Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i Garden Rail

There’s a lot of technology in this issue. We see laser cutting in both Ben and Amy Buki’s WHR coach build and Alistair Snook’s steam tram. Then, I’m building a 3D-printed W&LR van, followed by Mark Thatcher taking on a Ruston build that includes a lot of parts made the same way. All this is lovely, but is it real modelling? What happened to whittling a piece of rolling stock from a bit of wood? Noodling around with bits of Plastikard to create a loco from scratch, or doing the same thing with repurposed motor oil cans, chosen because of the lovely flat metal sides? On the face of it, I can see how those (including me) who have spent years building up the skills and equipment to build things…

According to Woodleigh’s website, when I assembled their open wagon kit, I said, “First impressions of Woodleigh Engineering’s Welshpool and Llanfair wagon kit is ‘Wow!’’. Will the follow-up match up to this? Again, first impressions are good. The kit is 3D printed in several different colours, which negates the need for painting, especially if you plan to run the model with RTR Accucraft rolling stock. The finished model feels like something plastic RTR for a fraction of the price. The doors slide, I’m not sure how useful a feature this is, but it’s fun, and the van is very well detailed. A total of 37 pages of instructions, downloaded from the website, lead the builder through the assembly process with both photos and exploded diagrams. A nice touch is an…

Stirling engines are not steam engines! While Stirling engines can be powered by meths or similar, they are external combustion locomotives that are driven by the difference in heat between two cylinders. The concept was invented, developed and patented in 1816 by Scottish clergyman, Robert Stirling. Although not the most powerful haulers, Stirling locos have provided plenty of interest and fun on my own railway. Currently, I run two such locos on the Winding Down Railway, firstly a modified Stirling engine car and then a Böhm commercially made locomotive. The manufacturers recommend owners use 95% methylated spirits as fuel. The usual health and safety warnings apply – these engines are not toys. Like a steam engine, a Stirling engine converts heat into mechanical movement. However, instead of heating water to…

I enjoy running the more standard-sized 16mm live steamers in the garden. For me, the scale is perfect. Large enough to see the detail of the models as they trundle around the garden, yet small enough to easily handle them and to allow me to bend down as they get set onto the rails. I do have larger gauges, but anything larger than 16mm or Gauge 3 usually involves me enlisting help from buddies, as I am not that confident that I can lift them on my own without causing damage to me or the locos. However, I have always held a fascination for smaller estate railway locomotives and rolling stock. I find the simplicity of these lines to be charming and the rundown nature of some of the infrastructure…

From an early age, I was surrounded by toy trains, which, wherever possible, I then tried to play with in the garden. Even back then, somehow in my mind, they looked better outside. Objectively, wooden toy train track doesn’t work better, or even at all, on a very lumpy lawn, however many times I tried to level the track with twigs and leaves. Neither did my mother’s O gauge Hornby tinplate clockwork trains, prone as they were to flying off at the corners even on a reasonably flat bedroom floor. What did look ‘right’ in my eyes was a 7 ¼” railway locally, trundling through an orchard and round the field, as did the Ffestiniog and Talyllyn railways on family holidays to Wales. And the Severn Valley Railway, where I…

After dipping a toe in the modelling waters with a OO layout in the early 1990s, we purchased an LGB train set, which ran on the front room carpet. A while later, on a visit to the Warley show, we came across the Garden Railway Specialists stand and came away with one of its locomotive body kits and a coach kit, too. Not long after, I paid a visit to the GRS shop and came away with another kit and the roundhouse catalogue. In there, I saw the Lady Anne and thought that’s the one for me! By this time, I was taking Garden Rail magazine, there I found Brandbright, brought some of its wagon kits and ordered myself a Lady Anne. Since then, I’ve built two Roundhouse locomotives, numerous…

