Warehouse Wednesday: Bristol dockside

Years ago, I found myself on a course for work which entailed stopping over in Bristol. My hotel wasn't far from the historic docks so obviously, I took a stroll in the evening and shot a few frames of film. 

Even though the docks are now a museum, the basic buildings haven't changed and are as square, and therefore modelable, as ever. The modular design would make them very adaptable for any size of layout. 

Add to this some embedded trackwork looking fabulous after the rain, and this would make a cracking scene in miniature once backdated about 50 years.

Whitemetal castings on

Finally, the good bit. Half an hour spent with superglue sticking the whitemetal castings in place. Suddenly the loco takes a great, big step forward.

Apart from a tiny bit of cleaning up, the castings went on as supplied. I've drilled the centre of the air vent so I can pin it down with a length of plastic rod that goes through the top of the bonnet.Either that, or I'm sure I'd have knocked it off in the future.

The exhaust looked a bit unsupported but a length of wire added another support.

The radiator is filled with Albion Alloys mesh cut to size with scissors. Since the bonnet is off-centre, it looks a bit odd, but in a properly narrow gauge way.

Next up, a quick wash and then primer.

Time for the big guns?

The biggest surprise last week in model railway land was the announcement of the "Boche Buster" rail mounted gun from Oxford Rail. I was the the London Toy Fair and managed to handle the 3D printed sample - it's a beast of a model that is going to be very popular with anyone who appreciates something different to run on their layout. At £50 a go, that will be a huge number of people I suspect.

(As an aside, the catalogue number OR76BOOM01 is brilliant. Top marks for whoever came up with that one) 

Sadly, the gun is non-operational so there's no point in stocking up with ammunition with name of your nemesis on popular web forums inscribed on the outside.

For operational model warfair, you'll need to track down a Triang R216 Tactical Rocket launcher. Launched (geddit?) in 1957. Available with several different colour rockets and launch devices, it's a proper collectible, but available for surprisingly small amounts of money. This one only cost me a fiver a few weeks ago from Footplate Models in Kidderminster. 

The rocket sails several feet when fired. I suspect that the spring has weakened over time and when new it would be a pretty potent weapon against your kid sister or other enemies. 

I'm not one for war toys at all, but I can't help liking this brightly coloured accessory. Perhaps back in those days, people didn't take the hobby so seriously? Perhaps the "Boche Buster" will show that many still don't, they just want to have fun. 

(There is an excellent article on the rocket launcher by Robert Forsythe here.)

London Model Engineering Exhibition 2018

My annual practise run, driving to Alexandra Palace. I'm going to have to do it in a couple of months and on a Friday, so it's good to have a go in the somewhat lighter traffic found on Sunday morning nice and early. So early that we got in the car park by 9 - right on top of the hill.

Inside the show, it was the usual eclectic mix of disciplines from plastic kits and Lego to great big lumps of metal. Quite how you summon up the courage to start work on a 7 1/4 "Big Boy" that will be 17 feet long is a mystery, but I'm sure it's going to look great when it's done, at least judging from the parts on show anyway.

I think my favourite loco was this little Lister. I could just imagine pottering around a miniature line on it. And there is a Lister D awaiting restoration under the workbench in the garage. But no...

Obviously, I spent quite a lot of time ogling the G, G1 and 16mm layouts. They are always very popular - that combination of movement and live steam always draws a crowd.

With my Dad in tow, we also spotted one of his "maturing" projects, an Ochre tram kit. You don't see many of these built up, but this one looked lovely and has inspired him to take another look at the Portuguese tram kit he was building before moving on to the LCC car.

Following their appearance in EiM, it was great to catch up with the Steam Apprentice Club and take a look at their fantastic Burrell as seen on the front cover of the magazine. Lovely friendly group - if you are under 21 and fancy getting involved, they will welcome you with open arms.

This wasn't an expensive show though. I picked up some steam oil and an gas tank filler from Polly Model Engineering but apart from lunch (£10ish a head inc. drinks), my wallet survived the trip largely unscathed. That might have been me remembering that I haven't even started the "quick to build" kit I came back with last year though...

More photos over on Flickr. 

Saturday Film Club: Tiny Wimborne

I'm not sure what I like most about this weeks film. Is it the wonderful commentary? 

The archive (now, not then) shots of the full-size Wimborne? 

