Silly Moo

Mist the dry ballast with water before dropping the glue mixture onto to it. The sprayer you use is important, it should be able to produce a very fine mist of water otherwise it will disrupt the dry ballast. YouTube is very good for demo video clips.

I bet a lot of the people who make rude remarks about railway modellers would secretly love to have a go. My children were embarrassed by my hobby when they were teenagers until their friends came round and said the layout was ‘cool’ They used to find my model railway supplies very useful for school projects too. I tend to worry about people who have absolutely no hobbies, they are usually very boring. One thing that does upset me is hearing about men giving up the hobby because their wives or girlfriends disapprove of it. I’m fortunate that my husband has always been happy that I have a hobby even though he is sometimes bemused by it and the insatiable desire for locos : ) could be shoes and handbags I suppose.

It is unusual for females to be interested in model railways which is a shame because I think we can contribute a lot to the hobby. There’s also an overlap with various other predominantly female crafts that can be useful when building a model railway. My parents never seemed to bother about gender stereotyping when we were young so we had a great variety of toys, I always tended to prefer anything transport related. I bought Matchbox and Corgi cars and Lone Star Locos with my pocket money. We also had lots of Lego and I had a go at building Airfix model aeroplanes. I tried to take up railway modelling seriously in my mid twenties but as it was pre internet and we were living in Africa it took time to get anything resembling a working layout going. After a break when my children were toddlers, I started up again and this time joined a club which made a tremendous difference to my skills as I got a lot of help from fellow club members. The fact that I’m interested in model railways usually causes some surprise and amusement but I’ve never worried about what people think. It’s such a wonderful multi faceted hobby and there’s always something you can learn. I think it’s particularly good for children and yours are very fortunate that you are involved. I have rather eclectic tastes and have mainly N gauge but also some 00, Hornby Dublo and small collection of 0 gauge. I tend to buy locos and wagons that appeal to me visually rather than sticking to strict prototypes. I do have very large gaps in knowledge of railways but I’m learning as I go.

Hello, I’m a female modelling Mum but my children have long since left the nest and are in their thirties. To be quite honest neither of them were interested in model railways at all. So I just carried on modelling myself. My father influenced my love of railways and I had a train set when I was six, I started railway modelling again in my mid twenties. I’ve always liked the scenery side of things which can be an advantage in some ways but I have huge gaps in my knowledge of the real thing and virtually no carpentry and electrical skills, luckily I have a husband who can help although he’s never been fond of woodwork. Apart from forums like this Facebook is good for model railway groups and your local community page might be useful for finding young modellers in your area. I’m sure there are some, it’s just a matter of finding them. If you have a local model railway shop, they might know of other families in your area with children of a similar age to yours. When the lockdown is over consider joining a local model railway club. I found joining a model railway club was an excellent idea and my knowledge increased tremendously, I was always welcomed and helped by more knowledgeable members. Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to chat.

I have sent Key Publishing an email and Hornby Magazine a message via their Facebook page about this and have yet to be contacted by either of them. Not very impressed. They should have considered this problem when they were coming up with the idea of the website. Model Rail are no better with their Rewards Club, have yet to hear from them too.

Regarding what model railway magazine editors do with review models, I know of at least one magazine that uses their samples as prizes in competitions as I was lucky enough to win one. I suspect some get returned to the manufacturer and others are used in articles to demonstrate weathering etc. In the bad old days when Hornby were being difficult magazines were forced to buy their own models for review. This is veering off topic but I would be interested to know what happens to them now.

My last four ‘new’ locos were bought second hand for two thirds of the new price. They were all close to mint when I bought them. They were locos I really wanted but couldn’t justify buying at full price. I just waited patiently until they turned up second hand. The last one was purchased at the end of January, no doubt sold by someone who spent a bit too much at Christmas. They were bought from Facebook sales groups which seem to have a smaller following than eBay.

I usually buy locos with livery that appeals to me visually and is my favourite colour and choose private owner wagons based on whether I like their design and lettering. In mitigation I do try and make up reasonably prototypical trains with what I have.

After my first post in this topic I remembered that we did have a difficult character in my last club. He made his way onto the committee and then wanted to run everything his way. Eventually the rest of the committee had to ease him out of one position into another where he could do less damage because half the club were about to leave. The difficult character had had been in a senior position the Merchant Navy and wanted everything done his way. He was extremely organised. His rigid standards would have been an asset at sea but unfortunately they weren’t appreciated by people who had been working hard all week and wanted to relax and run trains. He was actually a very nice person in other ways but his talent for rubbing most people up the wrong way didn’t go down well so he had to be moved sideways and he eventually left the club.

