Alexandra Palace Model Railway Show

A visit to the Alexandra Palace Model Railway show is always a good day out and invariably quite expensive. I went along with the vague hope that I could pick up a C class, 2 Hal or even a E4 but the only sign of any of these was the C class in the Bachmann display cabinet. In fact all the trade stands were extremely low on Hornby stock and I didn't see a Hornby stand either.  Therefore it was mainly scenic purchases for the layout rather than rolling stock. 

 

The low rise buildings to the left of my station will be like those at East Croydon, which also happen to be almost identicle to the Wills kits, which I managed to pick up at Warley. Originally I was going to scratch build these based on the shops near the Reigate level crossing but when I saw how close the Croydon shops were to the Wills kit, why reinvent the wheel? Therefore I found myself heading to Langley Models to peruse their shop detailing kits. I subsequently purchased the ironmongers, the mangle with tin bath and the bakers sets. 

I also bought some additional gas lamps for the station and some lamps with a twist for the previously mentioned street. Generally I'm not keen on the Langley's figures of people but the ironmongers are good enough to put outside the shop watching the broken down tank (post to follow). Others may get put inside doorways or find themselves cut down and used as passengers.

My final purchase from Langley was a fret of man hole covers and drains. I think this is often overlooked on layout roads and adds just a little extra detail and realism.

Another purchase was a packet of the Wills bill poster hoardings to use as gap fillers and I will use the workman figure as a painter and decorator repainting one of the shop fronts rather than obligatory pasting up of the bill board.

The next items were several packets of Wills paving stones with curbs, which the larger sheets of paving stones do not have. I didn't know Wills did these when I built my bridge and consequently cut all my own curb stones. The sprues were a little deceptive in the packet as they looked like single strips of straights with an undercut to slid under buildings and two corner sections. When you open the packet you see this is in fact two straight sections folded back to back but offset due to the moulding lugs.

I then bought a few card buildings from Freestone Model Accessories to fill up the empty areas where some of the later scratch built buildings will go. These are hopefully quick build models which will add 3D structures and colour to otherwise blank areas of the layout. If you have read my other articles you will know that I like the Scalescenes kits and I still think these look excellent but with the additional detail comes additional build time, which I am not prepared to invest on temporary buildings.

Finally I have been wanting to get hold of the Cambrian SR Borail Bogie Rail Wagon kits for some time and managed to purchase two at the show. These will go nicely with the ballast hoppers, plank wagons, Dance Hall brake van and a Wills E6, to give me a permanent way train which is entirely kit built. These have now been built and will be the subject of a later post once I have painted them.