It's not false modesty when I say that no one was more surprised than I was when Minffordd was named as the winner of 'Best In Show' at Model Rail Scotland at the weekend.


I've been coming to the show at the SEC in Glasgow for nearly 35 years now - my first visit was in 1993 - and I think the quality of the layouts this year was the highest I've yet seen at the venue.

I must confess I was absent for the moment of presentation on the Saturday afternoon.  

I'd been operating for most of the day and handed over to one of our team so I could sort myself out with a cup of tea in the rest room set aside for the hundreds of volunteers who make the show happen.

I hadn't even reached the doors to the hall when my phone rang to summon me back, for what I assumed must be either to sort out a catastrophic derailment or some other kind of dreadful emergency.

As I returned I saw Himself beaming, and clutching a very heavy glass trophy!

I am sure I wasn't alone in assuming that this award - the Jim Grieve Memorial Trophy to give it its proper title - was certain to be presented to Pete Waterman's massive, and massively impressive, Making Tracks 3.


This modern image monster of Milton Keynes was no doubt the big 'must see' attraction for many of the visitors who came to the show, on its first time being displayed in Scotland.

Everything about it is remarkable, not just in terms of size, but the intensity of the operation, the number of people it takes to operate it, the vast collection of full-length trains, the standard of presentation, and perhaps most importantly, the consistent standard of scenic modelling which I have always believed is the most essential element of a good layout.

You may have some individual pieces on a layout, be they trains or scenic features, which are absolutely exquisite, but if they are very obviously of a different standard to everything else around them then it is jarring and spoils the overall effect.

The great music mogul and famous railway enthusiast - and his team of Railnuts - did not leave empty handed because Making Tracks was named Best Visiting Layout (as distinct from the exhibits from clubs who are part of the Association of Model Railway Societies in Scotland, which includes our club in Greenock, under which banner Minffordd was appearing.)

There is also a category for AMRSS exhibits, which I had dared to hope we might be a contender for one of the top three placings.

The first place for that went to Hazelbank from the Scottish Diesel and Electric Group who have a well-deserved reputation for producing top-quality modern image layouts - although I suspect I may be showing my age by categorizing the 1990s as modern.....


This is a 'what if' for what might have happened if the Waverley Route had never closed.

There were many other layouts I very much enjoyed watching, including ‘Moor of Rannoch’, a very small slice of the vast, bleak tract of land the West Highland Line passes through, cleverly using the famous snow shelter as a scenic break.



It is the essential bleakness of this layout, and the accurately-represented bleached tones of the vegetation, which make it so effective to someone who has spent time in that lonely spot while hillwalking.

It has a quite a 'Bron Hebog' feel about it, I think.  Wouldn't it be marvellous to do something like this in N gauge and with the same depth and emptiness as our layout?

OK, maybe not....

There was also a good selection of narrow gauge to be seen at the show, including a chance to be reacquainted with the Clyre Valley Railway which was a deserved prize winner at the last Warley club show at the SEC when we took Bron Hebog there as part of the anniversary celebrations for the 009 Society.



And in 7mm scale, and showing the less 'cute' side of narrow gauge railways, was a terrific representation of the industrial system around the Bowater's paper mill.