Page 15 - November December 2010

N gauge madNess 2010
Unfortunately the weekend got off to a sad and late start with the funeral of Keith Johnston taking place on the Friday morning. Both Keith and Birtie were sadly missed.
All who took part in the event agree that it was a very successful and enjoyable weekend topped off with a very relaxed and enjoy­ able visit to the Golden Dragon on Saturday night.
Setup was started mid afternoon on the Friday, and by evening all modules were on the legs and many joined into sections. Satur­ day saw the sections joined into a full layout and electrical hook­ up completed. At this point a few gremlins were found, mainly with modules located well away from their main units and the new modules from Glasgow. The Glasgow modules were wired in a way that was not compatible with DCC, the track was code 80 and the track centres did not quite match. At this point the track gang descended onto the top face and Arry crawled underneath his modules with a pair of wire cutters. There followed a spell of hacking and banging and comments like, “No, wasn’t them two wires,” and the tracks were soon aligned and the short removed and the first train was able to run over the section; they then performed without fault for the rest of the show. It was the positive attitude shown by everybody and the “We want to be part of this so we will make our section work” that got the setup running and kept it running perfectly for the rest of the weekend. With the two crossovers, the wye and many single­track sections, drivers had to concentrate on driving their train. With intense movement, switch jobs at the auto rack and intermodal yards and the odd way freight switching local industries, both drivers and dispatchers were kept busy all the time. With over 20 multi­ headed trains, most over 12' in length and hauled by steam, diesel or electric power, running at the same time, operation was intense. A full run from Salutay Yard to End Loop and return covered a distance of 20 scale miles and took on average 1 hr 20 min. To cover the whole layout, visiting Salutay Yard, End Loop, Snake Loop and Back Loop, required a distance of 43 scale miles to be covered, and a number of drivers were successful in this. Also iPhones and iPods were used to drive some trains via a laptop with receive/transmit wifi. By the Sunday night 119 of the 120 max slots were in use.
With food supplied by the Clarke Clan and trade by SPV, LSWR, Neil’s NGauging Trains and American Trains, a great time was had by all.
The Sunday ended with the usual coal run, this time a 122­car train with a length of just over 47'. Everybody crowded around Birties Bend to see whether it would cut its own tail off, but in the event were disappointed when it cleared itself by 9 ft. Next year we will have to try six locos and 148 cars.
With 104 boards and the associated electrics to pack away, every­ body was tired by the time the hall was cleared, but all left having
Jim Dickinson
had a great time and determined to come back next year to do a bigger and better setup. I would like to thank everybody, module owners, operators and the dedicated group of supporters and helpers we have built up, for helping to put on such a great show. On a more personal note, I was not at all happy with either the run­up to the show or the general organisation of the show; this was down to me, and I have learnt a lot of lessons. Both the pub­ licity and general organisation were flawed in a number of areas, and this was not helped by the loss of a close friend who has in the past always helped and supported me in the organisation of shows.
I have in the past organised and run very successful “normal” type exhibitions and I based what I did, and how I did it, on this experience. In reality I have found that organising a single­scale single (modular) layout is very different, and requires a different approach as to how publicity is handled and how the show is run on the day. Many of the points below may appear obvious, but then hindsight is perfect. I have taken a critical look at what I did and how I did things so that others who organise similar events can learn from my mistakes.
As to publicity, Nobby as usual did an excellent job covering the normal type areas; but this type of exhibition also requires cover­ age in other areas not normally covered. These are all specialist groups that have become known to me or who have approached me, and therefore it was down to me to cover these areas, and in this I did a poor job by not publicising, publicising too late or with misleading information. Publicity for a show of this nature must be to two very different groups of people: the first set of information to the general NMRA member and public, this being the normal type of information as with all exhibitions. The sec­ ond set of information is to the specialist groups and dedicated supporters of the show. These different groups require totally dif­ ferent information, and the publicity must be structured to suit. As to the planning and the weekend itself, I became too involved with the layout planning and setup and forgot to cover the basics. On the day, some of the problems started to concern me, and this was to the detriment of setting up the layout, which in turn caused delays in getting things running. Fortunately I had the full and dedicated support of a group of great guys, so things did not turn into the disaster I thought they would.
Setting up the layout, getting the modules in position and connecting them all together physically and electrically is not in any way similar to getting the layouts at an exhibition in position and set up. Those people setting up the layout must concentrate on this, and a different person, who is not involved in the layout setup, should act as a General Organiser covering trade and the many other general administrative items that arise.
There were other more basic errors such as no sign at the en­ trance to the drive, wrong opening times advertised etc. Also due in part to the misleading publicity and the delay in starting up, there were some complaints about “no trains running”. Although correct, I do not think the people con­ cerned could complain too much, as no charge was made until things were up and
running.
The problems encountered in both the
publicity and running are easily corrected, and will be for next year.
Although space prevents us showing Jim Dickinson’s plan (left) in larger details, with wording etc, it does indicate the great array of modules assembled at the Weston Modular Madness meet, and the elaborate plan into which they were assembled
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