I was impressed
with the organization skills and overall presentation of the enlarged Epping Rosehill
Gardens exhibition, Glen has been to this exhibition a number of times however
this was my first time to any other exhibition in NSW apart from Liverpool.
Its nice to
have carpet and airconditioning, outstanding to say the least.
Going to exhibitions
as far as I am concerned is to inspire, then entertain.
Murray
river Bridge managed to get consistent good feedback. A lot the attendees liked the size of the
bridge and it was a big statement.
Admittedly this layout is for exhibition only, so as long as it has a
clear statement then its done its job.
Inspiration.
On Saturday
there was one very young lad that would not leave the layout, his father had to
retrieve him a number of times, he was definitely inspired, so by day one we
had done our job!
As it
turned out, he was quite a knowledgeable, and we discussed consists of the
ultra modern era. Even though an
exhibition can get hectic, I took the time to listen as he listed out his
locomotives and rolling stock, what he does, whats his passion etc, for him it
was clearly also a father son bonding experience, there is no doubt in my mind
he left the exhibition inspired.
Blog
followers:
Its great
to get good feedback from followers, clearly seeing MRB in the 2 dimensions on
the blog and on youtube is fine but in the third dimension it has a lot of
impact.
So you
don’t get the full impact of the size of the bridge until you see it in person.
Concept:
A lot of
attendees commented that they liked the no station concept, and I agree with
them, it frees you to accomplish bigger scenes. In fact this is the main reason MRB was
invited.
Using an
actual location is great because everyone recognizes it, and MRB is a really
great location as very little has changed, between 1990 and now even the tracks
under the bridge are still there, but covered by asphalt.
So as far
as I am concerned, MRB is a success.
What worked
what needs more work.
The
lighting made a huge difference to the appearance, and I got a steady stream of
question from attendees where did I get them and how I constructed them.
I noticed
when we first set them up in the train room, they pump out a lot of light and
its very even, however I still need something right at the front to direct light
to the side of the bridge. I did
experiment with a couple of fixes but they either proved too expensive, time
consuming, or just looked silly.
Thus with
the exhibition day becoming closer, I decided to give myself more “think” time
to solve this issue.
Rolling
stock transit boxes
They were perfect, some advantages were:
Nice and
big therefore easier to transport.
Un packing
and loading was a lot quicker.
Each shelf could
be moved around and stacked anywhere without the fear of damage.
The shelves
were light enough to be unloaded - loaded on the fiddle yard, therefore no
stooping down etc all on the one level.
Each
compartment is designed to fit a particular wagon type, it’s a bit of a puzzle
at first but again overall time from start to finish was dramatically reduced.
John and
Katie were given the task and they did a great job, Helen even took the opportunity
to use it for transporting the removable bridge sections.
Where is
it?
I took a
different tact at this exhibition and I made sure the exhibition program stated
where MRB was, unfortunately we still got questions about where exactly Murray
River Bridge, D’oh! Obviously I need to
do better.
However
when questioned the crew could rattle it off the location no worries.
I had hoped
to complete a presentation (time got the better of me) and thus enable the
attendees to thumb through it. UK
exhibitions use this to great effect, as some exhibitors model some extremely
obscure locations, and it really helps to have a back story.
So for the
next exhibition I will have a display of where it is and some historical shots
etc to give the layout the proper back story.
Consisting:
I spent
most of the Saturday morning consisting the locomotives for each train, not the
end of the world, but I think for future exhibitions I will pre consist the
locomotives and set them up in the boxes so its clear which locos go together
and facing which direction, simply a time saving exercise.
I did a re
consist of a train for Glen on Monday only to realize that I had used the same
consist number as the GWA grain train, it took me awhile to re consist
everything so again a lesson was to not stuff with consists just make a new one
an swap out all the locos.
Wireless
NCE.
John really
saved my bacon, he built a daisy chain for the NCE controllers just incase
there was another layout with the wireless system.
He was
right on that count, Arakoola was having big issues, I tested it on Friday and realized
there was another system in the hall and shut our system down.
We were
able to continue operating using the daisy chain. However I reckon John is right we need something
set up for future exhibitions. A more
permanent solution is required.
Point
control.
The finger control
that currently works in the fiddle yard, its fine, but it is labour intensive.
I have
purchased some cobolt surface mount motors, what I need to figure out is if I need
a control panel. I don’t like them,
however it’s a group.
One
detractor;
I guess its
one of those things where no mater what, someone as to complain about
something, they liked the concept and they liked what was done, however they
had an issue with the side lighting, I explained to them my plan but it is what
it is right now, however they kept going on about it, seemed quite animated for
some reason.
I just put
it down to a lack of appreciation of what had been accomplished.
The layout
they were looking at is ten months old, its been built by one person, it is the
size of most club layouts, Its already
been modified and includes three extra boards. All the locos and rollingstock
has been modified and weathered. Oh, and
its been transported 800 odd Kilometres for you to see it!
With
thanks:
John and
Katie, Peter, Ally and Austin for being there when we needed it, thanks a lot.
Glen, glad
you could be there, (it was the first time he has seen the layout in 3D), we
managed to find is jaw on the floor somewhere, when he saw it.
Finally
Helen, a true believer in the boxcar hobos J we rock!
