2025 - The work projects

Plenty of projects for work again this year. Let's have a quick run-through. 

In the early part of the year, I was finishing off my NG7 layout. This gave me the scope to work on a lot of scenery on the page, and a few larger-scale (in BRM world) little projects, such as a K6 telephone box. 

The following month (with 13 issues a year, the dates get confusing) I'm back to N gauge for a rather nice windmill kit. 

And it's back to 7mm scale for a track cleaning wagon conversion. 

Over on the DVD, I was looking at track cleaning more generally. 

Moving back to the NG7 layout, one of my favourite projects was the station building, kitbashed from the excellent Dapol kit. 

To go with this, I made ferns from a laser-cut card kit. 

We also get some rolling stock from a Peco kit. 

We'll need some people, and I painted them up on the May DVD. 

A nice little standalone project was a duck pond in the June issue. 

There's also a quick build of a platelayers hut kit. 

June marked the start of a quieter period of workbench activity, so my only project was to make a Peco lamp work. 

 July saw a rare TT:120 project - renumbering a locomotive. 

Something a little different, a personal departure board, which I reviewed, and then we gave away as a competition prize.

Moving to August, and I'm making proper finescale track. OK, just a short length, but hopefully, a few people were tempted to more. 

I like cranes, and was pleased to be able to build a simple Coles rail-mounted example in September. 

For BRM TV, I took a look at a Dyna-Drive fitted model. Something that most people would never have heard of!

If you have a suitable scrap wagon, such as the World of Railways exclusive pack from Accurascale, I added a simple load in October. 

November, and I built the classic Peco kit for a horse-drawn dray. I think this one looked fantastic on the page. For an old kit, it's still a good-un. 

 December arrives, and I dabble with some N gauge rolling stock.

 There's also a World of Railways exclusive building. 

 

Bought and built in under four days, for the January issue, we have this nice little shed. 

We finish the year with the February issue, where I'm back to N gauge, and the perfect addition to the top of your bridges. 

I even manage a modest 4mm scene with some Skytrex skips. 

With its increased pagination, Garden Rail also needs me to build a few things. The biggest of which has been a battery-powered steam railmotor from a Timpdon kit. 

There have been several more, but I don't have time to dig back through and work out what I've built. Well, other than the "Layout in a Day" feature at the National Garden Railway Show. 

For the Hornby Collectors Club magazine, I've been working my way through some classic Hornby kits from the 1980s.

It's been very interesting both sourcing these kits, and then building them. Several are still available in slightly different forms too. Me? I just like to show that kits aren't just for collecting, they are for building!

I've also carried out a few TT:120 projects for their house magazine. 

It's an exciting scale, with new products appearing all the time. As I write, I've just submitted my latest, using some new models that appeared this year. Who knows what we will have in 12 months time? 

All this though, has been dominated by the saddest event in my work life. The loss of my friend and colleague, Andy York.  

From a practical point of view, I've had to take over processing all the layout photos for BRM, often a week's work for a single magazine. I'd already been out and about with my camera a lot, but now those duties are mostly mine too. This is why my appearance on the page with practical projects has been limited, although we're trying to build it up again. 

Moderation on RMweb, something I helped out with in a small way, is now mostly my problem. Much of the time it's not too onerous, but every so often things spiral, and no matter what I'm doing, I need to step in. Andy used to spend vast amounts of time herding the railway modelling cats, and there's no way I can match that effort, which sometimes shows. The forum is something people are very passionate about, and I'm keen to maintain Andy's legacy. 

Personally, I've lost my safety valve. Who do I ring up when I need to rant about work, or the hobby? It has to be someone in the firm. That someone used to be Andy. I've not managed to fill that hole yet. I probably never will. 

A long post, and I still haven't mentioned shows attended and many other jobs, but if you are still with me, thanks for buying the mags and keeping me in a job. Don't forget, I'm only on the end of an email if there is anything I can do to help you enjoy your hobby more. And no, I don't mean make toy trains cheaper...