Page 5 - NMRA Roundhouse May-June 2019

The weekend of the 23rd-24th March once again saw Alexandra Palace in North London host the London Festival of Railway Modelling and this year they celebrated their 20th anni- versary.This show is the largest annual model railway show in the south of England.
The British Region received an invitation to
take part this year and after making a few tele-
phone calls, I was able to get together sufficient
members to man the stand over the two days.
Our display looked pretty impressive with our
pull up poster, the display board, and NMRA
(BR) material to hand.We also had a laptop
computer with a constant rolling display and
a short test track with an HO Alco S4 running back and forth and an N Gauge German tank locomotive, plus an operating rolling road. During the two days, we had many conversations with members of the public, explaining the benefits of being an NMRA (BR) member, handing out past copies of Roundhouse and we talked about the National Convention to be held in the UK in 2022.
I am pleased to report that we signed up two new members on the Sunday and one person subsequently. In my view, it is so im- portant to have a stand at a major show like Alexandra Palace. We may not over the weekend sign up many new members, but having a presence and having those conversations is so impor- tant to publicise our hobby for its future growth. Although we
as an organisation can be found on electronic sites such as Facebook and YouTube, having those one to one conversations at a show can be the difference to someone joining on the day or saying they will join in the next few days but never do. I must acknowledge those NMRA (BR) members who willingly helped out over the two days, Ian Brown, Chris James, Frank Warren,Alex Charlesworth, Mike Arnold, and David Dallman. I sincerely apologise if I have not mentioned anybody who helped out on the stand over the two days. Chris James should get a special mention because not only did he attend over the two days, he also brought up and took home all
of the material required to make our presence such a success. Other members dropped by over the two days to say “Hello” which was really appreciated.
I am also pleased to report that we will have a stand at the Warley National Model Railway exhibition over the weekend of 23rd-24th November thanks to Robert Henworth who has volunteered to organise our presence over the weekend and in the future. However on behalf of the BoD, a big thank you must go to Nigel Bowyer for the many years he has organised our participation at Warley with all the work involved to make our attendance such a success.
Charles Hendy
Vice President NMRA British Region
June 2019 - ROUNDHOUSE 5