I luv playing trains

Questions.

Who makes a teddy bear out of MDF? 

Who buys it at a show while exhibiting his layout?

Who thinks it really needs of of our badges?

Who feels that a miniature Antex soldering iron would be the perfect addition?

I don't know the answer to the first of these, but this bear has done many miles in our exhibition box over the years. Let's hope that one day he can go to the show again.

App controlled Hong Kong tram

Since visiting Hong Kong year ago, I've been interested in their trams and every so often a model pops up.

This one, with rockin' soundtrack, is one of those "rip-off Lego" sets. Online, the price is around £128 plus taxes and shipping. Not bad for a big model with mobile phone control. But far too large for me to display at home - I keep telling myself!

World of Railways Virtual Exhibition

We can't go to "real" shows at the moment, so the BRM team has put together a virtual event instead.

Trying to work out what this should look like has been a bit of a challenge. Obviously we wanted to make it different from the Facebook and Twitter events. It was also important to follow the form of a real show where possible.

What we've come up with, after a massive amount of work, starts with layouts - just like at a normal show. We've got photos and have amassed plenty of video too.

The exciting thing though is all the extras. Every 15 minutes through the weekend, there will be another event - competitions, interviews, new product announcements, demonstrations. You could spend the entire time glued to the screen with over 10 hours of footage. Most of this is brand new too - after all, you don't want old product announcements do you?

Much like a digital version of a magazine, we are trying to do things with the digital show you can't do with the real thing, so we take visitors to a garden railway, or layouts that never leave home. We bring together people who live in different countries too.

All this is free for you, the visitor, to enjoy.

The World of Railways Virtual Exhibition will be found here.

Oilbrusher

I'm a bit of a tool junkie and have drawers full of stuff that barely see the light of day.

A couple of years ago, I picked up this Mig "Oilbrusher". It's a touch-up pen for modellers. If you've ever made tiny repairs to car bodywork you'll know the drill - a brush is fitted to the cap and lives dunked in paint. Unscrew-paint-screw. No need for cleaning.

To be honest, this looked useful but mostly lived o the shelf. Building Furness Quay, it came into it's own. Painting around masked off point blades, picking up missed bits of rail, in fact, thanks to the colour (Dark Mud) I suddenly found myself using it for all sorts of jobs.

While I don't' really understand the bright colours - this isn't the tool to use for painting the body colour on anything - a bit of dirt hides a multitude of sins. More importantly, it hides a multitude of bare resin or metal. The paint is quite thick and happy to stick to anything.

A useful addition to the toolbox in my opinion. Yes, I know I could just use a brush and paint, but sometimes, convenience wins.

A quick search finds them for sale here.

Waterborne Wednesday: Falmouth Industry

When I research the boats for this feature, I don't normally head to LinkedIn, but a quick search on this vessel took me to Andrew Baldock, who for 12 years, skippered "Falmouth Industry". According to his profile, the boat was responsible for "delivering fuel and fresh water and collecting waste oil slops around the Falmouth maritime area". Not a glamorous life then, but an essential and useful one.

"Falmouth Industry" (ex-Ulster Industry, and Humber Industry) is a Humber barge, built in 1961, with a gross tonnage of 257t and 420dwt. The vessel’s long history included a period when it traded across the Irish Sea from Liverpool. At some time in its history, the barge was cut in two and extended to install a freshwater tank in the new mid section.

It has now retired, a new fuel station being established on the refurbished Eastern arm of the docks, where a pontoon has been installed and diesel fuel piped from the land supply.

This lovely, colourful boat will presumably be cut up for tin cans, but maybe someone will build a model of it. You don't often see colourful working boats so there is an opportunity here.