Hornby APT

The Hornby model of the Advanced Passenger Train, strictly speaking an APT-P, was launched in 1980. Designed in conjunction with British Rail, it unfortunately enjoyed a rather more reliable tilt system than the real train. The demise of the prototype 5 years after the model launched led to a limited sales life with the final batch being produced in 1984. 

Despite this, the model has always been popular on the second hand market. If you want a set, then many sellers on eBay will be able to furnish you with one for less then a price of a modern RTR big diesel. 

What you get is a rather basic model. Admittedly the APT wasn't bristling with surface detail but current day modellers will I suspect be unimpressed by what is a very 80s Hornby production. Had the plan to produce a quick re-run a few years ago come to fruition, I suspect the forums would have been full of frothing demanding a few (read: complete redesign but sold at 80s prices) changes to the moldings. 

With the immanent arrival of Rapido's APT-E, I'm sure we'll see the two models together and I have a feeling that the 35 year gap between them will be very obvious. However, with a Blue Pullman costing over £500, how much would people be willing to pay for an APT to more modern standards?

RTP buildings aren't a new idea

 

Digging around the back of a cupboard this week, I found a little bridge. 10cm long, just over 6cm wide and 3cm tall. Made of plaster. 

Hump-back bridge Small is a A.C.E.M. Product manufactured in Nottingham. A little web searching tells me very little more about them other than the range included tunnel mouths, retaining walls and dry stone walling. 

According to the box, the world distributors are none other than Edward Exley of Baslow, Derbyshire. They were in good company with the (for the time) well reguarded coaches produced by the same firm.

Supplied ready to plonk, the colouring has an indefinable "oldness" about it. Maybe the colour just looks like something out of an old magazine. 

Can anyone shed more light on this?

Warehouse Wednesday: Waterloo arches

 

Underneath Waterloo station in London, a few feet from The Hole in the Wall pub, are some arches supporting the station approach road. This being London, no opportunity has been missed to use these as rentable business space. 

The moment I spotted this scene, I knew it was worth an appearance on the blog. At least 3 different types of brick - blue, red and London yellow, stonework, cables, ducts and loads of dirt. Everything you could want in a small space. Well, everything you could want as an enthusiast of grotty working buildings.

I couldn't see what goes on underneath the arches unfortunately, but if you fancy a virtual walk around, here's the link to Google Streetview.

One man's trash is another man's tresure

Leave me in charge of a second hand stall for a weekend at an exhibition and you can be sure some of the sales will be to me.

This year I got away pretty lightly.

• Dart Castings letter boxes. I needed one of these in a hurry recently and am sure I have at least one in the collection of whitemetal bits. Could I find it? Of course not so £1.50 well spent.
• Fox Transfers D Numbersets for selection of English Electric Type 4 Locos. Didn't know they were for Peaks when I bought them and there is one number missing, but for a quid, well worth squirrelling away into the transfers folder. 
• Lithoplan Model Products BR Timetables & Signs. Never heard of Lithoplan Model Products and these look a little crude, but for 50p, if I need to finish a 1970s station model then I'm sorted. For timetables, toilet signs and platform numbers anyway. 
• Kenline 4mm scale wagon kits. Two 4 plank LMS wagons for £4. Kenline kits fascinate me as the bodies are made of pre-cut plywood. Metalwork is whitemetal castings suplimented by pre-riveted plastic strips. It's all a bit crude by today's standards but with a bit of care, perfectly presentable layout wagons can be produced. More to the point, they are interesting to build. 

So, more bits to add to the pile that to any sensible person already looks too large. On the other hand, a stash of materials is pretty much essential for me and while I can ignore the pile of old RTR, the little packets are pretty irresistible.

Inspired by Melbridge Dock

Look at this:

Above is the stone warehouse on my layout Melbridge Dock. Now look at this:

Mike Hunter bought this layout from eBay and the builder has obviously been influenced by our layout big time.

He's also picked up on our green, curved top gates straddling the baseboard joint.

I'm really flattered by this. For someone to have looked at something we built and think, "I fancy making one of those." and then actually go away to have a go is a real compliment. It's also nice to know that people looking at layouts on display at exhibitions are taking away more than just the contents of their carrier bags. The stuff in their heads is probably more valuable...

Bachmann biscuits

On behalf of MREmag, Tuesday saw me take a trip down to London for the Bachmann product announcements for 2016. I've covered this over on MREmag so if you want details of the new goodies, head over there.

Now, I know what you are thinking. "I bet all the money I spend on model railways goes to fund a great big shindig for the press and their mates."