In Every Issue of NARROW GAUGE WORLD enjoy expert coverage of the narrow gauge scene across the UK and abroad: ✓ Current developments in preservation and heritage operations ✓ Historical insights from experienced writers and researchers ✓ Interviews with key figures in the railway world ✓ High-quality photography ✓ Regular updates on restoration projects and events Get 9 issues for £39.99 - that’s only £4.44 an issue!* SAVE 55p an issue! SUBSCRIBE TODAY www.world-of-railways.co.uk/NGWSUB *Offer is for an annual UK Direct Debit or recurring credit card payment subscription. Other prices are available for overseas residents.…

BRANDBRIGHT Elliptical Ended Wagon Kit 16mm scale The kit is a freelance design, with echoes of Irish railways, the Darjeeling Himalaya railway in the styling. It is outside framed with cupboard style doors which can be made to be operational or fixed closed as the builder prefers. The kit is made from laser cut birch plywood, with cast metal fittings, turned brass bearings and some 3D printed detailing parts. Wheels and couplings need to be purchased separately to complete the model. Garden Rail will be reviewing this kit in a future issue. Details Price: £31.00 Website: www.brandbright.co.uk BOWATERS MODELS Ffestiniog Railway coaches kits 16mm scale Partnering with Exclusive Models in the Netherlands, Bowaters has been upgrading several of their kits, the first of these being the Ffestiniog Railway coaches. Covering…

This was the last of the ‘test’ items of rolling stock acquired for our 32mm project. We’d acquired slate wagons, flats, skips, a rather nice, if slightly pointless for our intended diesel-hauled, preservation-era layout, horse dandy, and a quarryman’s carriage. However, our little future passengers would perhaps need something a bit more luxurious than a mobile shed with no windows. There was also the issue that we needed something a bit bigger as a test-piece to future-proof the layout. Working out clearances, heights for a planned bridge or tunnel, where platform edges needed to sit, and distances between passing tracks meant we’d need a reasonably large piece of stock. Everything we’d bought so far was on the small side, and there was no sense in restricting ourselves if, at some…

Recent plans to extend my outdoor railway to make a circuit of the garden meant that it now needed an inclined single-track viaduct to join the main, near-ground level, section to the shed, with a sizeable removable bridge midway to allow access to the rear of the plot. This required, for an overall length of 8m and height gain of 0.5m, a significant incline of 3.5 degrees in order to arrive at a level marshalling and maintenance area in the shed at around waist height. At first, this gradient seemed excessive but is actually realistic for prototype Swiss (adhesion) narrow-gauge, and is easily tackled by a Roundhouse live steamer. The removable aluminium bridge I describe here is highly simplified and could have been much more substantial and, for that matter,…

Write in and share your ideas with other enthusiasts Letters are welcomed on any aspect of large scale railway modelling. Please email the Editor: phil.parker@warnersgroup.co.uk or post to The Editor, Garden Rail Magazine, Warners Group Publications, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH. Water for boilers Water has some particular characteristics. Its nature encourages mineral salts to break up into ions, so table salt breaks into Sodium ions and Chloride ions, which mix freely with the water. This is known as dissolving. Other substances, such as oil, do not split into ions and do not mix freely with water and are termed insoluble. There is another way things mix with water known as suspension. Small pieces can be carried in water but do not mix in the way salts do. If…

I stumbled across Model Engineers Laser’s Gauge 1 Y6 tram kit while looking for parts for a 1” traction engine project I’d inherited. I had long admired the Gauge 1 locomotives running on my club’s 45mm track, but cost had kept me at bay. This kit, however, claimed to be simple enough to build in an afternoon and looked quite charming, coming with nearly everything needed for an attainable £116.67. To my delight, it turned up as a Christmas gift. The kit included a set of wooden body parts, a rolled brass roof, brass cow catchers, a welded steel chassis, steel wheels and axles, bushes, two motors, wires and numerous fixings. The instructions recommended sourcing a set of buffers and extra fixings, so I opted for round LNER-style sprung buffers…