It’s snow joke missing out on the big show...
The best-laid plans... Last month I emphasised how much I was looking forward to meeting up with some readers and correspondents at the revived Harrogate show. Well, for most of the year living up a hill in the wilds of mid Wales is truly magnificent, and I wouldn’t go back to my former Surrey haunts for all the tea in China (and I like my tea...). But when the weather suddenly decides to dump several inches of snow on you, only around 24 hours before you are due to head up to Yorkshire...
Properly snowed in, and with the forecast suggesting that even worse weather was to come (wrongly, just for a change...) I had no choice but to admit defeat and sit frustrated reading the reports from others on social media. And what made it all the more frustrating was that from what I’ve been told since and on the evidence of the first of two reports from John Arrowsmith that we are now running, it was a good show.
In similar manner to Leeds ME chairman John Hunt, reported in this month’s Club News pages, in the weeks leading up to the show I was more than a bit sceptical. Getting any detailed information out of the organisers was proving difficult and I had my doubts that this was going to work. Thankfully it seems I was wrong, it certainly did work and the merging of model railway and model engineering events provided extra interest and crossover rather than the disaster that one or two predicted. Hopefully this means the Harrogate show is now established as the new early-season event, particularly as it seems the sheer cost of exhibiting in our capital may have done for the London show. I’m hoping for and looking forward to another Harrogate event this time next year, and one I intend to make it to this time...
Now then, I’ve decided to stop insisting on this page that features are going to appear in the following month’s edition. Yes, we still can’t bring you the perennially-promised feature on revolutionary new boiler technology as we’ve been having trouble getting hold of the people concerned – well they are on the other side of the world... Perhaps if I don’t say it will be appearing, it will be a nice surprise when it does...
Reading the ever-growing selection of club magazines that arrive at EIM Towers each month, many document highly interesting modelling going on. We’d like to hear from some of you doing this work, as we think your efforts would benefit from having a wider audience! Please get in touch! Enjoy your EIM.
The June issue of Engineering in Miniature publishes on 18th May