detheridge

IIRC there were some pics of Theo Pearson's North Midland railway in one of the Model Railway Constructor Annuals. Unfortunately there were no further details. As well as HD locos, it looks like the coaching stock may have been Exleys, and there are some rather chunky freelance locos there as well.

Hi folks, here are a few pics from the infamous 'Bash a Pug' competition held at the 009 AGM way back in the mid noughties (I think 2005?), plus a few others. The first is an extraordinary 00 Garratt based bash that was listed on Ebay some years ago. Then, two of Mick Thornton's famous conversions. Next, the candidates for the 009 competition, with the North Egyptian Light Railway Pugbash being the winner. The last pic is one of a full size Pugbash, showing that there nearly is a prototype for everything. Enjoy! David

A heads up from Barrie Johnstone that his amazing layout Pen-y-Craig will be at the Stafford MRE on the 3rd and 4th February 2018. Enjoy!

Francis Stapleton has been busy again - this time with figures from https://www.modelu3d.co.uk/ who supply them in 5.5mm scale. Price around £4.25 each and they're from the Pendon range. They come in red, and the white ones are after cleaning up and priming. The last pic shows one of Francis' layouts 'Rheadr' which features genuine Corris slate for the scenery!

Yes indeed. Francis has admitted to having NINE layouts in 5.5mm scale. One is the late Dave Scott's Beccadale Haematite Mines, which is 16.5mm. The rest AFAIK are all 12mm gauge.

Francis Stapleton has been busy again with an older layout in 5.5mm, Warren Road. It's being dusted off and checked over before further work.

There used to be a site 55n3.org (unfortunately now defunct) by HMinky (Howard Minkwitz) that had a terrific amount of detail in how to model 1/55 scale using American prototypes and influence. He also showed conversions of Bachman On30 models and how relatively straightforward it all was. Some useful info here: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/3116

As an aside, there was an 0-6-0 version of Dolgoch (but larger) by Fletcher Jennings supplied to the Severn and Wye.

If you ever want a 5.5mm Gem Prince to go around 6 inch radius curves, here's Francis Stapleton's solution: pivot the drawbar on the tender half way down.

Some people claim that there's not a lot available for 5.5mm scale. To help disprove this, here are some of the latest 3D items from Shapeways in 1/55, plus details of animals from the 28mm scale wargaming fraternity. The Corris wagons and coaches are from Tyneside models on Shapeways, the WDLR Simplex 20 hp and D class bogie wagon are by Recreation 21. Barrels and pallets in 1/55 (plus much more are from Sector-17 https://www.shapeways.com/shops/sector17 The 1/55 motorcycles are from Honest 'arry's motors: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/honestharrysmotors and the two FR coal wagons are from Max (Heisler)'s Mountaineer models. The animals are advertised on the Wargames, soldiers and strategies page on Facebook Many thanks as ever to Francis Stapleton for the pics. No excuses to detail your 1/55 layout!

One could argue the same for all those conversions of the Triang OO Princess to Black 5s, Jubilees and Royal Scots....

More great modelling from Steve Jones on 16.5mm gauge. They both use Bachman HO Porter chassis. Steve says that both locos are designed to be 'crossover' locos which are large enough to run on his Irish layout but small enough to run on his Welsh one.

High quality scenic work in 5.5mm by Francis Stapleton on 'The Wharf', originally built by George Williamson

IIRC S&B used to do signals?

Very nice - any more pics available?

A Feldbahn Gmeinder 20/24 diesel from T3 design - Trains Trams Trucks at Shapeways. It's 12mm gauge but 1/45 scale. https://www.shapeways.com/product/JYYCJK65R/feldbahn-gmeinder-20-24-spur-0e-f?li=shareProduct Will it fit 1/55 scale? Yes it will, as Francis Stapleton has discovered. Comparing it to the Corris Railway's bruiser O&K diesel, it's convincing!

Steve Jones' latest pics of Headford, slated to appear at the Rainhill exhibition on Nov.25th

Hi Garry, if you recall my earlier post and if this is helpful to others searching for prized issues, you can find Model Railway mags very cheaply at some of the preserved lines - sometimes as little as 10p a copy. My source is the Severn Valley Railway at Bewdley, and there are other outlets on the line with similar deals. Some lines won't even accept mags for secondhand sales. Obviously the SVR is a long way from you, but you might find them nearer home? Best wishes, David.

