Expong 2010

I'd have to say one of, if not the, best Swanley shows. The standard was very high, and I was not alone in thinking that judging by the comments around the room. Ted Polet's Rae Bridge was outstanding. I've been a big fan of Ted's work for years and I'm still completely drawn in to the scenes. At least he didn't hand me the controller as he did some years back. The reply to which has gone down in the annuls. The other high spots were a small cased On30 layout-from France I think - and the dragline in the 16mm layout. I will eat my words here as they were both I believe DCC operated. Though I will say that if you are going to use sound in a large room then you need large speakers. Not for volume, but for sound quality. Piddly 1" speakers going tss,tss,tss for steam sound doesn't cut it. If you want to do that buy an old s/h bass amp with a 15" speaker and a big space behind it and dump that behind the layout. Then your viewers will feel the sound rather than just swat it away.

Apart from a tea and a pound spent on a pair of dividers (S/H British Thompson [Houston?]) no cash left my wallet. Is there less to buy? Or despite the high standard is there a stagnation period just around the corner for narrow gauge modelling?