4 wheels on my Brandbright wagon

 

The Brandbright wagon kit is back! 

Thanks to the very generous Steve from Bole Laser Craft, I have a set of wheels, which he dropped into my hand at Doncaster show. I should point out that Brandbright also offered me a set - both really appreciated, as were all the kind words about my missing modelling mojo. 

Anyway, work starts by glueing the bufferbeams in place, then laminating the solebars. I've also stuck the spacers behind the bufferbeams, and after this photo was taken, will PVA the other solebar in place. The instructions tell you not to do this with the spacers. We will return to this in a later post. 

The W-irons are screwed in place. A long, thin screwdriver is a good idea to poke around the sides of the wheels. 

Access is pretty good - I've known kits that try this, only for the screw heads to be blocked by the wheels! It's easier to put the whitemetal parts on the ends of the axles, then drop them between the solebars. Trying to wiggle the axles in with one end already screwed in place is next to impossible. 

Once done, the chassis rolls freely, so I know I will have a working piece of rolling stock. Love those heavy metal wheelsets too.

Midlands Garden Rail Show haul

 

On the basis you can't leave a show without having bought a box of something, I picked up this kit for a couple of micro cars. I've always been fascinated by the things, and since I'd never fit in the real thing, models will have to do. Regular readers know my fascination for wierd plastic kits, so this won't come as a surprise. I'm not even going to pretend there is a model railway use for these, I just fancy sticking them together. Painted red, as I found several cans of the colour in my stash recently.

On the right, ceramic wick, for a project that will appear on here in the not too distant future. On the left, something actually useful - insulated track clamps. My garden railway is clamped together, but this causes an electrical problem as the points don't self-isolate. Plastic clamps are the solution. I need four, and had to buy 10, but I'm sure the spares will come in handy one day...

Finally, tiny plastic ducks. Several wagons were running around with some in, and eventually I spotted them on sale from Tony Green Steam. For a quid a pack. I bought two. No idea what to do with them yet, but I'm sure they will be duckerating something soon!

Midlands Garden Rail Show 2025

Cake - Excellent. On Saturday, Amie and I enjoyed Victoria sponge, and carrot cake. I tried the sponge on Sunday, and can report that it was just as good. In fact the food at the WEC is, as I've said in the past, better than pretty much any exhibition venue. Saturday lunch was a giant Yorkshire pud with sausages, onion gravy, mash, peas and carrots, for a tenner. And it was delicious. 

The show seemed a little quiet, but it is very difficult to judge. I spent a lot of time on the stand chatting to people, many of whom were complimentary about Garden Rail. We signed up a few new subscribers too. The new stand looks good, and was quick to put up, and pack away. 

Opposite us was some tinplate train action. They spent the whole time rattling around the layout, just as these things were designed to do. 

Plenty was on offer to tempt money out of your pocket. Yes, I bought a few things, I'll show you tomorrow. What was impressive was the amount of new products on offer. I think I can probably fill the normal "Product News" section in the mag just from this show. 

RC Trains demo of their controller using  Brio setup was nifty. The layouts were good, but you can't fit large scale on a small trade stand!

I did miss out on one run - the G1 layout  promised a stunning looking LMS railcar at 3:30 on Sunday, and I forgot. One to look out for later in the year. 

All in all, a pleasent weekend, helped by it only being 10 minutes drive away for me. Back home at 4:30 on Sunday, having packed and loaded the stand? Yes please!

Saturday Film Club: To & From the Seaside on a Summer Saturday

Good grief, was this only 1991? It seems like a very different world on the railways now. Proper nostalgia.

A real life giraffe wagon

 

Regular readers will know I love the Tri-ang Giraffe wagon. Enough to have aquired 20 of them over the years, but thanks to a post of Facebook, I find that there is a prototype, of sorts. 

It seems that The Great Eastern Railway once had to transport a stuffed giraffe from Harwich docks, and came up with this loading diagram to get it within their loading gauge. OK, the animal was both dead, and wrapped in canvas, so no ducking under bridges, but it's not bad. 

The griaffe can now be seen in Ipswich museum, and there is a short video about it here. 

Dealing with my bald spots

 

No, not the ones my barber insists on showing me in the mirror at the end of a haircut (Why? I've not got my glasses on.) but those along the front of the NG7 layout. 

I'm not sure if the static grass just didn't take properly, of if its been worn away by people stroking it at shows. Whatever the reason, suddenly, I can see brown paint. 

Time for some remeadial work. PVA is splodged over the brown patches, and then out comes the static grass puffer bottle to blast fibres into the glue. A couple of hours later, and the glue has dried. My bald spots are gone!

 

Warehouse Wednesday: SR concrete hut

Another picture from Duncan Young - this time of a classic Southern Region concrete platelayers hut. 

Famously, these were designed to fit within the loading gauge when loaded on a wagon. They could be craned off, the chimney attached, and the building was ready for occupation. 

This example has a few modern additions - the trellis and flower bed, and the fire buckets, but it's a good guide for weathering. I'm not sure how I would paint those dots on the roof, but they are a typical feature of aged concrete.

