Thoughts on what to do with S7 North 2023

[Marc Dobson]

Following on from the success of yesterday's inaugural S7 North meeting my thoughts have turned to next year's meeting. One thing is certain we will not have the Test track.
So for those who made it I have the following questions.
1) was the location ok?
2) was the hall ok?
3) what are we going to replace the test track with?
Marc

 

[Tom Mallard]

1) Objectively, the locoation was very pleasant. Easy enough to find with modern navigation aids. We all would like a meeting to be held near to our homes, but this was a reasonable compromise coming from East Lancashire. Others travelled much further in support.
2) The hall was perfect. Not too big and with good accoustics so holding a conversation without resort to raised voices was easy. Very good kitchen and loo facilities.
3) I discussed the matter with Ian Norman. It seems as if the suggestion of a lightweight highly packable smaller test track could be built which can be sent to exhibitions ahead of time. Or something. I would hope that in the event of a second test track not being ready, then the one that was driven up from the south would again be made available. Unless others with model railways are going to bring all or part of their model to the meeting. Does the test track have to be a loop? Could a long ess bend be incorporated into an end to end arrangement for the purposes of checking performance? Loops are very large and take up a lot of resources.

 

[adrian]

Likewise I thought the location was good - even with my old fashioned navigation aids, a map, it was simple enough to find. Yes it was a reasonable distance for me, 1hr 30mins drive, but it then offered the opportunity for those north of the border to attend which was a plus.

The hall facilities were excellent, catering, toilets, tables, parking, lighting etc. With the test track, stands and demonstrators in attendance it was a comfortable size. Although I don't think it could have accommodated any more, unless there were some side rooms to use then there didn't seem to be any room for growth. A test track and anything more than your mini-layout might get rather cramped. Would the stage area be available for expansion?

It did highlight the strong requirement for a Northern area test track, I suspect for many of use it was the first time we'd managed to simply watch our models running for any length of time rather than simply shuttling about backwards and forwards. I'll have to have a think about what's feasible or possible.

 

[Dog Star]

How many people made the journey to the show?

What distance did people travel?

 

[Marc Dobson]

22 in total came. The people who came were from a cross both England and Scotland. The majority came from the Lancashire area but public transport was hampered by the cutting of the Newcastle and Leeds lines by the derailment earlier in the week. I'm in the process of doing a write up for the newsletter.

Marc