Exhibition Report

Alexandra Palace
24th / 25th March 2007

Our first visit to the London Festival of British Railway Modelling held in the Alexandra Palace, London. Home to the first television broadcast by the BBC back in 1936, the building is large and imposing. Despite maintenance it is sadly showing signs of neglect.

We arrived on the friday afternoon to setup the stand and then tootled off to the hotel to get booked in and have dinner and to meet up with Doug.

Saturday morning saw Matt and Cameron arrive at the hotel to collect some additional kit, T Shirts, coats etc and then it was off to the exhibition and final setup. Up and running just after 9am and a quick chance for a look around. We were located in the Grand Hall and although the hall was full, there was lots of space around the stands. The West Hall however was only two thirds full. Directly behind us was The Bufferstop Shop. This where we encountered the mug making crew.

We were ably assisted during the weekend by LAD491 (Laurie), Doug Kightley, Atomicdanny, Partyspiritz and Damian2. Numerous UKTS members also visited the stand over the weekend and a large number of the visiting public dropped by for a chat and some for a brief drive. As this was a last minute invitation we did not have the DCC Workshop.

Overall a very good exhibition with something for everyone regardless of scale or gauge. Traders also in abundance selling everything from LED's to full blown systems.

Discussions with the organising crew (remember the same magazine sponsors the Northern Festival of MRM) during the exhibition hinted that February 2008 could see the return to Doncaster from Harrogate for the Northern exhibition and that we could look forward to an invite to both exhibitions in 2008. We await our invitations.

The layout in this final line of pictures should be familiar to anyone who has driven Don Hintons Burton Derby route. It is Ambergate, the triangular station.

Our thanks to The Railway Club and sponsors (British Railway Modelling) for the invitation, the refreshments and the location. Our thanks to all those that gave of their time to help us demonstrating, to those who dropped by for a chat and to the members of the public who visited the exhibition over the weekend.