I was just editing a feature for the April issue of BRM that mentions 'Rule 1' - namely "It's my railway, so I can run what I like." It made me wonder, if that's Rule 1, what should the other rules be for railway modellers? They don't have to be controversial, but what are your own golden rules? Share your thoughts with us and if we can, we'll condense the responses into a 'Ten Commandments of Railway Modelling' (or more if required!) as a bit of fun.
As an example of something similar in the c
In the February issue of BRM, I showed a few photos taken last year when I went over to Australia to talk to the British Railway Modellers of Australia convention. After the main event, we enjoyed a couple of days visiting members layouts around Adelaide.
One of the highlights was Tony Phillips model of Nottingham Victoria. This lives in a 40ft by 32ft railway room and is simply awe inspiring when you see it. Reader Keith Dyson from Nottingham e-mailed me to ask if I had any more photos. Wel
This month's BRM marks the coming thirtieth anniversary of the creation of Network SouthEast with an interview with Chris Green. There's some useful reference information in the article too and one of the pieces of the article was to show how easy it would be to give a fairly ordinary station the same sprucing up that the division started thirty years ago. The simple 'how-to' got squeezed just leaving a couple of images as part of the article so I thought it worth adding the rest here.
Befor
Bachmann Europe announced their 2014 product range from their headquarters in Barwell, Leicestershire yesterday. Members of the press, traders and model shop owners were invited to partake in what was to be a well organised event with plenty of atmosphere. Not only was it a chance for Bachmann to unveil their model plans, but it was a great opportunity for all those who visited to catch up and talk about all aspects of the hobby.
Luckily, with the unstable weather that we've been witnessing
As announced here Bachmann Europe have announced they are to produce the L&NWR 0-6-2T Webb coal tank available in approximately 18 months. For the last few years Bachmann have held events for the members of the Bachmann Collectors Club and this year chose the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway on the 30th August. If there isn't enough speculation and wishlisting on RMweb virtually everyone had missed the clues to this one; Bachmann followed their announcements for the 2014/2015 catalogue with
Nuremberg Toyfair 2015 – Part 2
Day 1: Several appointments today, but the intervals between allowed me to have a good look around Hall 4A, dedicated to model railways. Immediate impressions (confirmed by others) are that the number of exhibitors is fewer than in previous years and that those attending have, in many cases, opted for smaller stands. The result is that where, a few years ago, model railway companies spilled out into neighbouring halls, the reverse is now true and various unrel
In November's BRM, I built the armoured Simplex kit for Owen's Bridge and commented that I wasn't really sure of the colour it should be finished in.
The problem is that there aren't any colour pictures of the real things running around during WW1. A quick chat with Andy Roden, who was writing his latest book “Trains to the Trenches” at the time established that even someone who was carrying out original research couldn't find any.
All the black and white pictures seem to show relatively
It's quite shameful to admit that there's a preserved railway little more than an hour from home that I hadn't visited before, the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway at the edge of Wirksworth, Derbyshire. I suppose it had been a little off the radar as not being the conventional steam-centred family day out type railway and I've done it a substantial injustice in thinking that way. Ecclesbourne is far more about the railway that I grew up with definite leaning towards some interesting DMUs. On most pre
I took down to London town to visit the 3D Printshow in the old Billingsgate fish market the other day and was joined a little later by Phil and we took the chance to see some fascinating developments which may, or may not, filter through to the domain of consumers in the future. It was a great blend of being able to walk away from the show with some products and to see some stuff which definitely isn't in the pocket money bracket as yet.
It was my first chance to have a play with the 3
On page 87 of the June 2016 issue of BRM, I've built a little diorama recreating a scene from my youth - a J94 marooned in a park as a climbing frame. Space precluded a full step-by-step build on the page, but we've plenty of space on RMweb, so here we go:
The locomotive come sfrom an Airfix kit supplied by the Kitmaster Collectors Club. Apparently this model the fire at Dapol's factory so isn't in the current range. Fortunately, for this project, a part-built kit is perfect and th
As you might have seen if you've been watching the BRM Facebook page today, it's been a busy day at the fair. However, the model railway presence at the show seems to have declined noticeably since last year. Where Hall 4A used to be full of model railway-related stands, even spilling over into adjacent halls and walkways, there are now large gaps in the hall and more non-railway stands creeping in. Stand sizes are significantly reduced in some cases, although the big German manufacturers such a
Morning All,
I popped into Rails of Sheffield briefly on Saturday and found that they had pre-production samples of the LMS black/silver 10000 and 10001 on display. Apart from one or two minor decoration alterations that need to be made, they look very good indeed. The finish of the black body and silver bogies is superb, as are the chromed metal details, as can be seen in the photos. No further indications on delivery dates, but expect them to be 3-4 months away once the corrections have been
It's nearly Warley weekend and I'm busy packing Owen's Bridge up for the BRM stand.
