Warley - Who went, Report Here!!! (was 'Yorkchestershire' thread)

[mickoo]

There are warnings posted "over there" about such practice; sometimes the ticket machines are switched off apparently, and when you go to buy a £5 car park ticket from the manned booth they ask to see your train ticket first £25 fine they say... it must be a well known trick?

How does that work then?, surely you park before you ride and thus by default have no train ticket?, if you leave your car with no car park ticket to go and get your train ticket ....so you can get your car park ticket!....they will have you for no car park ticket!.

Simple solution, buy the cheapest ticket to the next station, even a single will do LOL, as long as its less than £5 your a winner, the shorter walk would be worth it too.

 

[Phill Dyson]

Didn't someone previously suggest parking at next station on & getting a cheap return to the NEC ?...........presumably avoiding most of the queuing too ?

 

[mickoo]

£1.90 return from either Marston Green or Hampton in Arden, only issue might be parking at either of those stations on the day of the show and yes the NEC rail station is about 2-3mins walk to the show hall.

Just did a check for a full rail trip, £81 from Ipswich to NEC, journey time 3hr 4mins, by car it took me 2hr 45mins and cost £70 petrol and £10 parking, granted my car isn't the most economical (Merc E280) but manages 35mpg on a run (40 if I draft trucks) but it is awfully comfortable and relaxing, I'd hate to do the 310 mile round trip in the wifes 1.6 Focus .

I think with todays fuel prices and a medium sized family car and if your going solo then the train is a no brainer, the car wins if there's more than one, or a family is going.

 

[iploffy]

I am always amazed at the NEC, Parking is a major bugbear of mine, why do people try to park in the immediate vicinity and wonder why they have trouble. By far the best solution is to park at Sandwell and Dudley (Oldbury) Stn and catch a Virgin train throughout to the NEC, free parking and at £5.60 Rtn prices quids in every time. I have done this for years now 20 mins on a train no hassle no changes easy. Mick you can get cheaper tickets than that I can tell you

 

[mickoo]

I am always amazed at the NEC, Parking is a major bugbear of mine, why do people try to park in the immediate vicinity and wonder why they have trouble. By far the best solution is to park at Sandwell and Dudley (Oldbury) Stn and catch a Virgin train throughout to the NEC, free parking and at £5.60 Rtn prices quids in every time. I have done this for years now 20 mins on a train no hassle no changes easy. Mick you can get cheaper tickets than that I can tell you

I'd love to know how LOL, none of the so called cheap online ticket services can do it cheaper, even by breaking it down to singles or making a break .

Just tried again with different set up, can get it for £60 but have to start at 05:30, takes nearly 4hrs and only leaves 3hrs at NEC and 4hrs home LOL. Sometimes you can take saving £20 just too far LOL. There may be other combinations and I know there are big savings on some London/Birmingham services, cheap as £6 for a single, but takes forever to get there .

 

[iploffy]

Mick I am a Retail trained TM working for a well known bearded space traveling(hopefully)balloon company owner and there are plenty of ways to beat the system. we had some one the other day buy day returns from every station from Manchester to London where the train stopped perfectly legal and undercut the price by over £100, they don't tell you everything on these websites. We know who put him up to it good on him that's what I say.

 

[mickoo]

Mick I am a Retail trained TM working for a well known bearded space traveling(hopefully)balloon company owner and there are plenty of ways to beat the system. we had some one the other day buy day returns from every station from Manchester to London where the train stopped perfectly legal and undercut the price by over £100, they don't tell you everything on these websites

I bet they don't LOL, I'll be sure to tap you up if I go next year then <grin> it does look like you can get it cheaper if your prepared to put up with a little loss of travel time or buggeration factor.

Kindest

 

[iploffy]

Mick you don't even have to get off the train, so long as it stops on the platform the ticket is from and to perfectly valid and not a lot of people know that. So you get on a stopper that has boundary cards on it like a midlands day ranger, a Derby travel card whatever on a Saturday there are no peak tickets and the amount of expresses you can use these tickets on is amazing, when I get the time I am going to do the exercise to prove it's possible

 

[mickoo]

Mick you don't even have to get off the train, so long as it stops on the platform the ticket is from and to perfectly valid and not a lot of people know that. So you get on a stopper that has boundary cards on it like a midlands day ranger, a Derby travel card whatever on a Saturday there are no peak tickets and the amount of expresses you can use these tickets on is amazing, when I get the time I am going to do the exercise to prove it's possible

I've done that before with singles, round trip to Twickers with my mates £27 (£21 if you get a 4 person group ticket!), singles to Manningtree then return from there to Twickers, as you say, stay on the train and no problems and all legal.

Apologies for the OT diversion, best get back on track beofre the 'flying squad' swoops in LOL.

Kindest

 

[Phill Dyson]

Apologies for the OT diversion, best get back on track beofre the 'flying squad' swoops in LOL.

