Scalefour Forum

Excellent show again so congratulations and thanks to the organisers.
My favourite layouts of the weekend were Ouse Valley Viaduct & Balcombe and Burntisland.
Here is the Brighton Belle? crossing the viaduct on the former.

and the roundhouse on the latter.

Thank you Terry and your team for a great show. Well worth a 12,000 mile journey and 23 hours in an aeroplane. You will be a very hard act to follow.

The Ouse viaduct and Burntisland were great but so was everything else.

Thoroughly enjoyed the show, worth a long day trip from the NW (though nothing on the 23,00 mile trip).
Good to catch up with a few friends.
.
Stand out for me was Burntisland which was simply breathtaking. Fascinating operation of the train ferry.
I enjoyed all of the layouts presented.

Well done to all who organised, roll on 2020. Special thanks to Terry Bendall who signed off in some style.

Yes, indeed. A wonderful show all round, so congratulations and thanks to the organisers and participants. The layouts were good, plenty of useful traders and a great chance to meet friends and like minded fellow modellers.
All in all a thoroughly enjoyable day out.
Roll on S4North!
Dave.

jasp wrote:....Horsetan: Hobby Holidays was definitely there, as was Eileen’s, both with plenty of kit

I think I saw Eileen's, but I can't remember Hobby's stand at all. Mind you, it took me three goes to find Bill Bedford and I also had difficulty identifying High Level and Brassmasters.

Horsetan wrote:

jasp wrote:....Horsetan: Hobby Holidays was definitely there, as was Eileen’s, both with plenty of kit

I think I saw Eileen's, but I can't remember Hobby's stand at all. Mind you, it took me three goes to find Bill Bedford and I also had difficulty identifying High Level and Brassmasters.

There was a marked floor plan in the Guide that came with Scalefour News 214 or could be downloaded from the Society website.

I thought I would take the opportunity to thank Terry and his team for organising what was for me, one of the best Scaleforums that I can remember. I had a thoroughly good weekend. I managed to get around the show and see far more than I usually do and a great part of my enjoyment came from all the people that I spoke to. I won't mention names but if I spoke to you at any time over the weekend, then you know who you are. It was well worth the quite literal pain in the backside one gets from driving a Defender all the way home!

Well done to all concerned.

John.

The Ouse Valley Viaduct & Balcombe team had a great time despite the somewhat shaky start on Saturday morning. We are grateful for all the kind comments both at the show and on here, and I'm relieved that David Clift liked it after coming all the way from Australia (and thanks David for helping out by screwing and unscrewing our rope barrier bases ...). The operating experience gave us a number of pointers for the future which we will discuss when we've recovered! After all of Terry's support and understanding over the last few years we finally let him get away at 7.30 last night after finishing loading the van.

Photos and YouTube links to come in the next day or two.

Very many thanks to Terry for all his efforts in bringing us superb Scaleforums over the years. I'm sure that the poor man must have waited in trepidation for a phone call from us (for the third time) that we wouldn't be coming! This time we made it.

Here are some rather wobbly videos of traffic progressing across the OVV.

The Bachmann H2 converted by Mike Ainsworth featured in Snooz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Qyz3299Ic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho_3mH3QjoY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05T3XxHXT_A

Many thanks to Terry and the team for an excellent weekend. The Waterloo Street loons thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and it was great to catch up with so many friends.

Mind you, organising prototypical Aberdeen weather over the layout, via a leak in the roof, was maybe taking things a bit too far The affected turnout did dry out by Sunday, when running improved enormously.

James

Some observations on some of the comments:

We have provided tables and chairs in the hall for the last 4 years at least. This year there were six tables, each with four chairs, except when someone nicked one for another purpose. Five of these were around Balcombe Viaduct and one was near the Society stand. In addition there are several hundred seats on the balcony that can be used. All the tables, and most of the chairs have to be hired in which is an additional cost. Last year I ordered some extra chairs, which allowed some to be around the hall, but there were a number that were not needed which "wasted" some money.

