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Model Rail 212 Summer 2015


grahame

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Mine also received a couple of days ago.  While excellent reviews on new locomotives, can't say I was impressed with 14 pages of space fillers of pictures of London railway stations. Yawn Yawn Yawn.

 

This issue not really value for money in my view.

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Wouldn't it be boring if we all liked the same things!  I enjoyed George Dent's piece on doing up a Routemaster and wallowed in nostalgia at Pete Foster's examination of the prototype.  Mind you, I am old enough to remember when RM1 was new, working out of Cricklewood garage!  Imagine the excitement of what was then a 10 year old when it appeared in Horn Lane, Acton.  I've never found out why it was there.  Oh well.

 

Snap out of it, Chris, there's a magazine to discuss!  The title of Peter Marriott's article "How to model the Widened Lines" is a bit misleading.  It deals well with making retaining walls and laying conductor rails but overlooks the fundamental point that the Widened Lines were and still are used by trains operated by BR and successors and not by tube trains.  They were built to relieve the Met tracks between Kings Cross and Moorgate in the 1860s.   Paul Gosden's model of Shepherds Bush bus garage jerked a few memories: I've lost track of the number of times I was chucked out of there.  Its shape owes much to it having been built on part of the disused trackbed of the LSWR branch from Kensington Olympia to Hammersmith Grove Road.

 

Oh, and Nick Skelton never spoke a truer word when describing his rather nice Rumbling Bridge: "I'm a great believer in building layouts that are achievable - but it always takes longer to make them than you think".  If we must have those balloon quotes littering the magazine, let's have some that are apposite like that one.

 

Chris

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I was a bit disappointed with this months tbh. Firstly it wasn't well put together (in a physical sense) - several pages all fell out when I opened it and were clearly not attached to each other. This makes it quite hard to sit with and read

 

Secondly it was a bit thin in layouts. To me (and this is just my feeling) a magazine is about the layouts predominantly. I really enjoy looking at other peoples layouts, to be inspire by and learn from. There were only two layouts and one was featured in a rival publication very recently. So just one new layout feature.

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Wouldn't it be boring if we all liked the same things!  I enjoyed George Dent's piece on doing up a Routemaster and wallowed in nostalgia at Pete Foster's examination of the prototype.  Mind you, I am old enough to remember when RM1 was new, working out of Cricklewood garage!  Imagine the excitement of what was then a 10 year old when it appeared in Horn Lane, Acton.  I've never found out why it was there.  Oh well.

 

Snap out of it, Chris, there's a magazine to discuss!  The title of Peter Marriott's article "How to model the Widened Lines" is a bit misleading.  It deals well with making retaining walls and laying conductor rails but overlooks the fundamental point that the Widened Lines were and still are used by trains operated by BR and successors and not by tube trains.  They were built to relieve the Met tracks between Kings Cross and Moorgate in the 1860s.   Paul Gosden's model of Shepherds Bush bus garage jerked a few memories: I've lost track of the number of times I was chucked out of there.  Its shape owes much to it having been built on part of the disused trackbed of the LSWR branch from Kensington Olympia to Hammersmith Grove Road.

 

Oh, and Nick Skelton never spoke a truer word when describing his rather nice Rumbling Bridge: "I'm a great believer in building layouts that are achievable - but it always takes longer to make them than you think".  If we must have those balloon quotes littering the magazine, let's have some that are apposite like that one.

 

Chris

Thanks Chris - sounds like something to look forward to, when it actually arrives. 

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To me (and this is just my feeling) a magazine is about the layouts predominantly.

 

Fair enough, it may be your view but it isn't mine.

 

What I want from a magazine is information about how to do things. Modelling articles with prototype data. Hands-on projects. New techniques, even old ones I didn't know about before. Stuff to help me build my own models and improve my skills.

 

Layout articles are nice eye candy and yes, it us possible to learn things from them. However, to my mind they should be secondary.

 

Just my 2p's worth.

 

steve

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I subscribe to the iPad edition.   All I can see at the moment is preview or purchase (not sure I understand the latter as I have a subscription until January 2016).   Anyone know why this should be and, more importantly, when I'm likely to be able to download it?

 

Regards

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14 pages of space fillers of pictures of London railway stations. Yawn Yawn Yawn.

 

Perhaps to you,but others will find it interesting and useful.  I Look forward to seeing a magazine put together by you that everyone will find enthralling all of the time. 

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Mine also received a couple of days ago.  While excellent reviews on new locomotives, can't say I was impressed with 14 pages of space fillers of pictures of London railway stations. Yawn Yawn Yawn.

 

This issue not really value for money in my view.

Some people like idyllic GWR branch lines, or Col Stephen anything, some don't. Magazines have to cater for a range of interests across the board. Any one has the OPTION, of only buying copies that interest them, or leave them on the shelf.

A couple of months before I get the issue in question.

Yesterday, I just picked up the June issue, which appears to have a GWR terminus on the cover (can't say for sure if it is a terminus, as its still in the plastic!). I'm sure the rest of the magazine will have more interesting stuff. Do you see my point?