Yes, but.... The old models of the 60s and 70s, (I dare say) were aimed at the toy market? Just out of interest, does anyone know what the core market was for model railways at that time? Obviously serious model railway fans were attracted to kits and the more 'advanced' stuff (although I remember hearing a customer being told in Hamblings that Arthur Hambling would not stock Kitmaster or Airfix kits when they first arrived, possibly 'cos he thought that was cheating?), so was the main market for model railways younger kids - of which many of us here were that very market? So the stuff of the 60s and 70s had to be made crude and mechanically over-engineered to bear the rigours of kids running their trains on the carpet or even in the garden on concrete (a boyhood friend at the time did just this). More scale fans and those of an engineering bent went to Hamblings own products or Jamieson kits and were at home with heavy duty soldering irons and, in effect, miniature engineering principles. There's a similar principle here with preserved railways: a friend on the W&L told me a few weeks ago that serious gricers and railway enthusiasts make up only around 10% of the total footfall on the railway. The rest just want a nice day out, a nice ride and perhaps some interesting old stock. They could care less about the number of rivets, the correct shade of paint, or whether a loco is in 1925 or 1935 condition. In the case of model railways, the core market nowadays may be the same group who were kids in the 40s-60s, and have the time, discernment and (most important of all) the disposable income to buy all these incredible looking (but fragile) models of today. Same with TT - designed again for the 'toy' market and those who were space starved and possibly low on cash. (The wealthier went for Hornby Dublo, and the really wealthy would go for Exley?) They wanted something that looked vaguely (by today's standards) like the real thing, was relatively cheap, and would last a long time. Until the serious advent of N gauge (Lone Star Treblo pointed the way, although their rubber band drive locos were possibly the epitome of naffness in performance, although the BR diesels had very nice die cast bodies) TT looked like th answer to a lot of would be modellers. Triang TT's standards were an improvement on Triang's original OO ones, It may be that its the ultimate irony that we're all on the Collectabvle/Vintage forum waxing lyrically about these 'crude' examples of model railways. But in that very crudeness there's a lot of charm, and it invites a suspension of disbelief - the most obvious one being that our locos are powered by 12v electricity and not coal, oil and water.

Okay folks, I've done some hunting through my papers and found details of the article about a 'back to the 60s' approach. Here's the general gist of the original article, paraphrased by me for a narrow gauge newsletter in 2004: Way back in 1989, MRJ featured Wickham LMS, an EM gauge layout. Now what's different about this layout is that it's classified by the builder as a MODEL RAILWAY, as opposed to a model OF a railway. Again the author quotes a previous article: "Real places have real characters and their own special atmospheres - a 'feel' that has to be captured for authenticity". So the author agrees with this and states that it's experiencing this 'feel' that differentiates a railway enthusiast from anyone else.Is it possible to capture that feel in a model? He doesn't think so. Railway enthusiasts are not necessarily model railway enthusiasts, and vice versa. Prototype atmosphere is very different from model railway atmosphere. To get the 'feel' of a place you have to be there and experience it. However the author of the MRJ article postulates the idea that the model itself must generate atmosphere rather than trying to recreate the prototype's. Proof can be found in dead scale mini layouts that are examples of exquisite modelling, but ultimately boring as layouts: the 'run round loop and a siding' beloved of some modellers. In order to get a models atmosphere there must be some personal input from the modeller -something of his or her character, which gets less and less in scope the more faithful to a prototype you go. So you end up with superb, but perhaps ultimately lifeless models. When planning a model, what do you want to do? Remember that we want to produce a model railway and have fun and satisfaction, not a model of a railway where we're bound by the constraints of the prototype. So you might want to have something that's consistently interesting to operate, has enough visual impact and features to keep both yourself and the punters at an exhibition happy, and also some personal atmosphere that in a tangible way says 'this is part of me and who I am.' So: do you want a goods yard as well as passenger facilities, with a headshunt for simultaneous operation of two trains so there's always something happening? Do you want coach sidings and/or a shed, and do you want a loco siding or a fully fledged shed to add interest and scope? In the case of Wickham, the station building this was a direct crib from a design in the Feb 1964 issue of Model Railway Constructor, even down to varying canopy styles. Where would you put the buildings? As the preliminary design for your layout would not be cast in stone, you can decide whether, say and engine shed would be at the very end of the station limits, or half way along to act as a scenic break, in which case you might want to change it from and end on shed to a through shed for more operating potential. An otherwise boring siding may have interest added with a factory building or lading dock for anything you care to imagine, from livestock to flour to machinery. It's entirely up to you, and there are no wrong methods, which is the most encouraging point here. In the case of Wickham, the builder made up a full size track plan on a roll of wallpaper with paper mock-ups of buildings which were then shunted around until, the plan began to gel. A factory building was moved so that it masked the control panel, and a loading bank opposite the cattle dock added balance to one end of the layout. With this approach, you can draw up and modify everything from operating sequences to section breaks and wiring before you start construction on the layout itself. This is a 'back to the 60s' approach to modelling. The author describes the 60s and early 70s for him as the halcyon years of railway modelling, when every layout was an individual take on modelling by its builder, not a rehash of the same formula after the scale and prototype revolution that came later. The prototype was an INSPIRATION for the models, not a slavish copy. The motto of the day was 'If it looks right, it is right', not the other way around as in some of today's approaches. In fact you can come unstuck very quickly with the 'if it is right, it looks right' approach in several ways, one of the most obvious being liveries translated into modelling scales. The author's feelings at the end of the article were 'I don't care if it's right or wrong, as long as it feels right. And to me, Wickham feels okay. Can you say the same?'. So, can you? Discuss. Sorry if it's wandered away a little from the original subject of TT, but this principle applies to all scales. Regards, David.

