Save the Date (cont)
VINTAGE MODEL RAILWAY EXHIBITION
Blindcrake Village Hall, CA13 0QP, July 6th & 7th, 2024
Saturday 10am – 5pm, Sunday 10am – 4pm
As far as I am aware this is a first for our community, and is being put on by the Border Counties group of the Hornby Railway Collectors Association, an organisation having around 2500 members worldwide. Normally we meet for one day every two months alternating between Carlisle and Haydon Bridge but this year we are adding a special weekend to mark our group's 25th Anniversary and invite you to join us ‘playing trains’ (my wife’s words, not mine) in Blindcrake Village Hall. Note that these are not model railway layouts in the scenic sense, our trains are the ones we used to set up on the floor on a wet Sunday afternoon and played with until told to pack away by parents tired of stepping over them.
Most of our trains were made from 1920 to the 1960’s when locos, coaches, wagons and track were made of tinplate although zinc castings and, later still, plastic was also used. There will be layouts in gauge 0 and 00 running pre- and post- WW2 vintage electric and clockwork trains. Most will have been made by Hornby, but layouts and trains from other manufacturers such as Basset Lowke, Chad Valley, Trix Twin, Mettoy and Triang will also be on display. You will be able to drive trains on three layouts as well as operating 1950’s Marklin cranes and a Hornby Dublo coal tippler. Have a go at winding up a clockwork loco or help Ernie by driving a train on his International Underground layout. Admittedly the latter is a mere youngster at just under 20 years old, but it is so colourful and quirky that Joan let me set it up on our dining room table for testing by grandchildren and visitors.
If you have old trains bring them to run and if they don’t work, we may be able to fix. You would also be made most welcome if you want to join the HRCA. So come and reminisce, bring the children and grandkids to show them what you used to play with, before TV, computer games and the internet took over. Ladies like trains too, so no excuses, come and join in while having a cuppa as light refreshments will be available, and your entrance fee goes to help with the upkeep of the Village Hall. We hope you will all come, so before you forget, put the dates in your diary!
For more information contact Rod Moore, 01900 823254 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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