That more than 350 photographs taken to ensure complete accuracy (this was the days of film remember, we do that in a weekend now) 

or that after a quick bit of web searching, it turns out that Wimborne Model Town still exists.

Book Review: A Little Saw by Andy Clark

Publisher: Andy Clark

ISBN: 978-1976814907

A5 softback

63 Pages

£3.99

Andy Clark runs the popular Workshop Shed blog. This first foray into print publishing is a spin off from his tales of making things on-line and part of the effort to encourage more people to have a go at making things with their hands.

Saws are one of those tools we all use, but frequently don't understand. Why is there such a bewildering array on say at our local DIY shed? Why do we need more than one? Don't they all do the same job?

They don't, and in this book, Andy explains the difference between 10 different saws and the jobs they are best suited for.

I learned a little about teeth, especially those for garden saws, but then the book isn't really aimed at me. It's perfect for anyone looking to do more woodwork but struggling a little. Both young and old will appreciate the larger than normal text and diagrams for each tool.

OK, at 63 pages, it's not going to take you long to read through but then that's not the point. We're not talking about an academic tombe, it's a handy guide to be kept on the shelf for when you are faced with a task requiring a saw. At this point, Andy takes you by the hand and points you in the right direction.

Buy A Little Saw from Amazon

Cab detail

The very open cab of "Dotti" caused me much head scratching. As supplied, you get a bench seat and a big wheel. It looks like a steering wheel, but when I posted a question on Facebook asking what should be in the cab, I got this very helpful reply:

Try looking up some of the German manufacturers like O&K and Jung, they tended to have a wheel controlling both clutch and direction and a single lever for the brake. There was usually a small lever for the throttle somewhere on the bulkhead

I was also sent a link to this website where I spent far too much modelling time looking at little diesels.

Anyway, a lever appears to hang on the back of the gearbox on a lot of locos. Nothing to be seen here, so something carved from plastic appearing to poke through from under the seat. 

Talking of seats, I felt my driver needed something more than a bench to sit on so fabricated something very basic from more plastic.  Finally, I spotted that locos driven sidesaddle sometimes had a strip under the drivers feet, presumably to give him something to brace against to avoid sliding out of the seat on curves.

Warehouse Wednesday: Holt station sign

From the North Norfolk Railway, a rather nice station sign. If we have stations, we need signs and this is fairly easy one to model. 

Those square posts are a lot easier to deal with then the GWR round version. The whole job could be done in plastic strip. How much detail you go to on the fancy bits would depend on your eyesight, dedication, and scale. I'd probably cheat a little in 4mm but we're only talking layers of microstrip, and this is one of those details the eye of any viewer will settle on.

Brass prop miss-take

A little more on-water action for Miss-Cheif but with a slight difference, I'd managed to buy a brass 2-blade propeller for her. 

Conventional wisdom is the brass props are better than plastic ones. They certainly look nice, but as soon as the boat was on the water, I knew I'd made a mistake. She still moved, but had lost at least a quarter of her top speed. 

The brass prop may be pretty, but the shape of the plastic one shifts more water and that's what matters. Fortunately, I'd taken both and swapping is a matter of only a minutes work. After that, we were off again.

I still think there is room for tuning, but sailed at top speed for well over 15 minutes and enjoyed myself so no complaints. 

Another addition is a set of advertising stickers. I know these boats wouldn't be thick with logos, but a BP shield (I've always thought it funny to use this as they are my Dad's initials) and Champion spark plugs on the side. 

They just add a bit of life to the cockpit, and while it may not be fast, this boat is pretty. 

Miss-chief at speed

Adding a propeller makes a huge different to my little speedboat!

Miss-chief still isn't the fastest model on the water, but she works well enough for me and is a really enjoyable sail. Even in cross-winds, the top seems to stay put and no water found its way inside. 

I'm not completely finished though. The rudder is the wrong shade of red, a brass prop has been bought to replace the plastic one, and I have some vintage design advertising logos for extra decoration. 

Watch this space.

Chiltern Model Railway show 2018

Didn't this use to be St Albans show?

Yes, it did, but then they made the move to Stevenage to a leisure centre and theatre complex. Result - instead of the horribly cramped and difficult to navigate accommodation of past years, this time we have two large, rectangular halls.

The organisers have taken the advantage of this to fill them with lots of high-quality layouts, several of which would have been too large for the old place.

