I note it has been nearly two years since I posted in this blog, and my return here today is because I reminded myself that it's coming up to four years since I got so mightily pissed off that I began easing back on the content I was posting.
The trigger, you'll remember if you were reading back then, was the almost total disinterest shown in Bron Hebog when we took it to one of the largest shows in the UK on the first outing since the Covid lockdowns, and just days after the Russians launched their war against Ukraine.
So it was stressful time, it's fair to say.
Next month we return once again, this time with Minffordd.
In between we also returned with Dduallt, collecting one of the minor awards, which only served to confirm that my thoughts about Bron Hebog were probably correct, as least so far as tastes in model railway layouts in the northern half of this island go.
The concept behind Minffordd includes a lot of that learning.
Here, the layouts which connect with the public need a lot of these aspects about them:
British outline standard gauge - not necessarily OO but it's obviously dominant.
Aspirational ready-to-run rolling stock - there aren't many visitors who know enough to coo over your kit-building or scratch building.
DDC and especially sound - people love a gadget.
Plenty of movement on the layout.
A quirky track plan doesn't hurt either.
Minffordd unashamedly ticks all those boxes, and more, but it also does so while being completely prototypical and providing enough of the wow factor for the vanishingly small number of exhibition-goers who know their narrow gauge and appreciate a painstaking recreation of the FR in the 1960s.
We have a few show-stopping curiosities, too, like the 'how did you get sound in that?' Simplex and Britomart, and our latest addition, a speaker-fitted Wickham p-way trolley for the Cambrian Coast.
We have also taken learnings from our first two exhibition outings and more than doubled the OO fiddle yard capacity with two auxiliary storage areas which give an end-to-end option for running more of the longer formations than the very short loops allowed for.
So despite still feeling pissed off about 2022 (I can't deny it) I am excited about going back next month with something I hope will floats some boats a little more.
