I hadn't been to the Epping exhibition for quite a few years, or any other other suburban exhibition with the exception of Hurstville for that matter, so when the opportunity presented itself I was not disappointed.
Spread out through the buildings of Epping Boys High it had a very different atmosphere to bigger exhibitions but shared a few similarities as well. The layouts were to a very high standard with a couple of new ones ( to me anyway) 'Brooklyn @ 3am' - a TV set sized layout that depicted suburban/industrial switching (shunting) and 'Bowen Creek' - a larger but similar in style layout depicting a single line country station. The detail in these layouts was outstanding, both have raised the bar in exhibition layouts. Simple in track plan and operation, although Brooklyn was quite innovative, but the attention to detail, which draws the viewer in, was astounding.
The other thing which stood out was the attendance and the hiding that both wallet and plastic appeared to be copping.
I arrived around 8.00am to help the CEO of Eureka Industries set up. The exhibition opened to the public at 10.00am and there were a few keen souls queued up already! At 9.30 the queue was at least 100m long, from the ticket booth to the car park anyway. By 11.00am the main hall was gridlocked - seriously gridlocked, and the armfuls of merchandise being lugged around was unreal.
Whilst not wanting to go into sales estimates I can say that at least two commercial operators underestimated the amount of stock required to meet the demands of punters on the day!
Recession, economic downturn - sorry, no evidence sighted!
Can't wait to see the Liverpool exhibition and the effect that the economic climate has there - or not.
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