Warley NEC 2015

The Warley model railway exhibition at the NEC is the largest model railway exhibition in the UK. I spent the whole of last weekend there.

And I saw almost none of it.

My time was pretty much entirely spent behind, beside or generally around Ruston Quays talking to people. So many people.

So, if you are expecting a full show report you will be disappointed. Truth is I could really do with a visit to a big model railway show to do some shopping but apart from a couple of very good burgers, a rather more awkward crepe (almost impossible to eat as the filling sunk into a pocket at the bottom of the folded pancake and was lava hot) and a Dapol canopy kit, my wallet was unbothered.

Having said this, it was an excellent weekend. Lots and lots of people, including some readers of this blog, dropped by for a chat. Almost without exception, the chats were very nice too. People like what we are doing with BRM, the stuff I write and especially the DVD where my cunning plan not to share disk space with people really good at telly means my shortcomings are easily overlooked.

Not everything is perfect of course. I do wonder about people sometimes when I'm asked, "Will this layout appear in the magazine?" and have to resist the urge to shout, "Yes. It's been in for the last 6 months and on the telly disk twice!"

Best bits though are undoubtedly those where people tell me about projects they are doing because I wrote something in a magazine. There's an O gauge version of Ruston Quays underway at the moment in addition to a couple of N gauge ones I knew about. This makes the job worthwhile, although if anyone from Warners is reading this, that doesn't mean you can stop paying me!

 

Apart from this, there is little to say. Some van action saw the Bachmann display cases nearly filled with a full scale transit and Montana from Hornby resist the urge to run them over with another van while packing away. I can only assume they had all behaved themselves.

 

New products, there were loads, but I took photos and put them up on MREmag for all to enjoy. Quite frankly, everything paled in comparison to the Oxford Diecast Manx Peacock for me but I might not be quite normal in that respect.

 

My Saturday night plan to head to the airport rather than the station paid off. I had some yummy spag-bog and then strolled back for the trip back home whereas a friend who left at the same time managed to catch the same train having been unable to get on to the previous two as there was no space.

 

Sunday night was more fun, but I'll talk about that tomorrow. In the meantime, can I just thank everyone who chatted for dropping by.

 

 

Doncaster 2016

20 years ago last weekend, the very first Festival of British Railway Modelling took place at Doncaster Racecourse. We loaded up my campervan and headed up there with Melbridge Dock. As I recall, a good weekend was had apart from a quickly solved issue with the expenses where they wanted to pay by cheque in the post and we preferred cash in the hand (and soon in the traders tills).

With the anniversary of the show upon us, I found myself loading up a hire van with two layouts, Melbridge Dock and Ruston Quays. I know I still have the camper but it's off the road and too small for 3 operators and 2 layout. In the middle seat was Chris Mead who had also been to the first show and was part of the group explaining how expenses are paid.

Because it was an anniversary, the first thing we found on arrival was cake. Quite a nice sponge washed down with a cup of tea. We set up in the foyer and then headed for the hotel. Doncaster always seems like the proper north to me but is only 2 and a bit hours from home. Even the traffic and collecting Chris only extended this to just over 3, so long enough to feel like a proper travelling show but close enough for a pain-free journey.

One slight snag was that I'd managed to leave the RQ control board at home. This isn't the end of the world as it only holds the point levers (still no practical DCC system - told you analogue was better) but still a little embarrassing. A couple of phone calls and we'd made arrangements for it to be brought up by a fellow club member visiting the next day. Thanks Steve. 

Saturday opened with excellent crowds in front of both layouts. It might quarter of a century old but the Dock seemed to have at least ten people in front of its 6ft scenic section. My dad and Chris were kept busy all day talking about Sprat & Winkle couplings and Clyde Puffers.

Over on Ruston Quays, I left the shuttle unit to run trains and talked. Continuously.

My session in the lecture theatre was attended by around 50 people and quite a few found their way back downstairs later to ask questions.

By the end of the day we were all tired and headed back to the hotel and adjacent pub for refreshment. Main course eaten, Chris and I had to try the monster deserts on offer. Quite why a gooey cake thing 8 inches tall needs to be accompanied by two piles of cream is a mystery - almost as much as how anyone could finish a portion!

Day two was much like Day 1 except with less voice for me. I was very croaky by the end of the day and glad there wasn't a third.



