Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i British Railway Modelling (BRM)

The arches and lockups can be improved by opening them up and populating the area in front with tables, people and stalls/ equipment. Key to this is the cutting away of the existing frontages, which is messy but achievable. Admittedly, this is a chore but once it is done the opportunities for adding detail and interest are boundless – for me, this is the fun part of modelling. Travel by train into any major city in the UK and you will most likely see brick railway arches that are occupied by a variety of small businesses, both industrial/commercial and retail. Hornby produces a “ready to place” set of low-relief railway arch lockups in its Skaledale range that are moulded in a sort of ceramic material. Two sets of three arches…

I've always fancied running away to join the circus. Sadly, my skills are limited to juggling, wobbling a few metres on a uni-cycle, and clowning around. Fortunately, there is a new circus in town. Invented by Japanese firm Kato, the Minidiorama Circus makes use of standard tiny baseboards with track that can be connected to other, similar models. With no restrictions on design, other than the scenes must fit the base and not obstruct the trains, those examples seen at shows so far have often been far removed from traditional railway modelling, other than the quality of the workmanship. Scratching my head for a while, inspiration came in the form of a G scale railway I build for the National Garden Railway show each year. A bit of backofan-envelope maths…

Visit www.world-of-railways.co.ukto enjoy the following videos, interviews and features: WATCH: We love to give the latest locomotives a thorough testing – we've put the latest model from Heljan through its paces. INTERVIEW: Phil Parker speaks to membership office and trustee, Ken Carter, about the society and the amazing resources it offers. BOOK TODAY: You can now book your tickets to The Festival of British Railway Modelling in February, which is shaping up to be one of the biggest years yet!…

Accurascale has announced that the Ruston And Hornsby 88DS diesel mechanical shunter will be its first O gauge locomotive. The announcement was made at the 2023 “Great Electric Train Show” (GETS) at the Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes, with a fully tooled sample on display on the Accurascale stand. A total of eight locomotives will make up the initial production run for Accurascale, featuring a variety of liveries. Tooling is already complete and testing of the prototype samples is well underway. Accurascale will continue this testing process and then progress to decoration stage, before signing off for production. Delivery is currently planned for early 2025. Both DC/DCC-ready and DCC Factory sound-fitted variants will be offered, with the latter making use of an ESU loksound 5 decoder and Accurascale's own bespoke recordings…

The latest high-quality ready-to-run models demand figures of the same quality, and ModelU's latest are designed to be a perfect fit. The ModelU team has been working with Kernow and Rapido to produce figures suitable for its models. All are based on scans of real people and 3D-printed in resin. All figures are supplied with their 3D print supports attached. These can easily be pulled away with a pair of tweezers, and the models are painted with acrylic or enamel paints.…

REVIEWS 00 gauge 2 £74.95 It's a rarity to see such niche coaching stock available ready-to-run, but once again, this is a by-product of Rapido's development of their Titfield Thunderbolt range. Everything about the Wisbech & Upwell Tramway was unusual and its coaches were certainly no exception, with two bogie coaches built by The Great Eastern Railway in 1884 for use on the line, number 7 as a composite and number 8 as a second-class vehicle, which still meant some form of brake vehicle was required for a complete train. Both vehicles were similar in appearance; just over 37ft long and had a maximum height of 10ft 2in – much lower than conventional railway standards. No. 7 could hold 10 First Class passengers and 22 Second, while No. 8 had…

0-16.5 gauge 2-3 £118.80+ To perfectly pair with Lionheart's Manning Wardle locomotive, Dapol has also produced Open Third, All Third, Third Brake and Composite Brake coaches in both Lynton & Barnstaple dark terracotta and ivory livery for the pre-grouping period and Southern Railway Maunsell green from 1924 onwards until the closure of the line in 1935. An immediate impression of quality is made on first inspection, with a respectable weight with a low centre of gravity to aid stable running of the wide body over narrow bogies. There's a lot of fine detail evident with the gas lighting fittings to the roof, and fine piping with several separatelyfitted components to the coach ends. The door turn handles and grab handles are all individual components, but the assembly and fitting are…

TOOL of the MONTH Old screwdrivers Yes, I know we mentioned screwdrivers last month, but these are the old ones that kick around your modelling board. Probably bought from a pound shop, the business end is made from cheese, bending when you undo a stiff screw. However, for picking up and applying small amounts of glue, opening tinlets of paint, and scratching away grime, they are perfect. Scrape the ends clean every so often, and even file them to make a light-duty chisel. Despite never being cared for, they are still indispensable. Ask Phil Why do you put washing up liquid in watered-down PVA? Fixing ballast down by soaking it in PVA glue, mixed 50:50 with water, is the standard method recommended by modellers, but if you don't add a couple of…