Well, rest easy. The only refreshments provided were tea, coffee and hot chocolate from a vending machine - and there wasn't any tea to be had by time I got to it as Mr York had finished up the milk - and biscuits.

Yes, I know there are party rings but most of the plates were plainer fare. Not a chocolate biscuit to be had.  I didn't think journalism was like this.

While the event was all about the model railways, Bachmann's recent acquisition of the PocketBond group also played a part. This wasn't just a press event, the real focus was on the retailers. The company likes to look after them, after all they are the shop window - literally!

So, a couple of displays showing the vast array of Pocketbond items on offer were provided. Most eye-catching to me was the massive plastic kit of HMS Hood. It must be over a metre long and yet costs only £299. OK, not the same as a five bob Spitfire of 1960s Airfix fame, but not bad for such a large and detailed model.

Designed as a static model, I can't see any difficulty fitting radio control inside. Arranging access to the insides might be fun but no worse than any other battle ship. If I were Deans Marine, I'd be keeping an eye on the range.

Mr Rainbow's coal wagon

 

Dropping in to my local model shop in the week, I found a shiny new wagon pressed into my hand for review. 

An exclusive commission from Bachmann for the shop, the prototype was the only wagon owned by JH Rainbow. The livery is as accurate as possible with a lot of research taking place by the owner and doubtless some of those who drop into the shop. It's amazing what you can find out if you ask enough people. 

You might wonder why the wagon is numbered "5" if it's the only one in the fleet. As far as anyone can tell, the other 4 wagons were the horse drawn carts used for delivering coal around the town so the railway wagon was just added to the series of numbers - I really like this story. It's the sort of social history that makes this hobby so special. 

Anyway, if you want one, contact Classic Train & Motor Bus.

L&WMRS show this weekend

 

Today, I'm going to be helping mark out the hall and then over the weekend, I'll be flogging top quality pre-owned items from the club 2nd hand stall. We've all new stock this year so if you are in the mood for a bargain, come along!

Leamington & Warwick Model Railway Society Exhibition website.

Parlimentary Trains, card kit car park, airbrush and a bit of HO in BRM

It's a busy issue of BRM for me this month. For a start, I've been given an airbrush to play around with and provide a few hints and tips for readers on the page. The airbrush is part of a reader offer for the mag and it's a nice bit of kit. Very reminiscent of the little Neo on sale about a year ago, this appears to be very similar but in a shiny white casing rather than the rubbery grey one. If you fancy having a go at spray painting, it's a far better choice than cans of air and a splatter brush.

£85 including masking tape and cleaning jar seems like a bit of a bargain to me. While not top of the range (what do you expect for that money) you could happily weather stuff with it and with care, paint at OO loco. Just mix up plenty of paint in a jar to compensate for the small paint reservoir on the airbrush and you'll be good to go. I've certainly tried worse products at a higher price. According to the box, you can airbrush cakes with it too, although best not use modelling paints for that.

We've reached the final part of the card kit saga too.


I'm finishing off the model by setting it in a scene. Full details are spread over the DVD and mag pages. The model has come out very nicely. If you fancy doing the same, one of the toughest jobs has been simplified in the last week - ready printed clear windows are on sale from Modelrailwayscenery.com. I'd have loved these when spending hours cutting out the window bars on the pre-production kit months ago.

Moving on toe new projects, I'm still working through the scales with my wagon building. While last month it might have been suggested that I'd be working in OO, there is a scale in the way that just happens to be the most popular in the world - HO.


British HO is a very specialist topic but there is product available and the society were able to supply me with this resin and etched kit for a 16T mineral wagon. Easy to build and looking great, the resin sides are the thinnest I've ever seen. You can see light through them! Have a look at the 1:87 Society website to learn more.

Finally, I've been to see Stephen Weston and Peter Chatham from Parliamentary Trains.


It's a fascinating story taking us through the early days of the model railway industry thanks to a man who has always been interested in novel uses for production processes. They let me see how a modern laser-cut kit is produced too. On the face it it, it all looks quite simple but this is deceptive - making one kit might be simple, making a business is far harder.

British Railway Modelling website

Warehouse Wednesday: Tamworth telephone exchange

I know it's not a warehouse but this IS a large, very modelable, brick building and it is undoubtedly historic.

Years ago, every town had a telephone exchange containing banks of metal racks filled with relays. Proper, mechanical relays that clicked and whirred away. Now the whole process is handled by computers and the buildings are empty, or at least becoming empty. The new equipment simply doesn't take up the same space!



All that weight explains the balconies on the side. A feature of all exchanges that were taller than a single story, on the roof there is a hoist, here a simple girder with a pulley on it, to haul heft equipment from the ground - very like a traditional warehouse.