Before the crowds arrived, I managed to borrow a non-working APT-E pre-production sample to pose in my station where it looks rather nice. Despite not being a production example, and lacking rivets and details, it felt well assembled and surprisingly heavy. 

Shortly after the opening, I found myself presented with a Hornby HST power car which its owner said was squeaking on curves. The back to backs looked a little narrow on the problem bogie but when I went to fix this, one of the tyres came away from the plastic hub. A little superglue sorted this out and hopefully the model is now back in service.

All this means there was very little looking around the show on my part. I did manage a couple of trips out and took some photos. The layout selection seemed varied. One visitor angrily complained that nothing was moving on any layout but I suspect he was unlucky as even at the times quiet enough for me to get out I saw plenty of movement.

My favourite stand wasn't railway related - it was a hedgehog rescue group. Andrew the hedgehog was amazingly cute. He was born blind and so can't be released back into the wild but is quite happy to sit on the stand in his bed occasionally be handled so we could stroke him.

Trade seemed good and I left having spent some money. One stand I didn't get to was the Really Useful Box Company one which had a few boxes that looked good for potential micro layouts. They seemed to good business without me though.

So, a busy weekend but a pleasant one. Loads of chat and an elegant sufficiency of cake. If you dropped by to say hello, thanks very much, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

More photos on Flickr.

Canal boats and a Class 70 in the festive issue of BRM

"What?", I hear you cry, "surely it's not time for BRM already?"

Yes it is dear reader, from this issue there is an extra BRM every year - if you've signed up for a subscription, that's 13 issues instead of 12!

Anyway, you're on my blog so the next question will be, "What top articles have you written this time Phil?"

First off, I'm having a go at some blue diesel action with the Ajay models resin kit for a Southern Railway "Booster" loco. These became TOPs Class 70, although none ever carried the number, and were amusingly nicknamed "Hornbys". Perhaps the boys from Sandwich should be looking at these for for a future project?

Ruston Quays is all naughtical (but nice) thise time with the canal basin recieving some attion,

The ever pokable water is laid down and then a selection of suitable boats built to float on it.

Since RQ isn't a pretty waterway, we have a steam dredger built from a Lagley kit, the same firms lighter and to move these around, a scratchbuilt Bantam tugboat. The Bantam won't be a surprise to regular readers of this blog, but freed of the constraints imposed by a ready-made hull, baby Bantam is a more reaslistic shape.

"What about the DVD Phil? I'll be needing something to watch on the telly over the festive period."

You're in luck. A day spent in the studio sees me talking about RQ and demonstraiting some of the new features. I'm also looking at the Heljan LT loco and a something a little different from Marklin.

 

All this contributed to a rather longer DVD than normal, something to keep you entertained on the long winter evenings.

 

More details and discussion on RMWeb

Codename Edgeworth 2

If you've watched the DVD that arrived with your copy of BRM this month, then you'll have seen me introduce our new project layouts - Ruston Quays.

After building Edgeworth last year, we've been keen to do another layout build but something the complete opposite of a rural branch line. A few plans have been bashed around - you'll get a longer run down of this in next months magazine - but this is what we've settled on. Two levels of track, urban location, canal basin. Grime. Dirt. A bit of decay. Lovely, just my sort of train set!

The name came quite late in the process. For months it's been appearing on plans as "Edgeworth 2" and in the same way it takes months to stop writing the previous years date on cheques, I'm only just automatically calling it by the right name.

Look out for updates in British Railway Modelling and even on the blog over the next few months. I'm booked in to the National Festival of Railway modelling later this year, so I better get a move on!

Ruston Quays plan

Today's edition of BRM sees the first appearance in print of Ruston Quays. In the article, I explain how we came up with the plan, or at least how I came up with an idea and then Paul Lunn made it much better.

 

The rest of the issue concentrates on layouts with no less than 16 in a single issue - surely some sort of a record? Just the thing to read on holiday leaving you fired up to get cracking with some modelling back home.

 

Big brick buildings in BRM

I'm bricking it in the November issue of BRM. It's time to make some big buildings and I really do mean big.

The main warehouse is 50cm long but is joined by a smaller one shown above and over 5 feet of arches for the retaining wall.

All these bricks need colour and so I've covered my method of doing this with pencil crayons and weathering powders. If this doesn't appeal, there are 3 other options including the Pendon one with each brick painted with watercolours - I'd be a gibbering wreck if I tried that!

