THE Christmas Model Railway Show - Manchester 2015

[Tony W]

Just a quick reminder that the Manchester Show is this weekend,
Saturday 5th (10:00 to 17:30) and Sunday 6th (10:00 to 16:30) in the Barnes Wallis Building, Manchester University Northern Campus (formerly UMIST) very close to Piccadilly Railway Station.
Admission: £8 per person. Up to 2 accompanied children free, with each adult.

As the third oldest model railway society in the world, MMRS is proud to be the only one in the UK to stage an exhibition in the centre of a major city. The Barnes Wallis Building is between Oxford Road and Piccadilly stations, convenient for both train and tram. It is ideally placed to allow visitors from all over the country to visit one of the finest model railway exhibitions in the UK, and also to visit the acclaimed Manchester Christmas Street Markets.

18 layouts are set to appear. Several of them will be making their debut at the show and most of the others have appeared in national railway modelling magazines. The layouts represent railways from many locations and many time periods, and represent scales ranging from 1:19 down to 1:450. There will also be over 20 trade stands as well as the Scalefour Society stand.

The special guest layout – Roy Cropper’s “Woodhead” from Coronation Street is now at the MMRS clubrooms being refurbished for its first ever public appearance. The entire layout (not just the small section which has been on static display at Granada Studio Tours) will be in operation at the exhibition.

For further information please visit http://www.mmrs.co.uk/exhibition/

Hope to see some of you there

Tony

[Tor Giffard]

Hi Tony,

Three, possibly four of us will be arriving by train from Wilmslow into Piccadilly and heading for the show. The last time any of us attended was around 1990. We're all hoping to enjoy this show as much.

See you Sunday

Dave

[BRUNEL]

Tony,

Unfortunately I can't manage to make the journey over the Pennines this weekend as this show has been well worth visiting previously and feel it will make a welcomed return to the exhibition calendar. My only regret is that there is no Friday evening opening which always seemed to have a most agreeable 'club' atmosphere. Good luck to you all nonetheless.

Derek.

[jon price]

And here is one they prepared earlier (in 1937 actually)

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/model ... manchester

I'm aiming to visit the show and I recommend Tollesbury Quay (7mm) which I saw under construction and is a brilliant example of scratchbuilding in the Manchester tradition (down to the loco wheels)

[Terry Bendall]

Just arrived home about 3/4 of an hour ago from the Manchester show having been on duty with the Society stand in the company of Mike Ainsworth. A very good show, and the best news of all for the MMRS is that it was very busy on both days so hopefully the numbers will have paid off in terms of the cost of staging the event and the effort put in. Not the easiest of venue to manage but everything was well organised and unloading and loading up went smoothly. No new members signed up but information taken and it was good to see those members who stopped by. Hopefully the re-launched show will continue to be a success and that in future there will be a greater representation from the "fine scale" end of the layout spectrum.

Terry Bendall

[Tor Giffard]

Aft'noon all,

Highly social visit to the MMRS show yesterday morning....75% of my 3hrs in the show spent chatting with fellow S4 club members, traders, former BR driver colleague/railway author and modelling contacts. Trade stands supported with purchases of Lindstrom & Xuron handtools, Phoenix paints/fluids to avoid excessive courier charges. A couple of 1960s BR publications snapped up and custom given to the refreshment facilities for lunch. Most enjoyed Tollesbury wharf and the Davies & Metcalfe might have been layout. A couple of other finescale layouts attracted me but the frequent 'hand from the sky' operation abbreviated my time enjoying them.

We found the parking in the multi storey and walk to the venue very easily with the directions given.

Of the two Manchester shows which I've attended in 2015 I found that Expo north had the Finescale clubroom atmosphere which I prefer but I also understand the 'need to cater for all tastes' approach of the MMRS event. Quite different shows but each valuable in their own way.

Dave

[Tony W]

Thanks to everyone for their comments. Irrespective of the financial side of things the show seems to have been a success given the tone of feedback we have received so far. However, there's still plenty to improve upon for next year! Looking out of the window right now I'm glad the show was last weekend and not this! Perhaps it was so wet in the 1930's they needed hats like that (thanks for posting the link, Jon). Happy days!

Tony