John Brandrick, in his Chairman's Report to the 36th AGM of OLCO on 7th May 2024 said:-
"The future of OLCO may depend on appealing to modellers in smaller scales served by Hornby and Rapido offerings".
Accordingly, the AGM approved a motion to man a stand at the Warley National Model Railway Exhibition planned for 25th and 26th November 2023 at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.
The unexpected death of John Brandrick later in May prevented further action until John Hawley offered to finalise arrangements and man the stand, with the help of Jan Ford and two other OLCO members. Just before the event, the two other OLCO members dropped out but Jan Ford managed to recruit two alternative 'volunteers' so OLCO was able to appear at the show as planned and the stand attracted considerable interest.
The exhibition space provided was too small to allow the display as used at previous model railway shows to be erected so a simpler arrangement was adopted with three main features - a 7.25 inch gauge live-steam model of 'Lion' owned by John Hawley, a working oval of '00' gauge track showing both the Rapido 'Lion' (in 1930 livery) with an appropriate train and the Rapido 'Thunderbolt' with the train from the film 'The Titfield Thunderbolt'. The displat featured:-
7.25 inch gauge model of 'Lion'
Working oval of '00' gauge track
The 'Rapido' model of 'Lion' (in 1930 livery) and train was arranged to run clockwise on the oval whilst the Rapido model of 'Thunderbolt' with its train was arranged to run anti-clockwise on the oval. A single siding at the rear of the stand served as a 'fiddle yard' so that either train could run continuously until a simple shunt, periodically, allowed the other train to run instead. Occasionally, both trains were brought out to the front of the stand, head-to-head so that the detail on these remarkable models could be better appreciated.
Warley National Model Railway Exhibition 2023: This was the last appearance at the show of Hattons Model Railways, which opened in 1946. In January 2024, Hattons announced their Closing Down Sale.
My pictures at the 2023 event
Warley National Model Railway Exhibition 2023.