If you long to extend your model railway to the living room and enjoy making Christmas time special, then why not consider using a model railway as part of your seasonal decorations? What could be nicer than having a Santa-themed layout running around the bottom of the tree as a visual source of inspiration and fun? The kids will love it and it will be a great talking point when the family calls. Hornby makes a complete train set that allows you to quickly and easily set up your moving decorations with the minimum of fuss. This article is written to help ensure that you have a trouble-free time and squeeze even more fun from the set. You'll want to use it year on year so that it becomes a…

Old Hornby station platforms and canopies are the staple of second-hand sales at many an exhibition and model railway shop. They are designed as a basic entry-level accessory, which is robust enough to survive repeated assembly, disassembly, moving and handling, and they serve this purpose well. They have probably been purchased early on in a person's introduction to the hobby (as in my case; and many more years ago than I care to mention). But at some point, their owners have discarded or traded them in as they move on. So, those not in the prime of condition can be picked up relatively cheaply, but how easy is it to turn them into something more lifelike? I thought I would have a go. 1 A single canopy set consists of…

There must be more than one book published with a cover design showing a railway scene with the valance of a platform canopy superimposed along the top edge to give the impression of a waiting passenger, sheltering under the platform awning, and looking out across a railway vista. In this article, I will be examining this platform feature that in some cases has disappeared, but in other locations, replaced classical early structures with modernistic, gravity-defying means of shelter. The valances to which I refer were often unique to a particular railway company. Origin ‘Conopeum’, the Latin derivation for the word canopy, originally referenced to ‘a mosquito net placed over a bed’. Since the 14th century, the word has developed with various meanings such as a covering suspended over whatever it…

W1 Class ‘Hush Hush’ Streamlined, 4-6-4, 60700 Hugely popular when it was released in 2022, the rebuilt W1 is a wonderful model in every regard for steam enthusiasts. This latest livery concentrates on the latter stages of the locomotives life, in streamlined BR Blue, which, like the first models, offers near-flawless livery application and wonderful detail. Available to order now for £254.99 from the Hornby website. BR, Battle of Britain Class, 4-6-2, 34072 257 Squadron A relivery of a stunning locomotive, Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 34072 257Squadron is out now and priced at £266.49.257 Squadron was completed at Brighton Works in 1948 as one of the first of its Class produced under BR, and allocated to Dover Marine Shed to work the Continental Boat Trains to London. Here, the…

Kato has announced a new batch of its popular Class 800 in N gauge, with the new models due early next year. New versions include a new GWR green model complete with “Paddington Bear” branding, as well as factory digital and sound-fitted variations of the GWR and LNER models. The Class 800 is a type of bi-modal multiple unit used in the United Kingdom, based on the Hitachi A-train design. The first units entered service with GWR on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) in October 2017 and entered service with LNER on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) in May 2019. The new models cost from £195.50 to £297.50 and can be ordered from most stockists.…

In development for almost two years, the new products have undergone extensive pre-release testing, and manufacturing is now well underway with initial stocks received. It features a choice of power supplies (to allow the modeller to adjust for the larger scales) and has a display providing a reading of the load being supplied, with three output overload settings of 1,2 and 10 amps. The Power Booster is compatible with almost all DCC controllers and costs under £90, making it a cost-effective way of providing power sections or high power for a medium layout.…

00 gauge 2-5 £64.80 From 1920, the Great Western Railway created six sets of coaches, semi-permanently formed into rakes of six vehicles comprising of two composite, two third class and two brake third to operate services between Reading and Windsor to the City of London via the Metropolitan lines to Aldgate and Liverpool Street. ‘Toplights’ as a whole are a wide-ranging reference to many coach types of the period, so it is understandable that Dapol has first tackled a coherent, manageable and targeted type to produce, with an indication that gangwayed types might appear in the future. The Mainline City coaches are also very logical as an ideal accompaniment to the firm's 61xx Prairie model. It's a long time since we have seen 4mm scale coaches from Dapol and, I…

00 gauge 2-11 £32.95 In BRM April 2023, we reviewed Rapido's Dia.V6 Great Western Iron Mink van; a superb model of a longlived prototype and, while that was superbly accurate, there have been a multitude of iron-bodied vans operated by many pregrouping railways and private owners that hold a lot of appeal. The similarity between this and many other such vans tempted Rapido to reproduce appealing and unusual liveries as close as they could from the existing tooling and refer to them as ‘Not Quite Minks’. We get that, and it's no more sinful than the popular four and six-wheeled coaches produced by Hattons and Hornby in attractive liveries with a generic approach to make them more financially viable. Rapido has catered for variations to get as close as possible…

