Deeping model railway exhibition and fiddle yards

Went to the excellent small show in Deeping St. James (just up the road) last week. Several nice layouts, including Woodcroft. which was using aluminium-angle based cassettes in its fiddle yards.

I've just acquired, from a friend who's clearing out, a couple of 5'x18" or so papering tables. which are a touch wobbly to lay track on, but DO look as though they could be reasonable supports for cassette-based fiddle yards.

Hrm. Must think about that :D

Back from York...

...and my feet are killing me.

High spots: definitely Long Line (67' of GWR branch line in N - even better (and longer) than when we saw it at St. Albans) - James' favourite too, which shows I must be doing something right.

Also got to chat with Aidan Campbell, who makes and paints some really nice figures. Figures on railway layouts always intrigue me - it seems that a lot of folks just plonk down something pre-painted, and you don't (that I can tell) see as much effort go into detailing and shading as wargamers do - not even the quick and easy dip method. Aidan was therefore something of a breath of fresh air in this regard.

James got to do a bit of modelling in the kids' modelling area (with the wife, who is actually a dab hand at detail work - comes of being a vet), and came away with a completed (Peco?) small signal box/ground frame hut which he was very proud of. We'll paint it later (rather regretting letting him stick the base/levers in, so we can't paint those!).

Purchases: not a lot - some Parkside Dundas wagon loads, a bottle of PlasticWeld and some Railmatch GWR Stock Grey (Trains4U having sold out).