With the fragile wooden bridge out front, I don't want to chuck the layout in the back of the car without some protection so it's now got a wooden cover. Just in case I can't remember what's in there, I've stenciled the layout name on the top in a suitable military style.
To make the stencil, I printed out the name in an appropriate font on a sheet of paper and cut out the letters with a sharp k
I must confess that today was the first time I've been to the Ribble Steam railway and it'll be 10 years old next year. I wanted to go and get some reference details from the substantial collection of industrial locos they have both steam and diesel.
Fortuitously there was a midweek operational day featuring the Waggon und Maschinenbau railbus which gave the chance to bring you a run along the length of the railway. It's slightly unusual to see a preserved railway within an urban e
As promised, here's a final round-up of new items announced at the Nuremberg Toyfair that might be of interest to British modellers. It's by no means an exhaustive list of everything announced, but I hope it gives a flavour of the scale and variety of new items coming from the European trade. If there are any items that appeal to you, the following UK suppliers/importers can help:
Contact Gaugemaster for: Noch, Roco, Fleischmann, Maerklin/Trix/Minitrix/LGB, Kato, Herpa, Piko, Wiking and many
As I mentioned in this month's BRM topic ......
Please do make time to go and see this model if you get chance; if it were an exhibition layout (which it never will be as it weighs a ton!) and the trackwork was infilled it would certainly draw the crowds as I can't think of any exhibit which has as many buildings, windows and chimney pots. The model shows Burton as it was on Monday 10th October 1921. Why that day? A local photographer had been out recording town scenes which were invalua
In the November issue of BRM, I've shown how I built a couple of wagons to accompany Howard's Road-Railer. For anyone who fancies doing the same job, here are a few more details.
First, you'll want a plan:
A full size version of this can be downloaded from here. This shows the skip wagon but if you prefer the flat version, just leave the sides off.
When I built the models, the closest I'd managed to get to the real thing was the wrong side of a chain-link fence at my local
Well, RMweb Live was a good chance to work on the Road-Railer project and make some progress. It is now in the state as seen below:
The show was one of the best I've experienced for engaging with the public on a more one-to-one basis, and the project certainly created some intrigue amongst many who passed.
An explanation of the work carried out so far, along with details on the prototype machines and Phil Parker's Road-Rail trailers can be read in the November 2014 issue of BRM, o
Here is a BRM project that is a little more challenging than usual, primarily because it fits into the ‘it was never designed to do that’ category. So just what is this practical BRM project?
To model a Road-railer, part of the Story Rail fleet.
Using an NZG Liebherr A900C diecast model to the scale of 1/50, the aim is to illuminate and motorise this little model for O gauge…and why not?
So, if you would like to follow progress on this project, keep coming back to this BRM blog
Whilst on a whistlestop tour of Kent last week Phil and I dropped into RAF Manston Musem which is chocked full with interesting memorabilia and artefacts.
There's a cracking railway-related model in there, even if it looks somewhat tired, depicting one of the main stores building pre-WW2 with a rail siding. Pop 20p in and you can watch a Bachmann C-Class tootle back and forth shunting for a few minutes.
The buildings are quite delightful.
Outside I turned into a rivet-
Another chance to grab an hour at the bench after visitors have left sees the decoder (Hornby 4-pin) hard-wired and hidden behind the dashboard.
This means the decoder housing can be stripped away from the floor leaving room for a flat false floor and just enough space for something extra in the cab which should arrive in a few days.
It's amazing how much space you can find in here when you look for it!
LYP - Part 1 - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1535/entry-1
Whilst on a visit to the Ricoh Arena ahead of RMweb Live in September it was all too tempting to stage a shot which combines a couple of elements of the weekend with Phil Parker's pizza layout grafted onto the roulette wheel in Britiain's largest casino which is on the same site.
For those who know Phil he's quite a funghi.
Out on a photoshoot and video job today we had chance to take a look at and run the new Loveless Deltic.
Just a snap for now but a full review will feature in the mag soon.
Take a look at the Warley 2014 thread and you'll see that if there is one thing that unites railway modellers, it's a need to “see something moving”.
Never mind how much effort goes in to a layouts scenery, if there isn't a train operating then visitors won't hang around. Some will only pause to make their exasperation clear to everyone within a 40 foot radius before moving on.
This means that I approached the show with some trepidation. Although Owen's Bridge wasn't billed a layout in t
In August, as part of putting the RMWeb issue of BRM together, guest editors Stubby47 and St. Simon joined the team for the monthly planning meeting. We asked them both to write up the day to give everyone a behind the scenes view of how BRM is planned and put together. Last week we enjoyed Stubby47's view of events, now as the magazine arrives in the shops, it's over to St. Simon:
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I was invited to visit the BRM offices in Bourne, Lincolnshire, to view the process th
