Summer's here! (issue 238)

[dibber25]

Publication day 27 July

 

Summer’s here! Yes, the Summer 2017 issue of Model Rail is published on Thursday 27 July and ‘different’ is the watch-word. Whether it’s the Severn Tunnel in ‘O’ gauge in a ‘tiny’ space, building an ‘N’ gauge tram locomotive, a rusty dredger in ‘OO’ or a Western Region slip coach, we hope you’ll find something different in this issue to catch your eye and take your modelling to a new level.

 

News: Having opened the order book for our exclusive Model Rail/Rapido Trains ‘J70’ 0-6-0T we’re delighted to be able to announce four more Sentinel 0-4-0Ts liveried for BR and the War Department, as well as another batch of ‘USA’ 0-6-0Ts.

 

There’s also 4 pages of news from Bachmann’s Summer press event.

 

Reviews: Bachmann’s Class 450 EMU and Oxford Rail’s ‘Warwell’ plus Supercast figures.

Workbench: A bumper 30-page ‘Workbench’ includes: Solder like a pro. Build a white metal tram loco kit. Build and weather a tatty old dredger, liven-up liveries with depot embellishments, convert a Hornby Hawksworth to a slip coach, create your own lineside signs, build a beach and shoreline.

Features: Paul Lunn concludes his look at miniature railways.

Richard Foster’s guide to the ‘J70’ 0-6-0Ts, where they worked, what they did, and the differences between them.

Layouts: Stephen Fay’s Severn Tunnel ‘O’.  Trains in the living room. ‘N’. Mason’s Lane ‘OO’.

Regulars: Exhibition Diary and Backscene, in which Chris Leigh recalls the early days of etched brass details.

Edited July 24, 2017 by Andy Y

[Godfrey Glyn]

Mine dropped through the letterbox early this morning, a very good read and clearly Chris has been very busy lately on a number of projects.

I was particularly interested in his conversion of a Hawksworth brake composite into a slip coach, as shown in one of his photos 'retired' ones were used on the Chard branch. I've seen other photographs which show one was regularly parked in the bay platform. An old school friend who used to regularly frequent the old station as a teenager told me recently that one of the porters used the coach parked there as a venue for sessions with his girlfriend whilst on duty. I suppose a slip coach could be considered quite appropriate!

A good review of the SWT Class 450 with some nice photos, the model looks stunning and Bachmann seem to have made a sensible set of decisions on the weathered version. There is also a fresh look to the magazine which I must say is an improvement, gone are the grey printed frames to pages and they are replaced by different coloured bands on the left side of the page, makes the whole magazine seem much brighter.

 

Many thanks Chris and co!

 

Godfrey

[grahame]

A good variety of actual modelling project articles makes this issue one of the best for some while. And restraint on the lists of X number of something-or-other features was welcome.

 

G.

[BrushType4]

Loving this issue as I got a mention! Steve Fays mainline micro layout looks cracking!