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Exhibition Report

Cardiff - 21st/22nd February 2004
Our invite to Cardiff was received in September 2003 and was eagerly accepted. Out first opportunity to take UKTrainSimLive to Wales. We awoke on the Saturday morning to a biting North East wind and travelled the last two miles from the hotel to the UWIC in Colchester Avenue and were warmly greeted by the Exhibition Manager, Mike Bird, and quickly setup and running. This was our smaller demonstration stand of only two projectors and two screens because of limited space.

The location in the refectory along with an excellent layout from the Cardiff Model Engineering Society and a trade stand was good. It gave visitors plenty of opportunity to sit and watch while they ate their sandwiches / lunch etc. We also setup the third PC out front for visitors to try their hand.

Two UKTrainSim members stand and watch (142fan aka Tubemad with blue and white wings and 222004 aka jjules with the red colllared jacket). Sunday morning before opening time and Neutronic warming up. Two shuttles, two screens. Visitors watch while another visitor drives.

We used the opprotunity to show off most of the Welsh Routes available from UKTrainSim; Barmouth, Talyllyn, Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway and Cambrian. We also demonstrated Vern's new Blackpool Tramway along with MidEast, NWE etc. As always the crowds were amazed at what they saw and a good number took the opportunity to have a drive on the PC out front. One gentleman spent most of Sunday at the show as he came back 2 or 3 times for a drive.

Easilyconfused watches a visitor on our third PC out front. Half of Eric Bottomley's stand. The other half of Eric Bottomley's stand. One of the traders present in the corridors - Dean Sidings.

It was nice to see some new faces at this exhibition, 142fan aka Tubemad, 222004 aka jjules plus one other whose name I forgot to note down. We were joined on the Saturday by asalmon who joined in with the driving and demonstrating. We were joined on the Sunday by easilyconfused who did a grand job front of house overseeing the third PC and taking the occasional drive himself.

We were also joined by a gentleman from a television production company who not only took a great interest in our stand but went away saturday evening to try it for himself and then came back sunday for a longer chat with Neutronic about Train Simulation.

Original Tri-ang TT (3mm) track layout by BBC (Cardiff) Club, Model Section. Halfway Halt - BBC (Cardiff) Club, Model Section - Thomas and friends. Maindee East Loco Shed in Scalefour. Brian Kerley's Horse Drawn Vehicles.

Whilst at the exhibition we were approached about two further visits to Wales. The first from the gent running the trade stand in the refectory enquired about our attending an exhibition in Treorchy for January 2005 and the second from another layout operator about attending the Carmarthen Exhibition in October. Unfortunately the Carmarthen show clashed with the Colchester Exhibition already booked for the last weekend in October.

Cardiff Model Engineering Society display of hand built models. Upper Hill 4mm by North Gwent Modellers. Upper Hill 4mm by North Gwent Modellers. Warsash 4mm by Cardiff Model Engineering Society.

We would like thank Mike Bird and the Cardiff Model Rail Group for the invite to the Cardiff Exhibition and for the brass plaque that lets us say 'I WAS THERE'.

Special thanks to asalmon for his able assistance on Saturday and to easilyconfused for his help and assitance for most of Sunday. Much appreciated. Unless we get an invite to Thornbury, I guess this will be as close as we get to Bristol for you guys.