Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2023 i Garden Rail

A discussion, after a recent exhibition, saw a few complaints that model railway shows aren’t what they used to be. Once upon a time, table after table would be filled with kits. Eager modellers would snap them up, head back to their workshops and spend pleasant evenings constructing new rolling stock for their layouts. No more. I spotted a well regarded kit for a 4mm scale Wisbeech tram locomotive, which sat untouched all weekend. 10 years ago, it would have been grabbed by the first person to see it, especially since the manufacturer retired and sold his range. Now, no-one wants to know. They have bought the ready-to-run version. (And before you ask, I wasn’t interested either. I have two examples in the kit stash already thanks.) Hold on though.…

Regular readers of this esteemed journal might remember I have previously shared my experiences of scratch bash bodgelling rolling stock for the Peckforton Light Railway. My approach involves keeping costs down by utilising cheap motor blocks or wagon chassis, and either converting off-the-shelf models or constructing bodies from Plastikard and ‘found’ materials such as bottle tops and Biro tubes. I have even turned my hand to mass producing parts using resin castings for a rake of identical open wagons. From time to time, fellow modellers have generously volunteered to produce bespoke parts for me using their 3D printers such as, a set of layshaft pulley wheels for driving various pieces of machinery in Peckforton sawmill. I constructed an ex-Clogher Valley railcar and needed to equip it with seats. Rather than…

Trade information on new products for the garden railway modeller… If you are a trader with any new product, then contact phil.parker@warnersgroup.co.uk Please mention Garden Rail when contacting suppliers THE TRAIN DEPARTMENT 1:13.7 scale Guinness Tramway Locomotive A prototype locomotive was built in 1882 by the Avonside Engine Company, of Bristol, at a cost of £848, and numbered 6 in the locomotive stock. This was also the last of Guinness’s narrow gauge steam locomotives to be built in England, all others being built by William Spence, of the Cork Street Foundry and Engineering Works, in Dublin. This firm built locomotives 7 to 9 in 1887, 10 to 12 in 1891 and 13 to 15 in 1895. A further four, the largest single order for these engines, were turned out in…

3D printable track files Loco Remote, the UK supplier of popular garden railway loco WiFi remote controllers, previously featured in Garden Rail, and short-run 3D-printed kits has also developed a range of clip-together track suitable for 32mm and 45mm gauge indoor layouts that can be downloaded for free, for personal use, from the 3D prints page on its website, and easily printed on any 3D filament printer. As well as straights, curves and points, there are loco and wagon turntables, traversers, tipper unloaders and even rack and pinion track. A selection of Hudson-style track with realistic pressed steel sleepers and profiled rails has also been recently introduced. Most small battery-powered four-wheel locos and wagons work well on the track. Many people have made Loco Remote track layouts and there will…

I always loved steam engines. As a boy, I would go to Paddington station to watch them and take down the train numbers. My first layout was built in N gauge. Since there wasn’t a lot of room, I built it on a series of separate boards, so I could pack it away when I wasn’t working on it. After a few years, and a move to a house with a bigger garden, we thought we could build a layout outside. I bought an O gauge train, and some track, but decided it was too small. Worse still, you couldn’t get all the different types of track, including the crossings we needed at the time. Then we looked at G gauge, which was a good size. I built a complete…

Saturday 15 April marks the ‘return to normal’ of the National Garden Railway Show at the East of England Arena near Peterborough. After two years of running a show under the constraints imposed by lockdown, now the Show can celebrate all things garden railways without abnormal restrictions, back on its traditional April date, and with a full array of traders, layouts and other exhibitors. The Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers, which runs the Show, is very excited to be hosting 18 layouts, 70 traders and narrow gauge railway associations such as the Isle of Man, Corris, Talyllyn and Fairbourne. All of the layouts represent what can be run in the garden, and a mix of scales, gauges, motive power, and themes. Some, like Modular, Dixon Green and St Gennys…

Conclusion Construction is easy, all the parts slot together accurately, so the kit would be suitable for beginners as long as they take time to ensure everything is nice and square. No special tools, other than a knife to remove some parts from their fret, and a few abrasive sticks, are required. PVA glue and an all purpose adhesive for fixing 3D printed parts to wood (UHU will work, and be less messy than Gorilla Glue) will also be needed. Following on from the same firm’s model of Ballabeg Halt, built in Garden Rail June 2021, this is another usefully small, but reasonably authentic station building that would be perfect for most garden lines. I say ‘reasonably authentic’ because there are a few differences to the current halt building, all…

G scale ‘Capricorn’ powered rail car and control car. On October 29, 2022, Rhaetian Railway (RhB) created the longest narrow gauge passenger train in the world, on the route from the Albula Tunnel in Preda to the Landwasser Viaduct, just outside Filisur. 25 fourcar ‘Capricorn’ railcars were coupled together for the record attempt, and now you can repeat this with new models from LGB. With a livery prototypical for Era VI, all four wheelsets are driven, and, for slippery conditions, traction tyres are fitted. The model has an mfx/DCC decoder with several light and sound functions such as headlights, which change over with the direction of travel, interior lighting, as well as train destination signs controllable in digital operation, and lighted coats-of-arms for the Grisons. The running sounds will also…

Obviously, I’m not to be trusted reading what my step-daughter some years ago christened ‘train porn’. Yet another flip through Garden Rail, and my eye rested on a photo of The Lineside Hut’s new four-wheel brake van. I immediately thought, “Hmmm, that has great potential for adaptation. A bit of a tweak here and there, and you might have a passable narrow-gauge GWR Toad brake van”. Pausing only momentarily to check the bank balance, a van kit was ordered. Sadly, the makers have recently retired, but, hopefully, my ideas will still be of interest, and kits still appear second-hand… Scope of works One end of the van has large picture windows. I thought that if these were omitted and a new wall fitted in the middle of the van, a…

I have a guilty secret. You may recall that I was once the narrow gauge expert in our factory in Eastleigh. Eastleigh is of course the spiritual home of the Southern Railway and the famous Bullied Pacifics. It sounds impressive but I omit to say that our factory was nothing to do with railways it was in fact a telecommunications factory. Back in the 1970s, there were once three Bagnalls illustrated in successive issues of the Merioneth Mercury (MM). First there was ‘Excelsior’, the Lynton and Barnstable contractors engine, and then in the next issue there were two more; ‘Jack’ and ‘Annie’ were both locomotives on the quaintly named Gentle Annie Tramway near Gisbourne in New Zealand. The Tramway served a road stone quarry. The wrecks of the locomotives could…

7/8th scale coaches After much discussion and prolonged negotiations with Ivan, IP Engineering has decided to rerelease a limited range of 7/8th rolling stock to test the water, and gauge demand. Initially the freelance two-compartment 2nd class coach kit will be released. This comes with axle boxes, couplings, door handles and a choice of either steel or Binnie wheels, both are gauge adjustable If the coaches sell well, then other rolling stock will be introduced. These kits will only available online and not at shows Dimensions Length: 300mm Width: 150mm Height: 80mm Price £70 for Binnie wheel version £80 for steel wheel version IP Engineering Carousell, Spilsby Road, New Leake, Lincolnshire, PE22 8JT www.ipenginnering.com…