Category Archives: Hints and tips

Odd modelling idea #692

Thank you, Duncan, for this wonderful link.  It is all in German, but a link to the UK Evening Standard gives this interesting text…. The strangest football stadium in the world? Train line runs through the ground of a Slovakian … Continue reading

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A little personal conceit…

I received this picture from my eldest daughter, currently on holiday in San Francisco.  Nice to see the family name at ‘Bartlett and 23rd’.  Perhaps this could be a feature of my future interurban layout?  Whatever the location. Apart from … Continue reading

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Languages on the Victoria Line

Migrants are very much in the news at the moment.  Despite the seemingly unsolvable pressures of the current mass migration across Europe, I do think that most big cities are made more interesting by a cosmopolitan population.  And where would … Continue reading

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John Ott’s Old-Time Railroad Models & HO Scale Projects

HT to a link on the always interesting ‘Prince Street Terminal’ blog. Just occasionally I come across a model railroad site that just inspires.  John Ott’s site fits all too well into this category.  He models late 19th / early … Continue reading

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The green green grass of home?

From the BBC website, and a possible detail for tram tracks…. Bulgaria’s capital is grassing over some of its tram lines as part of a programme to make the city greener. An initial 60m (197ft) stretch of the “green rails” … Continue reading

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Odd modelling idea #347

I just can’t remember where this picture came from.   But if you have an old coach that is past its best, how about using it as a bridge over a stream? As a river engineer, I’m not totally convinced by … Continue reading

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Detailed London transport map

If you love maps and trying to see how real track layouts could be made into a model, and you’ll happily spend hours poring over Ordnance Survey maps, archive maps, route diagrams and rail maps, this is a wonderful resource.  … Continue reading

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We don’t quite fit

Another scenic cameo to add to the layout.  Of course, strictly, one shouldn’t be running trains over the bridge with a vehicle stuck underneath it.  A more spectacular version would be a standard London bus, swiftly converted for open-top duties.  … Continue reading

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Nice work (or not) if you can get it!

The Telegraph tells us that, “French rail worker paid £3,500 to do ‘absolutely nothing’ for 12 years files ‘complaint’” A French employee of national rail operator SNCF earned €5,000 per month after tax since 2003 for doing “nothing”, but in … Continue reading

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In the days before ‘Alf and Sadie’

I was browsing my original copy of Don Boreham’s ‘Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling’, published 1962, and this advert inside the back cover caught my eye…. Well, Slaters are still very much in business, although I’d love to have Plastikard for … Continue reading

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