"The John Forbes Memorial Trophy"

So i always planned to head down to Chatham this weekend for a visit to the model railway exhibition, yes, it's geeky, but i know a few people who exhibit, and a fair few traders too. The Kent Model Railway 'scene' is quite insular. I can, and do, go the big exhibitions, like the NRM one at Ally Pally which i've been to for the past couple of years, and i'd love to head to Modelworld in Brighton again, maybe next year. The local ones though are a bit more lo-fi, well, very lo-fi. I thought i'd head down though, pick up a few bits for Hartland Junction, catch up with a few of my dads old friends, it would be good way to spend a morning.. Things took a bit of an odd twist this year though. My mum called me during the week, they wanted to present a trophy for something, it was too be my choice, and it was in honour of, and named after my dad.

I can't lie, i was more than proud to step up and do the honours, it also meant my mum came along too, which not only meant i got a lift there and back, but we also got in free, result! Mostly because if i'd have had to pay £5 to get in i'd have felt more than a little ripped off. As an exhibition if was VERY light on layouts, the ususual mix of traders was as it should have been but they seemed to give up a good portion of the stalls to military/fantasy modelling, which is fine in theory, but not really if you're advertising it as a model railway exhibition. Anyway, i digress, we had a chat to the person who had kindly stumped up for and arranged the trophy, one of my dads closet 'railway' friends, slightly eccentric, but then i guess you need that if making miniature models of trains is how you choose to spend your spare time. We agreed that it would be presented for 'best layout' and i got to choose.. As i said, shame there wasn't more choice, but i knew after one quick wander round the room that is down to 2 - 'Stourford' a nice looking double track N gauge with branch heading off to a country station and ' ' well, i forget the name of the other one, but it was this lovely little dockside layout, i think the reason why that stuck out for me was because they had a CD playing with birdsounds and a general ambience. Try as i might though, i couldn't imagine my dad EVER thinking it was the better than a 'traditional' layout which is everything Stourford offered. So the decision was made, almost, i did have this daft idea for a few seconds that i should give it to Dave's Z gauge layout if only because he was the one who had the whole idea and as said, arranged it all.. Luckily though, the reality of the situation kicked in and it really did go to the best layout there. I imagine that the presentation will be taking place pretty much about now, as is generally the way during the last hour of a show, i couldnt make it down today, so i hope the guys from Stourbridge don't get too confused when given a trophy dedicated to someone they've probably never heard of, from a exhibtion in a crappy town in Kent, that nobody bothered to go to as it was sunny outside and was vastly overpriced. Still, my mum was happy as she got a nice photo of me and her, one for the mantelpiece i imagine.