Vintage Hornby Train Show 2013
Report written by Peter Clay for our June 2013 Newsletter
Saturday 4 May 2013
Welling Methodist Church
Welling
The 30th annual Vintage Hornby Train Show, organised by Adrian Ashford, was held at the Methodist Church Hall, Welling on 4th May 2013.
At Adrian’s request, empty table space on the stage at this event was filled by a display of Meccano models by various SELMEC members.
I arrived at about 9:15am just before Douglas Windibank to find Adrian had the stage set up with tables, cloths, power and Meccano showcards, with his own models set out. By opening time (10:30am) all five of us had our displays ready.
Douglas Windibank’s display
Douglas Windibank brought a Renault Formula 1 racing car, a Florida Everglades one man hovercraft, a Red Arrows jet plane, a radar scanner, a Steeltec Harley Davidson motorcycle, two sports cars from the Turbo series, a WW1 Sopwith Camel fighter plane, and two 0 gauge railway wagons.
Adrian Ashford’s roundabout, tractor and tug
Doug’s display (brought on public transport!) featured many models in eye catching yellow, making an excellent contrast with Adrian Ashford whose models were in red and green comprising a display windmill which ran all day from batteries, a carousel ‘galloper’ roundabout also running throughout, twinkling with lights, a tractor powered by a № 1 clockwork motor with hay rake, a motorcycle and sidecar, powered by ‘Magic’ motor, and a superb tug boat to Adrian’s own design which would scale in with the 10 set cargo liner.
Brian Elvidge’s crane and marine engine, with Chris Warrell’s Hunslet locomotive in the foreground
Chris Warrell showed a Hunslet narrow gauge 0–6–0 saddletank locomotive running on Hornby track, a ‘Meccaneau’ Perrier water bottle — vintage (the bottle, not the water!), a pushbike with spoked wheels, a Bugatti racer in blue/gold, a 0 gauge railway service crane; a drum kit, and a small robot from a tin.
Brian Elvidge displayed an electric hammerhead crane, a twin cylinder marine engine, and an Army Multikit mobile gun on tracked transporter.
Peter Clay’s Meccanograph
My models were a ‘Super Universal Design Maker’ Meccanograph, a small Xtreme set car, a tricycle delivery cart, and an O gauge railway crane truck (which was coupled to Chris’s loco).
So much for the exhibits — how did the day go? There were plenty of visitors on stage to see, and enjoy, our models. One may think this type of show would attract mainly model railway enthusiasts but there were plenty of parents, children and grandparents — one of the latter someone I knew at work some years ago!
Brian Elvidge demonstrates his crane
SELMEC visitors included George Foard, John Cowdery, Jim Arthur, Tim Surtell, Clive Baldwin and David Whitmore, not forgetting Cathy Warrell who at one stage took Chris’s place as engine driver! All visitors obviously enjoyed our display and we were kept busy answering various questions as well as running our models. My Meccanograph got a good running-in and the same could be said for everyone’s working models. In my mother’s words, “a good time was had by all”. Posters for our October exhibition were on all the tables.
I do not have door figures but I gather attendance was up on last year. The final accolade must go to Adrian who organised the entire show which ran smoothly throughout the day. He would like a SELMEC presence next year as well — I can recommend going and exhibiting, if there is room.
One of the Hornby train layouts in action
You can see more photos from the show in our Facebook album.