now firmly established on the U.K show circuit TVNAM (Trent valley North American modellers) is a unique show that features U.S style layouts on only. Held in Armitage village hall near Rugeley in Staffordshire it is organised by Nick Palette and featured layouts from Z to 0 scale. I was there with Republic Steel, my multi era Z scale steelworks layout running in classic Nickel Plate road guise and set in the late 50/60s In no particular here is a selction of photos of the layouts presented Fowler Lake, ON30 Mike Bartlett End of the Spur, HO Ray O'Neill Yakima Valley Box layout, HO Andy Gautrey Rensville, HO Keith Renshaw Arcadia Pennsylvania Terminal, O David George Western Mine, On30 Ray Trewern Avonlea Sub, O Gareth McLaughlin Ashwood , HO - Chris Gilbert Republic Steel, Z Kevin Smith Utah & Colorado Mountain Railway, O/On30 Gresley Club Black Diamonds On3 Modular Florida Springs, HO Dave Murray
There was a focus on 0 scale this year NCE power cabs seemed to be the DCC of choice for most exhibitors at the show
There was some good support from the trade ( unfortunately Linda Tinker books had a good selection of Four Way West publications so i had to do some sneaking past the wife when I got back!!) and all in all it was a very pleasant day. There were some interesting topics of conversations during the day including the fact that many British 0 scale modellers still use Peco streamline track of the incorrect Bullhead type simply because it is easy to get hold of from your local shop, many people were astonished by how well modern Z stock runs, the performance of the AZL GP7s and Mikados on Republic was , as always, faultless. Lots of the exhibitors were disposing of unwanted stock on the ends of there layouts and there was some serious horse trading going on ! cheers Kev
