Abrail 2024: Abingdon & District Model Rail Show – 50th Anniversary

All the highlights from Abrail 24 – a fantastic 2-day model railway exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of the Abingdon & District model railway club, with over 40 layouts and trade.

Grumpy Camera Man once again hijacked proceedings… my apologies to the residents of Abingdon for the distinct lack of facts.

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Links:
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www.modelrailwayquest.com
Abingdon & District Model Railway Club – https://admrc.org.uk

Music: Mr Train
With thanks to Richard Gottfried (local reporter!) 🙂
https://worldofbunthrowing.blogspot.com/

Also: Abingdon Town Council:

Bun throwing

www.modelrailwayquest.com
Instagram: @modelrailwayquest
X (Twitter): @modelrailquest
Facebook: @modelrailwayquest

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Join me as I explore the exciting world of model Railways with behind the scenes features step-by-step tutorials interviews videos reviews and much much more I’m Dawn Quest and I love building model Railways model rail enthusiasts are flocking to abrail 2024 held in the small Market town of

Abington just a few miles north of Birmingham search through Wikipedia reveals famous people born here include an Fria Widow of an skill Lord of secort and mistress to King Henry I and of course Bishop Henry dandi born here in 1654 the tourist office wanted us to point out that back in

1986 Dave Binger drummer with the baron nights bought his band here the baron night for a sellout show at the ABY Center most people of course know Abingdon for the 2003 mini Riot as reported in the Daily Mail when all three local branches of wait in the Town

Center ran out of ethically sourced sourdough bread and replaced their sock with jeeper mother’s Pride loaves from the nearby workingclass area did c main attractions include the Abby Meadow outdoor swimming pool training ground for the Olympic breastroke gold medalist Eric Bristo oh great looks like got away with

That without any interruptions from When You’re Expecting big crowds you need a big space and for their 50th Anniversary abrail 2024 don’t just have one big space they have four like here here here and here in fact there are layouts all over the College lost animals is right

Next door here next to a Ward and speaking of lost animals we’re better to start than with this wonderful layout by Bob Norris lost animals depicts a location in the Texas Arizona area with trains from the 1940s to 1980s the layout is with details including a cement Works Pickle Works

Scrapyards factories bus depot car importers horse riding school radio station Depot and an Interurban Line Bob belongs to the gosport model Railway club and lost animals was one of a handful of amazing engaged layouts at rail 2024 Hinky yard is a 2mm scale engage layout by Dave sell from the Epsom and ual model Railway Club Hy yard is situated just south of Oxford it’s a DB shenka formerly ews local Distribution Center often called a virtual Quarry regular deliveries of ballast are stockpiled to allow trains to be

Prepared for weekend engineering Works rail sleeper and ballast wagons are all seen in the yard as well as spoil wagons returning from engineering Occupations passing passenger trains include first Great Western hsts and network turbo multiple units and CrossCountry voyages passing freight services include freight liner and ews Intermodal container services car transporters from CI Works scrap in containers mod traffic coal and oil for didot power station and landfill from br to Cal the thin liner

Services it was lovely to see Kings Park at Abel 24 Kings Park is by Andy Steph it’s a 2mm scale engage based on a location Northwest of London on the west coast Mainline the area covers the four AC main lines of British Rail and the bakoo underground and Watford overground of Queens Park

Town further along are the sheds of Wilston Loco Depot now on its 63rd outing on the exhibition circuit just seven more shows to go and I’m told Kings Park will be retired so if you’ve yet to see Kings Park I urge you to go and see it very soon

While you still have a chance it’s a fantastic layout one of the absolute highlights of the show was getting to see this Mo’s View the second time I’ve seen it and my top layout of 2023 and I was delighted to catch up with its creator Paul holwell I wanted atmosphere and I didn’t

Like the idea of blue sky and fluffy clouds I wanted a menacing sky where you know the crews out to work against the elements so and I love the idea as much as we run diesels I love the idea that the Heat and the fire in the boilers

Against the cold of the snow but they are to battle to keep keep the tracks and the trains running probably two vehicles away from finishing the layout one tree away from finishing the layout I stepped back and thought Oh what have I done there’s no points there’s no

Sidings uh but the idea was for people to see trains running through um at sort of rail speed or stopping at the stations it was meant to look very Bleak and and cold living in Devon um my late Granddad was a driver for for the Southern Railway at the time based at

Exmouth Junction i’ done a few walks and along they they’re now cycle paths a lot of the the granite way and there’s a Viaduct called Lake View Viaduct now Lake View viu when we were on there we were looking for a lake and it’s not it’s actually views the village of