Best of all, I found a use for a quarter of a Springside Morris Minor kit. Now all I need is a home for the rest!

We'll need some wagons for the shunting yard so I've taken 8 different ones and carried out some simple modifications to personalise each one. I don't like to see strings of identical wagons on a layout so hopefully this will inspire a few people to dabble in the art of ruining perfectly good RTR products and turning them into unique models.

Years ago, Hornby licensed a kit for Dunster station. I always liked the look of it, but the photos hide that the attractive stone covering was flat stickers.

You can now buy the kit again from Gaugemaster, this time part of their "Fordhampton" range. It's still a very nice model but the new stickers are still flat. Replacing them with 3D Redutex surfaces makes a huge difference and now with care, a really lovely model station can be built by anyone.

We've split the build between the pages of the magazine and the DVD. On the disk, you'll also find me showing how to use Ballast Magic to add coal to wagons. I get a bit annoyed when people pay for someone to coal a model tender - it's such a simple and satisfying job and this way there's not even any messy glue!

More details of the November BRM on RMweb.

The Festival of British Railway Modelling 2015

Busy, busy, busy. That's what this show was. So busy that I didn't even have time to eat any cake!

Ruston Quays looked pretty good with its new lighting rig and fascia. The DMU shuttle worked well apart from a minor error in my measurements for the stopping point in the station which meant it tried to pull up about 2mm into the MDF. Even using Tony Wright's Derby lightweight, a bit shorter than the Class 101 normally in use, didn't help much. At least I know why you should fit sprung buffers to a 4mm scale model now.

The hall was busy but my layout viewing time was severely limited so the photos taken were all shot just before opening time on Sunday.

Anyway, you can see the pictures here. I didn't get any cake so I'm not writing any more.

2016 and all that

As 2017 rolls in, we're reached 11 years of blogging over here on the workbench and what a year it has been. 

Starting with the sad - my tenure as editor at MREmag came to an end in the autumn. It was a shame that technical issues meant I wasn't able to wind it down as smoothly and tidily as I'd have liked. Mind you, it's a great shame we had to wind the thrice weekly version down at all but that's down to commerical pressures. Sometimes things don't work out. I ploughed an awful lot of my life into it and was sorry to have failed. 

The extra free time should have allowed me to move other projects on, but as always this hasn't happened quite how I'd have liked. Partly, at least in December, is down to me taking on a job with a local theatre. That's not so much a financial move, more to do with finding working from home a bit lonely. Sometimes I need to meet other people and interact, and more than just at model railway exhibitions! Hopefully in the post-panto days I'll get back to normal. 

There have been some great projects this year. Pride of place has to go to Ruston Quays, a layout I'm really proud of. It's a long way from finished - a further sprinkling of detail is really required. Maybe one day? At shows it's always attracted a huge amount of attention and I know at least 3 people are building their own versions. As I've said before, this is the best bit of what I do. Inspiring others to enjoy themselves at the workbench and get creative. 

A "me" project completed this year was my O16.5 Barclay tank engine. Nice etched kit and very enjoyable. One day it will get a layout. I already have some ideas in that direction. Mind you, I ALWAYS have loads of ideas, just not the time to complete them.

Another personal project has been my entry into our model boat club Chairman's Challenge competition. For this we all had to use a standard hull to make a model of our own devising. Sadly, I was ill on the day so couldn't attend but as it happens, I'd not have stood a chance anyway, the wining entry was a belter, turning the hull into a paddle tug! Still, I built a nice boat to sail on a Thursday morning, something I've managed to do quite a lot this year.

Back in magazine land, the projects that stick in my mind are my first N gauge layout, a MERG DCC system, night time diorama with Faller road system, Radstock Sentinel loco and the 7mm scenic halt covered with very effective Polak material.  

Probably my favourite though was the "Wagon kit in every scale" series as it allowed me to fulfill a dream by building both S Gauge and Gauge 3 wagons. The finished display looks great and attracted a lot of interest at Warley last year. While many keyboard warriors bemoan the lack of "proper" modelling in the popular model railway press, I'm pretty certain that wagon kits, especially in unusual scales should counter this argument. 

Talking of publications, at the start of the year I was involved in the production of Ramsay's collectors guide with Pat Hammond. It's not made a proper collector out of me but has proved to be an invaluable aid during the year when writing other articles and blog posts.