A few years ago I visited the layout of a model railway group that was based in a museum (not in the UK) They had a notoriously grumpy member who liked to rule the roost and complain about anyone and anything. He was heard complaining loudly about some re wiring that had been done while he was away. He would have been enough to put off any potential members joining the group had it not been for the rest of the gang who were friendly, enthusiastic and helpful. As my mother used to say - there’s always one. As long as the rest are alright the club will survive.

I downloaded my issue to my iPad yesterday via the Pocketmags app. I recently renewed my Pocketmags subscription (at a bargain price) despite the magazine announcing a Model Rail Rewards Club for subscribers, I managed to find out that subscribers to the digital edition of the magazine were eligible to join too but I somehow doubt that this applies to Pocketmags subscribers. It it will be interesting to see whether I have made the right decision regarding the Rewards Club.

I have a small collection of British outline Lima H0 that I don’t know what to do with. No idea whether it’s worth anything either. Could anyone suggest the best way of selling it apart from eBay? I’ve tried a post on a Facebook sales group but that got no response. I get the feeling that it’s so rare that no ones interested in it at all : )

I did ask Rails directly on 5th December and was told that they don’t have a confirmed delivery date. I was hoping to get mine in time for Christmas.

Have a look at the new super lightweight fillers that have become available. I tried a brand called One Strike, the first impression you get is that the tub it comes in is empty! The filler itself is very soft and light, a bit like marshmallow, it dries quickly and can be painted soon after it has been applied. I have found it useful for filling gaps in styrofoam scenery and I’m sure it would work well with foam board. It’s worth getting a tub to experiment with, if all else fails you can use it for filling holes in the wall.

For a small layout like this, how about looking at a small set of battery operated Christmas lights for the lighting? You get small sets designed for table lighting with thin copper wire and very small bulbs. That’s what I have used on my N gauge micro layout.

Was the layout mainly urban in setting or more rural? Elvinley was the first one I thought of and if you do a google search a few pictures come up.

As an N gauge modeller I would offer this advice - time and care spent on trackwork will ensure you get the most out of your layout. Iffy trackwork will have you tearing your hair out so make sure everything runs well before starting the scenery. There are 0-6-0s and diesels that will be suitable for the younger members of the family while they get used to handling rolling stock and they will probably end up being more dexterous than you are in the long run.

They have just replied to my email, it seems I was a bit too impatient. They are definitely still in business and will be at Scalefour and Fareham exhibitions over the next few weeks.

I bought some Attwood Aggregates Road Stone at the Southampton Show in January, I would like to buy some more but have not received any response to an email and a voice message sent to them. I have also sent a text message. I may may not have given them enough time to respond, perhaps they are on holiday but in the meantime does anyone know if they are still trading? or does anyone know if any of the model railway retailers stock their products? Failing all all of the above are there any other companies that produce anything similar to their Road Stone which I think is excellent. Thanks in anticipation. Veronica.

As someone who knows very little indeed about signalling, I was pleased to see this issue and was planning to hang on to it for future reference. I would humbly suggest that Stationmaster contact Model Rail to point out their errors so they can rectify them in a future issue. Their response will show how much they value accuracy and their readers.

I’m very pleased this topic has come up, I’ve just painted a loco chimney with Humbrol gold metallic enamel and it looks dreadful, I’m glad there are some better alternatives for me to try.

Maybe they have a minimum postage charge, sounds very silly. I’ve just paid £4,55 to send a parcel containing 9 boxed n gauge wagons by first class signed for post and I don’t do anywhere near the volumes Hornby do!

I would suggest getting a back to back gauge and checking the bogie wheel spacing before doing anything else, it can sometimes be incorrect even on new locos. They are available from DCC Concepts. What make and radius are the points?

The April issue was absolutely bristling with extra content for purchasers of the digital version, what happened to this one? Or are you checking to see if we noticed?

I have one of those ones with a straight piece of metal a bit like a wand, bought off eBay it works well. I have seen some clips on YouTube demonstrating styrofoam scenery sculpting using a small chef’s blow torch, this seems to work well but could result in burning the house down! The stryrofoam/blowtorch method seems to be favoured by war gamers who do actually have some very good, creative and cost saving scenery tutorials.