Expos and exhibitions

Well the Canberra Model Railway Expo 2011 is on its way and we Rogers are all excited. Or at least we Rogers who are train fans are all excited. Many years ago AMRM looked into what it was that makes the magazine crew go along to model train exhibitions and expos, in an article titled "Menangle Again!" after a disparaging comment from a member of the public who was not so happy to see the same layout again.

As a former Brisbane boy who has moved to Canberra which has a smaller population from which Rail modellers might come, the inevitable is true: the variety of layouts is less than it was in Brisbane and even in Brisbane I got used to certain layouts being there for years running

So is this a problem?
I say no.
As an "active" modeller (I hope that working on models or a layout once a week helps keep me out of the armchair modeller category) I can learn new things from seeing the same layout with 12 months in between for me to grow as a modeller. In that 12 months my focus can have changed, I might have tried new things, or I might see a new thing to try that I will try this year that I wouldn't have last year.

The other aspect of model train expos and exhibitions is for my children. They give me the chance to show them better and bigger layouts than I can show them at home. Luckily the "u drive" layouts give my younger children the chance to do what they do here at home: drive trains.

Another positive aspect of model train expos and exhibitions is vendors: people selling train stuff, especially the second hand store. There are a limited number of model train outlets in Canberra but at the model train expos and exhibitions here, vendors come from New South Wales and all around to sell to a captive market, and I for one am grateful!

Anyway, that's it for this month (only 2 and a half hours left anyway) but I hope to post some photos of the expo and any significant purchases next week