Cornholio

A couple of years ago I received an offer that was almost too good to be true, eBay offered a bonus of 50% if I sold an item within 48 hours. I left the offer message in eBay messenger, but this also mysteriously disappeared, eBay then denied its existence. Fortunately I had a screenshot and they paid up, since then I have always made sure I can prove the existence of an offer!

The print edition comes with 4 moulded BRM figures and a paintbrush for £5.49. Although based on Modelu 3D scans, the figures appear to be moulded rather than 3D printed. Even so, this is still a great value offer. I'm sure they will be appearing on many cake box dioramas in the coming months. By bizarre coincidence, four figures and a paintbrush are worth EXACTLY the same as the missing £7.99 DVD. That was a stroke of luck!

Unfortunately after 20+ years, Scale Rail in Horley (near Gatwick) is having to close down. One of the owners will be unable to work for a few months, meaning the business is no longer viable. EVERYTHING in the shop is 50% off in an effort to liquidate the stock quickly. There is very little RTR left, but as of this morning they still have good stocks of Metcalfe, Wills/Ratio kits, Peco track/accessories and a full range of scenics. In many cases items are being sold at less than cost price, if you are able to help by buying something, go quickly! Personal callers and now cash only, but website for location details etc is www.scalerail.co.uk

Unfortunately after 20+ years, Scale Rail in Horley is having to close down. One of the owners will be unable to work for a few months, meaning the business is no longer viable. EVERYTHING in the shop is 50% off in an effort to liquidate the stock quickly. There is very little RTR left, but as of this morning they still have good stocks of Metcalfe, Wills/Ratio kits, Peco track/accessories and a full range of scenics. In many cases items are being sold at less than cost price, if you are able to help by buying something, go quickly!

The phone shop guys are brilliant though, now based around the corner in Kings Head Yard. They have been known to offer significant discounts if a packet of Jaffa Cakes is included in the deal!

I don't know what BRM's current circulation figures are, but based on information in the public domain, a typical model railway magazine sells less than 2500 copies a month*. [EDIT I misread the figures thus proving the maxim "Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics"] Even if Warners were able to cut out the middlemen (WHSmith, Pocketmags etc) and sell a digital version of the magazine directly to every customer, the resulting income wouldn't even pay the wages, let alone cover the costs of production. Advertising therefore, is a necessary evil to secure the continued employment of a bunch of passionate folk and keep this very forum online. It can be intrusive at times (e.g. The DM Toys adverts that were all over the page in a recent digital edition), but the reality is that without the adverts there wouldn't be a BRM. I enjoyed this issue and particularly liked Tony Wright's brakevan history article. It was relevant and in my opinion pitched at the perfect level. Keep up the good work! Andrew * Extrapolated from https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/uk-magazine-abcs-winners-losers-and-full-breakdown-as-circulation-declines-average-6-per-cent/

I can't work out how to post a link to the whole newsletter, but this is the article you wanted: https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/brm/information/how-to-build-a-model-railway-baseboard Best wishes Andrew

Hi, The Perry Barr video in the digital edition has stopped working. Any chance the link can be updated or sent via pm? Thanks Andrew

Huw, I got all excited for a second thinking you'd gone ahead and built it! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait now. Regards Andrew

It's a bit before the period that Grahame is modelling, but many readers of this topic will find interest in this video: It shows the renovation of London Bridge in the early seventies and shows just how decrepit the station had become.

Hi Ray, I've sent you a private message about this. Regards Andrew

If you contact the BRM team via this link: https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/brm/competitions/wheres-my-dvd Someone at Warner's will either send you the weblink or stick a DVD in the post to you, gratis. I post this with reluctance, as I feel that some on here may well abuse this offer by requesting a DVD without purchasing the magazine. But that wouldn't be smart or clever, it would be a pretty scummy thing to do. On the flip side it offers genuine customers an opportunity to view the DVD content. Kind of a win-win situation?