Lake so when you turn around there’s the view of the Moors so I thought Moors view so it was actually inspired by viod believe it or not yeah now brace yourself ladies and gentlemen from the Stark and desolate Wilderness of moros viiew to the technical dream that is Museum of

Transport ladies and gentlemen boys and girls welcome to the Museum of Transport for our Gala weekend all of our galleries are fully open for you to explore enjoy a free ride on our trams trains and boats this weekend we have a display of restored vintage fire engines from the

Collection of the fire engine trust our Lancaster boner will be starting up at various times throughout the day please listen for announcements at the Bandstand please welcome the upper sheep’s bottom brass band who will be playing a selection of popular melodies for the high spot of your visit

Today why not take a trip in a hot air balloon situated adjacent to the band stand as you walk around the museum today please take care of moving vehicles and always cross the tracks at the proper places thank you for visiting the Museum of Transport today the Museum of Transport is by Robin

Brogden it’s a fictitious Museum situated in the regenerated former Doland of an English town it’s been going 32 years this is our 287th show and we travel all up and down the country we’ve been down as far as folon and up as far as abdine a layout has to

Be entertaining and that not everybody that comes to a show is a model roadway in Enthusiast so there’s things on here to entertain the moms and the kides and the grandmas and everybody that comes along as well I essentially wanted to have some trams running so it started as a

Tram layout and because the trams were from different areas I wanted an excuse for them to be there so a museum was ideal I really thought that after five years it would end up in a Skip and I’d have built a new one thank goodness for

Us it didn’t the Museum of Transport is an absolute Delight with such a big exhibition perhaps it was not surprising to see such a variety of different gauges I counted not one not two not even three but eight ho gauge layouts spanning the globe from Holland to Australia China to Norway France and Switzerland The burella bar is by John leer had it been built it would have been part of the extensive ksha meter gauge Network in eastern Switzerland and would have Linked samarit In The Swiss engadine to Chena in Italy the route was surveyed in 1913 and several plants created but

Unfortunately the line was never built and these days the only way to travel the route is by Road the layout attempts to represent a stretch of the line between the settlements of maloya and casucha which are about 20 km from samitz as Lockdown projects go this

Layout is a thing of beauty it’s Zike by Phil cotton Phil tells me that he started this the very first week of lockdown it was inspired by a trip to utre for the model Railway show and with some time on their hands Phil and his colleagues decided to find a spot to

Watch the trains go by and this is the result in reality there is no windmill no farm and no station but it was felt that just open Countryside would look a little bit flat well Phil it’s certainly not flat I’d say it’s definitely good good enough

Don’t it’s Gala GAA Gala No it’s G I’ll just say e d Edam it it’s made backwards what is Edam I like get it made backwards no who asked you anyway well I ain’t been in it for a bit so I want to say a few

Words the trains you see passing by date from the 1990s to the present day and are typical of the Dutch re always seen moving chickens were something of a theme this year I spotted them on several layouts as was a mysterious outbreak of plastic Ducks I think we

Have the team over at berock to thank for those or should we now call them bird duck I first saw this next layout at Wy last year it looks even more impressive on second viewing this is Bea by Paul Stapleton this layout is set in China in

2001 and by then the remaining Steam Action was centered around heavily polluted industrial cities in the north Bou is set in the northern suburbs of such a city at the back of the layout we have an industrial Railway linking coal mines offstage to the left but the steel

Works off stage to the right beayou is remarkable in that it really depicts China in that era but also Paul has had a lot of fun with these lovely little cameos here’s Paul’s wife explaining to the cameraman that she’s never seen these kinds of vegetables in her local

Tesco and this is Paul jumping out of the car to take a photo of the oncoming Loco but why don’t we hear from Paul himself this is my latest probably my last exhibition layout it’s based in China where I visited uh 15 times to photograph steam trains I did my Great

Western Branch uh stuff about 50 years ago and ever since then I’ve tried to do layouts that nobody else has attempted because I don’t want to have the 595th best Great Western Branch line on the circuit I think I can claim to have the best Chinese layer on the circuit but

Equally I’ve got the worst Chinese ho layout on the circuit cuz I’ve got the only Chinese layout on the circuit if you only told me how stupid it was to build a 26 foot by 10 layout in a 14 by8 shed I very grateful for 12 years ago I

Never envisaged it would take such a long time the general public the moms and dads the families they want to see action and what we try and do is if you’re a serious Enthusiast we will tell you serious stuff about China if you’re a mom and dad in the kids just on the

Day out we will entertain you with movement Abel hosts the Abington and District model Railway Club were represented at the show by four layouts there was Abington the Abington Branch Sodor Island and carile Canal now at this point I wish there was such a thing as smow Vision as the Abington Branch

Came complete with its own set of Aromas there was diesel there was coal there was gas there was even the smell of fresh cow and believe me it was pungent it’s the first time abrail has been held over 2 days and according to Club chairman bill it’s most likely not

