Train Collectors Society, Spring Show and AGM Sat March 16th 2024, Trinity Church Hall, Leicester
Report and pictures by Bob Leggett
As with many others I left on the Friday afternoon to start setting my sales table for Saturday, for some there was a Thursday Start, more later. We were also able to have a short committee meeting at 6pm Friday, generally very positive despite a small drop in numbers and finances needing a bit of a boost, hopefully the Gaydon event will help bridge some gaps. At 7pm Paul Draycott turned up with some delicious lasagne and all those setting up were able to have a socialable start to the weekend (Fig 1). Later on several of us were able to go and have a drink at the Premier Inn where most of us were staying.
As usual I will described the show from the entrance which was manned by Shirley Williams, wife of Paul, (Fig 2) thank you Shirley, who mentioned there was plenty of early birds as well as good numbers through the door in the first two hours. The afternoon was a little quieter than normal. Malcolm Pugh with help from Eddie Spencer and Dave Corbett was running the Club Bring and Buy Stall (Fig 3). Malcolm reported good business with sales of almost £500, although many of the sales he considered very junky!!!,
Items still for sale when I arrived included a nice Brimtoy Station for £12 (Fig 4 ) and various boxed Hornby 0 Gauge trucks (Fig 5). A nice JEP Level Crossing had sold for £40, overall a total of £60 to club funds, well done.
Opposite Dave Angell with help from John Sergeant (Fig 6) had a large amount of Tri-ang and Hornby 00 Gauge and plenty of N Gauge, Dave reported slow sales in the morning but considerably better in the afternoon. Terry and Janette Wright (Fig 7) were in Leon Mills usual spot ( it was good to see Leon later in the day, recovering well from his recent illness) selling Hornby Dublo, Dinky and other items including a Tri-ang Milk Truck (Fig 8).
The only display in the foyer was Chairman Bryan Pentland's excellent multi-level 0 Gauge Tinplate layout (Fig 9), it was in two parts, on the left a Leland (1930's) Monorail was in the middle with and Distler for the Australian Market Diesel running on the American cottage industry high level (Fig 10), on the low Level (which spanned the whole layout) an American Flyer was running. On the right was a Marx two level railway with a Lionel EMU running on the top level and a motorised San Francisco souvenir Tram on the lower level (Fig 11), what a great first layout to excite visitors to the show.
As we move into the Main Hall, Mike Foster and Tony Coleman (Fig 12) were selling some of Mike's books and various Toys and Trains and also some excellent Christmas Cards! Mark Carne and Tony Penn (Fig 13), were selling Mark's larger Gauge Locomotives and accessories and Tony's 00 Gauge including Tri-ang and Hornby-Dublo, a very nice Tri-ang weathered 'Old Smokey' Class 3F was snapped up for £50 (Fig 14).
Alongside Adam Draycott had on display a 1980's professionally commissioned 00 Gauge Asphalt and Bituminous Mixing Plant Cement plant with railway (Fig 15) made for Parker Plant Ltd for Industrial Shows, Adam saved it from the tip when the Head Office was about to change and set it up as a static display. It was originally shown in a large Perspex cabinet.
In Peter Gurd's old corner Paul Draycott was selling a variety of Hornby Dublo including a Terminal Station and spare Canopy set, green roof Signal Boxes (Fig 16) and several neverwazzas and reported good trade.
On the opposite side James Day with help from Derek Bond (Fig 17), Malcolm Pugh and David Rhodes (Fig 18) set up a magnificent 32' long Tyco Trucking and Lifelike Trains layout with 11 motorway circuits and 4 railway circuits operating all day long with numerous road/rail crossings, high level Trains and mototorways, a sea area with Pola/Hornby lifting bridges (Fig 19),
a Pier Railway station service by a Budd Railcar Shuttle (Fig 20) and in the middle one of my favourite items, a Brawa Tower (Fig 21). These Towers always appeared in the famous Bertram Otto's Model Railways and James told me his inspiration came from those layouts. The huge number of buildings were mainly by Aurora, Pola and Lifelike and there was an excellent road tunnel at one end known as Pugh Mountain! (Fig 22). A huge well done to James and his team. James said this is the last time he will do such a large layout. It was certainly a wonderful layout to finish on.
