NMRA BR Convention 2016
This year the NMRA British Region Convention took place in Meriden. It had the normal mix of layouts, traders, clinics, displays and demonstrations plus the contest and ever popular bring and buy.
Layouts
HO Modules
The following members are bringing along their HO modules to build into one FreeMo set up:
Andrew Cocker, Dan Spalding, Geoff Tiller, Ian Lampkin, Mark Ward, Mike Arnold, Pete Colton, Peter Bowen, Peter Lloyd-Jones and Tom Winlow.
Burlington Junction in HO
Chris Prior will be operating his latest switching layout based on a real location.
Harper’s Ferry in N
Chris Middleton brings his layout to an NMRA event for the first time. Based on the real location in West Virginia, it featured in the November 2015 Continental Modeller.
Priddy’s Yard in N
The Gosport guys are bringing a modest selection of their N scale modules to allow more switching.
Mohawk Valley in N
Alan Cross will be displaying his layout, built originally by the late Barry, Peacock, set in the Sierra Nevada mountains, in Plumas County, California
Lincoln in Z
Dave Dawes has another Z scale layout on the exhibition circuit. It showcases the Milwaukee Road operating rural line with short freights.
Everything is American – don’t they have any UK layouts?
Rodney, in the UK the NMRA is just a North American outline organisation. It has nothing really to offer UK modellers beyond what they already have. There are already 5 major U.K. Magazines, 100s of local clubs, major clubs for specific scales such as the O Gauge Guild and modelling societies for each country such as the German Model Railway Club.
The NMRA falls into the latter group, a country specific modelling club, so only US and Canadian layouts would be present at its conventions.
The big National Convention that is being run in 2022 will include layouts from every country but that is an exception. Many NMRA members may model other prototypes but they just wouldn’t show that work at the NMRA.