Chatham show 2026 #1

It was another busy weekend, with a baptism at church and lots of preparation, but I thought that I needed a morning out, so joined the Dawes bus to the Chatham show. A very pleasant morning, and a pretty good show. No layouts with a massive ‘wow’ factor, but a lot of very good ones. Perhaps too many OO roundy-roundys, running out of the box stock – but that’s a matter of personal taste, and I do prefer small, finescale layouts. After previous years fights with the in-house catering, we made the good move of having a bacon roll immediately after entering the show. And a coffee in a tin NAAFI mug. The photos that follow haven’t captured every layout, just those that caught my attention. And presented in the order that I saw them. No favouritism here!! Bristol Harbour (OO). A diorama, but with working dockside cranes – all scratchbuilt, with none of that 3D printing involved. Solden (HOe) is based somewhere in Austria….. Swilleybegs (On3) is familiar from the exhibition circuit, but…