Steaming ahead for the Kerry Model Railway Exhibition
THE legendary Johnny Cash once claimed to have heard the train ‘a comin’ and if you’re in Blennerville over the August Bank Holiday weekend chances are you too will hear plenty of trains – albeit of the model variety.
The tracks are now laid for the Kerry Model Railway Association’s festival showpiece as the Blennerville Windmill Centre becomes an Aladdin’s Cave for enthusiasts of model railways with exhibitors from all over Ireland and the UK coming to town.
The collections are a great source of interest to tourists visiting the Windmill and the show gives locals a chance to come and see the intricate detail involved in preserving these iconic masters of yesteryear – many of which have helped drive social and industrial change. Kerry is also the only county in Ireland to have had five different gauges of railway.
The exhibition will display seven different gauges of model railway with the star attraction being the old Tralee and Dingle Railway Line which was constructed by the Chester Model Railway Society in 1992 and acquired by the Kerry Model Railway Association in 2013, helping to set the association on track.
Billy Nolan is a member of the Kerry association and he praised the committee for the major work carried out in creating this fantastic tourist resource at Blennerville.
“We’re always looking for new members and people should come along and see the exhibition for themselves.
“It’s lovely to see all these little trains moving around and if you had a camera attached to one of them you would think you were travelling through the countryside. An awful lot of people collect these things and may even have them in their attics. It’s just a matter of generating the interest,” said Billy.
The exhibition takes place at Blennerville Windmill during August 5, 6 and 7. For more info check on The Kerry Model Railway Association’s Facebook page.