Getting in a bit odd as the ticket booth is upstairs and show on the ground floor. The last vestiges of the panto were evident with Dick Whittington themed cafe names still pinned up as the show finishes its run.

Sorry to report that this was another show with a lot of chatting which I know doesn't make for an exciting report. I did take a few photos and the excellent lighting means most of them came out OK.

Highlights had to be listening to the Gauge 3 models run. Not the sound units in the electric locos, but the rumble of heavy rolling stock over track joints - absolutely perfect. You can try in smaller scales, but never really achieve that deep thunk so redolent of old train journeys. I don't miss it on a modern train, but there is something very reassuring about the sound on a slow service.

The show attracts layouts from abroad, including this slightly mad, but apparently prototypical one with a working cableway. Not only working, but very well modelled too. It's easy to do this as a gimmick, but much harder to do a quality job.

If there has to be a "layout I'd like to built", it's going to be Sutton Wharf. I love the large scale and the atmospheric colouring and building finishes. Over the years, I've come to appreciate narrow gauge oddities and one day will build something along these lines myself I hope.

One change to show reports for a while will be the lack of cake reviews I'm afraid. A new leaf has been turned over with some healthy eating on the agenda and for the moment that means I don't get cake. I can report the tea was lovely and the chicken in a basket perfectly fine. Not pricey either. To ben honest, the cake slooked nice, but small, so I didn't miss them too much...

More photos on Flickr.

Saturday Film Club: Savannahlander

The Savannahlander is an Australian tourist train that takes its passengers out into the bush. Rolling stock is fantastic looking 1960s railcars with more than a hint of Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon about them.

Because this is for tourists, there has a be a safety briefing and it's entertainingly Australian, especially right at the end...

Obviously you can't see much of the train in the safety video, so here's it running.

Britfix balsa glue

Brought in with an old wooden boat kit recently, this tube of glue takes me right back to my first modelling days.

I can't remember how old I was, possibly 5 or 6, when my Dad presented me with a carrier bag full of balsa wood offcuts, a knife and some glue. Britfix glue to be precise. For that bag of bits, an entire modelling career was born.

This glue is still in mint condition. I've not opened the tube, but it's still squishy so I bet it would work.

How many others remember this range? As I recall, there was also a plastic cement with a yellow ended tube, but I can't be sure. When did Britfix disappear?

February Garden Rail and EiM

Garden Rail is looking back tot he snowy weather just before Christmas to see how those whose layouts are affected by great big dollops of the white stuff deal with it.

Being a magazine covering a wide range of scale and gauges can be challenging. How small is too small? Martin R Wicks explains to readers how the O gauge world has changed - and I had great fun categorising this as "Smaller scales" - which to most of the readership it is. What a different world from BRM where many people aspire to O but don't have space!

There's plenty of building too including Si Harris showing how to make plastic sheet look like wood. It's one of those cross-scale techniques that I'm keen to include. After all, there needs to be something for everyone and there is a lot to appreciate in every branch of the garden hobby.

Engineering in Miniature is all about bringing new blood into the hobby. People are always moaning that the hobby is full of old folks - although to be fair, this recently happened as the person saying it swung an arm pointing at a room about half full of families with kids, so I guess sometimes it's what you want to believe.

Anyway, the National Traction Engine Club founded The Steam Apprentice Club years ago to help solve this problem and we report on their latest project - a 4in traction engine.

Solomon Johnson, Northern Association of Model Engineers Junior Engineer of the year 2016 writes the young engineers column and Dave Rowe, a name many railway modellers will remember from the 1970s and 80s, shows us how to build a simple automata to plant the seed of "making" into the grandchildren.

Talking of new blood, this also sees my last issue of EiM. 6 months of editing both magazines at the same time has been more than a challenge so I'm handing over the chair to Andrew Charman. No rest for me though, I've several new BRM projects on the horizon, more on these later in the year.

Warehouse Wednesday: Brick and stone

Mystery building time. All I know about this is that I took the photo while on the Ecclesbourne Railway.

The design also seems a bit of a mystery. Why brick AND stone? Was the original building stone and the brick is a development? Surely that would be almost as expensive as knocking it down and starting again? It's certainly a very neat join.

That said, the results are very attractive and this would make a nice model. Perhaps a prototype for that day when you run out of brick or stone Plastikard and the shops are shut, but you have some spare sheets of another finish...

