NEC CLassic Car show

Yes, it cost £35 to get in, plus my train fare, but for 6 halls and over 16,000 steps worth of exhibits, I think it was well worth it. 

The highlight for me was sitting in a Talbot Alpine, the first car I ever drove. OK, it was up a farm track, probably didn't exceed 10mph, and ended with me bumping into a fence post, but an important vehicle in my life. It's also the one I learned about Isopon body filler on, as I packed an awful lot of it into the front wings. 

But, what a lovely, comfortable place to sit! Far more foot room around the pedals than my Peugeot, and so roomy inside too. I have fond memories of that car, we took it on holiday several times. 

In fact it's so exciting that for a change the Matra Rancho wasn't the best car in the show, for me anyway. Second best maybe.

There was also the first car I drove on my own - a Mark 1 Ford Fiesta. OK, ours was grey, and had the 950cc engine, but it wasn't a million miles from this pristine example. Sadly, there was no chance to sit in this one. 

If I had the space the money, this South African import VW Beetle would have come back home with me. £10,000 for something unwelded, running well (apparently) and with some interesting local details, such as these odd little front reflectors. 

At the back, the taillights seem to be a mix of the elephant's foot ones on my bug, and the earlier version. I don't recall seeing these before. And yes, I am being nerdy about Beetle bits. 

For research purposes, I took quite a few photos of this Porche Junior tractor. There is a kit for one in my stash, and it's interesting to take a look at the real thing. 

So, other than travelling I spent a train-free day. Is there a connection between classic car shows and model railways? I think so. If you look at a lot of layouts, you'll spot old cars that turn out to be the first ones owned by the modellers. We all love a bit of nostalgia! 

Sadly, my family seems to specialise in owning vehicles that no one makes model of. Peugeot 206, Berlingo, Nissan Juke, Talbot Horizon - nothing doing. There is a Mk1 Fiesta in the Oxford Diecast range, but there is something very odd (to my eyes) about the rake of the windscreen, so I don't own one. 

You are probably wondering if I bought anything. Well, there was this Alfa that screamed "Mid Life Crisis car" that I liked the look of, but no more cars for me until the Beetle is back on the road (Permissible exception: Rust-free UK spec Matra Rancho in Bronze or red, for under £5k), but I did come back with a couple of things. You won't guess what they are though...

Lots more photos over on Flickr. 

Saturday Film Club: New York Central's Mercury: An Art Deco Masterpiece

A quick look at some stunning American locomotives. I could get into collecting models of these - they are beautiful! 

Painting delay

 

Just paint for the SR van then. Slight snag, for the last few days, Stampy has decided that my modelling board is the perfect place for a kip. He might be comfortable, but it does really slow me down...

Garden Rail December

 

We start off with a visit to the Butterley Garden Railway Association, where the magic of miniature trains meets public wonder. How many future modellers have walked away from their line at the Midland Railway Centre thinking, “I want to build one too!”?

Then we journey to the legendary Compton Down Railway, revisiting Peter Jones’ iconic creation through the eyes of his daughter Kes – a tribute to one of the hobby’s most imaginative builders.

On the workbench this month:

• Mini dioramas with maximum charm
• A laser-cut carriage shed
• Replacing Taliesin’s safety valve
• Scratch-building a classic tin hut
• Small wagons sized for little locos
• Planting tips to prepare your line for next year

Plus: Our Christmas Gift Guide is here to help you find the perfect present for the railway enthusiast in your life - and don’t miss the heartwarming tale of how Eddie Castellan was reunited with a beloved steam locomotive.

Chassis upgrades

 

It's no good. Those wobbly stretcher bars are annoying me. As has been said in the comments, you can't really repair them. 

At the same time, I remembered that I'd not replaced the moulded safety loops on the brakes. I used to do this as a matter of course, but as I say, I'm out of practice. 