Going to be the last we had great pre-sales we went online so people could book in advance at a good discount and we had over a thousand Advanced bookings so that meant yesterday yesterday we had almost got a full house the standard of the layout particularly in the Sports

Hall was amazing and we’re absolutely delighted with that we just like modeling and we like to have other modelers around us so the same as we go to shows then they come to us so it’s uh it’s good forun but hard work as well and of course with every big event you

Have to be prepared for the unexpected Cade five Riv count mount down on9 gauge layout wrong number of rivets counted on Route no show is complete without a handful of double O gauge unless you’re the M Society of course I was originally going to come to Abel

To film but was asked at the last minute to step in and exhibit Brief Encounter it was lovely to share Brief Encounter and to see so many people come and say hello including some of my subscribers hi to Travis and to Graham and also to Keith remember the mints I’d heard so many good things about Chris me’s Overlord finally it was my chance to see it for myself based Loosely on Southampton and Portsmouth dockyards the layout attempts to depict The Hectic keyside activities to be found at many of the Southern ports of England in the days surrounding the invasion of

Normandy this layout has so much on it I think I needed a bigger camera Chris does an incredible job of capturing the confus of the moment tanks are awaiting loading mechanized infantry columns search for their embarcation point there are specialist Vehicles such as Bridge layers rocket launchers mine clearers and amphibious

Tanks Landing ships of various shapes and sizes together with the vital support of escorting destroyers and torpedo boats prepare to put to Sea Chris told me that he created this marvelous effect with the water just with simple acrylic paint and Yacht varnish to water of a more peaceful

Variety and a different Hue now this is Redbridge War by John Shaw of the Winchester Railway modelers Redbridge Warf hasn’t been out on the circuit since tolworth as sadly the club has been experiencing some difficulty with its location of its Clubhouse it’s really good to see that the Winchester Railway modelers have

Pulled together to keep going despite their difficulties and it was fantastic to see Redbridge Warf once again the layout depicts an area of Redbridge in Hampshire the station was opened in 1847 by the Southampton and Dorchester Railway and became a junction in 18 65 when the Sprat and Winkle line opened to

Romsey and Andover the large area of drained Marshland between the warf and the station was used as a holding area for materials this then became the sleeper Works including the manufacturer of sleepers Bridge Timbers and cast track components in the final years of operation the site was used to assemble

Long welded rail sections and lay out large Point work complexes yakers is a double O gauge layout by the Stafford Railway Circle it’s set in the Staffordshire darbishire area and represents a fictitious former lnwr route from Birmingham to Derby and Nottingham the line is on the high level

And is linked to an XGC line on the lower level one throat of the station is modeled together with the station buildings and surround sing Town scene white takers is a lovely lout it’s probably one of my favorite of the show this Weekend there was also a handful of more specialist gauges there was S4 P4 e m even a tt3 gauge And one layout in particular was the source of much amusement and fascination and it was this one oat loose a zed gauge layout by Paul spray oat loose depicts scenes observed from a holiday Chalet in the Alps there are hay makers with sides children skipping a man with a parrot on his

Shoulder and a walrus which has somehow found its way so far Upstream we also spotted some hungry cows a wild boar and a falling tree York is a 2mm fine scale layout by Peter ker it depicts York station as it was in the late 1930s and features a view of

The inside of the Magnificent overall roof as though you were standing on the platform York is the crossroads of many rail routs of the north so a huge variety of stock and liveries passed through at the time I love something a bit different and The Parlor Railway by Peter Boyce is

Certainly that Peter writes if an Edwardian gentleman had wished to run a model Railway in his parlor this is what he may have had it’s constructed of mahogany panels curtained with velvet and lit with brass and Green Glass shaded lamps and finally James Street I’ve been

Wanting to see this for quite some time and it’s certainly didn’t disappoint it also won Best in Show and not hard to see why James Street is an engage exhibition layout on a grand scale and is supposedly located somewhere in the Midlands mainly served by Midland and Eastern trains but with western and

Southern specials at times I’ll just leave you to enjoy this layout for a moment it was certainly an ambitious goal to turn Abel into a two-day event this year but Abingdon and District model Railway Club can hold their heads up high they put on an amazing show and

Should be rightfully proud with some of the best layouts I’ve seen all Under One Roof well after an incredibly busy 2 days at Abel 2024 we’ve seen Locos we’ve seen cars taxis the odd bicycle or two some horses some cows even a wild ball and of course let’s not forget the Ducks

And the chickens that’s it for me see you next time bye-bye but hopefully this could be the start of something big if you like this video please do like share and subscribe and hit the Bell to be notified of all my future videos