2016 New England Model Railway Convention

I have just spent 2 days at the New England Model Railway Convention in Armidale.  It has been a very nice time.  I had the pleasure of travelling down with Darren, Geoff and Brendan and rooming with them for 3 days.  The Convention was well attended.  I think that it had more attendees this time, compared to last convention 2 years ago.  To be honest, when I saw the program, I was looking at some sessions and thinking “I’ve heard that before”, “That does not really float my boat”, “There are no prototype sessions”.  That did not deter me from registering, as there are other reasons to attend.  I get to see some really great models.  There are the hobby shops that come along to the event and have some great items for sale.  There are the demonstration guys showing off some sort of skill.  I knew that there were some ‘subject matter experts’ attending.  So I could talk to them about various facets of their processes or techniques in their special discipline.

As usual we left Brisbane early Friday morning and after a couple of pit stops we arrived at Armidale just before 4:00pm.  There were quite a few fellow modellers staying in our motel.  Friday night registration was a time to say ‘G’day’ to quite a few old friends and have a nose around.

So over Saturday and Sunday, I attended 8 presentations.  I must admit, that I was very impressed with all 8.  I got quite a lot out of some sessions that I made an initial assumption, that they would not ‘float my boat’.  So I guess we should not be quick to jump to conclusions.  I took copious amounts of notes and I have been inspired to try new things, and implement some of the topics covered this weekend.

I captured quite a few photos of various models, display layouts and scenes on the layout tour.  I also had many great conversations.  But, I really had some great laughs on Friday night around the table over dinner and drinks afterwards, and again at the formal Saturday Night Dinner.  Did we have some laughs.  We had three mates gate crash our unit for breakfast on Saturday morning.  That was funny.  I also look forward to apparently a few dozen people attending the Whitebull tonight for dinner.  A few more laughs I dare say.

So for the first time in quite a few weekends I am presenting some photos on the blog – this time from the last few days.

The best piece of modelling I think I have ever seen.  The transformer on Rohan Fergusson's Ashford Mungindi Extension.

The grain outloader on the same module.  This model took out best structure at the convention.  It deserved it.

A great example of weathering a fuel tank.  This model was by Steve Pettit.

A example of the toilet block built using my AMRM article quite a few years ago.  This always makes me smile.

I do love Fuel Depots.  This is just nice.  I hope to have a couple of my layout eventually.

I am trying to make these exact bridge pillars for my Upper Richmond River crossing at Kyogle.

A fantastic model of the Railway Hotel built by Rohan Fergusson.

Another shot of the same hotel.

Any another.

To finish off, this is a shot of two of my room mates taking a shot of a 'Pop-up Layout'.  This is actually a flat pack layout, that unfolds into this incredible presentation.  It was built by Michael Flack.  We were just blown away.