets and bigger card bills coming in as a result – I avoided temptation, too busy taking snaps you see………….
Photo: 133 Some of the models displayed by the Japanese Modellers Group .
Photo: 134 More fascinating and exquisite models from the Japanese Modellers Group .
Photo: 135 The little Egger-like pair of locos top left are actually only about 80% as large as the well known Egger/Minitrains Koppel contractors locomotive .
Photo: 136 Sugu Harukiko (Harry) with a superb pastiche of the Himalaya Darjeeling Railway in 3.5mm scale with a continuous run layout that rose through impossibly tight hairpin bends and zig zags to the summit some 2 feet or more above the base station and then descended inside the mountain via a spiral drop to emerge once again at the base station and start the climb all over again. The layout had a crowd of fascinated onlookers gazing at it all day long .
Photo: 137 Here is the very much shortened but instantly recognisable Himalaya & Darjeeling North British 0-4-0ST commencing the ascent of the mountain .
Photo: 138 Around the first tight hairpin bend and up a gradient of around 1 in 10 I should think on to the first of the zig zags .