The following weekend we’re at the NMRA convention in Bournmouth – again if you’re attending then come and say hi - show details for that one are here: http://www.bournemouthbelle2011.org.uk/

Eagle eyed viewers may already have noticed the new transition era images on our flickr site via the links on the right, all shot at our visit to Peco – the images are courtesy of Brian Moore who helped out and brought some of his excellent 1950s Southern Pacific stock to run – also worth checking out is his YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/BrianXMoore

And last, but certainly not least RS Tower features as the ‘Plan of the Month’ in the October issue of Continental Modeller – available at all good newsagents now!

Just a heads-up for anyone coming to Peco for their steam gala do at the weekend, we will be in the gallery with RS Tower and a handful of modules all weekend, and just for a change we’ll be in transition era guise for the first time to (hopefully) complement with some (little) big steam of our own!

More action can be found here.

Also myself & Martyn will be at the Trent Valley North American show on June 11th 2011. we will be taking Alpha, S.Kedzie Ave & half of Dale Yard, Era – post 2000 Details can be found here Hope to see you all there?

The RS Tower layout along with the modules will allow us to create a “walk around” layout design with around 120’ of scenic layout frontage showing many aspects of 1980s/90s US railroading in the Midwest, our usual lengthy trains will be in evidence at RS Tower and the modules will form a linear branch line from there to Oakdale via an expanded Dale Yard. Dale will be in use as a full classification yard for the first time, breaking up and building trains for various destinations on the layout.

Also being demonstrated will be our own interpretation of the car card and waybill method of traffic generation, as well as train dispatching (movement authorisation) by radio, both of which are things rarely seen at UK exhibitions.

We’ve never shown a layout this large before, and this will be a very rare chance to see such a large layout from our group as it involves a lot of preparation work and a large team of volunteers beyond our core group. We’d like to thank all our volunteers for their efforts, but particular mention should be made of the guys from the NMRA’s Western Union group in Plymouth for their assistance, advice and loan of their radio’s.

Whilst RS Tower and some modules will be attending other shows during 2011 this show will be your only chance to see our layout and modules in such a large setup and with such an emphasis on operations this year, a rare opportunity at a UK model railway exhibition. The Exe MRS show will take place on June 4th and 5th at the Matford Centre, Exeter. For more details see their club website at http://www.exemrs.co.uk/

The show also features many more great layouts and traders and is situated in an easy-t0-get-to venue on the outskirts of Exeter. In an inflation-busting move kids will be able to come in free with a paying adult this year – and Exeter is an excellent shopping venue or a good hub to visit other west country destinations, so easy to work into other plans.

We’re busy working on upgrading the scenery on RS Tower to be ready for Exeter, plus getting our modules ready for the event at present.

Once we have Exeter out of the way then there will be three more opportunities to see RS Tower during 2011, albeit without such a large modular presence.

In August we visit Pecorama for their steam spectacular event – the layout has never appeared before running in the transition era so another first.

In October we are out again twice in quick succession - a trip to Barrow-in-Furness for the Furness MRS show will be the furthest North it has appeared, and the following weekend we are down on the south coast at the NMRA’s convention in Bournmouth!

This will be a busy year – hope to catch up with some of you on the way!

We are please to announce that we will be at  The Exeter Model Railway Show 4th & 5th June 2011. Details can be found here. This time we will be joined with the RS TOWER Freemo Modular System. The freemo modules will form a branch line 95ft long. please see proposed track plan & setup.

We will also have some new modules on show, Alpha, Swing Bridge, Sterling & more? we will also be running full length trains up to 30+ cars on the branch.

as soon as we have some more updates i’ll keep you posted.

We’re debuting several new modules this year including Gillsburgh by Ian Smith as well as established modules such as Neil Rogers’ Oakdale, they will form a 60′ long end-to-end run between a pair of small yards, frequent local passenger and freight moves should feature.

We’re a little bit short of staff this year so RS Tower and it’s big trains are not featuring as part of this display, but we’re planning lots of operation so it’s still well coming for a look and a chat about modules, DCC, operations or any of the other things we get up to. And if anyone wants to come for a play let us know!

We’re working on a major showing with both RS Tower and a substantial Freemo presence combined for the 2011 Exeter show, it will be worth making a note in your diaries as we’ll be creating something that will be able to absorb lots of operators!

We’ll have RS Tower plus five modules including Oakdale and Dale Yard working at the show – with lots of interesting motive power and operations to see.

This is likely to be the only non-local public running for RS Tower during 2010 so feel free to come and ask questions about the layout, modular railroading, operations or, well, just about anything else!

See you there!

The website shows a large variety of layouts including several other North American outline exhibits and includes several relevant traders including US specialists LSWR Models and Steam Powered Video, on top of some superb modelling inspiration from the rest of the UK and beyond.

We’ll be on stand 180, and our layout will consist of the main RS Tower layout plus a branch line built from Neil Roger’s Dale Yard, Oakdale and other modules – this should give a nice contrast between the heavy main line railroading at RS Tower and classic branch-line carload operation at Oakdale.

Modern railroading featuring BNSF and CN plus Eastern connections will be featured, with regional & shortline railroads also putting in appearances.

The images uploaded there have a bit of work done on brightness & levels to try and correct for them being shot in sometimes difficult light indoors, but i’m not intending to do much in the way of correcting for layout issues such as removing backscene lines and so on, i’m trying to be honest with how it actually looks, i’d hate for anyone to be terribly dissapointed when they see the layout for real!

The entrance to the venue is in Lucky Lane. There is some nearby street parking available (in meter bays) but plenty of nearby parking is available at the Cathedral & Quay car park, there is a step-free walking route from the top deck of the car park to the venue and blue badge holders can also park here free.

Our large RS Tower layout plus a modular branch line will be set up and running all day, showing off it’s large American trains.

There will be the opportunity to come and talk with the team about our approach to model railroading in general, modular model railroading, car card systems, digital control or other subjects, or to come and take part.

Entry is free but there will be a box available to make a donation to The Salvation Army

Please feel free to forward this to any person/group you think might be interested!