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Exhibition Report

Cab-It 2003, NRM, York
22nd/23rd March 2003
The original invite to Cab-It 2003 came from Robin Gray, the IT Interactives Specialist at the NRM, York. This was to be our first venture where we were competing with twelve inches to the foot railways rather than Model Railways and our most northerly trip yet. It proved to be an exciting and worthwhile weekend for all the UKTS people that visited as can be seen from the photographs that appear below.

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4

Group 1 Photo
Back Row - Left to right - Delancie, JimBinn, Connex, Robin Gray, Deltic9000, DrkAngel, JohnKendrick, BigVern, ThinLizzy, aetcMarcus and GoingNorth.
Centre Row - Left to Right - Kyra and Viivi
Front Row - Left to Right - Saddletank, EddieF, JohnCarr, Leviathan1949, Cab_it (Matts Mum) and in the front Little Miss Saddletank
This group shot was Connex's idea and thanks to Mrs Gray for taking the photo.

Group 2 Photo
Delancie on the left, BigVern, Little Miss Saddletank, Saddletank, JohnKendrick, EddieF, JimBinn and DrkAngel

Group 3 Photo
Taken whilst we BORROWED the plasma screen from the NRM's HST Simulator.
Saddletank, Little Miss Saddletank, JohnKendrick, BigVern and EddieF.

Group 4 Photo
Steve from Oz's Mum and Dad with qzdcg8 and JohnCarr whilst BigVern chats with a punter.

One of Robin Gray's guests trying out the HST simulator whilst a group of youngsters look on in awe. Deltic9000 tries his hand at the HST Simulator. MartinH deep in thought. EddieF

Our location in the NRM was on one of the platforms in the Station Hall. We had a steady stream of visitors to the stand throughout the two days. All very interested in what was going on and keen to learn more.
Our stand had 5 PC's demonstrating, 4 on projectors and one on a large monitor which was occasionally replaced by the plasma screen from the HST simulator which was fortuitously next to our stand and appeared to be a part of the UKTrainSim stand. All in all we put on a very good show.

Showing all 4 screens with EddieF, JimBinn and Leviathan1949 All 4 screens with EddieF, JimBinn, Leviathan1949 and MartinH Taken standing alongside of the HST Simulator, Deltic9000, John Kendrick etc All 4 screens again, the screen EddieF was using was a whiter than white and the flash of the camera tended to blank the picture out.

The four photos above show the general layout of the UKTrainSim stand. A LONG stand ,almost 30 feet long, with almost 9 feet depth with the projector screens. The NRM HST Simulator was immediately to our left, hence the availability of the plasma screen from time to time for JohnCarrs machine.

All the regular routes: MidEast, Ruabon - Barmouth, Tallyllyn, Woodhead, NRR5 etc received a good showing and considerable interest from the punters. On numerous occasions people would be walking down the platform and stop to see what was going on and you could see jaws drop and words such as 'WOW' or 'I didn't know TrainSim could do that'. BigVern also demonstrated FarNorth and his new SMJ routes. GoingNorth also had the latest version of GNEREastCoast on demonstration.

Another of Robin Gray's guests tries out the HST Simulator. JimBinn at the controls. The two new flat panel screens and Matt's new Shuttle PC. Alan2 and MartinH in the background. A Big smile from the Auran Trainz demonstration team.

This was the second outing for Matt's new Shuttle PC and it performs remarkably well considering it's small size and it stays COOL for the duration, thanks to some superb Internal Cooling Equipment. Being small it is easy to carry around and with the flat panel screen makes it so much easier to transport to and from the exhibitions. Hopefully we will have a second one in the near future. Anybody considering one of these, take a look at the leaflet from our recommended supplier tco computers.

Jessup, the guy who designed and built the HST simulator. Close up of the HST simulator unit. Drivers view sitting at the HST simulator unit. This guy is working with the NRM on the refurbishment of the APT unit so it was appropriate that he drove the virtual APT.

We would like thank Robin Gray for the invite to the NRM for this Cab-It weekend and we look forward to further invites from the NRM for other specialist visitor weekends. Details still have to be finalised but we could be back in July for the Japanese week.
A special thanks to John Carr, who as a local resident of the area and Friend of the NRM acted as a linkman for UKTrainSim in the run up to the exhibition.
Thanks also to all those UKTrainSim members who gave up their time to come and help us, there were a large number of them as can be seen from the group photos at the top of the report. Thanks.