We arrived home last night after a few days down in Wells. This was our first visit to Wells and also my first vist to Railwells. Late on Saturday we arrived at our hotel, The Old Gatehouse, and after booking in we walked out of the back door of the hotel onto Cathedral Green to find the view below.
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| Wells Cathedral |
What more could you ask for?... After a long drive, with drinks in hand, sitting with my lovely wife, admiring the changing colours on the west face of the cathedral during sunset... perfect...
Next day (Sunday) my wife was more that happy to have a wander around the city while I ventured into the Town Hall for RailWells.
There was a definite Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway theme going on due to its closure 50 years ago. Layouts that took my attention were...
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| Cheddar S.& D.J.R. (P4) |
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| Cheddar S.& D.J.R. (P4) |
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| Cheddar S.& D.J.R. (P4) |
Along with the whole look and feel of the Cheddar I liked the little stories applied by Simon Challis to the cameos of figures on the layout. Above shows one of several little cameos with a discription on the facia of the layout, others include a nurse and baker on their rounds...
New Mere is fictional layout sited a what might have been Wincanton-Warminster branch of the S.& D.J.R...
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| New Mere station S.& D.J.R. (P4) |
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| Overal view of New Mere S.& D.J.R. (P4) |
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| A nice depiction of Ivo Peters, wife and Bentley overlooking New Mere station |
A slightly smaller layout was Chewton Mendip on a fictional branch line to Priddy.
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| Chewton Mendip S.& D.J.R. (EM) |
I met Gordon (our North Lincs Scalefour group leader) at the show and we had a good chat with Tim Tincknell regarding couplings, the merits of EM and P4 along with the sector plate on his Chewton Mendip layout.
Angelbank was one of a few non S.&D.J.R. layouts. It is an EM gauge layout based in Shopshire around Ludlow and I found it interesting due to the working quarry incline...
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| Angelbank (EM) |
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| Angelbank (EM) |
I also thought the bare trees, closed signal box and slighly delapidated loco shed on Angelbank added a nice rundown atmosphere especially as most of use try to depict the opposite.
There were other fine layouts in 2mm Finescale, P4, EM, OO and O along with good trade support. One new trader that I made a purchase from was Attwood Aggregates from Devon who supply stone ballast for N to O scales. All ballest is sourced from six different West Country quarries, one of which is Meldon Quarry. I thought a bag of very fine roadstone and china clay might come in useful...
Overall an excellent day. After the show my wife and I stayed on in Wells for a couple of days to explore and enjoy this unique city. Next year Railwells 40 is planned to be a very speical show, so I need to have a chat with the boss to see if we can do the same again.
2 comments:
Looks to have been an interesting show. All being well I shall be going to Scaleforum on the Saturday. Great anticipation.
Unfortunately, after a number of years attending both days at Scalforum, I can only make on the Sunday this year.
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