Ditcheat Junction has made its long awaited first public appearance at Bournemouth Model Railway Exhibition organised by the East Dorset N Gauge Group over the weekend. The team are incredibly proud to have brought this vision to life over the past 3 years and thoroughly enjoyed the chance to share our work with so many other likeminded people. We really enjoyed seeing everyone enjoying the layout, taking photos and videos and we loved answering everyone’s questions.
To ensure the smooth running of the layout at the exhibition, we hired a local hall to really put iTrain and the automatic running of the railway through its paces. Over the course of the few months prior to the show we had a number of testing days and during these days we were able to refine the automatic running of the railway and smooth over any potential issues. Thankfully, these testing days really paid off and throughout the exhibition we were able to ensure train movements were maximised as the signalling of the railway allowed. Another benefit of the testing days was that we were able to refine our manual operation of the yard behind the station which allowed shunting and loco changes to take place whilst the mainline and branch services continued to running normally.
Over the course of the weekend, the team really enjoyed hearing peoples questions and discussing the various different things that we have done with Ditcheat Junction. Many of the questions were about the computer operation of the railway using iTrain but we also had lots of other questions regarding signalling, rolling stock, lighting and detailing. The team were thrilled to be able to support those who were looking to get started in the hobby with the basics or supporting those further along their journeys within the hobby with specific enquiries.
We were incredibly pleased that the railway operated smoothly almost the entire weekend, the only blip was a small technical blip before the exhibition opened on Sunday morning. Luckily, the team were able to quickly address this issue and no-one would have been any the wiser that an issue occurred.
Having had a wonderful weekend, the team were incredibly happy to find out that Ditcheat Junction was only a few votes away from winning the Best In Show award. We wish to extend our thanks to the East Dorset N Gauge group for inviting us to their wonderful exhibition and are incredibly grateful for the support they provide us and the friendship we have made. The team are really looking forward to our other exhibitions this year and we look forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new.
Our next exhibition is the Plymouth Model Railway Show on Sunday 1st March 10:00-16:00 at YMCA Kitto Centre PL5 3NG. To book tickets click here.
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