Tolworth

 Inside the M25 which in modern terms means it's London, though those of us old enough to remember when London started at the South Circular...Surrey. Tolworth is notable for a fine art-deco SR station and being at the top of the A3... it's busy.

The show is always worth a visit, though parking is a bit hit and miss being mainly of the street variety or if you're lucky,  possibly in the 50 space car park. Quality is high, but not in a down the nose finescale way, just plenty of great varied modelling in all the major scales. Note, no TT:120. Despite the trade blasting us with the notion that this is the second coming, it has yet to make any impact on the exhibition circuit. 

Lots to float my boat including the above old favourite from Giles Barnabe with Charlie Insley's Swedish HOe, Fencehouses and many, many more. The disapointment was the expected cafe breakfast a few doors down. This seems to have turned into a third rate take-away and any past recommendation is now rescinded. The in-house cafe is limited, but there was an in-exhibition snack area, though this was also down to a few cakes and a cheese roll. If you were hoping for hot food, you were out of luck. There also seems to be a trend (and I've long suspected this) that the closer to the capital you get, the greater the need to carry a full set of camping gear on your back. OK, so the cafe wasn't good, but you're in the midst of London commuter belt, not three miles up Scafell Pike! How much stuff do you need?

Despite this, still worth a trip into the ULEZ zone. 

Show: 9

Catering: 4

Parking 4

Rucksacks 8