Warley

Emsland-veenbaan by Spijkspoor

I had an enjoyable day out with my father in law at the Warley Show on Saturday. There were a lot of very nice layouts and we didn't have long enough to look at any of them. We missed quite a lot too (including Dinas, Briding Noora, Fisherton Sarum, Willesden Junction and the T guage layout) since we wanted to be back in the South at a reasonable time. I can see why they offer two day tickets! If we go again then I intend to get advance tickets and the show guide in advance so I can work out what I want to see and get into the show and start looking at layouts as soon as we turn up.

Whilst I'm not usually that interested in European trains my favourite layout was Emsland-veenbaan (listed as Emsland-Moortrack in the program), the detail and presentation was stunning. It was a fairly large layout (9x5 meters), but by no means the largest at the show. The presentation was unique - it was a larger oval with a high backscene and completely hidden fiddle yard in the middle. The fiddleyard was accessed by a door at one end of the oval. It combined a double track H0 mainline, a lower level line to some docks, an H0e line and an H0f Peat line. Starting at the access door and going clockwise, once side of the oval was coastal with the H0e line running past a lighthouse, over a bridge and past fishing harbour. The H0 mainline and dock line then appeared and ran past/through the docks. At the other end of the oval the lines ran through a small town and the dock line disappeared. The main line then ran on an embankment behind a line of trees (something I have been thinking about including in a model) and then an H0f (6.5mm gauge) track appeared from under the main line. This ran to a scene where traction engines were cutting peat.

I took a few photos which I've uploaded to Flickr. Some still need some editing.

For pictures of some of the layouts I didn't photograph see Colin Lea's post, Phil Parker's Photo set, this photo set, or this gallery