Bonnet detailing

Fun time - the body goes together well enough so I get to move on to the detailing stage. Plastic rivets are supplied - these being Cambrian Models. Spotted in place using Revell Contacta glue, followed by a generous wash of liquid solvent, they work very well. I decided that the long panels deserved 6 rather than 4 lumps, it looks better even if the maintenance crews need to do more spannering.

No handles are supplied but a length of 2mm diameter brass wire was pulled out, bent and cut to length. Forced into pre-drilled holes, I had to use more solvent to fix as I was working at the model railway club and forgot to take any superglue. It seems to have worked.

The "cab" is more generous than I expected for the driver. I need to do some research to see what controls are required.

Getting the right angles

I've probably mentioned these before, but some of the most useful tools I own are these cast iron angles bought from Squires tools.

Assembling the Dotti kit body parts, it's important to keep them at right angles and using these lumps of metal as supports holds things in place as well as keeping in the right place. An added refinement would be to use some magnets to hold the plastic against the angle, but the speed the glue dries, this isn't really necessary.

Incidentally, for joining these parts, I'm using Precision Paints Superweld, partly because it was handy on the shelf but also 'cos it works really well. I like the sped at which a model can go together this way.

Scoutrail 2018

The first show of the year within sensible driving distance for me is Scoutrail at Kidlington. I've exhibited there many years ago and used to be a regular visitor. Circumstances have prevented me visiting for a few years but I've made up for that this year.

Over time, the show has morphed into a large scale event with relatively few smaller scale layouts. That's good news for me with my new hat on and I certainly enjoyed looking at some live steam locos trundling around. This Regner vertical boiler model particularly caught my attention as it ran exceptionally well and looked great.

Going small, how about a layout in a coffee table? I've not seen one of these for a while and as long as you love N gauge, it just shows how much action can be delivered in a small space and one that could find a home in your living room at that!

In 4mm scale, urban MPD, Byway, caught my eye. A small layout with excellent colouring and enough detail to fill the scene but not so much it looked cluttered.

My favourite was Frampton on Severn, making its exhibition debut. Proper OO with Peco track, the modelling is lovely and it's very much the sort of thing that many modellers could aspire to. The sort of model I like as if you are new to the hobby but aspire to higher standards, it's within your reach.

My point is that OO doesn't have to mean ready to plonk buildings - you can do lots of work yourself with kits and scratch building to make your model very much your own.

More photos on Flickr.

Saturday Film Club: Triang TV adverts

It's been a week of product announcements from the big two UK model railway manufacturers and as usual, social media is full of people frothing with excitement and those bemoaning there not being anything for them. 

Time for a quick look back to the days when a train set was available for a fiver and Minic Motorway was a thing.

Palitoy S Gauge coaches

S scale has always fascinated me. A couple of years ago, I had the chance to build a wagon kit in the scale for a magazine series and this involved me carrying out a little research. 

The SSMRS history web page threw up something I hadn't know - in 1951, Palitoy sold an RTR train set. That's the same Palitoy I always associate with Action Man or Star Wars figures. 

The set consisted of a GWR Prarie, a couple of coaches and circuit of track. It was crude but at least it existed. Sadly, the set wasn't a success and it quickly vanished, to be the preserve of collectors of weird model railway stuff. 

People like me. 

I've been keeping an eye out for a set on eBay for a while but they are rare. Imagine my surprise then, when perusing the cabinets at Hereford Model Centre, I spot a couple of the coaches for £3 each. 

 They are horribly crude. Some sharp-eyed people will spot the lack of bogies under the body. Each coach is 182mm long and 45mm wide so a way off scale - they look seriously dumpy.

No matter, these are a genuine curiosity. One day I'll track down a loco to go with them. 

Building a childs wooden multiplay playhouse

Recently, I offered to help assembled a TP Wooden Multiplay Playhouse for a friend's 4 year old daughter. Being told that it was a wooden garden toy that came in pieces, I couldn't resist the chance to get involved.

Before getting started, I asked for the details I could pack a suitable toolkit. This photo duly followed:

Not too bad. I added some glue and sandpaper to the box. Looking at the reviews, these seemed positive with the fastest build time being 3 hours. This mattered as we planned to start at 2pm and the daylight deserts us around 5pm. My favourite was the "we got a box of sticks and had to pay someone to build it for us!!!" one - what exactly did they expect?

