Spring Show Sat March 15th 2025 by Bob Leggett
Trinity Church Hall, Leicester
I left late Friday afternoon so was able to lay out my sales table early for Saturday morning and arrived just as Adam Draycott was unloading two large trays of Lasagne for all those Exhibitors and Traders who were setting up, I was therefore able to have a very sociable start to the weekend.
As usual I will described the show from the entrance which was manned by Shirley Williams (Fig 1), wife of Treasurer Paul, who had set up a lovely 3'8'' circular layout with Tri-ang Locos and rolling stock and Truescale Buildings (Fig 2), running on the Trix fibre track were two Dock shunters pulling various wagons.
Visitors were then immediately attracted to the noise from the mass of working accessories on Bryan Pentland's amazing 0 gauge Circus themed layout (Fig 3), I don't think I have ever seen so many accessories on one layout, please see the various videos on the website to really enjoy this layout. Lionel Circus Trains were running round most of the day, I also loved the Chein Big Dipper (Fig 4).
Opposite, Malcolm Pugh with help from John Davidson and Dave Corbett were running the Club Bring and Buy Stall. It is always a very popular stall and very busy most of the morning (Fig 5). Malcolm reported good business, top sale was a Bachmann 00 Gauge War Dept 2-10-0 which sold for £50, other sales included Tinplate lesser know manufacturers and Chinese 0 Gauge Trains, Trams (Fig 6) and Trolleybuses, Hornby-Dublo wagons and Tri-ang wagons, many for only one pound, H0, 00 and 0 Gauge Track and Points, Bayko and other items, from sales and donations over £50 will go to Club funds, well done.
Opposite Dave Angell (Fig 7) had a large amount of Tri-ang and Tri-ang/Hornby including a good Car-a-Belle set for £140 and Hornby 00 Gauge. Dave reported 10% increase in sales from last November. Leon Mills (Fig 8) was selling 0 Gauge ACE Trains and said the Dukedog was selling well (Fig 9). Dave Bowns was in the passageway near the entrance and was selling Hornby-Dublo, he was concerned how much Dublo values were dropping for the more common models.
As we move into the Main Hall, David Ramsey was selling off some more of his stock (Fig 10).
on the left Mark Carne seen here with David Ramsey (Fig 11) was selling mostly 0 Gauge and Tony Penn and his son Terry (Fig 12), were selling mostly Tri-ang Locomotives Coaches and Trucks as well as some Hornby-Dublo, an excellent Tri-ang M7 (later seen on Dave White's layout) and a nice boxed Britannia were both picked up for £15 each.
Alongside perfectly attired David Rhodes had a very interesting display layout of LMS mostly 00 Gauge Locomotives and coaches (Fig 13), Locos running were Hornby, Lima, Wrenn,Trix and a nice Keyser kitbuilt Railbus (Fig 14) and Kitmaster Beyer-Garrett (Fig 15). A Tri-ang Hornby Coronation Scot with Margate and China blue coaches was running as I passed.
On the far right hand wall Dave Peasant and his Uncle Peter had a very nice scenic O Gauge layout (Fig 15) featuring ACE, Hornby, Bassett-Lowke, Darstead, Locomotives, Leeds Vans and Hornby Coaches, buildings were mainly by Hugar and Millbro, I particularly liked the Cattle dock where the Cows and Bulls were queuing to become OXO Cubes! (Fig 16).Using Lionel Easy-Track the trains ran well all day.
Last display in the hall was Dave White with an excellent mid 1960's Tri-ang Railways and Minic Motorways 00 Gauge (Fig 17). Dave had two railway circuits and two separate Minic Motorway circuits, one with cars stopping for the Trains.The scene was well packed with Model Land Buildings and Accessories and during the afternoon several of the Tri-ang Boys had a group photo at the layout (Fig 18).
Paul Brookes was on the front of the stage (Fig 19) selling his incredible collection of Master Models, Wardie wooden 00 and TT Gauge Station and other Buildings, Liliput models and Gamda Vehicles as well as other items. Paul will shortly retire from trading and was selling items with large discounts.
The rest of the hall was taken up by Traders including, Dixon Upcott (Fig 20) who was selling Trix, Tri-ang and other 00 Gauge and reported his best ever sales for a Leicester event, topping last year's Spring event, which was his previous best,
Simon Goodyear, seen here completing a sale (Fig 21) was selling mostly larger Gauges. Bob Leggett had his usual mix of mainly 00 Gauge including a Hornby Shop Shelf display unit which sold for £100 (Fig 22).
Paul Draycott (Fig 23) was selling a variety of items including Hornby-Dublo and Dublo Dinky Toys stickers for the Station Hoardings which were used in advertising photos but never sold (Fig 24) and three Dublo Terminus/Through Stations from £60-£140 (Fig 25).
Mick French and his Grandson Sam (Fig 26) were selling books and reported excellent sales. Rob Hampton was selling Triang TT (Fig 27), an unused Marx HO Gauge Set (Fig 28) and other items from Lone star to ACE Trains.
We now move into the smaller hall which like last year was again all change,
James Day (Fig 29) had two lift up bridges operating, one was by Hornby issued from 1974-1976 with HO/OO Gauge track and other was by Faller with Tyco Roadway. Both bridges were electrically operated when the Locomotive or Lorry went over them, please see videos on the website. James also had on display the various boxed sets (Fig 30) from Pola, AHM to Hornby together with an N Gauge example and the retooled Faller version (Fig 31).
At the end of the room Derek Bond (Fig 32) had set up his 3D printing Machine which was making Tri-ang spares and had on display the huge number of spares and neverwazzas now available mainly for Tri-ang Railways and Minic Motorways, including parts for the rare Wild West engine (Fig 33) and Honest John Missile Set (Fig 34).
Most of the room was taken up by Paul Chapman's wonderful colourful G Gauge Playmobile layout (Fig 35) using LGB track, scenery included a Jail and School (Fig 36) and various grounded ships. Paul was delighted to tell me that most of the scenery including the ships were car boot and charity shop finds for only £1-2, just shows out hobby need not be too expensive!
Train Collector editor Nicholas Oddy seen at Mark Carnes's stall looking for a bargain £2 truck (Fig 37) was selling mainly Hornby O Gauge although had a very nice Plank Gauge 1 0-4-0 and Carette 2-2-0 as well as a Tri-ang Ship (Fig 38).
The dining area was also busy all day with Bacon Rolls in the morning, and excellent two course lunch of Chicken in breadcrumbs with mash and vegetables and mixed fruit crumble or treacle sponge enjoyed by over 60 visitors including the McCarthy's and Coddington's (Fig 39) and loads of lovely cakes in the afternoon seen in front of Adam Draycott thanking his mum for all the work she had done (Fig 40), and tea and soft drinks all day, many thanks to kitchen staff Daphne Sargent, Elaine and Neal Priestly, Pav Pall, Judith Saunders, Paulette Furborough, Mary Starie, Paul Draycott, Adam Draycott and Marilyn Draycott (Fig 41) .
It was lovely to see so many members and public come to the show, by late morning the main hall was getting rather busy (Fig 42). The attendance was down from our November show, however it was still a good attendance and the Society was able to make an excellent surplus of £345.
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.
