Saturday Film Club: Proper model shops
I'm not usually a fan of people ranting on-line, but this is an exception. For a start, it's very well done and then it's also a subject I feel passionately about, the loss of model shops. Weirdly,...
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UK slot car show 2018
How do you encourage youngsters into a hobby?The answer, according to the slot car world, appears to be to let them have a go at it.Held at the motor museum, Gaydon, the UK slot car show boasted at...
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Rough seating
Finding myself with some Bachmann G scale figures to photograph for Garden Rail presented me with an interesting problem.A few of the little people are seated, so needed to be propped up for their...
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Old cable
I was given a cable at the weekend. The plug on the end is my favourite type of ancient and chunky connector. Gerrard, who gave it to me, has promised (threatened?) that he has several more to send my...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Great Northern Railway Goods Shed
Another excellent building from of Nick Wallace, this time from Manchester.The Great Northern Railway Goods Shed is adjacent to the erstwhile Central Station (now a car park). It is as solid as it...
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Repairing and modifying a Planet transmitter
At the weekend, I was sailing my model boats and realised there were a couple of jobs I should have done before I came out. First, the hinge thing in the aerial had been getting loser for some time and...
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Palitoy S gauge train set
This blog generates some interesting opportunities sometimes. One such occurred when I posted about buying a couple of coaches from Palitoy's first train set - a 1951 effort in S gauge. A few weeks...
View ArticleSaturday Film club: How Matchbox cars are made
We all played with model cars as children, and if you were a youngster in 1965, this is how your toys were made.The use of a wooden master 5 times full size followed by a pantograph milling machine to...
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Model Boat Mayhem at Wicksteed Park 2018
I'd never been to Wicksteed Park before, but a free Saturday and the promise of a model boat show saw me take a trip. Arriving at the east to find venue (follow the signs, not the satnav) followed by a...
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A box for ideas...
This is a box. A laser-cut box. Assembled and ready to play. OK, leaving the Camberwick Green memories alone, what we have here is a Tim Horn photobox. Cut from birch-face ply, the dimensions...
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Box for a big loco
While we are talking about boxes this week, here's another new one for my collection. It's a sturdy wooden container for my Ragleth from Loco Boxes.Handmade from good quality plywood and nicely...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Two track levels at Reading
OK, this isn't a warehouse, or even a building, but this sight intrigued and I suspect some blog reader can probably enlighten me as to what is going on.Between the tracks for platforms 1 and 2 at...
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Cheap garden railways, dry-brushing, more Canada and some DCC in BRM
This month, special promotional packs containing BRM and the June issue of Garden Rail will be available in some supermarkets, and digital readers will get this too.As part of the promotion, I've...
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Something different in Garden Rail July - Lego!
I've taken a bit of a risk with the latest issue of Garden Rail - months ago I spotted an amazing layout on Facebook and knew I wanted it on the page. The thing is, as you can see, the layout is made...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: Big Cats at work
One for industrial equipment fans this week - an American film from 1926 showing Caterpillar tractors being put to work. Railway fans will be impressed by the way the Cat can act as a shunter. I'm not...
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I can find modelling tools anywhere...
The British Tarantula Show might not seem the obvious place to go to find modelling tools. To be honest, that wasn't what I was expecting when I went along. In fact, I didn't know what to expect at...
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Harpers Yard
I've long been a fan of the Petite Properties range - I like the idea of basic but well-designed buildings that you can assemble but have to sort out your own surface texture for. A recent addition to...
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Weighty tools
My plan with the front of Harpers Yard is to use Slaters embossed Plastikard bricks rather than the brick paper used on PetitieProperties stand. I think this will blend with the other buildings I'm...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Ghost sign in London
The work taking place to gentrify the King's Cross area have revealed, or at least made easier to photograph, this lovely ghost sign near the station previously obscured by some wooden shops. I've no...
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Great Models - Mississauga
One of the benefits of not driving everywhere is that you have to explore places to find bus stops. After visiting Credit Valley Railway, I went in search of transport and tripped over another model...
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