To help me, I enjoyed the assistance (or maybe I was the assistant) of the recipients grandfather, an engineer who enjoys some seriously high-quality woodwork. He also arrived with a more generous toolkit than the instructions suggested. We've both been caught out before...

Construction started well. The basic platform went togehter easily enough. There are a few things to pay attention too - the floor isn't in the middle of the uprights so you need to make sure you have everything the correct way up.

Most of the holes are drilled which is a massive help, but the screws are sometimes long - up to 16cm in several cases and my Bosch cordless screwdriver wasn't quite up to the job. Fortuantly, John's version was rather more powerful, saving loads of time, even if it didn't allow him to use his collection of Yankee screwdrivers very much.

We made a couple of mistakes along the way - the floor planks have cut-outs for the corners and so these were pushed well in leaving a lip along the edge over the main beams. This is wrong and we had to undo a little work to shove the planks over. Not a biggie.

We also (OK, I also) got a bit confused attaching the outside plank walls and managed to build one 90 degrees from where it should be. As it happens, this only required the removal of one long plank and it's replacement with a short one.

I enjoyed the build. It went together well, but you have to pay attention as you go. John insisted on being properly precise, marking wood with both pencil and square so we lined things up properly.

Build time was 2.5 hours - a world record but we don't want to boast about it. To be fair, the 2 cups of tea and 1 of diet coke were drunk as we worked so no breaks for us.

One modification we made was to fill in a hole in the side with a bit of spare plank (you can chose where the slide exists and have to shorten a plank to do this, leaving a bit of spare wood). It's not high and any landing would be on grass, but it's better to keep small children inside.

The big mystery is, why did we need spanners? There were no nuts and bolts in the pack and no indication any optional parts that would use them. (Update: The same tool list is in the swing set instructions as well and this DOES use bolts - presumably it is a standard graphic used for each set of instructions.)

If you are contemplating a build like this, get a massive cross-head screwdriver and a really powerful screwdriver. Ideally, you need 3mm drill bits about 6 inches long but we managed with normal ones - just.

The kit is well designed and all the parts numbered with little stickers that you can see on the finished building. Some de-stickering work there for Mum I think.I'm told the little one is thoroughly enjoying it though, so that counts as success.

Warehouse Wednesday: Slingfield Mill

If you go down to the Severn Valley Railway today, prepare for a big surprise. At least if you follow the rest of the family into town for a bit of "normal" retail therapy.

Head to "Weavers Wharf" and you will find Slingfield Mill, a restored and converted industrial building now pressed into service as a hotel and department store by Cundall (there is more on their website)

It's a stunning building. Imposing, but with lots of interesting and attractive detailing. The black and yellow brick decoration is very unusual and must have been quite a thing to push through at the design stage.

Obviously the site has changed enormously over the years as you can see from this aerial photo from the Britain From the Air website. 

Those gas-holders are now a car park and modern shopping centre. Quite a few of the canal side buildings survive though if you need an industrial hit while drinking your mocachocapachino and contemplating adding to the designer wear in your wardrobe...

Dotti chassis

Nothing much changes. Many years ago, I'd look at Saltford Models kits with chassis made of a simple U-shaped channel fitted with a cheapo motor and gears. The biggest change now is that the wheels are turned steel rather than whitemetal, and the modeller has to stick 3 pre-cut bits of plastic together to make the channel.

The point is, it works.

Although the model can be built to 32mm or 45mm gauges, I've gone for the former as I'd like to run this at the 16mm Assoc. steaming sessions. It also seems more like a 32mm loco than the wider 45. Building it in both gauges would be interesting...

Brass bearings are pressed into the pre-made holes using a vice first and then parts are glued together with an ABS solvent. A spray of Halfords matt black was left to dry overnight before all the parts were fitted.

I deveated from the instructions in a couple of places.

First, there are very think plastic spacers behind the wheels to stop them rubbing in the chassis sides and wearing the paint away. B to B is 1mm wider then it should be but only half of that is down to the spacers. I can't see this being a big problem, this isn't P4!

Second, the switches are bolted in place rather than glued. Since holes are provided for this, I assume it's to avoid the cost (money and time) of providing the tiny bolts. I feel this is a more engineering solution and anyway, I'd probably get glue in the switches.

Up and running in a couple of hours, there really isn't anything to worry about with this sort of wonderfully crude engineering. That's what I love about this end of the hobby, anyone can have a go. 

