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Exhibition Report
Aldershot
11/12 October 2003
This was our first visit to Aldershot, the Army Training Town and we were made extremely welcome by the Farnham & District MRC members. The location was the Connaught Leisure Centre and was a good venue both from our point of view and that of the exhibitors and traders. A good variety of layouts in most guages, including 1 in Hon9 next to our stand and a good selection of traders.Our only hiccup on the Saturday morning was the removal of Fluorescent lamps directly above the stand.

5 minutes before opening time on Saturday. Cab_It grinning in the background, the doors are about to open..One visitor wanted to buy the TeaTowel..... The Hon9 layout next to our stand. The smallest layout at the exhibition.

We received a steady flow of visitors to the stand throughout the two days of the show, including a number of people who had bought MSTS when it was released, quickly bored of it and put it away in the cupboard. They left our stand with a fresh of view of MSTS and usually a free CD. One young lad with his parents was very keen to see MSTS at its full potential as his parents had already promised him MSTS for Christmas, we gave him a copy of Pat Daltons Skipton 1920 as he had a passion for steam.. (Funny that, most of the 9 to 15 age group seem to prefer steam). It was also evident that the number of visitors to the stand were at times causing a minor obstruction to the viewing of the Hon9 layout next to us. The layout was moved after close of play Saturday so that visitors had a better chance of seeing that layout on the Sunday. During the Sunday we discussed the positioning of our stand with the exhibition manager and next year we may well set it up at 90 degrees to the position we used this year. It will provide more room for our visitors without causing obstructions to adjacent layouts.

One of the Trade stands selling O guage locos. Europeanloco, asalmon, Buffy500 and Lucazone.. Moorcock junction, one of the N guage layouts. Moorcock junction, a fictional junction on the Settle to Carlisle line.

Severn Valley Railway, London to Brighton, MidEast and Cannock Chase were the mainstay of our demonstrations over the weekend. It also gave Matt a chance to work on some of the Severn Valley Diesel Gala activities whilst in the eye of the public. A number of the visitors were absolutely fascinated by the intricacies of the activity editor and we hope they went away with more knowledge than they arrived with. Who knows, a budding activity writer could be in that group.

Moorcock junction, one of the N guage layouts. Moorcock junction, one of the N guage layouts. SouthCoastTrains, ThinLizzy and aetcMarcus.. One last look about an hour before we closed on the Sunday.

Our thanks go to the kind people who come along and help us demonstrate the routes and models and promote UKTrainSim, Ken, Alan, Dave, Lucazone, Ed, Steve and Marcus and to those who drop in for a chat and a drive.

Thanks also to Paul (Exhibition Manager), the members of the Farnham and District MRC for the invitation and for looking after us so well. We look forward to seeing you again in 2004, 2005 etc. As always, thanks to the modellers, route builders, activity writers etc who make it all possible.