Telephone exchanges are one of those building that modellers will consider "modern" but in fact many date from the 1950s and 60s, easily seen by the architecture that was a la mode at the time. While not glamorous, I could see them fitting into many a model railway layout.

If you want to know more, check out this website for photos of other exchanges. I knew it wasn't just me interested!

Owen's Bridge and Emmett loco in NGW

A first appearance in Narrow Gauge World magazine for me this month. I've made the most of it with a couple of articles though!

NGW joined the Warners stable a few months ago and I was asked if I had any narrow gauge content for a revised and hopefully improved modelling section.

Obviously, as a freelancer, I said yes and then wondered exactly what I had that would fit the bill. I've done a few NG projects over the years but not that many have been photographed to a standard that I'd be happy to send to an editor for print.

However, the joys of selling articles on a "first serial rights" basis is that there's nothing stopping me from re-using something I've done already. Simply stuffing an existing article in the e-mail, while perfectly legal, isn't acceptable to me. Nor would I expect any editor to be happy with that sort of this - at least in such a small market. Perhaps if the magazine was an overseas publication it would matter less, but I'd still want to tweak it a bit.

Which explains why the first piece in the mag involves Owen's Bridge.

 

The layout appeared over 3 issues in BRM many, many months ago. The revised piece is 3 pages long and much more a traditional layout article. OK, I haven't used the phrase, "Baseboard were made in the traditional manner" but it is a much tighter piece with less detail. You can't cram all details of the construction process into the normal 2000 words available, no matter how many people at shows seem to think you can. It's only because they've never tried to do it...

Article 2 is brand new, a build of my Emmett loco Nellie:

 

I'm still very pleased with this model and it's nice to see it finally in print. Maybe the subject is a bit "out there" even for NGW, but I hope the readers enjoy it. 

Narrow Gauge World Magazine website.

An eclectic mix of reading

By the end of Thursday last week, I'd collected a mixed bag of magazines to read and I wonder quite what they say about me.

I've always slightly admired the sort of single-minded enthusiast who can stick to one topic throughout their life. These are the people who produce amazing models having scratch built pretty much everything.

Peter Denny for example, would never have created the Buckingham Branch if he'd run off and had a dabble with model aircraft or even (gasp) modern image. OK, he built a garden railway but it wasn't a huge diversion.

Pendon wouldn't exist without Roye England's dedication in the early days. No diversions into Morris dancing for him. No, recording the vanishing scene and then reproducing it in miniature was his bag.

I suppose the theme running through the collection of mags is making stuff. This issue of MRJ is the best in years with Gordon Gravett scribing wall surfaces and an amazing 4mm scale warehouse. My favourite parts of Practical Classics are those involving spanners and rust. A bit like modelling an Eagle Transporter, I aspire to have a go, even if time is short. Well, that and the lack of a garage with plenty of space to work (for the car, even a 44 inch Eagle wouldn't take up that much space).

I've mentioned this on the blog before and the response seems to be that like me, many of you have varied interests. While I might have some admiration for the single-minded, I also feel that a lot of them are missing out on so much of interest. There are obvious crossovers between classic cars and model railways - we'll have mini road vehicles on the layout after all. Sci-fi modelling is a harder leap but there are different painting techniques and if you want to build an Eagle, that framework on the back is going to have to be soldered up from tube in the larger scales...

Card shops

Assembly started in a shopping centre and completed back at home on the bench - this set of Metcalf Models cardboard shops has been around a bit.

"Serious" modellers probably look down their nose at kits like these - and I'll admit I wouldn't use them on a layout myself - but I like them. For a start, they are attractive in a cartoony sort of way. Pretty even.

Best of all though, assembly is within the skill level of pretty much anyone. If you are a beginner, you can MAKE something for your model railway. All that is required is a knife, ruler and tube of UHU.

Add a dash of patience and there is a the satisfaction of crafting a model with your own hands. From there, if the bug bites, who knows what you'll end up doing.

Model making in the shopping centre

Last week, the L&WMRS managed to blag the only empty shop unit in or local mall to put on a pop-up mini show to promote the main exhibition in a weeks time.

In the ex-mobile phone shop we had an N gauge layout, multi-gauge test track, micro O gauge model and a circuit of American tinplate 3-rail. The US models showed their build quality with a faultless performance running around an oval track making noises and generally entertaining the public.

Just inside the door there was a table with my father and I occupied for a couple of days doing a bit of modelling.

I had really struggled to come up with any projects portable enough so just loitered and chatted on the Saturday for a few hours. At least until there were enough other club members on hand so I could go and grab some sleep to get over a bug that was slowing me down.

