Continental Modeller May 2025

This issue includes the second part of our annual report of new product announcements for the coming year, covering N, TT, Z, O, 1, narrow gauge, G, and selected structures and scenics. Our report has to be split over two issues, for reasons of time and space. You might ask whether it is necessary at all nowadays, given the instant availability of information on line, but we hope that a carefully collated presentation will reveal things of interest which might otherwise be missed. Despite the decline in significance of the Spielwarenmesse in Nürnberg in February for the model railway sector, many model railway manufacturers, large and small, still choose to announce their plans for the coming year around this time – it may suit their production schedules, still geared to…

Beginner’s DCC courses at Peco The ‘Beginner’s guide to DCC’ one day course designed to dispel myths surrounding Digital Command Control proved very popular in 2024 so more dates are planned for 2025. The next course is due to take place on Monday 9 June between 10.00am and 4.00pm. There will be further dates in July and August. Numbers are limited to enable a personal approach. The course fee (£65.00) includes complimentary tea/coffee through the day and lunch. Participants will also be entitled to a discount in the Pecorama model shop. The Pecorama site and the Beer Heights Light Railway will be open. The course combines theory and practical sessions covering all the main aspect of Digital Command Control. There will be opportunities to install a locomotive decoder and connect…

Our club is based in Sedan in the north-east of France, near Belgium. We have already built many layouts in HO, including La Zone (CM July 2016), and in N, for example Les Gorges de l’Allier (CM April 2015) and Monthermé (CM April 2017). This new layout is made up of three separate parts connected by blank sections. It measures 6.8m long and 2.65m wide (with the off-stage areas – see the plan). It is located in the Massif Central region and includes features from two separate lines. Prévenchères The first part represents Prévenchères station which is located on the line in the Cévennes which connects Clermont-Ferrand to Nîmes. Its construction took from 1837 to 1870. It began with the southern part between Nîmes and Alès, then the northern part…

I continue the description from the March 2025 edition, paying particular attention to certain points of detail each adding a realistic touch to the patiently scratchbuilt structure. Restoring an old and tired object to give it back its original character is a source of personal satisfaction, changing its original purpose by altering it in a creative way to tell another story Step 1 I continued by making the doors and shutters. First, the disjointed and patched shutters were made using engraved plasticard then weathered very aggressively, according to my usual methods. I finished with final touches using AK interactive weathering pencils. Step 2 The wooden lintel above the closed shutters was thoroughly weathered, and I even added a few old nails and other twisted hooks to add the weight of…

This layout was originally intended to be in the attic so I had something run at home. The name means ‘a little thing’ because it started small but it has ended up (assuming it is finished!) as an exhibition layout over 14m long! In 2001, together with a few members of a club, I started in O gauge. The result was a Belgian-inspired modular layout, Thanasse-Cabusart, which has grown to be 26.5m long and has been seen at many exhibitions both in Belgium and abroad. At first, the rolling stock was either ‘homemade’ or was existing equipment transformed and/or repainted into Belgian livery. It was only possible to operate the layout at exhibitions or thanks to a temporary assembly in the club premises. In order to run my models at…

In late 2022 my friend Norman Dickinson sold his German HO rolling stock and structures following his decision to sell his three-storey house and move into a two bedroom apartment. After moving in, it soon became obvious that the second bedroom would become the railway room but there was not the space for his beloved HO, except for display items, and that N would be the answer. Thankfully, a good record of Norman’s HO layout Rottershausen appeared in the January 2023 edition of CM. The new N layout is based on a fictitious town somewhere in south-western Germany, not on the real old town of Nordenburg in East Prussia. That settlement dates from 1405 and did have a station on the main Königsberg – Angerburg railway, plus two narrow gauge…