First, some very thin plasticard washers

Dotti kit

Time to build something new for the garden. This IP Engineering "Dotti" 0-4-0 kit has been kicking around for months in my "pending" pile. It's a discontinued model that I bought for bargain price so I can't really do a magazine build on it, but that's good news for blog readers.

Unlike most of the IP range, the kit parts are cut from plastic sheet rather than wood. Whitemetal details are included plus bolt heads from Cambrian. Motor, wheels and gears are also in the pack. The model will be battery powered using a couple of AAA cells. Control isn't sophisticated - on/off and forward/reverse initially but in the future I'd like to have a look at this.

At present, this kit is still available from the Vale of Rheidol eBay shop.

Steaming Saturday

One of my tasks for 2018 is to get out and about visiting lots of garden railways. Late December isn't ideal for this, but luckily enough there was a 16mm Association group having a Saturday steaming session one afternoon on an indoor layout.

Turning up at the barn, the welcome was warm - both from the wood burner in the corner and members present. We enjoyed a couple of hours watching small locos chuff around the portable layout set up for the session.

I'm keen to go back again, but feel a bit out of place without a live steam loco of my own. Another objective this year is to fill this gap in my stock list. I've felt that I could do with a "pet" loco that starts of very basic and gradually is worked on to personalise it.

For the moment, battery electrics are allowed on the track between steam runs, so that's what I'll start with.

Saturday Film Club: Robot track laying

There's a shorter and more complete version here:

all of which is reminicant of the greatest train chase ever filmed.

Partwork Season: Classic Dinky Toys Collection

To be honest, I wasn't going to mention the new DeAgostini Classic Dinky Toys Collection partwork. I'd seen the attractive, in a vintage way, car and magazine combo on the newsagents shelves a few times. The £2.99 price tag had tempted me slightly but really, I wasn't going to buy the rest, TR2's aren't my bag (TR7 - yes please) and anyway, I don't need more "stuff". 

Then I read the thread over on RMweb covering the topic. There are of course suggestions that these are "fakes" and will upset collectors. 

But then there is this post from andyman7:

The Atlas/DAgostini models have been in production now for around 4 years and due to their relatively high quality and the fact that they are properly licensed and authorised they have actually held their value well - indeed many of the regular price releases are freely sold at quite a bit above their issue price. They are reproductions rather than fakes and certainly in relation to some of the rarer Dinky and French Dinky models where pristine originals command hundreds of pounds they have filled a gap.

He goes on to say he's sold spare or unwanted models from previous series for a profit on eBay. 

andyman7 isn't wrong. The model is well made, the finish is probably better than the Dinky original. On the base, it's clearly marked as a reproduction. You can't claim this is a fake - it isn't pretending to be original. 

A quick look on eBay shows many of these partwork models clearly marked as such - and on offer for many times the £2.99 price of the first issue. Later issues will be £11.99 (Issue 2 £7.99) which seems pricey for a toy car but presumably the later ones will be much rarer. 

An original Dinky TR2 can easily cost £50+, so if you want a collection without effort or significant cost, this is probably the way to do it.

Sadly, I find myself looking at the "Kodak" Bedford 10cwt van with issue 2 and thinking, "That looks nice" and issue 4 is a Beetle... 

If nothing else, this is a cheap way to get yourself a model to practise your painting on.

Didsbury Green continues in BRM and I go to Pendon

2018 hadn't quite arrived when the subscription copies of BRM landed on the doorstep. The bank holiday will allow readers to check out progress on my new micro layout "Didsbury Green".

Wiring up is this months job. I've built a control panel too, and being an unusual layout, it's not the standard box hanging on the back, but a built-in unit that provides somewhere to put the switches and a useful view-blocker for the entrance from the fiddle yard.

I've also taken a look at lighting with LEDs, perfect for a tiny model but requiring a bit of experimentation.

Over in the review corner, I take a look at Bachmann's new range of 009 wagons.

Finally, your DVD see's me going all Portillo with a trip to Pendon.

Andy York and I spent the day looking behind the scenes and chatting with the people responsible for the world-famous model.We even manage to end up in the pub!

As an aside, I do have to laugh at the keyboard warriors responding to suggestions that Pendon is the worlds best model railway with "WHEN WAS THAT VOTE HELD????".

Anyway, loads of good stuff in the February issue of BRM.