On the trade, yes no box shifter. The one invited did not sell enough last year to make it worth while and others were not available. Same with a retailer of scenic items. If traders do not sell enough they won't come so if you want a greater range of trade stands you have to be prepared to buy from them. Squires have never attended Scaleforum in the time I have been doing the show. Not because we do not want them but because we have other traders who between them provide the same range of items. Some of our traders are also Society members so we support them.

Can't find it? the show guide, inside Scalefour News 214 includes a list of traders and there is a floor plan showing where they were located. There were FREE copies on the door for anyone who forgot to bring their copy or preferred not to do so. In addition anyone could ask at the Society stand for directions to any stand.

Regrettably leaking roofs are outside of our control. The lead of my soldering iron was too short to get up there and fix it.

Terry Bendall

I'd like to give a shout out to recognise two layouts that I thought were excellent and those were "Clackmannan Goods" and "Splott". They flew the flag for D&E modelling at a show where its sometimes not appreciated. The detail in "Splott" is fantastic, from the fully furnished interiors in the illuminated offices to the inside of the steel mill and not forgetting the bespoke stock constructed by the owner Paul Spencer.
"Clackmannan Goods" by Dave Furmage was also well presented with interesting stock, lots of movements and well rendered scenics.

Well done to Dave and Paul.

Pete

I would second that on the small diesel layouts. The track work on Clackmannan goods was astounding. Fantastic attention to detail.

I had a great time at scaleforum this year ... learnt much, received much helpful advice and enjoyed some fantastic modelling.

With my own preferences for steam and pre-grouping I was well catered for this year ... but I enjoyed all the layouts and thought all were impressive.

Somewhat eccentrically I purloined one of the chairs in the hall and made a point of watching Burntisland and Pulborough from a seated position as well as standing .... this may be old hat but was a revelation to me. Standing is a good position to get an overview of the layouts and to be able to get a good view of trackwork and specific details ... but seated you get a sense of the lines within the setting and much that is extraneous recedes from focus. you are taken actually in to the scene and wow! the layouts were good!

This is the view which children and those in wheel chairs must have all the time !

It does make me think though that we ought to provide means for those with a lower viewing level to be able to get the higher overview should they wish ?

Excellent show all round.

I found nothing to complain about, but that was not why I was there. It's no good me trying to compare numbers with what I saw last year, the year before or any other year, come to that. I can't remember that sort of detail.

I did spend a lot of time talking to people, but then, that is why I was there. I do notice, though, that at Scaleforum and Scalefour North, people seem to always be walking around with purpose, but at other shows there are quite often significant numbers walking around with that, "Where do I go now?" look about them.

The workshop areas did not seem to be all that busy, the demonstrators seemed to be very busy and the bring and buy was off the scale.

The food was OK, the company was good and the traders, exhibitors and atmosphere were excellent. I'll be there next year, or wherever it is going to be held. Well done, Terry and team.

Mick Bonwick wrote:...The workshop areas did not seem to be all that busy ...

Mick
I can assure you that, for those of us taking part, the workshops were very busy; so much so on the Sunday, that I ran out of time to see all I wished.
A Tardis would have been very useful.

My thanks to the Workshop tutors for all of the encouragement and helpful tips. I join with others in appreciating the excellent standard of the awe-inspiring modelling.

The Scalefour Society team deserve every word of appreciation, and thanks, expressed on this forum, and at the event.

Cheerydoo!

Le Corbusier wrote: Somewhat eccentrically I purloined one of the chairs in the hall and made a point of watching Burntisland and Pulborough from a seated position as well as standing .... this may be old hat but was a revelation to me. Standing is a good position to get an overview of the layouts and to be able to get a good view of trackwork and specific details ... but seated you get a sense of the lines within the setting and much that is extraneous recedes from focus. you are taken actually in to the scene and wow! the layouts were good!

This is the view which children and those in wheel chairs must have all the time !

