TCS at the Warley Show (NEC) 2008
 

If you've never been, then this show is BIG. Plenty of layouts and traders, most with recent items, but a few specialist exhibits with collectables on display or for sale.

The TCS had our usual publicity display, the 6 gauge test track, a flat screen showing toy and model railway pictures and video, and printed material. The stand was manned by Elaine and Andy Hyelmann, Eric Large when 'off duty' from a 3mm scale layout, Keith Bone who provided many of the pictures, Dave White, myself and TCS non member Colin. My thanks to you all.

We were next to the large Basset Lowke display which had 5 trains running at once, my highlight was seeing a B-L Deltic hauling a lengthy train.

                     
Please click on photos for full size image
 

Just across the aisle was a massive Hornby Dublo 3 rail layout which always had a large crowd of onlookers.

Other layouts which caught my eye was a first world war battlefield line, with trenches, guns and tanks. Even barbed wire, all in 1/35th scale.

Also a small but very well done Lego electric railway.

Back in 'collectors corner', other collecting societies were present and enjoyed themselves. We met many current TCS members, and handed out plenty of TCS recruitment forms. We offer a test facility for visitors to try their new purchases, and perhaps as we were in a more prominent position than previous years, we had plenty to try out.

The largest loco was an O gauge Midland spinner 420, then plenty of OO including a Hornby Dublo 3 rail Golden Fleece, a mint Trix EM1, 1980's Mainline and Lima through to modern Bachmann and Hornby, including one loco with digital sound. Some American HO, three Lilliput HOe, and then some modern N gauge. The only non runner was a Hornby HST power car ....... with it's motor missing!

Report: Malcolm Pugh
Photos: Keith Bone

2007 Show Report

Once again the TCS was one of the societies invited to be at the prestigious Warley Model Railway Club Exhibition 2007 held at Birmingham's NEC. Setup was on Friday evening, we were in 'Collectors Corner', along with the Tri-ang and Kitmaster Societies. Unfortunately, the Wrenn society were unable to attend, and the HRCA were placed next to modern Hornby, so HRCA chairman David Embling spent most of his time explaining that they weren't anything to do with this company, apart from their common Name.

Back to the TCS stand, the multi track shuttle test track was used, with new for 2007, DCC available for N and OO gauges.

There is a small nucleus of TCS owned stock, augmented by items from personal collections. For the past few shows, James Day and I have run the stand, but this year Andy and Elaine Hyelman  volunteered to come for a day each.  Elaine had brought a Märklin Maxi 0-6-0T steam loco, and some Z gauge. On Sunday Andy arrived with some more Continental locomotives , in  Märklin Z Class 50 2-10-0, Class V60 0-6-0 diesel, Class 218 diesel, Class 216 diesel (called Lollo after Gina Lollobrigida, as they both had the same shaped front end) and  E103 electric in HO a massive planned, but never constructed in reality, 2-6-8-0  by Märklin, with both a 6 wheel  and 4 wheel bogie tender. It could only be placed on the shuttle one way round, to ensure that it didn't pass over the end stop track gaps and hit the buffers. And a set of three 'NOHAB' diesel locos but in different scales: HO Roco, Norwegian Railways, TT: Berliner Bahn, Belgian Railways and  N: Minitrix, Danish Railways. A request to  the Scandinavian society to bring their 0 gauge NOHAB along was unfruitful.

Keith Bone lent us some Hornby Dublo 3 rail locos, several times we had to explain the 3rd rail in the OO track to younger visitors. I had purchased, only a couple of weeks earlier, a Lima OO 'Irish' loco based on a class 33 with extra roof detailing, which caused interest, as a visitor from Ireland wanted to buy it!!

It can be seen in the picture, propelling the special edition TCS Leicester wagon, along with an LGB Santa pump trolley on the G track.
 

Also supplied were some N and OO DCC locomotives,  Kato and Bachmann American diesels, and a British EWS class 66 with sound.

As in previous years, we offer to test run anyone's locomotives, during the course of the weekend we were fairly busy, but once again, no-one wanted to test run Z, TT, O or G!

N gauge locomotives  included the newly released Dapol Hymek and Farish 04 shunter. One visitor had bought a 'seconds' LNER Flying Scotsman loco from a well known manufacturer sited near the entrance, and this ran very poorly. It was intended as his son's Christmas present, luckily he was able to swap it for another loco, which ran much better. Another visitor had bought some second hand DCC fitted Kato American locos, I was able to use the DCC programming track to read their addresses, then successfully test run them.

OO locos, there were several newly released Bachmann Ivatt 2-6-0s, and sound equipped Freightliner class 66s. A mint Hornby LBSC E2 was run, along with probably the longest testee to date, a Lima 156 2 car DMU.

TCS members spotted: Dave Coddington from Glasgow, who had a 5 hour journey to the NEC, and nearly 7 hours back, all due to rail engineering works. From France Peter Waddington, from Ireland Eamonn Greville, and to complete the 'International' presence, Dave McCarthy from Wales! Local ( to the NEC ) member Dave Angell also helped on the TCS stand for most of Saturday. Other visitors included Brian Arnold, Keith Bone and Dave White.

Several TCS members were active behind other stands and exhibits.

Eric Large had a fantastic display of Triang TT which celebrated its introduction 50 years ago

         
Please click on images above for full size photos.

Steve Knight on the Kitmaster stand

Miles Rowland on the Tri-ang Society's stand

What do you mean a box can't run?
 

Traders Andrew Kwasniewski, Neil Langley ( thanks for re-joining ), Nick Gilman and Dennis Lovett on the Bachmann stand.

All credit to the Warley Model railway club for organising this massive show, their largest ever. There was a good mix of layouts of all descriptions and sizes to traders, possibly there being not quite so many collectables as in previous years. Hornby O gauge was well represented by Ken Dalby and friends with a massive multi train layout which attracted crowds

We talked to many people, some prospective members, handed out many leaflets and managed to recruit 3 new members. Hopefully, we'll see you there for the 2008 show, slightly earlier in the year, November 22nd and 23rd.

Malcolm Pugh and the Hyelmans