Second Album Syndrome?

I've had a couple of days to digest our experience at Model Rail Scotland, which was the first time operating Bron Hebog at a show in over two years.

I very much enjoyed the camaraderie of our team over the three days, and it was lovely to receive so many appreciative comments from visitors, both for the layout and for this blog.

But ever since the doors closed, we packed up and came home, I've been left with the nagging feeling that for as many people who loved it - indeed told us it was their only reason for coming along - it seemed as if there were as many who were distinctly unmoved by it, some of them among the railway modelling fraternity.

It's not the first time I've noticed this since we began taking Bron Hebog out, and it's starting to feel like a band struggling to follow up on a chart-topping debut album. 

25 years ago it seemed like Dduallt was feted everywhere it went, but there was a big gap between it coming off the circuit and the follow up appearing.

And like that hit band who spent time locked away in the recording studio, we've gone back on the road and discovered it's just the hard core groupies who remain.

In the days since the SEC I've been chewing over why Bron Hebog doesn't seem to capture the imagination in the same way, and I've settled on a few theories.

It's too big

At 20ft across and 10ft deep it's pretty large for an exhibition layout, and a monster for 4mm narrow gauge, especially for what is, essentially, a single track line with a passing loop.

While the groupies might like looking at an unfolding Welsh upland landscape - and if you're reading this consider yourself part of the fan club! - I suspect many people seeing it afresh see just a dull, barren vastness before them.

Not enough action

This follows on from the previous point. 

Due to its size, the simplest of track layouts, and the tortoise-like nature of the narrow gauge, trains take a long time to traverse Bron Hebog.

It can take 2 minutes for a train to snake its way from the station into the upper fiddle yard, and as a long again for one to return, plus all the fiddle yard time.

In WHR terms we operate an absurdly intensive timetable on the layout, but compared others it must seem woefully pedestrian.

No USP

When it appeared Dduallt was quite a novelty, and it has one thing that make's it cute and memorable - the under / overbridge on the spiral.

Now, like me, you might rather like watching a Garratt and its prototypical long rake of carriages snaking through reverse curves and performing not one, but two, full 180s on a climb up a gradient, through a tunnel and disappearing into a deep cutting, but I'm starting to suspect many people don't share that simple pleasure.

The sound of silence

In the decades since we built Dduallt railway modelling has moved on, and digital tech is now mainstream, but we're still rooted in the silent dc past.

A layout which doesn't arouse your ears as well as your eyes is starting on the back foot.

A level playing field

Once upon a time it really stood out if you were operating a layout entirely stocked with kit built and scratch built stock, or if you'd worked on super-detailing ready to run stock.

Now even the most brilliant modellers - which we are not - will struggle to match what it is possible to buy in a box.

Location, location, location

And last, and by no means least, I suspect this is the effect of moving to the other end of the country.

I think it's fair to say there is much less interest in narrow gauge in Scotland.

We're probably going to have to get used to that feeling of leaving a lot of our audience underwhelmed.