2016 was also the first time I've run a railway modelling course. Dillington House was the venue and I met a group of lovely people and had a great time. There's nothing like this lined up at the moment, but that's largely due to lack of time on my part to pitch the idea to other venues.

All this reminiscing reminds me just how long ago some of the projects were, which means it's time to look at last years list and see how we are getting on. 

The 7mm scale Garratts haven't been out of their boxes, nor has the 3mm scale Class 25. No change there. 

Added to the pile are an O gauge "Flying Banana" railcar, although that's because the kit isn't very good. Not something you can say about the 4mm GWR steam railcar, it's just sort of fallen off the end of the list. This seems to be a standard feature for carried based stuff as the Cravens DMU also seems a bit stalled. 

Statistics look fine though:

• 366 posts - you got a free one as it was a leap year. 
• 144079 visitors - Just under 400 a day. That's slightly down on last year, although I suspect this might be down to the way the counter is operating. There are 3 and all give different results. I'm using the middle set.
• 208847 page views - Once people arrive, they do seem to look around a bit. 

I'm seeing more comments on posts too, with many questions answered. 

As usual, can I thank everyone who drops by to see what I'm up to. In the back of my mind are some ideas for the way this blog can develop. I'll talk about these tomorrow.

Behind the scenes brickwork

 

If you've watched the latest BRM DVD then in the Ruston Quays chapter, there is a little footage showing the smoking chimney looking from the back of the layout. As you can see from the screen grab above, this highlights that the smaller warehouse didn't have a back to it.

 

From normal viewing angles, this doesn't matter but if I think like this, I'd not have bothered with the point rodding or the backs of the brick parapets. I have a feeling that there are some interesting angles for photographs to be taken from back here so a bit of detail is required.

 

Which is why, before I fixed the building in position, I've added some back wall brickwork to fill in the gap. I should have done this as part of the construction originally but the bodging doesn't seem to look too bad.

 



Next time you see the layout, ask nicely and you can look around the back to see my efforts!

A big station, barns and little lorries in BRM

It's time for a new major project for me in the latest issue of BRM. A few months ago, I was introduced to a 4mm scale model of Stamford East station which had arrived in the magazine stores after being turfed out of the local museum when it closed. 

My task is to take the model and turn it into a layout. This isn't as easy as it sounds - first, this is a popular station with both OO and N gauge versions currently on the exhibition circuit. Second, it's half a metre long and really needs a 15ft long layout to do justice to the real trackplan. 

Like most modellers, my space is limited, in my case to around 6ft. What can I do to fit the model in this space AND make it look different from others people will have seen? You'll have to read the mag to find out.

Staying with buildings, a project I've wanted to do for some time has finally come to fruition.Skytrex's excellent derelict barn casting is lovely as supplied, but what would it have looked like when new? And how did it end its life?

I've taken the model and built it four times - once when new, a couple of examples as it falls down and finally, a Grand Designs inspired barn conversion. 

Finally, I'm looking at the road vehicles to be seen on Ruston Quays. I'm a bit old skool in that I don't think the only place to acquire little vans and lorries is the diecast section of my local model shop. Nor do I think they should be left in fresh out of the box condition. I've shown how you can build an interesting selection for the layout, which will hopefully encourage others to do the same. 

Over on the DVD, I'm sitting out in the garden doing a bit of modelling. This time it's assembling resin buildings for garden railways. Just the job for winter!

London Festival of Railway Modelling 2016

"No you can't move the stand."

That's what I was told on arrival at a show. A slight mix-up with the planning left Ruston Quays stranded in the gangway if we followed the diagram in the programme. I was supposed to be beside the BRM stand but this was as wide as the island it sat at the end of. And moving it a bit wasn't an option.

Hurried calls on the radios from the organisers and a few minutes later, a site electrician was hard at work with bit of wood and cables. Result, a new spot opposite the BRM stand with electricity and an excellent view of the Bachmann stand. The location was perfect with just enough room behind for all my stuff but not too much. The layout was easy to find but not in the way.

The trip to the hotel started with an amazing site - London at night from the top of the hill. Sadly it wasn't possible to stop and take photos so you'll have to trust me and enjoy the next mornings view instead.



The reason I was happy to have a good view of the Bachmann stand was that they had brought along something new. Gone were the piles of returned RTR. Instead we had a members lounge for the Collectors Club and demonstrations of Woodland Scenics products by staff flown in the the States. The expectation was a bit of a fuss when the first people in the door found out.

