I Am Only Making One Post Today,

you guessed it!

I took too many photographs, again, out of the park, I caught a number 54 bus to the war memorial,

where next to the cinema I noticed another one of the benches,

which seem to be showing up every where in Beckenham town, next bus a 194,

to Eden Park, under the bridge,

St. John's church in Eden Park Avenue for a model railway show, as it happens I had been here before, in October last year, and enjoyed the show so much I wanted to see it all again, 

of course not all the displays were the same,

I arrived just before midday, there were already lots of visitors here,

this layout a Hornby Dublo by Martin Wood,

I have to admit I am not sure who made this layout,

but I liked the cars as well as the trains that were going around,

this gentleman used his lockdown time,

to produce this wonderful layout,

even the turntable worked,

almost there,

there were of course lots of trade stands,

selling all manner of trains and accessories,

this stall WJ Vintage specialising in O gauge, 

next door to Elaine's Trains,

as you might expect the size of the trains depends on how much room you have, if only we had a garden!

I looked at some of the stalls selling trains,

many new in their original boxes,

some with out boxes,

these boxed sets really old, 

the Hornby Dublo,

with its three rail tracks finishing production in 1964,

the signaling gantries often overlooked in railway layouts at the rear of this stall,

as it happened my first train set was from Tri-ang,

like this one, way back in the late 1950s,

a look back at the small hall,

as I made my way in to the larger hall where there were more layouts, above the 'work' part of this layout,

at the front, 

this is what you see,

in this hall,

many of the layouts were of a larger gauge,

featuring three rail systems,

this one by Chiltern Hill group HRCA in O gauge,

this layout by the Kitmaster Club,

had so much happening on it,

around the small castle with its light,

a tram,

and there was a raised part of the layout too,

this layout by Bassett Lowke Bromley Tappers & B-L Society,

again a three rail system,

there were so many trains in the center of the layout,

as it happens there were not as many double O gauge here as I thought there would be,

from America a Lionel O gauge system,

by Mark Carne HRCA TCS

the trains looked quite different from the UK ones I am used to seeing,

the buildings and street lights giving the game away as well as the trains,

then I could not believe my eyes,

a Hornby live steam train, yes Hornby some years ago miniaturised a steam boiler and all of the valves needed to make a miniature live steam train!

using these pieces of kit 17 volts are sent through the tracks to keep the water boiling to provide the steam needed to power the train,

here were two not under steam,

but these two were, I was captivated, I had never seen this miniature live steam trains in action,

but here were two of them puffing their way around the tracks, and as it happens I have two of them, brand new and never been out of their boxes at home! 

a last look at the live steam display,

but before I left I took a few photographs of some of the live steam display

it seems incredible,

that a steam unit could be made so small, but there it is,

I had a last look at some of the layouts,

as I left,

the large hall,

and made my way out through the smaller hall and home,

at home I made this short video of some of the trains, and if like me you like model railway exhibitions I will hopefully be here at the next one, on Saturday the 15th. of October,

on the way back home I stopped at one of the benches,

this the notice beside it,

as I neared the park I noticed the first showing of colour,

on the righthand side of the lodge some of the wisteria was almost in flower,

the magnolia and cherry blossoms looking nice,

arriving home it was upstairs to the man attic, and there under the bed,

my live steam trains,

one a boxed set of the Flying Scotsman,

the controllers and train,

underneath oil, rails, instructions and thermal gloves, the trains get very hot!

I had to buy the second train and controller separately as they did not come as a set,

and there it is,

a green liveried Papyrus,

I did have a model railway when we lived in Thailand and I was going to run the live steam trains on it, but I somehow never did, so we brought them back with us when we moved back to England, above is a video of my railway layout that Diana helped me build in Thailand,

Diana had left the refrigerator magnet out we also found the one we bought when we went to the Isle of Wright still in her bag,

it was soon time for my evening read and sherry, followed by some coleslaw and potato salad, 'Cheers!', 

for my main course bangers and mash,

followed by mangos and watermelon, 

that is me trying to be healthy! Diana arrived home shortly after so we watched a Midsomer Murder followed by the Godfather part 2, after which we were off to bed.