Sunday, I helped out assembling some Metcalf cardboard shops. Card buildings are great for this as normal people can actually understand what you are doing - sheets of brass or fiddling mechanical bits will turn them off as it all looks complicated and weird. Not to mention the smells produced soldering or painting aren't exactly pleasant.

Anyway, we sat, we chatted, we gave away loads of leaflets. Some shops were part built, they came home for finishing off during the week.

I wonder if we ought to do more of this sort of thing and less hiding away in sports centres with our own kind? Maybe if we took the chance to expose the hobby to the general public more often, we might be seen as less weird?

Then I remember the sort of people who will normally enthusiastically volunteer for such a job and think perhaps not...

Elastic motor mount

Some new (to me) kit being tested here.

From SHG Models we have a vac-formed plastic motor mount suitable for 380 sized units. It arrives with a pair of black plastic bungs that are to be fitted in holes drilled in the sides.

The motor sits on a bed of sticky-backed foam strips and is held in place with a fat elastic band wrapped around the bungs.

I'm not sure about this. Will the motor try to rotate in it's mounting? Would a blob of silicone sealant be a good idea to "glue" it into place?

This isn't a speedboat for for the moment, I'll assemble the mount as expected. I can't always come back with glue later.

Another new piece is the universal joint. This is made in three parts that aren't actually fixed together. The shafts on the motor and prop are only 2mm diameter so I wonder if this might have applications in the model railway world for O gauge and above models?

Now cut a big hole in the hull

Normally, model boat building starts with holes being made in the hull for the propshaft and rudder. With that challenge model, the biggest problem is that there isn't anywhere to put these holes.

The hull appears to be a clinker built dinghy so no provision is made for powered drive.

To fit this in, I had to hack a great big chunk out of the back of the hull and fill the holes in with plastic sheet. My plan involves a 40mm diameter propeller and some rough measurements showed this could fit with relatively little effort if the prop tube emerged from the keel.

There was also the rudder to allow for - this could have hung on the back but fitting to the bottom is easier.

The photo makes the angle of the prop look steeper than it is in real life. Ideally you want all the thrust to go backward but some downward is normal so the tube can be angled up into the hull to find a motor.

A brass propeller looks nice by the way but is ruinously expensive for a "fun" project at 13 quid or so. Sadly, Graupner who make plastic props went into receivership in 2012 so supplies of the cheap version are disrupted.

Warehouse Wednesday: Amazon, Doncaster

If big is beautiful, then this is the best looking warehouse featured so far.

Found on the edge of Doncaster, next to the Holiday Inn I stayed in, is this huge white box. If you feel the need for an unexciting aerial view, Google can oblige.

I'm sure most people are wondering what the point is. Well, if you are building a modern image layout and don't want the bother of a backscene, this is a solution. A great big slab of wall behind the tracks.

There are details - the vents in the side and the grey panels breaking up the white sides. The lights are nice too. You'd need to build this cleanly but I don't think that should be too hard. Weathering would be a challenge if you aspire to accuracy, the grot sits in a very specific and regular way in the metal wall panels.

A little experimentation with colour would be required too. The white mustn't be white - far too stark on a model - but it's not as grey as my preferred Humbrol 147 either.

Anyway, if nothing else, this is different!

Cereal card mockup

Out with the cereal packet card and sellotape.

An hours messing around produced my first mockup for the superstructure.

Having looked at the model for a while, my feeling is that while the bridge is the right size, it's too central in the hull. If I move it forward a bit I think it will look a lot nicer. More sticky tape I think...

Bullhead inspiration

Time for a bit of non-railway action. As most of projects involve assembling things, it's fun to do a bit of plasticard noodling as a break.

Our model boat club chairman's challenge this year calls for a working boat to be made from a standard hull. I arranged for the hulls from Sarik vaform and they are very nice. 33cm long and 13.5cm wide, although they look like a clinker built rowing boat, there are a lot of other possibilities.

I fancy a small working boat and years ago found this fantastic book for inspiration.

The plans are intended for people making full-size boats but that just means this is too much detail for modellers. The vessel that grabbed my attention was the 14' tug, Bullhead. 

 

My hull isn't quite correct but I reckon I can produce something in this style. There will be loads of room for motor and RC gear. All I need is to finalise the design. 

The best part about my job...

...is when someone has been inspired by an article I've written to have a go themselves.

Which is why I was so chuffed what at Doncaster a visitor arrived with an RS&H loco built from an ARC Models kit very similar to the one I built a few months ago.

The sharp eyed will notice that the visitor is fitted with a giesel ejector supplied by RT Models and very good it looks too.