Morning all.
Well, that's that. Uckfield turned out as expected. It really is a great show, organised by an excellent bunch of club members who simply cannot do enough for their exhibitors over the weekend. It can be tricky being a solo operator, especially over a two day show but the club kept an eye on me.
It was lovely to meet so many people ( at the risk of inadvertently missing someone too many to mention individually ) chat about Sheep Dip and generally catch up. At times, we were pretty much submerged so I do apologise if I didn't get to you. Inevitably, there are now a few small jobs to attend to before Sheep Dip goes out again but nothing too arduous. This was the second time SD went out as a DCC operated layout and I need to improve the running of the Pecketts with the fitting of stay alives being the obvious progression. The Hornby 08 was, as always, fine.
The two days were busy for pretty much the whole period with Sunday perhaps the busier of the two.....From a chat with Team Uckfield, numbers were pretty good over both days.
Rye Sands was a standout layout. Exceeded all expectations seeing it for real and Will is just a lovely chap. Given the fact that he was in the same room as one Jerry Clifford, I would never be surprised if Rye doesn't appear in MRJ at some point, and deservedly so. It is just a great bit of modelling.
Special mentions as well to East Lynn Quay, exhibited by Simon and Maurice and of course, Laxfield who looked smashing after the refurb. Hats off to John and Rod for being brave enough to haul a 40 odd year old layout up from Devon. The delightful Caledonian Yard was very nice indeed and it was lovely to chat to Tim and Richard over the weekend.
One thing I didn't manage was to pick up some P4 bits and bobs. I simply didn't get there but not a drama.
I did, however, pick up a couple of Peter Harding's booklets on a couple of backwaters, which are quite excellent.
Rob