At the end of the layout Derek Bond had set up his 3D printing Machine which was making Tri-ang Rockets (Fig 23) and had on display the huge number of spares and neverwazzas now available, mainly for Tri-ang Railways and Minic Motorways (Fig 24 and 25).
The rest of the hall was taken up by Traders including, Mike Hobday (Fig 26) on the front of the stage with Penny type toys including this lovely Simon and Riverlet Train purchased for £30 (Fig 27), 00 Gauge including Tri-ang Bell Sets (Fig 28),
Bandai Thomas Locomotives (Fig 29) and larger Gauges, In the middle, Dixon Upcott (Fig 30) was selling Trix and other 00 Gauge (Fig 31) and reported his best ever sales for a Leiceter event, Simon (Fig 32) and Adam Goodyear were selling Dublo and larger Gauges.
Luke Whitney and Liz Collinson (Fig 33) were selling Luke's Father's Lionel collection including a 4-6-4 for £200 (Fig 34).
Rob Hampton (Fig 35 ) sold a Lone Star 000 set to a very pleased Clive Gehle (Fig 36) and was also selling TT (Fig 37) and 00 Gauge.
Nick and Maria Dean had a good selection from N-00 Gauge (Fig 38). Bob Leggett had his usual mix of mainly 00 Gauge including a pair of Dublo 0-6-0 Sets for £40 each however, the author was very pleased with a framed betal Train set box label he purchased (Fig 39) David O' Brien was roaming around keeping everyone happy (I believe!).
With his various tales and was with Peter Corley and friend (Fig 40) who was selling a variety of kitbuilt and ready to run 00 Gauge, including a Heljan Railbus (Fig 41), the type he used to go to school on!
David Ramsey (Fig 42) was continuing to sell items from his collection. We now move into the smaller hall which was all change this year, Bill and Rachel Vyse were in the late Colin Toten's regular spot and had set up a very impressive Hornby Clockwork 0 Gauge End to end Goods Yard layout (Fig 43).They had a fun, albeit busy time operating the layout which included a nice shed scene (Fig 44).
In front of the large window Dave White with help from Les Martin, Neil Smith and an excited Dave Ball who came along to run his Royal Scot for the first time in 30 years (Fig 45) was running Wrenn 00 Gauge on Tri-ang Super 4 with an excellent Tri-ang Station complex built by Les (Fig 46).
Dave had a very rare (only 20 sets made) Brighton Belle with Power and Trailer cars both having white tables (Fig 47) and there was another nice shot of Winston Churchill at the crossing (Fig 48). An excellent display of Locomotives was also on display (Fig 49).
Paul Chapman had his lovely Faller O Gauge (Fig 50), which included Faller E Train, Play Train, Mini Play Train and Hit Train!, all running on the same gauge track, some with slightly different scales, various boxed sets were also on display including this very sweet Mini Play train (Fig 51) .
Dave Bowns (Fig 52) was selling Hornby Dublo as well as items for Paul Draycott. Train Collector editor Nicholas Oddy was selling mainly Hornby O Gauge (Fig 53).
Paul Williams was in the dining area with his lovely Berliner Bahen TT end to end scenic layout (Fig 54). One visitor was particularly keen to see Paul's, uncoupling tool in operation close up! (Fig 55).
The dining area was also busy all day with Bacon Rolls in the morning, and excellent two course lunch (Cottage pie and crumble or treacle sponge) and loads of lovely cakes in the afternoon (Fig 56), and tea and soft drinks all day, many thanks to Daphne Sargent, Debbie Robinson, Pav Pall, Judith Saunders, Paul Draycott, Adam Draycott and Marilyn Draycott. It was great for everyone to have such a wonderful show, by late morning the main hall was getting rather busy (Fig 57).
The attendance was slightly down from our record however, it was still good and the Society was able to make an excellent surplus of £535. Thank you to Bryan Pentland and Paul Draycott and his family for organising the show and other members, Exhibitors, Traders and Public who came to make this such a special event.
