Plastic tram, made in Hong Kong

He's a blast from the past, a plastic tramcar, Made in Hong Kong. 

Other than the code number L No.547, and the title "A Double Decker Tramcar", there's no indication of the manufacturer. When I was a kid (cue the Hovis advert music), Made in Hong Kong meant cheap tat, and to be fair, this isn't a quality toy, but it looks lovely. 

Costing 3/6 when new (is that lot?) I'm thinking this is a 1960s toy, but that's a guess. Even the internet can't help much, other than show me lots of other toy trams. 6 inches long, it's a nice size for play, and there is quite a bit of detail. 

Drive comes from a flywheel unit underneath. This had come loose when I bought the tram, so it's been refixed with lashings of superglue, giving me a white shadow around it. This required me to open the model up by sliding a blade around the bottom edge of the roof. The glue joint broke pretty cleanly, and once the model had been washed to remove all the dust, it's gone back together really well.

Thursday steam

 

As the evenings become longer, there's the chance for some steaming before the model railway club tea is served up. 

My Roundhouse Lady Anne hasn't seen much track action since it was rebuilt by Black Country Metal Basher, John Campbell, so I thought it was time for a little run. Admittedly, the last attempt was curtailed because the roof-mounted battery box was playing up, and I've not got around to replacing it, but as all seemed to be working, I decided to take the risk. 

On track, filling the gas tank was still a bit of a faff, no matter which can adaptor I use, I'm never happy with the process. I can't work out sometimes when the gas is going in, standing there like a numpty with apparently nothing happening. Eventually, it squirted back out, so I assume the tank is full. 

Lighting up with my new pizo-electric lighter was a different kettle of fish. No problem at all, the spark being nice and visible, quickly causing a pop noise and the sound of a working burner. 

After a few minutes, although the gauge was only showing 10psi, the loco seemed to want to move, so I shoved it back and forth - a veritable fountain emerging from the chimney as we moved, despite me extracting over 20ml from the boiler after the fill. This soon stopped, and the loco wanted to be off, so I hitched up the goods train, and she trundled away. 

Once warmed up a little, the loco was happy to run in full forward, with the regulator half-closed. Basically, keeping my fingers off the radio sticks, and letting it go. If I wanted more speed, there was plenty of it, this is a lively loco when you want it to be!

After ten or so circuits, I felt the speed was falling off, and since I'm lazy, pulled up in the steaming area to save wandering around the line to retrieve a day loco. 

Not a spectacular run, but a good, solid one. The sort of confidence-building session that makes me keener to do more. The evening sun made the bodywork glisten, and reminded me, I really should buy a safety valve cover. Something to polish like a proper steam engine owner. 

 

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!