Garden Rail June

We have the technology – or at least Uwe Richter does. His German garden line may have started as a clever way to use up spare paving stones, but it can now run autonomously, or be handed over to younger modellers for hands-on fun the whole family can enjoy.

Overlooking the Isle of Man, we visit the Little Angel line through a series of postcard-style views charting its development. Staying with the Manx theme, Dave Pinniger builds his first steam locomotive kit – a “Caledonia” lookalike.

On the workbench:
• DHR Class One locomotive
• Budget-busting radio control
• How to paint a FR Fairlie
• Slate waste wagons
• 3D scanning for club members
• A springtime scene
• Designing a layout for the BBC Gardeners’ World show

Plus all the latest products for modellers working in the larger scales.

Garden Rail is available from all good newsagents, or online: https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/

Strong repairs

 

Ahead of the show, the Garden Rail van needed a wheel fixing back on. The 3D printed parts are a bit brittle, and tiny joint between wheel and "axle" had snapped. 

Simply glueing the wheel back on wouldn't have worked, ot at least not for very long, so I drilled the support out for a 1.5mm diameter plastic rod. This is fitted into the hole with superglue, and quickly becomes solid. 

The rod is cut short, and a hole is drilled in the back of the wheel. This hole is slightly larger than the rod, but lashings of glue ensured a nice, tidy result. Best of all, it survived the show intact!

I used the same technique for a somewhat different repair too. 

Lady Liberty made it all the way back from New York, sans hand and torch. Fortunately, they were found and handed over with instructions that I was to fix the statue before eating the M&M's in the box.

More plastic rod and superglue quickly sorted out this souvenir - and the chocolates were delicious.  
 

NGRS haul

With such a busy show, I didn't have a lot of time for shopping, and a few of the things I fancied, had sold out by the time I got around to them!

Browsing the ModelTown stand, and influenced by past articles in Garden Rail, by Mark Thatcher, I picked up a bargain Bond microcar, and a pedal car. These will be a bit of fun, and the sort of model that I can use on the Layout in a Day, as well as other places. I've also sat in one of the Bond cars years ago on the Isle of Man, which makes it even more appealing. 

The other impulse buy is a business card display from Porterhouse Models. A 3D printed loco, with slot for your card.  Fun, and not expensive. 

Apart from that, there are a lot of boxes containing kits for review, so I better start digging into those! 

NGRS 2026

 

You won't be surprised when I say this was a busy one. Since Warners are looking after the trade now, I was able to get in early on the Friday, but ironically, other than setting up my tables, I couldn't take advantage of this to get cracking with the "Layout in a Day" build. 

The plan this year was that Andy, from Amazing Little Trains, would be supplying the 45mm gauge track, to demonstrate the DCC system he imports. And Andy wasn't due until the official get-in time of 2pm. 

Still, once he arrived, we got stuck into laying track and quickly had a working layout. In total, three hours build time saw a fully working garden railway, with loops and sidings, created. I'd also laid an oval of 32mm gauge track (I'll blog about this later) to keep what the Association calls "The True Gauge" visible. 

When the day dawned, it was pleasing that the number of pre-booked tickets, was within 100 of the TOTAL attendance the previous year. By the end of the day, over 1500 visitors had been through, a 25% increase. 

I'd recruited Amy and Ben Bucki to run the layout so I could wander around properly. This they did to great effect, with Andy joining in too. Lots of people, young and old, ran trains using the fancy DCC phone-control system, and they had a great time doing it. Our sounds competed with the Marble Express at the other end of the stand, especially the diesel that made ice cream van noises!

I didn't get to wander as much as might have liked, there being far too much chatting to do. Apologies if you couldn't get to me, perhaps I need to have a full-sized Little Phil made to help!

What I saw, was a very busy show with some fantastic models on display. Everything from a £45 loco kit (PS Models sold out of those) to £5000+ steam locomotives. People were buying too, with a few stands stripped of items. All good news for the hobby. 

I was very happy, and not a little relieved as I always am. The layout looked great, and proved that you don't need a huge amount of space to build a garden railway. For the first time, thanks to Andy, we put on a proper garden line, not just a couple of circuits of track. Anyone could enjoy operating it as the plan offered plenty of play value. 

So, another good year. All being well, we'll do it all again. I hope so, as I've recorded a load of video for next year's promotional efforts. Well, the marketing team have their work cut out beating this years attendance figures!

 

Saturday Film Club: Rustival 4 2026 - the world's friendliest car show full of classics, rare cars and more!

I'll be honest, if I'd not been heading to SWAG a couple of weeks ago, my car would have been pointed down the road to Rustival. A lovely, friendly car show, with all sorts of weird and wonderful vehicles displayed, including quite a lot that I remember being on the road normally!