Goods shed and 009 Stock in Hornby Magazine

Christmas plays havoc with magazine schedules. I received a call about the February issue of Hornby mag well before Christmas so I could have the latest Parker's Guide submitted in plenty of time to make it into print.

This article is a conversion of the Wills Goods Office to add a side office and replace the flimsy looking (to me) wooden supports with something much more solid from brick. Kitbashing like this used to be very fashionable but with the advent of all those lovely resin buildings has fallen off many people's radars in recent years.



This is sad because it's a great way to make your layout your layout rather than just a collection of bits that you bought and plonked into place. I'm not saying that buying stuff is bad, far from it, but you miss out so much if you don't get your hands dirty and fiddle with them. Wills kits are especially good for this as you can buy materials to match the kit bits so with a little care, it should be impossible to see where the kit ends and the scratchbuild begins.

My other main contribution is part 3 of the Handyman Hall Railway series. With the layout finished, I move on to building a bit of stock for it. At this point I have to say a big thank you to Michael Campbell who sent me some couplings to play around with as I wasn't sure what was the "done thing" in the narrow gauge world.

The coach and guards van I built worked very nicely but in print there is a minor error. Photo 7 is captioned "The side handrails are lengths of plastic rod glued to pips on the side of the body. Fix these in place with plastic glue, let them dry and then trim to their final length." The designer obviously say a mention of the balconies and focused on this rather than the side handrails. A shame because the balcony isn't interesting whereas the grab rails are a bit nifty. Hopefully this photo will make up for it.

Finally, I've contributed to The Clinic special on wheel and track cleaning. I know this is an area that interests a lot of people. Judging by the number of times that people ask how we get locos to run so well when appearing at shows anyway. Read the wise words and with a bit of luck, your trains will work as well as mine.