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It has arrived - delivered this time by white red van man  (no, not PO red).

 

Anyway after a brief look through it looks like a good issue - alright some items don't directly relate to my interests but so what, the mag has to meet a market with wide ranging interests and constructional & detailing etc techniques can obviously in many cases be readily transferred from doing a London 'bus to doing one that was based in the West Country or Wales (and not even placed on a bridge on a layout).  So content 'interesting'; delivery method - not as good from the customer's viewpoint as Royal Mail especially as the 'delivery person' who shoved it through my letterbox came within a whisker of tearing both plastic bag and the mag inside it because he folded it instead of pushing it in flat.

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Mine also received a couple of days ago.  While excellent reviews on new locomotives, can't say I was impressed with 14 pages of space fillers of pictures of London railway stations. Yawn Yawn Yawn.

 

 

Can't say I agree with that - but each to his own.

 

Personally I thought it a little North London biased - little or no pics/info on London Bridge station (the capitals oldest terminus) or Waterloo and come to it Victoria. I'd have liked more on them.

 

G.

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I like magazines with tits in, others don't, they may well prefer sparrows, starlings or robins.

 

They are still of interest though, if only for a passing glance.

 

I find there's always something to look at and like in any of the mags, which Is why I still buy them all.

 

Interestingly my preferences have changed, and items that I wouldn't have cared for not that long ago, now provoke the longest of glances.

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Actually I thought the Underground article was a bit sparse, not a mention of the District line and the Q stock, and the lists of buses and ancillary vehicles was inaccurate and had a couple of notable omissions. There is no accurate R-T-R model of a London Transport tower wagon AFAIK and certainly not from EFE. EFE however do produce a few models of London Transport service lorries which where not mentioned and Matchbox Models-of-Yesteryear made a model of the Diddler trolleybus.

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I had a quick browse in Sainsburys tonight but didn't buy. I see the point about pictures of London being page fillers. The other point of note is that one of the layouts seemed to feature modern LM stock but the adjoining bus depot seemed to have old buses in it, seemed strange. As I said it was only a browse so sorry if it's supposed to represent a bus museum

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I had a quick browse in Sainsburys tonight but didn't buy. I see the point about pictures of London being page fillers. The other point of note is that one of the layouts seemed to feature modern LM stock but the adjoining bus depot seemed to have old buses in it, seemed strange. As I said it was only a browse so sorry if it's supposed to represent a bus museum

 

As you'd kind of worked out, it is a bus museum.

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Interesting article on the overall roofs from Hornby and Peco - but why no comparison to the one available from scalescenes? I note Chris' objection on cost grounds of having to buy 4 (or more) of Hornby's model, but then the Scalescenes version scores better on larger models.

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I was lucky enough to pick up a copy from my local model shop on Monday 27th, I found the article on weathering the routemaster very usful. You can use the ideas on other types of vehicle aswell. I like the small depot layout, its got me thinking about planing one of my own. Reguarding the London articles they are ok for ideas, Id like to see an rtr underground battery electric loco.

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Really enjoyed the issue - George Dent's diesel depot article was great. Loved the jacked up 37! Overall roof article good as well. I also liked the buses - often wondered how to get into EFE's!

 

For me it's one of the best issues of late - as with most things in our great hobby it's a case of "Horses for courses"!"

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I too liked the overall station roof article, the comparison of the Hornby and Peco products is helpful, and the diesel depot feature I thought was also well done, and looked great.

 

I'm interested in London railways (especially of the late-50s to early '70s), so was drawn to this, but taking up two full pages of the issue with a double-paged photo of Big Ben and an Underground sign did seem a bit much!

 

cheers,

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

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two full pages of the issue with a double-paged photo of Big Ben and an Underground sign did seem a bit much!

 

 

Yes, that did the impression of page filling and a shortage of editorial content.

 

G.

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I too liked the overall station roof article, the comparison of the Hornby and Peco products is helpful, and the diesel depot feature I thought was also well done, and looked great.

 

I'm interested in London railways (especially of the late-50s to early '70s), so was drawn to this, but taking up two full pages of the issue with a double-paged photo of Big Ben and an Underground sign did seem a bit much!

 

cheers,

 

Keith

 

Interesting article on the overall roofs from Hornby and Peco - but why no comparison to the one available from scalescenes? I note Chris' objection on cost grounds of having to buy 4 (or more) of Hornby's model, but then the Scalescenes version scores better on larger models.

Two reasons: Personally - I didn't like the idea of a printed paper glass roof. I note, since then, that some Scalescenes pages are intended for printing on transparent material but come with a warning that not all printers are suitable. I can't imagine what our IT staff would say if I put anything other than the approved paper in our laser printers, and I don't know if my home inkjet would like it, either. More importantly, in putting the project together in the available time (after my holiday) George assured me that I wouldn't have time to tackle the Scalescenes roof in addition to the other two. There are lots of Scalescenes buildings coming, however, and I'm currently working on two kits for the next issue.

CHRIS LEIGH

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