Location: Epping Boys High School
Host: Epping Model Railroad Club

Our visit:

We attended the exhibition on the Saturday afternoon arriving just after lunch. As with the previous year the approaches to the venue were well sign posted, parking was easy and plentiful once inside the grounds. We did notice that the street parking was limited on the Saturday as compared to our previous years visit that occurred on a Sunday. Perhaps this was due to the sporting oval further down the street, perhaps not. We were there to see the exhibition so did not endeavor to find out.
This is the fourth year the Epping Model Railway Club has held the exhibition at the Epping Boys High School, the second year that our field team has been on site. This time around the exhibition was housed in the same buildings as last year.
Access is great, temporary ramps being installed to provide disabled access to the main hall. As a test the previous year we had tempted fate by taking a twin stroller though the exhibition. Other than the on stage area we were able to access all exhibits. This year provided the same over all display arrangement with the same level of access but seemingly more layouts than before.
As is the clubs policy none of the exhibits were back from the previous year. Each year the aim is to try and provide a completely new show, something that the visitors obviously appreciate judging by the number of repeat visitors that appear regularly each year.

Layouts exhibited;
28 Acacia Road, Broughton Vale Tramway, Stockinbingal, Brisbane Water, Pearl River, Valley Central, Lake St Clair, Garmish-Partenkirchen, The Hills "N" Gauge, Ashwood Dale, Greetham, Tarana

Other (trade etc) stands were provided by;
Simply Glues, Casula Hobbies, The Train Shed, Antons Trains, Southern Cross Model Railway Association, Kerroby Models, L&C Kits
This was the first time we had attempted taking photographs of the actual exhibited layouts. These are shown under the individual layout listings. Our thanks go to the individual operators that kindly offered to hold or shuffle trains around for the purpose of obtaining the photographs.

An overcast Saturday afternoon saw a TECH 2U service truck winding North over the Roseville bridge on the way to the North Shore Railway Modellers Association's annual exhibition at Forestville. This was to be our first visit to the club and we were looking forward to seeing how they managed an exhibition.
Parking was good although we made the initial mistake of trying to park to the right of the hall. Some idiot had parked in the turning area (marked no standing of course) and we had to reverse the truck out the hard way when no parking was found. Never mind. Take notice though. Try and park to the left in front of the hall if you can. Parking is easier and it is also closer to the entrance anyway.
Access was good, ramps for the disabled both externally and internally. We suggest where possible that clubs use public facilities as government bodies seem to make every effort to ease access. More so than the private sites we have visited.
This year the club mustered thirteen layouts. Shimbashi, Classic Trains, Pearl River, Dungog, Konjerdupp, The Lauriekey Run, North Yard, Dirt Steelworks, Strassenbahn, Mainline MK II, Jembaicumbene, Greetham and Ynotavago. To this were added a good mix of trade stands and specials. These specials included Classic Meccano and Warringah Modellers.
Our host for the afternoon was Adam Bolton from the club. Even though the club had produced an excellent booklet Adam was kind enough to give us a tour of the stands plus a behind the scenes look at Mainline MK II, one of the clubs own layouts. To top it off the coffee hit the right spot on an overcast afternoon.
Overall we spent an enjoyable afternoon with the club and look forward to a repeat visit to another successful exhibition next year.
Please note you will find all of the layouts are written up in our layout section.

Footnote: The club has challenged the TECH 2U team to build a layout for next years exhibition. Stay turned for further details

This was the first year that the Sydney N Scale Model Railroad Club had used the Thornleigh Community Centre to hold an exhibition and it proved to be a great venue. Not even the tree falling on the roof during the morning of our visit dampened the enthusiasm of the exhibitors or visitors.
For those that do not know the area the Thornleigh Centre is located on Pennant Hills Road about a kilometre south of the F3 junction with Pennant Hills Road and the Pacific Highway. Parking is plentiful on the street and if not available at the time the location is right next door to both a large Hardware house and McDonalds.
We found this a friendly exhibition with the exhibitors almost over zealous in their provision of explanations and demonstrations. For example the "Beyond 2000" layout by Col and Vonny Veale had a constant pack of amazed visitors getting explanations on everything. Yours truly actually ended up under the layout receiving instructions in how to automate a turntable including where to get the parts needed for the job. This was a fantastic example of how to encourage younger members into the hobby. In this case more worthwhile as the proportion of younger visitors appeared to be higher than at other exhibitions we had been to. (Did locating the exhibition next to McDonalds have anything to do with this we wonder?)
One of the other great things about this location is the proximity to the F3 north to the Central Coast and Newcastle. This gave the various northern clubs a chance to exhibit without a huge travel overhead. We managed therefore to get our first look at Newenga Junction owned by the Newcastle Model Railway Club.
Other layouts included Beyond 2000, Pearl River, Greetham, Achtbahn, Strassenbahn, Spokane Northern and This N That. All are written up in the layout section as always.
The next exhibition we are set to visit is Epping in June so till then,
Happy modelling.