Most of the freight stock is scratch-built from Plastikard using available drawings and photos from historical societies, books, etc. For some vehicles, only photos were available, so drawings have been produced for the build (these models may not be fully accurate as some guesswork was required but who is to know?). Others are kits in brass, plastic or even tinplate on a scratch chassis. The majority of coaches are kits from the D & S range with the remainder scratch-built from Plastikard or Shellacked card (these models now some 60 years old). Parcel, horse boxes, full brake vehicles, etc., are about 50% kits. Not one vehicle has been purchased RTR. The layout uses about half of my suitable stock plus others supplied by my operators. Locomotives are again a mixture…

1 Our wall is a 20mm tall read-to-use resin cast item from Javis Scenics, but this technique will work for a wall, or fence, and can easily be retrofitted to an existing model. In fact, it's easier if you already have a hedge or fence ready to bridge as you can measure the height. 2 Steps are a nightmare to scratch-build, so I'm adapting some laser-cut kit versions. 3D printed, or etched steps could also be used, just cut them to length so they reach the top of the wall, then add long strips up the side for handholds. 3 The pair of steps are fitted to the wall so the handholds meet, or even cross. Then, I make the top step from some scribed scrap material. Before fitting, I…

Having now completed the building of the baseboards, we move onto the next phase of laying the track. This being the first time that the Market Deeping Model Railway Club (MDMRC) has built a Styrofoam layout, which is purposely designed and intended for exhibitions, we had a few concerns, one being the implications of fixing the track to the Styrofoam. Using a spare piece of Styrofoam as a test piece on which to lay the track, we experimented and soon discovered that the foil covering the insulation did tend to lift at the edges. Whereas on a home layout, this can be easily repaired using insulation tape, due to the rigours of transportation and the ups and downs of an exhibition layout, this could be a problem. Speaking with other…

My Creality Ender 5 S1 came with a large toolkit, most of which wasn't used during construction. The reason they are provided is that you'll probably need them later. Let me explain. If your car goes wrong or needs servicing, although you may be able to do it yourself, you will probably avail yourself of a garage. With a 3D printer, there are a few service agents available, but it isn't very convenient having to send it away and it is expensive. Also, 3D printers are more like cars from previous eras that need regular attention to keep them going. Another point – when you get your printer, you assemble it from subassemblies, and although you might do your part of the build correctly, what is the quality of the…

Great news for N gauge modellers, N'Tastic Scale Models has released a number of new models over the last few months… The following have been released over the past couple of months Horse Drawn – 4W Bin Cart 1952 – Shelvoke & Drewry – Freightlifter Forklift 1946 – Shelvoke & Drewry – W Type Bin Lorry 1984 – Dennis RS Water Tender 1965 – Hillman Super Imp car + Police version 1965 – Hillman Imp Californian car kit 1965 – Hillman Imp Van + AA van N'Tastic Scale Models has also completed its first commission for a vehicle kit, a 1987 – Leyland Freighter – Pump Ladder FE and other commissions in design and capacity for the new year.…

The mixed media Craftsman laser-cut kit is available to order now direct from the Osborn's Models website. The OO GWR Siphon C (diag O.4) kit contains laser-etched and cut parts, metal wheels, brass top hat bearings, NEM coupler pockets and couplers, 3D-printed GWR buffers and a paint mask for the lettering. The kit costs £31.95, and all that is needed extra by the modeller to construct the model is paint and glue. The kit is also available in N and TT:120, priced at £16.95 and £21.95, respectively.…

0 gauge 5-7 £619.95 As reported in the News section of the last issue of BRM, Heljan has now released the latest manifestations of the firm's O Gauge Deltics. I've had D9000 for inspection, which is in BR ‘retro’ green, with the cab quarterlights plated-over and the orange ‘safety line’ at cantrail level. Other offerings include Finsbury Park's famous blue racehorses with white cabs and the celebrity NRM 55002 ‘KOYLI’. English Electric's mighty Type 5s need no introduction, and this magnificent model captures the powerful lines of these great locomotives perfectly. As mentioned last month, these models have been completely retooled by Heljan. The previous incarnations (though still impressive) suffered from a too-flat bodyside profile, with almost no tumblehome – that tumblehome is a very distinctive Deltic feature, which has…

0 gauge 5-11 £91.80 The ubiquitous and long-lived TTA wagon is a great choice for Dapol to model for O gauge with a wide selection of liveries to aim at. Introduced in the mid-1960s, the right choices of livery can comfortably sit alongside late steam through to life into the 2000s on specific traffic flows. It's also a good choice for the diesel depot layouts out there frequently used for the delivery of fuel oils to sheds right across Great Britain. The monobloc design is well-reproduced with an abundance of chassis and underframe detail, in addition to etched walkways and wire handrails. The tooling suite for this model accommodates variations and modifications over the years for the various types of Class A and Class B fuels with two tank types…