Being a tight fisted old git I thought the £6 entry was a bit steep

On the other hand there were lots of goodies on offer at reasonable prices so it balanced out in the end.
I went Sunday, shoving room only and I've the bruises to prove it. Railway modellers are such an uncouth lot compared to wargamers, :LOL:
Didn't buy the guide after the entry fee but fairly certain I missed nothing

I basically walked the hall 4 times, first to see what's about, second to view every layout and third time to ogle the best of the bunch and talk to the operatives if possible and finally just to spot anything I may have missed or couldn't fight my way to the front of the second time around!
There were some very nicely done layouts but strangely they didn't all grab my attention. Probably too much time on Gn15 and american HO

So I liked the narrow gauge stuff and the american layouts apart the huge n-gauge layout. Would have preferred more layouts myself

Each to there own. Impressive though from a perspective of long trains, but not my cup of tea.
Drooled over the stand selling LGB, fought the urge to buy a starter set and so went off and bought some freight cars instead. Learnt the art of tree making from 2 of the demo stands.
Now that is an area where I think the show did very well and one of the reasons why on balance I think the £6 was worth it. Lots of demonstrations on everything modelling and all you had to do was ask and they delivered. Superb!
Met Colin performing his duties and had a natter while I ogled HO stuff before foolishly parting with my dosh. I think I may still have to go to M G Sharp's though
Best layout for me was the small american yard based on the Rock Island line (Imperial Yard). Appealed to my new micro layout tendencies and I was impressed by the operational element. My initial reaction on seeing 3 fixed tracks as a fiddle yard was "No operating potential" but I watched and was impressed. He may just have shunted cabooses and locos but it was engrossing and he answered a whole load of newbie questions and never laughed once at my ignorance of american practice

A very nice small shunting layout that would easily adapt to general shunting.
Overall I enjoyed the show, got a few new toys and lots of those hard to get bits that most model shops don't seem to sell. Definitely worth it in the end
As for the trend, didn't really notice, there were some youngster's operating layouts but the only one I really recall was the young lad operating the american layout using DCC. He was quite entertaining, keeping the adults on their toes and seemed to be enjoying himself tremendously. Mind you so did most of the adults I saw

If it is a trend that here's hoping it continues.
Cheers
Of course it would be even better value for less than £6