My understanding is that the digital subscriptions are handled by Pocketmags rather than Warner's. You pay your money to Pocketmags and your contract is with them. That effectively makes you a "new" subscriber. There are no loyalty rewards as such, other than the fact that longstanding subscribers will almost certainly be paying less per issue. The only benefit you will lose is the discount to Warner's shows. But I'm pretty sure that if you speak to them on the phone they could sort something out. My experience of dealing with them has always been positive. Hope this helps! Andrew

An idea that is used by some computer magazines is to issue an annual CD-ROM with the previous years issues on it in PDF format. By the time the CD-ROM comes out, I would've thought the risk of piracy was minimal. If somebody was going to steal the magazine, they would no doubt have found a way by then. I would expect an RRP of at least £10-15 for it to be worth Warner's while to produce the disc in the first place. Considering how much more extra content you get in the digital issue vs. a PDF copy of the printed magazine this could be a tough sell. When you consider the regular sales held by pocketmags of back issues for 99p, including all the digital goodies, a CD of PDF's doesn't really make financial sense, either for Warner's or the customer.

I counted ten repetitions of the same advert in that one article. I have no objection in principle to a feature being "sponsored", if that sponsorship means that I get something more for my money. An example of this would be if a company paid for the expense of having a member of the BRM team attend an event. Something that might otherwise not be possible within the magazines normal budget. In this case however, the sponsorship added nothing to the magazine and I found it most distracting. Andrew

It's swings and roundabouts. With BRM etc, your annual subscription buys you 13 magazines which you can access online in perpetuity. The Railway Modeller annual subscription buys you about 100 magazines which you can access online, WHILST you remain a subscriber.

Thanks Phil! Andrew

With regard to Phil's article on inlaid dockyard track, specifically filling the gaps between the sleepers with clay. In the following step this is covered with a sheet of card. So, is the clay used purely to stop the card sagging over time? Is it acting as ballast to hold the track in place? Or have I missed something? Thanks Andrew

I might be missing something here, but there is already a simple way for digital readers to print a copy of this plan or any other BRM article. Simply visit pocketmags.com and log in with your email address and password. Near the top right hand corner of the screen you should see "My Library". Clicking this will display all the digital magazine's you have purchased. Select the correct issue, then scroll to the desired page. Making sure to use the print icon that appears as part of the webpage rather than the one on your internet browser, press print. In my case, the plan printed out at exactly the same size as the one in the printed magazine. If it didn't, the print can be percentage scaled as appropriate. I agree that a scale bar in future would be a most appreciated addition as a safety check.

Although not the case in your example, it is always worth asking if they do indeed have the item you require. They stock a number of items that are not displayed in the shop, but kept in their warehouse. You'd be surprised at just how many obscure bits and pieces they have!

Cruel close-up showing that it's also possible to make a fully furnished 1970's interior for the house in N/2mm scale. However this a dangerous road to travel down. My sanity may take a while to recover! Andrew

Hi Steve, I've done quite a few of the scalescenes kits now, here a couple of things that work for me. I also use UHU, because it sticks well and is available from Poundland. UHU can easily mess up the look of windows if any gets on the glass, so I am either super careful or use Glue & Glaze by Deluxe Materials which dries clear. Roket Card Glue is a great glue for these kits, but works out a lot more expensive than the UHU. For 2mm card I would aim for about 3 passes of the blade. The 1st being a lighter cut to pierce the surface and create a groove, the 2nd to do the bulk of the work and a 3rd to make sure you are all the way through. I use a "Stanley" type knife, blades are cheap in bulk and it is comfortable for me to hold. To keep things square I have two small blocks of wood glued together at a 90 angle. Cheaper than an engineer's square. The best solution is called Model-Mates by York Modelmaking, which uses magnets to hold everything straight. Finally I would take John Wiffin's advice to protect the print surface against fading from UV light. I use a spray called Ghiant, but any Matt varnish should do the job. Happy Building! Andrew

No real modelling progress to report, I have however received a couple of bits in the post to give my garage a BRM themed cameo... The 206 will be converted back to civilian use with the use of a knife and some filler, converted to RHD, then resprayed in the correct shade of green. The reasons for doing so are fairly simple. I couldn't find a ready-to-plonk Peugeot 206 from Oxford et al. so my hand was kind of forced, the police car was literally only a couple of quid from eBay so it's not a big deal if it doesn't go to plan, and hey, it might even be fun to do a bit of actual model making. I will keep you posted as things develop. Regards Andrew

There isn't a clickable link for the Weathering video, you have to type the (short) web address printed in the top right corner into your internet browser.

If you delete (archive) and re-download you should get an updated version. On an earlier version I found the link on the welcome page of the weathering supplement (page 211). You will also find a web address (not hotlinked) for the Weathering Video in the top right corner of this page. Judging by the 44 YouTube views at the time of writing, this video is also proving somewhat elusive for people to find. It is however well worth tracking down.