For a while I've held the view that layouts are best viewed as you'd view the real thing. It really does transform things. The birds eye view does little for me and I feel detached from what I'm looking at but once you get down trackside then things look very different and almost always are a vast improvement. You are immersed in a scene and can start to believe that you are actually there. Things start to come alive. To a certain extent it depends on what you're looking at of course, but most layouts are not Chee Tor where you can imagine yourself on the other side of the valley to the railway. I completely understand the need at exhibitions to cater for everyone but almost all the home layouts I've seen are pitched at similar heights when they could potentially be higher. It depends on your own height and whether you prefer standing (as I do) or sitting but for me layouts could easily be a fair few inches higher, even as high as 5'-5'3" from floor to rail level.

As such heights are impractical at exhibitions how about providing some stools or chairs of the right sort of height so that people feel a little less like a buzzard and more like a person watching the trains as they would do in real life. Perhaps those exhibiting layouts and organising exhibitions might want to have a think?

Can I just add my thanks to Terry for all the work that he's done. Organising Scaleforum doesn't seem like an easy job to me and in taking on the challenge for as long as he has I think he's done the society a great service.

Justin

As promised, some photos of the Ouse Valley Viaduct and Balcombe. Videos to follow in the next day or so (with running trains!)

Or even sooner than that ...

It's amazing the way an 8 car unit gets lost on the viaduct, the whole scale of it is mind boggling.

Phil.

Phil O wrote:It's amazing the way an 8 car unit gets lost on the viaduct, the whole scale of it is mind boggling.

It is, and I would like to thank Rod and John and the rest of the team for bringing the layout to Scaleforum. It is I believe very much the work of two people which is quite amazing in itself. There were problems which I am sure were very frustrating after all the work that has been done and having been involved with three large layouts, but still nowhere near the size of Balcombe, I can appreciate the frustrations that this causes. The team deserve our thanks for having the courage to bring such a large undertaking to the exhibition.

Terry Bendall

Well said Terry.
Robin

I saw the Q1 and ballast hoppers in the fiddle yard at Scaleforum, and assumed that the brake van had yet to be attached. I presume it's absence in the video is intentional, so was this a peculiarity of SR practice? I ask because I had always understood that a brake van was required for all main line trains, even fully fitted ones, as this is, until the unions agreed in, I think, 1968 that guards could ride in the rear cab of diesel or electric locos. [I am aware that local instructions could allow certain limited movements without a van in steam days, and civil engineers could do what they wanted in an occupation, but neither seem to apply here.]

Noel wrote:I saw the Q1 and ballast hoppers in the fiddle yard at Scaleforum, and assumed that the brake van had yet to be attached. I presume it's absence in the video is intentional, so was this a peculiarity of SR practice? I ask because I had always understood that a brake van was required for all main line trains, even fully fitted ones, as this is, until the unions agreed in, I think, 1968 that guards could ride in the rear cab of diesel or electric locos. [I am aware that local instructions could allow certain limited movements without a van in steam days, and civil engineers could do what they wanted in an occupation, but neither seem to apply here.]

The loco and wagons in question belong to Mike Ainsworth, who is a member of the team and also brought some superb stock to the layout.

As a retired BR/Railtrack/Network Rail signalling and operations manager and part of the Balcombe team myself, I was interested in this, so Mike and I discussed it. He may no doubt wish to respond himself, but we agreed that there could have been a narrow time window in 1967, when steam was still in use on the Southern Region, but after the introduction of the new policy to dispense with brake vans on fully fitted trains.

Captain Kernow wrote:but we agreed that there could have been a narrow time window in 1967, when steam was still in use on the Southern Region, but after the introduction of the new policy to dispense with brake vans on fully fitted trains.

OK, but the policy was to dispense with brake vans on fully fitted trains at that point, not to dispense with guards, who were to travel in the rear cab of the [diesel or electric] loco; it was only later [1970s?] that guards were no longer required on most fully fitted trains. So far as I know the rule change did not at any time apply to steam haulage [nowhere for the guard to travel], hence my query.