No apologies needed, it's all interesting stuff & related to Warley

 

[mickoo]

No apologies needed, it's all interesting stuff & related to Warley

Thank you, seems the biggest issue many have is the walk/bus and parking, if collectively we can help resolve or reduce that then it might make peoples experiance a little more relaxing. If I go again I will definately be arriving by train, either one or two stops out (or full journey) as the walk/bus/car park jam-delays are massively reduced/removed, normally I'm pretty astute at working out the best scams to get somewhere (engine sheds, works etc LOL) so I'm quite ticked off that I missed this rail access trick! .

Off to check rail possible connections for Kettering now LOL.

 

[Jordan]

How does that work then?, surely you park before you ride and thus by default have no train ticket?, ......

I don't know how it works, I just read the thread "over there" and someone got clobbered....
The last time I went to Warley I did it Iploffy's way, from Sandwell & Dudley (which I'm pretty close to anyway) - but the train was flippin' crowded, both ways!!

 

[28ten]

Best way to avoid the charges is to stay away from the NEC.....

 

[Dave]

How does that work then?, surely you park before you ride and thus by default have no train ticket?, if you leave your car with no car park ticket to go and get your train ticket ....so you can get your car park ticket!....they will have you for no car park ticket!.

How it works is that on entering the car park you must take a ticket to open the barrier. When you are ready to go you have to slot the ticket into a machine in the station and feed it £5. The ticket comes back out of the machine and you slot it into another to open the barrier on the way out. So if they switch this machine in the station off and you are forced to pay a gripper on the way out then I guess he can ask to see your train ticket.

I didn't get gripped so I'm alright, Jack.

I won't be going ever again though. I've decided that the money to get there, the parking fees and the entry fee may as well stay in my wallet and be spent on stuff at Telford instead.

 

[mickoo]

How it works is that on entering the car park you must take a ticket to open the barrier. When you are ready to go you have to slot the ticket into a machine in the station and feed it £5. The ticket comes back out of the machine and you slot it into another to open the barrier on the way out. So if they switch this machine in the station off and you are forced to pay a gripper on the way out then I guess he can ask to see your train ticket.

I didn't get gripped so I'm alright, Jack.

I won't be going ever again though. I've decided that the money to get there, the parking fees and the entry fee may as well stay in my wallet and be spent on stuff at Telford instead.

Ahh I see then, could always say you don't have one as you've just taken your grandma, daughter wife....insert relation here... to the station to catch a train LOL.

Either way, it's not worth the bloody hassle of having to deal with some jobs worth, enough of them at the NEC that you 'have' to interacted with, no point adding more I suppose.

Looking at Bing I see there's an airport there as well, yes yes I already knew there was an airport there LOL but they must have car parks, do they ask for a plane ticket on exit?, I doubt they are that rectal...or maybe they are? . To be honest you'd think these peripheral car parks would jump at the chance to make an extra buck!, take Stena, P&O and Sealink, they couldn't wait to grab late cars at Dover to put on their ferries in the channel wars of the 80's, money is money these days, but hey, I'm no business man .

I think the Guv'nor has the right idea, just stay away or at least remove as much interface with Stulag NEC as possible.

 

[queensquare]

The vast majority of postings on this Warley Model Railway exhibition thread are about Landrovers, why you didn't go, how to avoid paying for parking or what Dapol have announced - and you complain about 'the other place'

I'm off to the workshop to be grumpy

Jerry

 

[28ten]

Nothing against Warley show, I just won't go to the NEC, concrete floors, rubbish lighting, catering, car parking etc etc. fwiw I don't like Telford either, Bristol GOG is far more agreeable. Yes, I'm an old fart that doesn't like big shows and standing up all day.

 

[28ten]

The vast majority of postings on this Warley Model Railway exhibition thread are about Landrovers, why you didn't go, how to avoid paying for parking or what Dapol have announced - and you complain about 'the other place'

I'm off to the workshop to be grumpy

Jerry

Serious point, does anybody go to Warley to see layouts? or is it to get deals and 'networking' ?

 

[Dog Star]

Serious point, does anybody go to Warley to see layouts?

When we go to Warley we go to see layouts. Nowadays there is very little in the way of trade at Warley which carries what might interest us. OK, we do buy Midland Record, Turton Collection and similar when we go to the show. Otherwise not a lot of trade attraction.

This year we ummed and aaahed over the layout list and came to the conclusion that there were just three or four "must see" layouts - the cost was too great for the little that we wanted to see. More to the point, the money saved by not going can be spent at the Reading Trade Show - the money saved equates to a couple of wagon kits or another EZB coach.

regards, Graham

 

[mickoo]

I don't network....don't know enough people and I don't buy RTR as I prefer to make things, nothing against RTR, just more satisfaction gained by making things. Deals yes, mostly books, picked up some real blinders like near mint Book of the A3s (Peter Coster) for £3, but mainly I go to be inspired and that ranges from 5" to 2mm and any subject rail orientated, last year it was a 5" class 40 that took my eye, at Ally Pally it was the Darjeeling layout, this year the coast cliff layout and the large 7mm engine shed, but it could be anything of any period or continent.