Model Railway Show, York

Model Railroading is still a very serious hobby in the UK. Every weekend there is somewhere a model railway show, with displays of layouts and vendors. Last year, in winter 2005/06, I visited numerous of them, but since then I had not much time anymore. But today, I went to York for one of the largest shows around.

Very interesting in British model railway layout is the meticulous attention to detail. Colors match, and epochs are exactly reconstructed, down to a particular year. Very popular are 1930s - 1960s. Typical for UK model railway layouts is that they recreate the original grime-ness of the steam age. Tracks appear oily, industries are dominating, sometimes run-down, buildings are in the usual British gray, the railway tracks dominate the layout, even when they go through wonderful moor landscape. None of that colorful cutiness of the central European model railway layouts with their Alpine holiday mood to which I have been accustomed. Similar is, btw, the approach to model railroading in the US. There too is a dominance of industrial grime - exactly as in the real original.