Tag Archives: model railway

Long and winding road – narrow and wide

One feature of the ‘Shed’ era that I forgot was an interest in narrow gauge railways.  A few Model Railway News articles were supplemented by a copy of Don Boreham’s seminal ‘Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling’ and a history of the Lynton … Continue reading

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Long and winding road – the shed

In the mid-sixties, I was in need of the larger back bedroom in our 1930’s 3-bedroom semi, so my father invested in a SHED.  This 9′ x 8′ empire was carefully built by my father, saturated with wood preservative, insulated … Continue reading

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Long and winding road – beginnings

A while back, I posted some photos of some of my old kit and scratch built models.  Those posts didn’t include the path that I took to get from there to here.  I was thinking about this in the context … Continue reading

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Obituary – Ian Allan

I spotted this obituary in the Daily Telegraph.  In the UK and for those of my generation, Ian Allan was synonymous with train spotting books and quality transport books.  Certainly in my teens and early twenties, Ian Allen was THE … Continue reading

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“This is not logical, but it is often true.”

According to Spock, anyway.  The Chairman sent me this picture, culled from Facebook. “Set the phasers to stun!”

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A good ‘believe it or not’ scenic feature?

Anyone can model a car crash or lots of emergency services on their layout.  However, this would really stretch the viewers belief. From the Daily Telegraph: Last Wednesday, Mr Xiang was driving along the Chongqing-Guizhou Expressway in central China when he … Continue reading

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Coupling springs have sprung

This very useful tip appeared in the NRMA British Region magazine.  Most useful for those of us with Microtrains couplers, but now Dapol buckeyes are around it may also apply to them.  It was published under the wonderful title of … Continue reading

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An easier way to ballast your track?

Lance Mindheim  may have come up with a really good idea here…. Effectively applying ballast glue is a challenge at best.  The more powdery soils and small gauge products even more so.  The problem comes with application of the adhesive, … Continue reading

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Why do layouts fail?

Good words from Lance Mindheim: When I work with a design client, one question I always ask is why previous layouts didn’t get off the ground and gain critical mass.  After almost fifteen years the answers haven’t changed.  The three … Continue reading

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What would you change?

Mike Cougil contributes another thought provoking post.  He starts with…. If you had a blank slate to begin again in the craft, would you change anything? Would you switch scales, stick with the same theme, explore a different one or, do … Continue reading

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