As expected, the first visitors sprinted for the stand. They didn't see anything at the front and carried on around the sides. I'm told that the first person to circumnavigate the stand managed it 33 seconds after the opening.

Not long after, my view was obscured by people enjoying my layout, something that didn't change all day. My only break was to appear in the lecture theatre - to talk about the layout!



Day 2 started with a wait in the back of the hall as we'd all forgotten the 8:30 not 8am opening. Once in, I took the chance to have a little wander. Not that there was much to see as the layouts were still being prepared for the day. At least I managed to pick up some sandwiches, even though they contained the slimiest processed chicken ever served up.

I also had the chance to renew my acquaintance with Andrew the Hedgehog who I first met at Doncaster. As a souvenir, I bought a knitted miniature which we subsequently did silliness with.

The main interest from visitors was in the DCC Concepts point levers - marvelous tactile devices for working the points.  Despite hundreds of people working them, they are still as good as new. Not cheap but in the opinion of many people, worth the money.

After this it's Skytrex warehouses and Wills arches. Lots of, "Where did you get that?" questions.

Sunday is always quieter than Saturday but after an hour I was chatting away again until my break for the theatre. Maybe a better night's sleep helped but my talk lasted about 10 minutes longer than the day before. It wasn't helped by Andy York sitting in the front row scoffing chocolate cake however!



Needless to say, once I'd finished, I was straight over to the 2mm Society stand to claim a piece. Those guys make excellent model railways and even better cake!

The layout worked well with only a couple of issues: the Hornby DMU is stuttering a bit after a while. I've cleaned the wheels several times but have a horrible feeling that this is yet another loco worn out on a stand. That will be the third, although the first standard gauge one. We also have an issue with a point motor which isn't throwing perfectly in one direction - hopefully an adjustment of the wire through the tiebar will be enough to fix this. 

Winding down, I managed a few minutes buying stuff with some lengths of plastic for a model boat and an Airfix J94 from the Kitmaster Collectors club for a future project.Then pack up and head home and some sleep!

Thanks to everyone who dropped in and said hello. I hope you enjoyed the show, from the photos I've seen it looked excellent.

My paltry selection of picture on Flickr.

Sentinel, canopies, cakes and a 3mm scale wagon in BRM

It's a busy month for me in the March issue of BRM.

Since this is a Somerset & Dorset special, I find myself building an etched brass model of the Radstock Sentinel.

Not a shake the box kit, this model from CSP/Agenoria is chock full of detail and probably wasn't the best choice for a combination of tight deadlines and a heavy cold. There's a lot of bits in the box and if you fancy having a go, make sure you can take your time and enjoy the assembly process.

As it was, I got out all the toys for this one with rivet press, rolling bars and RSU all finding employment.

On Ruston Quays I've been building some run-down platform canopies.

This was a project I struggled to get my head around initially. I sort of knew what they should look like but couldn't find a matching picture. In the end, I just built the model and hoped it would be OK.

Leaving the part built version on the layout at Warley proved that if I wasn't right, no-one was going to tell me. The finished model looks great and adds to the atmosphere of the model.

Work on the BRM card kit continues with fitting out the cafe interior. Obviously this involved making some 4mm scale cakes - which turned out to be a lot easier than I expected, even if they aren't edible!

Since not everyone wants a cafe, I've taken a more general look at building interiors and made up a couple for a Hornby resin building using Scalescenes and Faller parts to produce 2 very different looks. There's loads about this both on the page and the DVD.

Finally, we have another wagon, this time in 3mm scale. It's probably the most conventional build I'll do in this series being a nice, modern, Parkside Dundas kit.

Ruston Quays detailing starts

 

All being well, I'm fast asleep as this post goes live after a busy weekend at Peterborugh with Ruston Quays.

 

With the lighting rig built, all major construction is finished and I can move on to the fun stuff - adding details.

 

As you can see, a start was made before the show with some barrels and electrostatic grass behind the old carriage body. All the grass is applied using a puffer bottle rather than an electric tool - it's the best way to get fibres into corners and for the tiny area I'm working on, it takes no time.

 

Looking at the photo, I see fibres have stuck to the carriage body but a damp brush will take care of those. The barrels could do with a wash of rust colour too.

