Saturday Film Club: Kitlands Light Railway
The video quality is terrible, but it's still worth a look as this must surely be the miniature railway with the tightest curves - 6ft radius. It's all completely mad, and would make a fun project in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wycrail 2019
In an effort to limit my cake intake, I decided that the number of slices consumed would be the same as the number of Norwiegen layouts found at Wycrail. So that's two then. Who would have expected...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pendon and the Madder Valley
A few weeks ago, RMweb Gold members were invited to a special private event at Pendon. We were given tours of the main scenes which included a trip inside the Vale scene and plenty of time for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
J72 Brake gear
Time for some sacrilege.I don't think the brakes on this J72 chassis are very good.For a start, when hung, I don't think the centres of the brake blocks are a good match for the centres of the wheels....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Waterborne Wednesday: Sydney Ferry
My subject this week is Michael Portillo's fault. Watching his latest series of railway journeys through Australia, I caught the Sydney one and he ends up at Circular Quay. That's where I stayed a few...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Glendale Rocket and light up station furniture on Garden Rail
The festive issue of Garden Rail hits the shops today. This means a light-up tree on the front cover and the designer insisting on my manic looking Elf-hat wearing headshot on the Editorial page. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: "OO" Minature Railways Handbook and Guide 1953/54
If you believed in Father Christmas back in 1953, you'd have been hoping for a train set. Back in those days, RTR was new, exciting and incompatible. No problem as GH Lake has produced this handy...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: Ingenious bank vault on the Isle of Man
If like me, you love weird mechanical contraptions, you'll enjoy this film of a bank vault with an amazing mechnism on the Isle of Man. What a construction!
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Great British Model Railway Show 2019
With a new show, it's difficult to know what to expect. Obviously, there has been a model railway exhibition at the motor museum, Gaydon before. The Great Electric Train show started here, but they...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: Colour Light Signalling for model railways by Simon Paley
I'm not very interesting in signalling. I know the waggly arm things are important, and the colour light versions quite pretty. There's all sort of other light-up things on gantries dotted around the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chassis with pickups
Finding time to work on the J72 is proving difficult at the moment. Too much to do for work sees spare time vanishing. However, the other evening I managed to get the pickups fitted to the chassis.I'd...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Waterborne Wednesday: Oslo Island Ferry
Thanks to Nigel Hill who, inspired by last week's photo of a Sydney Ferry, sent me these from Oslo.He correctly says, this is probably an easier boat to build in model form. They are quite slab-sided...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hornby sci-fi and dirty cars in the Autumn issue of The Collector
Sometimes I struggle to think of things to write, and sometimes an idea appears that is irresistible. In this case, a series of letters in the Hornby Collectors Club magazine requesting that the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Warley weekend
It's that time of year again - a weekend spent in a little local show a few miles down the road from me.I'm not on the stand this year, but will be attending in my news-gathering capacity on Friday...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: Car racing in trunking
When I was in Hong Kong a few years ago,I found loads of model shops and the big thing they sold were battery-powered cars with wheels on each corner so they could be raced in walled tracks.As well as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
International Model Boat Show 2019
I didn't get to this show as I was otherwise engaged at the Great British Model Railway Show, so I told my dad to take a load of photos for me as he wandered around. You can see a selection of them...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Code 75 frustration
A recent frustration has involved Code 75 Peco track and the ramps required to uncouple tension-lock couplings. The ones you find on the ends of all OO RTR locos.Quite simply, how has something so...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Buffer beams
Moving on with the J72 build to the body beautiful, the main job seems to be to scrape the buffers off and replace them with metal versions.Snipping off the old buffer housings with some worn-out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Waterborne Wednesday: Pride of Falmouth
Firmly in the list of boats I'd like to build a model of are the Falmouth ferries. According to this web page:Pride of Falmouth was originally the Adrian Gilbert. Adrian Gilbert and Humphrey Gilbert...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Boiler fill
This might not look like an exciting picture, but I'm happy with it.Originally, the J72 chassis block stuck out into the visible part of the boiler. The new chassis cures this but at the cost of...
View Article