The secret world of hobbyists

 

I've been interviewed by Alexander Poots for the UnHerd website. 

It's a nice piece, which you can read here.

Glasgow haul

 

I am getting better at not spending money too randomly at toy train shows. However, I can't really spend three days in a hall full of stuff, and not come away with at least one item. 

So, purchase number one is a Hornby R135 "Callard & Bowser" van. For a fiver, I picked up a properly Scottish souvenier. It's a bit of fun. Best of all, it's empty, because I don't like butterscotch.

Produced in 1983, in a run of 4000, it's one of Hornby's made up liveries. This has no place on a srious layout, but who says we always need to be serious? 

To be honest, that was very nearly it. Honour was satisfied. I had a new toy. And then I was perusing a stand at the back of the hall on Saturday afternoon, and spotted this. 

Curious, I asked the stallholder what loco it came from - an 09 diesel apparently. Hence the top speed of 30mph, and redline at 27.5. 

"How much?" I asked, expecting a price in three figures. £25. I snapped his hand off. 

Reader, the lesson is, put price labels on things. This wasn't hidden on the stand, but after nearly two days, it was still there! I suspect everyone thought it would be far more expensive. 

It's a lovely thing, or at least I think it is. Solidly made, with a bit of weight, there is something about railwayana that appeals to me, and I think it's the quality of construction as much as anything. That, and I wonder what life it has had before coming into my posession. 

But, what to do with this lovely lump? 

On the back are a pair of electrical terminals. Put a 9v battery on them, and the needle moves to 15mph. Could I wire it into a control panel in some way? Hmmm....

Modelrail Scotland 2025

Let's start with the important stuff - cakes. 

Empire biscuits were available from the nearby (5 minutes stroll) Greggs, and most days we cleared the store out of these delicitous delicacies. And very nice they were too. That a friends daughter turned her nose up at the ones I brought back just means more for me in the future. Her mum scoffed both shares. 

From the Morrisons in the exhibition centre, I picked up snowballs from local baker, McDonald & Son. I'm not a big fan of coconut, but they tasted OK. Sort of a soft donut with jam in. I ate a couple, and then fed the Accurascale boys with the rest of the packet. 

 

And there were Tunnock's teacakes. The plain chocolate ones that you can't get south of the border. I bought mine from Gretna services on the way up, so they didn't stop me trying to smuggle them into England. Superb. 

Of course, there were layouts, and some really good ones. I carried out three photo shoots for BRM, but could have easily doubled that if it hadn't been for the public being allowed in! This was just Scottish layouts too - anything that lives within sensible striking distance wasn't on my list. 

Trade was good, but with some odd holes. I'm in the market for a box of Woodland Scenics coarse scatter, but no one had any WS on sale! I did wonder if someone had opened a portal to a branch of Beatties. There were plenty of boxed Airfix GMR wagons on sale, and the buggest pile of Jouef coaches I've ever seen. As I recall, these weren't bad models, so for £15 a pop, if you just wanted something to run on the layout, a bit of a bargain.

 My overall feeling was this was a good show, and I'd certainly have been happy if I'd paid to go in as a punter. The people were freindly, and I'd certainly have found plenty to look at, and be inspired by. 

There is an eclectic mix of photos on Flickr.

Saturday Film Club: Using Humbrol Smart Mud

I had a lot of fun with this one - using Humbrol's "Smart Mud" product to produce a farm track, complete with tyre marks and cow prints.

Off to the Midlands Garden Rail Show this weekend

 Time for another show, but this one's a large scale event. 

Garden Rail has a small stand at the Midlands show this weekend. Not big enough for me to build a garden in thank goodness, I'm still recovering from Glasgow, but I'll still be strolling around in my tweed jacket chatting to people. 

If you see me at the show, please come over and say hello. 

Full details of the Midlands Show on their website. 

Building a narrow guage buffer stop

 

The last job I intended doing on the NG7 layout, was to build a buffer stop for the end of the siding. It was bugging me that stock could roll off the end, and I thought that end of the layout could do with at least one man-made detail. 

It seems that there's nothing available in kit form for this scale. Odd, as Peco produce stops for both 009 and G scale. 

Scratchbuilding it is then. I looked at the G scale version and tried to copy this with some spare rail.  No dice, Filing the base from opposite sides of a couple of bits of rail, and they the gap when they were brought together still wasn't wide enough to slip over the siding rail. I could make this work if I hadn't already laid and ballasted the track, but I have. 

So, I kept things simple. File half the base off a piece of rail, and attach it to the siding with a great big dollop of superglue. The the boards are scribed Plastikard scrap, with some random engraving in the face to simulate wood grain. 

I didn't get the uprights quite in line, so make a channel in the back of the boards with a file, and another dollop of superglue fixed it in place. Bolts and other details would be nice, but no-one is going to see them on the layout, so I left them off.

A quick coat of dark brown does for the metal bits, and back. Dull signal read, dry-brushed with a lighter shade and then washed with Agrax earth shade completes the job. 