Some small clippers removed the bars, and moulded loops. The latter are replaced with bent-up staples. Maybe a bit chunky, but you can see through the loop, which is what matters to me. On a layout, looking along a train, I like to think is is noticable, even in the gloom under a wagon. 

The stretcher bars are replaced with the smallest brass angle I had to hand. This still looks a bit big to me, they scale out just under 3 inches deep, but the job is quick, and hopefully not too obvious when painted and weathered. I've not actually done this before, but I'll look to add some thinner angle to my metal stocks at some point. 

Incidentally, why weren't buffer shanks and heads included in the kit? I had to dig around in my spares boxes before I found a set of Parkside leftovers. Yes I have metal ones, but they are complete with the housings in a kit of bits, and I'm not breaking one of those up for this job. This is very much a layout wagon, and the sort of layout I build, not some super finescale jobbie. 

Sprat & Winkle couplings

 

I'm going full Old Skool on this wagon. That means Mk1 Sprat & Winkle couplings, the ones I use on all my exhibition layouts. In my mind, they combine reliable operation with discretion. OK, Alex Jackson's are a bit less visible, but they seem to need a lot of tweaking before a show opens, time better IMHO spent acquiring tea, and perusing the second-hand stall. 

Best all all, they are easy to fit, even if you haven't done it for a while. 

Step one, fit the coupling bar. 

I built a height gauge well over 30 years ago. Wheel the wagon up to it. Pop superglue on the buffers, and sit a de-headed dressmaking pin on the gauge. Yes, I know "proper" modellers would make a U-shaped bit of wire to emerge from the buffer beam. I think this restricts the swing of the hook, and anyway, my method is really easy to do, and repair if required, so it wins out for me. 

Step two. Fire up the soldering iron and fit the hook and paddle. 

The original instructions showed a weirdly bent piece of wire holding the etched hook in place. It relied on glueing wires along the floor, without sticking the paddle itself down. Que lots of bad language, and a lack of success. 

This method, which I later learned from his book that Rice used as well, involved bending up a staple, putting it through the holes in the paddle, and shoving the steel through the floor of the wagon with a soldering iron. It takes a few seconds to get moving, but once it does, the paddle is quickly fixed, and by heating the staple, you can adjust the fit. 

I've fitted EM gauge society coupling chain, which I bought in quantity decades ago (do they still sell it?) as it's perfect for the job, and easier than making my own. 

The chain is a bit further out from the bufferbeam than is ideal, but as I say, it's a while since I've done this, and it will still work. 

No surprise, I've written this up before, with different photos.  

Very liquid glue

 

Bodybuilding time. A job that it turns out would have been a lot easier if I'd remembered to bring some Revell Contacta plastic cement. 

As it was, I had to rely on the Barrie Stevenson's MEK, applied with a slightly larger than ideal, paintbrush. 

Normally, I'd tack the parts together with the cement, then run some MEK into the joints. This time, I had to apply the solvent while holding the parts together. It did not go well. 

I don't know if this MEK is a lower viscosity than Slater's version, but it shot all over the kit. Result, a fingerprint in the end.  That's not a one-off either, this stuff shoots around the model incredibly fast. OK, I'm out of practice doing this sort of thing, but I don't remember having this problem before. 

On the plus side, it grabs the parts really fast, so if you can make it work, speedy building will be very possible! 

Heart of England NG group 2025

I was promised cake, and interesting model railways - and I wasn't disappointed. A new venue for this show, last year's struggled to accommodate any cars thanks to a change of mind over using a field by the people who owned the hall. I arrived, couldn't park, and wasn't able to get anywhere near. No problems this time. I was soon inside, and directed to the cake. 

First though, a little digging on the second-hand stall, where I picked up a 16mm scale chimney and dome. No reason, other than they looked useful. 

20 layouts for a fiver admission? Bargain. OK, no massive tail-chaser, but you know I'm far more interested in micros anyway, and there were plenty to look at. Hens Quay (above) looks fun to build. It fits in a plastic box, and the two halves (scenic and fiddleyard) are bolted together to make something just under three feet square.

