The London Festival of Railway Modelling 2025

Busy shows make for terrible show reports on this blog I'm afraid, and Ally Pally this year was very busy. With our stand being just inside the door, the crowds, and sadly the draughts, found us early, and on Saturday at least, kept me busy all day talking about toy trains. 

The NG7 layout went down really well with loads of interest in all aspects of its design and construction. Maybe it's a London thing, but building a roundy-roundy in a small space seemed to really catch peoples imagination. That, and kids loved watching the train go around and around. 

Sunday, was as you'd expect, a bit quieter, but this simply gave me time to get another layout shoot in, the third of the weekend. I broke my rules about not shooting when a show is open here - but the model in question was in the West hall, and there was plenty of trade to grab the punters before they got to us. 

From what I saw, the layout quality was really high, and appreciated by the audience. I asked our video guy to get some trains moving shots to accompany the various layouts appearances on the page, and he had problems because people were lined up along the barriers all weekend so he struggled to get in!

Anyway, all this means I just have a few random shots for you: 

One highlight was that on the Saturday evening, we'd booked to go and watch ice hockey, or as the Candians call it, hockey, at the rink on the side of Ally Pally. To be honest, it wasn't that exciting, the place lacked atmosphere. But, we had to walk back to the car along the front, and I finally got to enjoy the spectacle of London at night I've only glimpsed in the past. 

The photo doesn't do the scene justice sadly. Maybe I'll get the chance to try again next year. 

Anyway, a busy show with lots of chat. Thanks to those blog readers who came along to say hello. Sorry I didn't know everyone's names. As I type this, I've fallen asleep twice today already, and by the end of Sunday, I'm not even sure I could remember my own!

Saturday Film Club: Pinchcliffe Grand prix (1975)

OK, you are going to have to enjoy this in Danish, but it's well worth it for the visuals. 

According to Jalopnik.com, Norwegian stop motion filmmaker Ivo Caprino took nearly five years to bring his tiny race car vision to life. Sadly, the project ran out of money, but he completed it anyway. What we have here is the big Formula One race at the end of the film - where bicycle repair man Theodore Rimspoke and his sidekicks Lambert (hedgehog) and Sonny (magpie) take on the badie, Gore-Slimey, who stole their engine...

The sequence is rumoured to have inspired the pod racing scene in one of the Star Wars prequels, and there is more than a hint of Steampunk, and Wallace and Gromit in here too. 

Oh, and someone built the car for real:

Some delicate painting, and we are done

 

Finishing he Brandbright wagon took a bit of time, but I'm pleased with the results. 

Inside, there is a coat of Coach and Wagon Works light teak wood stain. I like the colour, and it matches my recenlty built brakevan, but I'm concious that it might not offer much protection from the rain. The firm make some matt varnish for outdoor use, so I'll pick up a bottle in the future. 

Outside, there is sanding sealer, followed by a spray of grey car primer. I masked the inside, and removed the wheels and axleboxes to avoid grey where I didn't want it. 

Then the fiddly bit. All the metalwork was hand painted with Revell No.9 (Anthracite). A large, pointy brush allowed me to do the sides of the metalwork without too much paint in the wrong place. A damp brush was enough to tidy up any mistakes. Mind you, there is best part of a coupe of hours work in all this, over two sessions. 

Job done - and I'm really pleased with this. OK, it's not an exciting piece of rolling stock. It IS nice and solid. Exactly what I want to put behind a steam locomotive in the future. 

Thanks again to those who helped me out of my modelling funk. I can't promise to always be full of joy, but this simple project has helped a lot, and got a box off the shelf!

Ferns, kitbashing and painting people in the May BRM

Is it BRM time already? It is, and in May, I've been busy. 

First, the NG7 layout needed a station. I had a Dapol Chelfam kit in stock, but the finished model will be too large for my layout. What to do? Kitbash it of course, and this gives me the chance to introduce people to this noble art. 

As an aside, this project was the one that helped me get my modelling mojo back. A couple of days hacking away at quality cardboard was just what I needed. No idea why, other than I really enjoyed the task, and am well pleased with the results. 

Moving on to scenery, I try out some laser-cut ferns. The fronds are impossibly thin, but they really look the part. 

New rolling stock in NG7, this time a coach from Peco, which I have reviewed. 

Finally, for BRMTV, I've been painting figures. It's not as difficult as you might think!

Layout photos this month are the OO gauge layout, "Somewhere". 

Small, and industrial, it's very much my kind of model railway. Then we have my first shoot of a TT:120 project, "Camelot".

As always, British Railway Modelling magazine is available from all good newsagents, supermarkets, and online: www.world-of-railways.co.uk

You should have read the instructions

 

A few days ago, I mentioned a spacer that is fitted behind the bufferbeam to set the solebars in place, but the instructions specifically say not to glue in place. I didn't spot this, so by this stage, the offending part is very firmly fixed. 

The reason it shouldn't be there is that the bolt on the back of the coupling isn't long enought to reach through it, and allow a nut to be put on the end. In fact, the end of said bolt is flush with the face of the spacer. And the hole isn't big enough to get the nut in. 

I had a quick poke to see if I could persaude the glue to let go and release the spacer, but nothing doing. I had to make the hole bigger. 

The solution was a screwdriver fitted with a chuck, and 6.5mm diameter drill bit. This was just long enough to let me butcher out the hole so a nut could be fitted in, and the coupling screwed up tight. It's not idea, but it works, and that's all that matters. 

 

Bodgery, but satisfying bodgery.