All in all, a quick and fun project with adds something to the layout. I wish all projects were so simple and effective!

Warehouse Wednesday: Sheldon's Wine Cellar

Last week, I took myself off for an early morning bus ride, and the first stop was in Shipston-on-Stour. Strolling around the town centre, I spotted this fine building in a side street. 

According to Jess, The Cotswold blogger:

Sheldon's Wine Cellar in Shipston on Stour has operated as a wine merchant since 1842. Edward Sheldon's supplied fine wines to universities, religious orders and officers' mess rooms across the Empire. They have ledgers going back 100 years and it would seem that back in the day, the vicar of Halford order 6 gallons of gin every 6 weeks! Shipston has a phenomenally high water table and in 2007, Sheldon's ancient wine cellar flooded to waist height. They lost some 14,000 bottles.

OK, I can't see this being of immediate use to most modellers, but it's a nice looking building, and would sit nicely in a model town. The gateway could certainly be copied for your own model.

A tickle with the paintbrush

 

My first decision with the Jag, was to leave the body alone. It's shiny, but not too shiny. This is 7mm scale, and so a cherished car would enjoy a little shine. No need for my standard spray everything with matt varnish here. 

Looking at photos, I worked out which bits of the bumpers should be black, I used matt and should have probably gone satin, if I could find the paint, and "chrome". I didn't use chrome of course, I think I picked up a pot of matt aluminum for embelishments, including the screen surround and wing mirrors. Actually, thse were black, until I found a pretty close match to the model and realised they should be silver. Prototype research is always worthwhile.

Inside, the cream plastic has been painted cream, the dash binnacle is black, and the dash face, a sort of woody colour. 

My favourite touch is to wash the wheels with black Citadel ink, which has highlighted the spokes nicely. Strictly speaking, some of these could be gold, but I didn't like that look, so left them silver. 

The back end is more of a problem as the rear lights are wrong, but painting the brake ones red, and washing the whole lot with the black ink tones it down a bit. 

Finally, the numberplates come from an online generator, and are printed to the right size and glued in place. 

OK, this isn't the most amazing model, but with an evenings worth of painting, it sits in the scene very nicely. There, but not too gaudy. Good job I didn't buy a red one!

A new (to me) Jaguar

For my NG7 layout, I really want a modern car. Something to tell viewers that this is a model set in current times. With this in mind, I rooted around the stands at Doncaster, and came up with this from the Shell Sportscar Collection. 

Now, I know many of you are realising that this is a Jaguar XJS V12, and that's not exactly modern. Looking at the latest issue of Practical Classics, they mention the car in a feature, and Wikipedia suggests that this is a facelifted model from 1991 onwards. 

The trouble is: A) I didn't know. OK, I know it's not current, but didn't realise it was that old. B) There wasn't anything more modern available in my quick look around. 

 

Never mind, it was only three quid. 

 

Oh, and it's 1:40, not 1:43. 

 

Still, better than nothing. I'm going to tinker a bit, mainly with a paintbrush, to make it look more toy than model. 

 

 Undoing a couple of screws in the base, and the model largely falls apart. Some of the plastic parts have been heat riveted in place, but cutting off the plastic mushroom inside releases them to future treatment.

Isle of man map

Spotted years ago in the Manx Electric Railway museum, this poster/map is a little worse for wear, but I don't think I've seen it anywhere else before, so as I don't have anything better for today, here is it. Click on the image for a larger version.

Saturday Film Club: 1975: GLASGOW's Victorian UNDERGROUND RAILWAY

Since I'm in Glasgow, let's head back in time to take a look at the underground railway.

Welcome to Scotland

 

If everything is going to plan, as you read this, I will be in Glasgow for Model Rail Scotland. 

The plan will be to take along the now finished NG7 layout, and for me to stand around chatting about trains, while eating empire biscuits. Fingers crossed it all works. 

If you are coming to the show, please drop by the new-look World of Railways stand and say hello. 

Track cleaning, and windmill and plenty of layouts in the Spring 2025 issue of BRM

I've left the NG7 layout along this month, as I wanted to build a model spcifically to take to shows. The fantastic Buggleskelly Station N gauge windmill is the subject of my main build in this issue. 

The biggest problem with the kit is that it's so good, I need to find more to write about than simply slotting the parts togther - so we have so clever painting, inovative baseboard material and a button to allow the audience to make the sails go around. 

We're worried about dirt - so I've converted an O gauge Dapol van into a track cleaning wagon. 

And while I'm at it, for BRM TV, I'm also talking about track cleaning methods. 

Is this the first issue where I haven't built a model in 4mm scale? 

Anyway, the camera has been out with all the layouts in this issue being ones I've shot. 

First, we have the N gauge "Horton".

 Then in OO, and all the way from the Netherlands, "R&J Colliery". 

And finally, in what we called O16.5 back then, "Books Bridge". 

As ever, BRM is available from all good newsagents, or our online store: www.world-of-railways.co.uk