Star of the show, for me, had to be Melinau'r Abaty bridge. No, I can't pronounce it, and I asked. But, really nice 7mm scale NG. 

I'll be aiming for a magazine shoot on this in the future, it's well worth it. One of those layouts built by someone who has looked closely at narrow gauge railways. In this case, the TR and Corris. The slate fence is really special, and the colours excellent. 

As promsied, the cake was very good - it would have been rude not to have some after all! All-in-all, a lovely event with loads of inspiration and ideas. 

I've posted more photos over on Flickr.  

Saturday Film Club: Transforming A New Wagon into a Railway Workhorse!

Some proper modelling from Lucy Pitch - who I've known since I first bumped into her running Modellers Mecca. There are some handy techniques in here, especially the printing removal. One mystery though, how does she keep the workbench so tidy? 

Fleischmann MV9 diesel locomotive

 

I was tempted to title this post "My first Fleischmann" - but thought Google would prefer a more detailed description. 

Picked up at the GBMR for £25, I rather liked the look of this little shunter. It could easily pass as an industrial British loco, even though the prototype never ran here as far as I can tell. 

Looking for prototype information has, so far, proved fruitless. There's this page on the model, and one photo.  

Not to worry, the model was cheap, I liked it, and I had nearly bought one when in Aachen.  I didn't, because I spotted what looked like a pickup stud on the bottom, so I assumed it was an AC powered model. 

Apparently not. The instructions tell me it's a Contacter and contact unit 6402 to perform electrical switching functions. Any clearer? Me neither, but the loco runs on 12v DC, and that's all that matters. 

And run it does. Very sweetly too, thanks to that impressive gear train on the side of the pancake motor. The wheels might be chunky (not sure what to do about this at the moment), but I can't fault the mechanical side. OK, the motor can be seen in the can, but that's because it dates from the early 1960s - compare this to the horrible things we "enjoyed" in Britain at the same time. 

The model weighs in 235g, thanks to some bonnet-filling weights. At the ends, the buffer beams are stamped metal, the rest of the model plastic. 

I think it's really nice. Even the box says "quality". 

 

Wheels in

 

An odd feature of the Ratio kit is that the solebars don't fit under the floor, as they do in every other wagon kit I can recall; the floor fits into recesses along the inside top of the solebars. This confused me for a while, and I had to resort to the instructions, ruining the images I was trying to project as someone fully in control of what they are building. Sorry I didn't photograph this for illustration, you'll have to take my word for it. 

This does make the build a bit tricky as it's easy to glue the upside-down chassis to the modelling board. While the glue is soft, the wheels are fitted, and the whole lto left upside down on flat surface to harden. As I was at a show, I didn't have a mirror to test flatness, but the modelling board isn't too bad, and there is a little slop in the bearings to take up a fraction of a mm. 

I think this pretty much concluded my first day's build. A good sign, as little progress meant maximum chatting to the paying public, which is what I was there for. 

And the carrot cake was delicious.

 

Warehouse Wednesday - Coaling cranes

How do you get the coal in a great big Harz Railway steam engine? Not with some sort of Carnforth-style coaling stage, but using one of a pair of electric coaling cranes!

While I was watching, the crane with a taller cab was in use. This is preferred as you can see the bunker on the loco. Sadly, I don't seem to have taken a photo of the operation, but the coal is lifted in a grab and dropped straight into the bunker. This didn't take that long while I watched, although I have no idea how full it was before they started. 

I know these are electrically operated as there is a fat cable running from the back of each. It seems loosely laid on the ground. It looks heavy, but I assume it has to be dragged around by the crew occasionally to stop the crawler tracks running over it as the crane moves around.  

Digging around on the web, I found a 3D printable model! 

