People go outside for the summer sun, whizz off on holiday, or find something else to do while the weather allows, preferring it to being in a room with the layout.
Then Making Tracks came along. We’ve been involved in all three layouts and it did offer a nice distraction allowing us to get out, play trains and meet people.
This year it’s very different. It’s because we launched the System2 range, so were busy in new product development and still making time to play trains, though I limit myself to Wednesday mornings and all day Saturday at Chester Cathedral.
Our 4 year old granddaughter sees things a little differently. She always wants to visit the cathedral and drive trains. I see she’s in good company too, as there are many children with “tickets to drive” waiting their turn.
The cathedral is an excellent showcase for model railways, it opens the door on a somewhat secretive hobby that can be difficult to grasp for newcomers. Along comes Making Tracks on their huge layouts and are handing the controls over to four year olds.
I’ve seen kids as young as four and up to pensionable age at the other end. Isn’t it a wonderful thing to open the doors of our great hobby to the uninitiated and let them have a go? It’s very different from a model rail exhibition where rivet counting and operation are the norm, and of course prototypical operation.
So you might be forgiven for not noticing the signals all work, the track circuits are functioning and the bidirectional tracks function. For those who dare to look a little deeper though, it’s all there waiting to be discovered.
Here are a few photos of the event from my personal collection. Ill post a fuller collection on the front website page when time allows.