MERG morning

After my session over at Pete W's playing with Leamington Spa, I felt the need to know more about the rather funky little DCC controllers in use on the layout.

Regular readers will know I'm not a big fan of DCC. I've seen far too many people staring blankly at handsets with far too many buttons and wondering what to do next. I've played with a Dynamis on Ruston Quays and it's the wrong tool for the job - great for circular layouts but not so for anything where locos have to stop on a sixpence for uncoupling.

The MERG (Model Electronic Railway Group)  controllers look like they might be the DCC version of my much loved Gaugemaster handheld.

With this in mind, I spend last Saturday at a MERG meeting finding out more about the system. After a bit of a talk, we were let loose with the controllers and spend a happy half hour pushing buttons, breaking things, finding out what we'd done and doing it properly.

All good fun and well worth the trip, especially since it was held at our clubrooms so I knew the way. These get-togethers are fun and an interesting non-club way of getting together with like-minded (OK, slightly, some of it lost me) modellers.

MERG website.

Peterborough bound this weekend

 

This week, I've had Ruston Quays on the workbench for a little fettling in time for our trip to Peterborough. 

Over the weekend, I plan to finally have exhibition visitors operating the layout so please drop in for chat and a play. 

More details of The National Festival of Railway Modelling. 

* 

If you are in Warwickshire over the weekend, you might also like to visit the Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition, where my Fantail launch, "Sooty" is on display.

Packing for Warley

 

Today is all about heading to the big tin shed at the edge of Solihull and setting up Ruston Quays for the Warley Exhibition.

 

I'm part of the BRM stand, which according to my guide is A9, right behind Hornby. That should be interesting.

 

Anyway, assuming I make it there all right, please come along and say hello. With a bit of luck you'll be able to have a play with the train set.

 

Warley show website.

How to design a micro layout

Luke asks:

I have been modelling for 3 years  now with some quite pleasing, realistic layouts. I’m currently working on an oo gauge Scottish distillery micro layout which is occupying most of my modelling time. I really enjoy building micro layouts but often struggle to plan them very well. How do you go about planning your smaller layouts and how do you design them?

 

 

This is an interesting question and I've been mulling it for a few days.

I guess I should start by saying I aim primarily for a layout that looks nice, but will probably have the purists frothing at it's lack of prototype fidelity. Truth is that the real thing doesn't normally fit into the stupidly small space of a micro layout.

So, I start with the space and try to fit things in there. Sometimes it's easy. With Melbridge Parva, I just stuck a note on this blog and Michael Campbell came up with a plan. All I had to do was build it!

More recently, for Didsbury Green, I knew the overall dimensions of the box it had to travel in. The plan was that aside from a sticky-out fiddle yard, everything would fit on the baseboard. It needed to be a working layout too with no tricksy sector plates to handle one end of the run-round loop.

Which brings me back to deciding what features you need. I consider a run-round essential and ideally, I like sidings pointing in both directions too. Didsbury was planned around a normal 60ft coach, even though I built a 4-wheeler for it in the end.

Planning doesn't need to cost money. Download the Peco Point Plans and print them out full size. Along with some rolling stock and a full-sized bit of paper (or wood) to represent the baseboard, you can build the layout and roughly test operation. Can you get wagons in the sidings, that sort of thing.

Another option is using computer software. I find the Anyrail software good. Since you won't be using many track sections, it's free too. Very handy to play around with things and even if you are going to build your own track, it's a good start.

While planning track, consider mocking up buildings from cereal packet card too. The more you build, the better feel you get for the finished model. Once the planning starts, don't rush it. Always leave things overnight, or better still longer, so you can come back to it with a fresh eye. It's amazing what you spot after a couple of days.

Finally, don't expect great operation. Micro layouts are about building. That said, an Inglenook System like the one I used on Ruston Quays, can provide lots of entertainment without the space required for a loop.

With thousands of potential wagon combinations, there's a lot of "play value" here.

All this is my opinion of course, but if you look at Chris Nevard's layouts, they tend to work on the same sort of basis. All modelling, little operating - he likes playing trains even less than I do - but a lot depends on what you want out of a model.

I hope this helps a little. Layout design isn't easy, the best suggestion is to look at the space available, work out what you want to fit in, and play around with templates. Ultimately, if it looks right to you then it is right.

Happy modelling!

