Phil's lecture

 

Just over a week ago, I gave a talk to the Lutterworth Railway Society. Entitled "The Joys of Model Railway Publishing", I used my "career" writing for model railway, and other magazines as the basis for a look at how publishing for our hobby has changed over the years. 

It's an interesting world. Those early articles were wordy, and light on photos. Tony Wright shot my first layout on a medium-format camera, and took 12 images. Yes, just 12. When I come back from a shoot, I'm looking to have 50+ to choose from, and that's the stacked ones. The process can involve 1500 pictures taken on the day. 

A bigger change has taken place with practical articles though. A picture is worth a thousand words, and they are so much easier to take now. No more waiting nervously for the photos to be processed, knowing that it wouldn't be possible to reshoot them. Reproduction is better now, so we show people what to do, instead of just telling them. 

There are also articles I no longer need to write. Cutting up diecast lorries because there wasn't much choice available? No point in that now, at least in 4mm scale. 

We also look at how model railways got me work looking after websites, and how the web has changed publishing to. Even this blog makes an appearance. 

The good news is that no one fell asleep. Some enthusiastic applause finished the evening - and I remembered to listen to this, something I used to be hopeless at when giving conference presentations years ago. Allow yourself a few seconds to bask in the adulation rather than running off the stage. 

I enjoyed it. Public speaking doesn't scare me, quite the opposite, so I'm going to see if I can do this again. A couple of contacts have been supplied to me, but if your group fancies an hour + Q&A (my favourite bit) of my waffle, hit the Ask Phil button on the right-hand side of this page, and we'll have a chat.  

Saturday Film Club: The Down Bristol Line, as seen from the Driver's Cab at Pendon

People are always coming up to me and suggesting that it would be fun to put a camera in the front of a model train.

Well, this video from Pendon shows why I disagree.  

The problem with most model railway layouts, is that they are designed to be viewed from the front. What the camera sees is lots of scenery on one side of the track, and a giant (relative to the scenery) room on the other.

For me, this doesn't work. When I photograph a layout, I'm happy with this First Person View, but that's because I can remove the room, and replace it with sky, so the illusion is maintained. While this is possible with video, it's a lot of hard work. 

This makes me suggest, that if it doesn't work on one of the greatest models in the world, what chance do the rest of us have?  

Carrying road vehicles

 

Visiting a wargaming store last week, reminded me that I took this photo when Melbridge Dock was on display. It shows how I cart the selection of 4mm scale road vehicles around in a case designed for transporting little figures. 

Essentially, there is a layer of shaped foam top and bottom. When the case closes, the models are gripped by this. I found that this was a little severe; we are talking plastic models, not metal soldiers, but cutting the points off the foam helped. 

My Dad used to enjoy the job of removing vehicles and putting them in the case. He'd let me deal with the locos and rolling stock, but wasn't so worried about these bits. It's sobering to think that when I got them out for display, he was probably the last person to touch them.

Unfortunately, Games Workshop don't sell these cases any more. I bet mine is 30 years old, but I found something from Green Stuff World that looks adaptable.  

All is not well with the sides of the barge

 

It was all going so well. The sides of the barge looked good. I'd even found some waterslide crests to liven up the red areas from a box at Bournville. 

As a finishing touch, I gave them a light coat of matt varnish from my Army Painted rattle can. 

It dried badly. In fact, it dried too early - before hitting the model. Result: a finish that might have been matt, but has the texture of fine sandpaper. I tried to pretend that I could live with it, but after a little while decided to be honest. 

So, the red areas were given a light sanding with a very fine abrasive. I wasn't looking to remove the paint, just smooth the varnish. Amazingly, it worked OK. Not perfect, but good enough. A light brushed coat of matt, another sanding, and I was happy enough to brush (I'm not messing with spray paints for a while) satin acrylic on. 

After that, the layers were assembled, complete with glazing. OK, the results aren't perfect, but as I said at the start, the aim is to finish something, and the search for perfection will be the enemy of that. As it is, sorting this out has taught me something; mistakes often do that! 

Garden Rail - October 2026

 

This issue takes you behind the scenes of one of the most ambitious temporary garden railways ever built, the stunning BBC Gardeners’ World Live display created by Andrew Christie. We tell the story from transforming a car park into a gold award-winning railway garden, to keeping trains running for thousands of visitors. 

We're also heading to Scotland to visit Forest of Glee, a remarkable exhibition garden railway built for the Falkirk Model Railway Club show. Created indoors in November, complete with real flowers, and a fully operational railway, it's proof that garden railways can flourish anywhere with enough imagination. 

On the workbench: 

• Testing Maxitrak's new Corris live steam locomotive 'Sir Haydn' 
• Building a coal tub 
• Painting people for beginners 
• Engineers wagons
• LGB's first kit-built wagon 
• Developing an outdoor line 

Plus the latest products for modellers in larger scales. 

Garden Rail is available from all good newsagents, and our online store.