Widnes Road goes to Warley 2011

Widnes Road (and Malcolm and I) have returned from a fab weekend away at Warley 2011, with some great memories, a much lighter wallet and some top purchases. A new performer on the layout over the weekend was 40002, which was purchased as the show opened on the Saturday morning, and promptly fitted with a Howes sound decoder and DCC supplies rectangular speaker.  It then proceeded to perform faultlessly all weekend.

One of the best aspects, from an operators perspective about this show, is as the photo below testifies to, the ability to drive the hire van right into the hall, which saves about an hour of lugging layout panels about. Very civilised.


The other great aspect was being able to see up close before the show opened some of the best layouts in the UK. My personal favourites, that the photos do not do justice to were 'Diesels in the Duchy' and Mike Anson's 'Western Road'. Two of the finest D&E era layouts on the circuit. The curry and beers with Mike and Andy from Western Road was the icing on the cake of a top weekend away.

Widnes Road on YouTube

Widnes Road - YouTube

I have to express my gratitude to Hawkingetippyd who has posted a superbly shot video of Widnes Road on YouTube filmed at the Folkestone show last month. I particularly like the long shot of the 45 approaching the camera at 6:35 which captures the feel of the layout in action better than any photo I have managed to take.

Alsager Railway Exhibition

Last weekend Widnes Road had its last outing before the Warley MRC National Railway Exhibition at the NEC in two weeks. A nice medium sized show that was very well attended. My favourite layout was the outstanding Rowlands Castle set just before D-day.

One advantage of the relatively poor light within the Alsager Civic Hall was the opportunity to use the model lighting on Widnes Road to take some dusk shots of the depot area.