National Festival of Railway Modelling 2016

With my shiny new DCC controller, I was looking forward to setting up Ruston Quays at Peterborough this year. For the first time ever at a show, I would be able to shunt the lower yard. With the station shuttle working, we'd have two trains moving realistically on the 6ft long layout.

As it turned out, the DCC device attracted a huge amount of favourable attention. The guys from the MERG stand wanted to see it, as did quite a lot of the visitors. I understand that several headed off to sign up with MERG afterward which makes me feel very pleased.

The other star of the show though, had to be Bachmanns Wickham Railcar. The BRM review samples had arrived a couple of days earlier and we gave them a workout on the shuttle service. While this might not be realistic for the layout, it IS entertaining and precisely the reason we have both DCC and DC on board.

Walking around time was limited, but I did manage to track down some excellent chocolate cake on the Saturday lunchtime. I certainly needed the sugar hit as by the end of day one, I was tired out.

Sunday saw me refreshed and with time to wander around a bit before the show opened. My star layout was the Faller Hit Train display for no better reason then it's utter barking mad. The fake Hornby Dublo Garratt was brilliant too, especially as they'd made both the loco and it's box.

Day 2 went well with more and more chat with visitors. The controller was fondled by many, one group even recognised the Inglenook yard design and successfully shunted a train for me - something I'd always wanted to see happen. Perhaps that means I've achieved everything with the layout and don't need to take it out again? 

Lots more photos over on Flickr.

Experiment with tarmac and cobbles

One feature of Ruston Quays is a large roadway area. In real life this would once have been cobbled but aside from being a long job to lay, cobbles say "nice olde worlde" to me.

I've decided that the cobbles have been tarmaced over in the pursuit of modernisation. Worn tarmac says "run down cheap and scruffy" to me, which is the atmosphere I want the layout to convey.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to show just how rubbish a job the tarmac gang did by having a few cobbles visible. Daler board is the same thickness as Wills cobble sheet so I laid the two together (Daler board, suitably painted and weathered makes excellent 4mm scale tarmac) and smeared some old ready-mix filler over them.

After it had dried, there was some sanding action and eventually I got a smooth surface with some cobbles showing.

Handy hint: If ready mix filler has gone off, throw it away. Do not mix it up and use. Horrible, lumpy mess will result.

Painting is still a work in progress. Precision Paints tarmac shades were streaked together but I'm not happy with the result, when I did it on raw card it looked superb but I think the less than porous filler hasn't helped.

The wiggly edges look nice though. I might re-try with fresh plaster.

More suggestions welcome.

Station refurb, a grounded coach and painting people in BRM

Bit of a mystery around part of this month's BRM.I've been refurbishing the Stamford East station building we have acquired. Lots of sticking old materials back together and upgrading some of the finishes - modelling techniques change over the years and what we used to be happy with now doesn't pass muster.

Part of the upgrade has involved adding some 1970s signage. My first attempt was this:

 

A station sign with a blue background and white text. My inspiration was a photo of Market Harborough station which looks just like this. 

When I sent the article over, the response was that it should be black text on a white background with a red logo. Now, this is the colour scheme I'd originally planned, but seeing the photo (I do do some research, honest!) had changed my mind.

Not a problem, the sign was quickly changed, but I'm not sure why it's wrong, or even if it is. A look in the reprinted BR design manual for the period shows that blue IS a legitimate colour, but I couldn't quickly spot what the rules were in the shop, and while £75 isn't unreasonable, I can't justify it right at the moment so I can have a proper read. 

Can a reader of this blog help? I'm sure black and white was more common, but blue isn't unknown. Was this a local decision? 

Elsewhere, we have some Ruston Quays work with a grounded coach body. 

 

 This is a model I'm really quite pleased with. If anyone can guess the origins without reading the piece, I'll be impressed. Suffice to say, there is a decent bit of modelling to get this far. 

On the DVD, I'm painting little Phils. 

 

Painting figures isn't that televisual, so I'm covering a little theory too with the help of a Thunderbirds puppet. A puppet I misidentify as Virgil, when he is of course, Scott. That's nearly as big a mistake as wearing a checkered shirt when you are being scanned and subsequently have to paint it on a tiny figure.

 

We filmed this piece at the Wonderful World of Trains and Planes in Birmingham. It was a fascinating place, which sadly closed down a couple of weeks after we had visited. Too late to alter the DVD, but perhaps the video is a fitting tribute to an interesting attraction now lost to the city.