I used to buy the MRJ regularly, enjoying the high quality of model making, and sometimes even taking away an idea that I could use myself.  Why did I stop?  I’m not sure – I stopped buying most railway magazines at some point, realising that all they did was to clutter up the house.

Nevertheless, I still have a quick look at every edition in W.H. Smith’s in Redhill, and buy a copy if anything takes my eye.  Edition no. 235 is a bumper issue for the 2mm modeller, and there are a lot of useful articles.

The contents include:

• Building lightweight baseboards from extruded polystyrene.  Interesting for the idea of casing a plastic beam on all four sides with thin plywood, making a very strong but very light structural member.
• Kit building an MR 0-6-0 in 2mm fine-scale.  2mm fine-scale modelling is always inspiring, and some useful ideas here that could be used in ‘N’
• An amazing Proto-87 layout of a Dutch dockside and industries.  I’m fascinated by the baseboards built to seemingly random shapes to match the track layout, rather than the other way round.
• An interesting article on the Aerofilms aerial photo collection, including a gorgeous picture of Wadebridge in 1932, with lots of Southern Railway steam in evidence.
• And finally, and best of all, John Greenwood’s wonderful North Cornwall Railway in 2mm fine-scale.  This is 2mm on the grand scale, 45 years or so work, culminating in a 20′ x 15′ 9″ layout with close to scale representations of Padstow, Wadebridge and Wenford Bridge, amongst others.  Wonderful, inspired modelling.  I’ve included a couple of pictures from RMweb below, just to show how good it really is.

RMweb

Rmweb