That's a very cogent point Garry Many years ago, I read in MRJ a thought provoking article about layout design -sorry, I can't remember the actual article, but I'll try and find more details. The thrust of the argument was basically that, in the 60s, modellers built model railways, rather than a model OF a railway. As a hobby, it was for entertainment, relaxation and creativity. You designed your station with the idea of having points of interest that drew the eye to a particular section. You might have one siding that originally was planned with a loco shed, but then you could change your mind and put a dairy there to add operational interest. So your layout wasn't 'prototypical' (as in the modern sense) but it encapsulated the essence of a railway, had bags of operating potential, and expressed your own personal approach to modelling. Even a relatively small layout like Berrow or Derek Naylor's 00n3 Aire Valley Railway could and did exhibit these qualities -although obviously the former was one of the first to be railway/site specific rather than a general one. Alan Smith's Lydney was a wonderful example of this approach in TT. It also could result in both home and exhibition layouts that were entertaining and fun. That sort of approach now seems only to be the property of some of the more fun based 009 layouts. An 009 friend's wife said many years ago 'You can always tell narrow gauge modellers at an exhibition - they're the ones with smiles on their faces'. Regards, David.

I think you may be killed in the rush for the Fairlie, Max! Fabulous to see that, and congratulations. * Update: Max has posted elsewhere that this is the version for LT/Tal/Earl of M, and is based on the original Gem kit with improvements to the firebox and the coal spaces, which weren't on the original. David.

Here's the latest in 3D printing for 5.5mm scale from Tyneside Models, Fiftyfifth (George Williamson), Coast Line Models and Mountaineer Models (Max Heisler) and Recreation21 (rue_d_etropal) all at Shapeways. Mostly Corris, with a WDLR wagon body and even a watee powered wagon! 3D is obviously the future for 5.5mm?

How about this beauty seen at EXpoNG, described as '12mm gauge, 5.5mm scale' on the 009 secondhand sales stand? A snip at '£250 or offers'! Still, that's only marginally more expensive than the Heljan ones in 009......... :-)

More of Andrew Wilson's work in 5.5mm scale. The TR stock has an MSM Corris coach kit, the Stanton coach is scratchbuilt, the GVT coach is a Worsley Works scratch aid, and the TR brake van is a Gem original. Andrew's original Prince (several decades old is shown. Lastly the mythical FR 'double bugbox' No.13. This came from a pic published in FR magazine no.1 (1958) as a proposal to convert the bugboxes to bogie coaches on Hudson chassis. Who says there's a prototype for everything?