Bearing up

 

It's a long while since I built a plastic wagon kit, and I need to remember how to do jobs that used to come naturally. 

First up, fit the brass bearings. These are top-hat ones, named after the shape, This sparked a conversation about different types of bearings with someone newish to wagon building. He'd acquired some waisted bearings, and I think I managed to convince him that these would be fine. Even if they weren't, this wasn't (I think) the sort of show where you'd easily purchase replacements - a sign of how exhibitions have changed over the years. 

Anway, I remember that there's no need to drill the chassis out. Just pop a drop of solvent into the hole, leave it a few seconds to soften the plastic, then shove the bearing in the hole. Give the axlebox and bearing a good squeeze (I used tweezers, but small pliers are OK), and the bearing isn't coming back out. 

Toughest job - removing the moulding from the sprue. I had to repair the stretcher bar on one side, and it's a fiddle. 

SR 12 Ton Box Van kit

 

While I might own many hundreds of projects, finding something suitable to build as a demonstration isn't easy. Whatever I pick has to be simple, require a modest tool kit, and if I'm honest, not really matter that much as I can't guarantee to be paying proper attention as I'm supposed to be chatting. 

A plastic wagon kit works OK, even though I have no need to add to the wagon fleet. As a bonus, I picked this kit up cheaply at the RMweb members' day. For three quid, if it all goes wrong, I've not lost much. 

Tools required are a knife, abrasive and some glue. Tweezers are useful, but the extras are found in my exhibition toolbox, which is never unpacked. 

I have a feeling that the Ratio kit is well over 30 years old. Mine had been upgraded with a set of metal wheels. Two sets in fact, because I didn't spot this, and added a set from the stash. I might not need this wagon, but it's not rolling on some moulded plastic wheels - I have standards!

I'm sure a RTR version is available, but at a demo, people like to believe you are doing something other than just waiting for a chat. It's also a conversation starter, as many haven't seen this archaic activity before...

The Great British Model Railway Show 2025

 

It's very handy having a show six miles away from home. Chuck everything in the back of the car, and I should be in the hall in little over half-an-hour. 

Mind you, everything has to be carefully carried past a car worth a million pounds!

Apparently, only 10 of these Lotus's will be made, hence the price tag. It would be hopeless for moving toy trains around, so I'm not buying one. Looks nice though. 

Anyway, I set up and had a quick look around. The layouts were pretty impressive. I had a pre-booked shoot to carry out, and have provisionally arranged a couple more. 

Sadly, as I was on my own, wandering around time was pretty much nil. A few of my fellow club members gave me toilet breaks but I spent the entire weekend talking to various people. My display, featuring a couple of 009 layouts, went down very well, so that's good. 

Cakes arrived, courtesy of Alistair, who rather over did it. 

I managed to force most of it onto friends, but it certainly was appreciated. Well, you don't want to go hungry while demonstrating. 

Talking of which, I managed to mostly built a OO van, which will be appearing on this blog any day now, and made a bit more progress on the 7mm scale brakevan kit  that has appeared at this show for the last three years. 

Obviously, being a show, I picked up a few things. 

Mostly, it's some whitemetal kits and a station building from the L&WMRS second-hand stall. Well, I had to give them some money. The Edward book made the bill up to a tenner to make the change easier. And he is the best of the railway engines. 

A couple of Isle of Man postcards and a cheap loco made up the rest of the haul. The most exciting feature though, was I made a profit by flogging off some old mag project dioramas. More on this another day. 

Good show - yes. If I'd paid to come in, I'd have been very happy. It's an event that goes under the radar a little, but deserves more attention if you like layout watching, and don't need dozens of box-shifters, the three present being enough. Put it in the diary for next year.  

Saturday Film Club: The Last Great Playset: Matchbox's EPIC 1970s Railway Goods Yard

File this in the "Toys I didn't have, but always wanted" pile. This video hasn't changed my mind - but no, I have too much stuff!