Stroud Garden Railway Show 2007

Stratford Park

June 23^rd/24^th 2007

This was the North and South show in previous years.

This show is  held in the leisure centre which is set in a beautiful park just on the outskirts of Stroud. This weekend the museum in this park had an Edwardian theme which despite the rain was an added attraction.

There was plenty of free parking, although I attended on the Sunday and the attendance must have been disappointing. I was told that Saturday was better attended but not great. Which is a pity as this is a nice show. The lack of attendance meant there was ample time to browse and ask questions of the traders and layout operators. Even if you had to wake some of them up! It is the first time I have seen The Ttarrag Shed engines just ambling around.

There was disabled parking and easy access to the building and inside.

I took my wife and granddaughter and entry was a modest ten pounds.

My granddaughter who is seven spent the next few hours playing on Walt’s Playmobil Railway. I have often commented on this fantastic layout with its ability to attract children of all ages but this was the first time I took my own junior reporter to give me the rundown from a child’s view. The verdict had such a high approval rate that I was the one that had to wait  to go home until she was ready  to leave this make believe world.

Every child was greeted by a smile and friendly encouragement to have a go.

It does not seem very long ago that I was looking  round Merstham for my bits and pieces and I notice that Modeltown has added some new figures to their impressive range and some advertising hoardings. Tuxcraft have added a fairy castle. Unfortunately Nina from Tuxcraft would not dress up as a fairy to set my photo off.

There was a good selection of traders at the show including Imp models, Back2 Bay6, NDR, John Sutton books, Lineside Delights, Binnie Engineering, Bay Models, Lynny Lous, Chalk garden, Martins Models,

Atropos, IP engineering, Chuffed to Bits, Daves Videos, T + M models,

Iand G Steam, Titfield Thunderbolt, and of course Atlantic Publisherswith its “star” attraction Tag.

As to the layouts from the “Every home should have one” to my layout of this show “Rowlands Lodge” there was something for everyone. In fact all the layouts should be layout of the show because they all had something that sums up this varied hobby and the enthusiasm that goes into it.

So well done to Grocklebahn, Leigh valley, Rhydypenderyn, Southdown,

Mendip Vale, David  Buckingham and The G scale Society.

It is a pity that the attendance was poor although the weather might have had some affect. I missed having a ride on the 5” miniature railway due to rain. But I think this is a good show. The only low point was the catering.

I have attended this show for the last three years and without a doubt it has the poorest catering facility of all the shows I  have been to. Every year you have to wait for your food from anything from twenty minutes to an hour. They run out of essentials as rolls and baked potatoes. This year the excuse was sorry you will have to wait we are doing the traders food orders. Now this grates when I have travelled a fair distance to a show, paid my entrance fee and then become a second class citizen. Not good enough. Last year they blamed staff shortages. The one  bright spot in this debacle was the young lad who was left to bear the brunt of the criticism and try his best to deal with customer requests and offer alternatives. He calmly got on with his job and did his best. He deserves a bonus. Well done lad whoever you are.

If you go to this show next year bring your own food!

 A personal view from Rambling Roger. July 2007.