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Ratio grounded van body kit
Looking for projects to work on during the Hornby weekend, I dug through the kit boxes and realised I have at least 4 Ratio grounded van body kits. It's a useful model, but I'm not sure how I ended up...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Manx stone lockups
Spotted in the back streets of Laxey, these rather nice lockups. I'm not sure I can call them garages as I suspect they were originally built for the local fisherman or farmers. They are definitely...
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N gauge layout, Hornby weekend, techniques and old loco repair in BRM
October's issue of BRM has another big project in it from me - a complete N gauge layout.OK, it's a Billy Bookcase project, but there was still a lot of work and it had to be carried out in just over a...
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Farewell to Ian Allan, Birmingham
It was a sad day on Tuesday. I paid my last visit to the Ian Allan bookshop in the centre of Birmingham.It's a trip I've made many times - any trip to Brum included a few minutes in there for as long...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: BR Blue at Birmingham New Street in 1986
On Thursday, I came over all nostalgic about BR Blue DMUs, so let's head back to 1986 and stand on the end of the platform at Birmingham New Street station. The camcorder footage isn't terrible and...
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Llanfair 2019
The day after Telford, I headed up the M54 again to the Llanfair garden railway show for more chat and photography. My photo booth is a little small for some of the models, but it's very handy for...
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Pick up a Peckett
Dropping into my local model shop, Mark, the owner, said, "I've got a loco for you." And handed me a red box. Inside was their latest 0-6-0 Peckett in Sherwood Colliery livery. I'd pre-ordered it as...
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Large scale re-railer
I love a simple, but useful kit. Spotted at Llanfair is this re-railer kit from Timpdon Models. For a fiver (yes, I paid for mine), you get a selection of laser-cut plywood and MDF parts.Being a bit...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Stone warehouse
Last week I said that it was nice that industrial buildings hadn't all been converted to apartments on the Isle of Man, well not all of them anyway. This is in the back streets of Ramsey, near the Coop...
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Garden Rail October 2019
Sometimes, as a magazine editor, you have to take a little bit of a risk with the contents. This is why alongside Callum Wilcox's lovely garden railway and Dave's piece on weatherproof buildings (using...
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Doodlebug railcar
Bought because it was both interesting and cheap a couple of years ago, the photos of this US prototype railcar have been sitting in the pending pile for an appearance on the blog for a while. Moving...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: A German planning dispute
Just a short film this week, but one that might inspire a tiny model railway. JF take note!
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TINGS 2019
Last week, the portable photo booth found itself balanced on the L&WMRS stand at the International N Gauge Show (TINGS). I thought I'd have no problems squeezing stock in this time, but a 4-car EMU...
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The Ark loses weight and gets back on the water
Sunny weather, a little less work pressure - I can get back to the Ark. With the middle sealed with epoxy, I ripped the lead weights out of the hull, waggling them with big pliers until the glue...
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A lifebelt for the Ark
One last job before a return to the lake, make a buoyancy aid for the Ark.My theory is that if I fill the hull with polystyrene, it can't fill with water. This might not save it on its own, but if it...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Steel water tower
An interesting water tower found at Bishops Lydeard on the West Somerset Railway. I'm thinking that this is an industrial tank moved to the railway rather than an original GWR design. Surely they would...
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Ark - right!
With a little trepidation, I launched the Ark on the boating lake. I had picked a nice evening when no-one else was around. I was so worried that I tied a crabbing reel thing to the handle on top so I...
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They made Thunderbirds here!
It's always interesting to see what other people are building, especially professional modelmakers whose ideas I might be able to nick for a future project.Simon Atkinson teaches modelmaking and works...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: The Compton Down Railway
I picked up a slim booklet on building battery powered locomotives recently, by Peter Jones. The photos were taken on his famous "Compton Down Railway", a line I remember being impressed with through...
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TCT 2019
These cakes are rubbish.Because they are 3D printed and therefore inedible!To be fair, the printer that does it is an amazing bit of kit. Mind you, for £225,000 it ought to be. You could buy all the...
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