Railway enthusiast events - (Covid-19)

dublinman1990

2020 has been an awful year for holding railway enthusiast events here as they've been cancelled during the lockdown. The full impact of this virus is probably still not fully realized as we haven't gone through the whole year in this country to date. In what way has this virus affected this hobby in Ireland? Does it see any opportunity that any of the events held in future could return to some kind of normality for the remainder of the year?

I also have one question though about the upcoming bi-annual model railway exhibition at St Paul's College in Raheny. Does this event have any realistic chance to be held at all during this year's October BH Weekend? This would counted as a mass gathering under the current legislation for Covid-19.

I do have some concerns about St Pauls College as a venue as it does have a lot of logistical challenges ahead because the school corridors used for the exhibition are not fit in any way to do any kind of social distancing for the exhibitors & visitors at the event. There is also the issue of the auditorium inside the school in catering to all of the exhibitors who are setting up their model railway layouts. Each model railway club/society needs to have a sufficient amount of volunteers to set them up & to keep an eye on them for the weekend. It does take a lot of time & effort for a lot of these people to get them set up as they would need to come into the venue in advance of the exhibition taking place for the 3 days in October. The government is planning to re-open the schools here from late August. I was watching Pat Kenny's interview with Leo Varadkar last night. Varadkar had said to him once the schools reopen; the state may have to implement social distancing measures inside the school buildings along with hand sanitizer facilities & markers on the floor for people to keep their distance. If those markers are still inside the floors of the school. There would have to be a plan in place to limit the amount of people who can come into the event if the organisers are up to it.

A unspecified number who are maybe exhibitors & visitors at the exhibition are probably retired from work & over the age of 70. They may be bringing a big risk in spreading Covid-19 to each other or to anyone else attending the exhibition. A lot of these people do talk to each other quite a lot about various things going on in the model railway industry & on real life railway developments to each other & to other people when they are at the event.

The GAA gave the country some good news yesterday with mentioning that their championship matches will re-commence in October barring no sudden sharp increases in new Covid-19 cases here. Although I do understand that a model railway event cannot be compared to a live mass sports event like the GAA. The GAA are going to hold their matches in the later part of the year going into 2021. This model railway exhibition is held for 3 days in October but does not have any plan to limit the amount of visitors turning to up to it. I would be thinking that this sort of good news from the GAA may not be applied equally to any other scant numbers of mass gatherings left that remain on the calendar being held here for later in the year.

Losty Dublin

Contact the Model Railway Society of Ireland. It's their show so if anybody ought to know it's them.

L1011

The venue is entirely inappropriate for any form of distancing - none of the rooms could have more than a few people at a time except for the main hall; which would need to be one way and still have bugger all people in at one time.

2020 is a write-off realistically for any gatherings - do not expect this to happen.

Isambard

yes and don't forget organising it under the restrictions would be as difficult as holding it and would have to be going on pretty much now.

bikeman1

I suppose things are changing very fast with the virus, it would be wrong to write everything off.

One of the challenges that many of the volunteers are active retired individuals who would be considered in the at risk categories.

However, if things in the world have returned to the new normal, then you will see some activities returning such as RPSI specials and library nights, albeit in much more controlled manner than before from a Covid hygiene point of view, with some restrictions on numbers.

Isambard

bikeman1 wrote: »

I suppose things are changing very fast with the virus, it would be wrong to write everything off.

One of the challenges that many of the volunteers are active retired individuals who would be considered in the at risk categories.

However, if things in the world have returned to the new normal, then you will see some activities returning such as RPSI specials and library nights, albeit in much more controlled manner than before from a Covid hygiene point of view, with some restrictions on numbers.

for the life of me I can't see how you can operate trains under Social Distancing. The payload would need to be slashed by about 80%, with a guarantee of a loss on the operation and how on earth do you crew a steam loco with the Driver and Fireman 2 metres apart?

whisky_galore

Isambard wrote: »

for the life of me I can't see how you can operate trains under Social Distancing. The payload would need to be slashed by about 80%, with a guarantee of a loss on the operation and how on earth do you crew a steam loco with the Driver and Fireman 2 metres apart?

Forget steam. Diesel.
Even then, I'm not putting any money on santa specials of any kind running, a lot could happen between now and Dec.

L1011

Santa throwing presents from down the carriage at kids who then have to disinfect the package and wash their hands before opening :pac:

Isambard

whisky_galore wrote: »

Forget steam. Diesel.
Even then, I'm not putting any money on santa specials of any kind running, a lot could happen between now and Dec.

oh well, that would help with the reduced payload.

dublinman1990

The Model Railway Exhibition in Raheny has been postponed until further notice.

DoctorPan

They're running an online event no?

Losty Dublin

DoctorPan wrote: »

They're running an online event no?

They surely are

https://www.facebook.com/MRSIExpo

dublinman1990

Oh wow. Barrow Street is now favourite layout from this online event.

There is a thread about it here. The attention to detail here is wonderful. I wouldn't change it for the world. It is perfect.

https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/6775-barrow-street/

tabbey

dublinman1990 wrote: »

Oh wow. Barrow Street is now favourite layout from this online event.

There is a thread about it here. The attention to detail here is wonderful. I wouldn't change it for the world. It is perfect.
https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/6775-barrow-street/

Superb indeed.

GT89

tabbey wrote: »

Superb indeed.

It is an absolutely lovely layout only thing missing for me is a model DART 8100 class. Honestly not sure why no model companies have made one yet. Only place I have seen one was on the Fry Model Railway which I presume was a custom spec. Looks better than the latest installation of Fry layout in Malahide installation better attention to detail.