Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2023 i Garden Rail

TECHNOMODEL Andrew Young’s article on building an England locomotive out of cardboard took me right back to my early garden railway building. Over three decades ago, I too built an England using cardboard. My model wasn’t a great success if I’m honest. The body was OK, even using an old drinks can to provide material for the curved tank. The problem was underneath. Unable to afford proper wheels, I decided to make a master and cast them using Isopon car body filler, a material familiar to me thanks to a Talbot Alpine as the family car. Many tubs of the stuff were used trying to keep ahead of the rust… Sadly, these weren’t particularly round, although they were more successful than the tender wheels made from slices of plastic pipe…

I have built other kits from this company and they are a joy. Parts are very finely laser-cut in MDF and there are a minimum of tabs holding each in the fret. Those are very fine and few in number. Larger parts can often be pressed out using thumbs, but where necessary to cut them, a thin sharp blade easily deals with the very fine tabs, usually no more than two or three per item. Little or no cleaning up is required. Fit is so good that the complete wagon can be put together for a trial run without the use of any glue. I used PVA, applied sparingly with a screwdriver blade, and immediately removed any excess squeezed out when pressed together with a stick and kitchen tissue. I…

Meet Ernie the fitter. He is easily recognisable, not only by his grubby blue overall, worn flat cap and roll-up fag, but also by that ‘unimpressed by anything’ hangdog expression and grumpy countenance to match. Appearances can be deceptive; Ernie has all the skills and strength of an elite athlete. He has powerful wrists and shoulders and a dead eye, which enables him to hack parts by hand from solid steel to thousandths of an inch (0.025mm) accuracy, or lap bearing surfaces to just a few microns of flatness by hand, given enough time. Fitters were the elite of the Victorian workshop. It was their job to make the parts of a locomotive fit together. Of course, modern machine tool salesmen will tell you that parts made on their machines…

A problem with a tight curve became more of a problem with the acquisition of a new second hand loco. I have been a fan of the Welsh Highland line for many years and the chance to acquire a Roundhouse Enginering Beddgelert was too good to resist, although I had read warnings about it not running too well on tight curves. Apparently, this problem was also present on the prototype, causing the loco to run with the chimney pointing the other way to the norm on the railway. My ‘Shade Gap’ station, as explained in previous articles, has had a number of changes made to the trackwork over the years. This meant that entry at one end now had a point to a coal siding, followed by a very tight…

My – or rather, our, 16 mm scale journey, because it has always been shared with my father Gordon, started back in the 1970s. We had an O-gauge, two-rail powered system in the long, hot summer of 1976, and it failed dismally due to dust on the rails. However, the previous winter, an article in the model press alerted us to the existence of 16mm scale, and we came up with the idea of making a working steam vehicle using a Meccano steam engine. That story is recounted elsewhere (16mm Today, May 2022), but we progressed to an Archangel Sergeant Murphy, and, eventually, a Merlin Midas, before life took over and we gave up in the mid-80s. Many years later, a house with a suitable garden and access to more…

Towards the end of February, 2020, I went along to a narrow gauge model railway exhibition in my hometown of Morecambe, by a small group from the Lancashire area. Even though there were no 16mm scale exhibits, with only the smaller narrow gauge scales running, I enjoyed my time there. Watching the little trains trundling back and forth reminded me of an article I had read years ago on a small-sized railway layout called the Inglenook Siding shunting puzzle. Invented by Alan Wright way back in the late 70s for a Manchester Model Railway Show, using only a couple of points and some odd pieces of track, he designed a 5/3/3 formula, which turned out to be a roaring success. This formula refers to the design of the layout, which…

As promised, I’m following up on previous articles detailing the latest stages in construction of my 1:15 scale model of the Talyllyn Railway’s rolling stock and buildings, which all started with my model of TR No 6 ‘Douglas’, featured in the August 2018 issue of Garden Rail. Deciding which coaches should form the train to be hauled by Douglas was an easy call. My models are based on the Talyllyn, as was in 1970, and as regularly visited by my 10-year-old self – I had definite favourites in which I travelled, and these formed my dream train, which I could now reproduce in 20mm:1 foot scale. My proposed rake - No’s 8 and 9 (Bogies) 11 and 12 (The ‘Opens’) No 14 (Glyn Valley) and No 17 ‘The Corris’ Working…

Letters are welcomed on any aspect of large scale railway modelling. Please email the Editor: phil.parker@warnersgroup.co.uk or post to The Editor, Garden Rail Magazine, Warners Group Publications, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH BUFFER BEAMS The Peckett build series was awesome-if you can do me one favour, can you switch the front and rear draw beams - the one with the wider upper black margin goes on the back of the loco under the cab overhang, it represents the angle iron under the rear cab wall. The larger red draw beam with no wide black margin at the top goes on the front of the loco. David Fletcher Editor: Now sorted, but thanks to a stipped thread, it was one of those 'simple' jobs that suddenly took an hour! Does…

I have always enjoyed the challenge of making ‘things’. Over many years, I have made lots of items, including various working model steam boats. The idea for a garden railway surfaced about nine years ago. It was initially apparent that I knew very little about railway locos, however, several small models have been made, and now chug happily round the garden pulling a few wagons. I watch each go past and think ‘I made that’. Powered by a single cylinder oscillator engine, geared down by about 11 to 1, to the main drive wheels, ensures the locomotive cannot accelerate rapidly and then fall off at the first bend on my windy track. As with most of my projects, this one has lots of nuts, bolts and screws, so it all…

I guess everyone has a favourite building material: metal, wood, plastic, real bricks and stones, or concrete; it just depends on what gives the effect you want, to a standard you are happy with. Unusually, perhaps – especially for a garden railway – mine is cardboard. I have made models out of it from a young age, when sticky tape, toilet rolls and a pair of scissors were the most exciting present you could get, through to using it to build all sorts of weird and wonderful things with my classes as a primary teacher. It is cheap, easy to come by, easy to mark and cut, and amazingly strong. My models are from two basic sources. Budget kits or homemade. If you have had a go at one of…

ROUNDHOUSE ENGINEERING 16mm scale locomotive, ‘Harrogate’ 2023 sees the release of Roundhouse’s new live steam classic series locomotive; ‘Harrogate’. Built in 1944, this loco spent its working life at the Harrogate Gas Works before entering the care of the Ffestiniog Railway in the 1950s. Unfortunately ‘Harrogate’, or ‘Volunteer’ as it would have been known, never entered into full service, and it was a number of years before it was restored in full. The loco finally found a permanent home on the then-private Statfold Barn Railway and now runs regularly for the public. The model version of ‘Harrogate’ will come with all the detail one now expects of a modern Roundhouse engine as well as water gauge, water top up, inside Walschaerts valve gear and radio control as standard. Price: £2390.00…

My PDF Models kit was one of the first batches that Peter produced, and I knew I had made the necessary changes to make the kit look as close as possible to Snailbeach and District No.2. This included having a new boiler made by Peter that was 8mm longer, and a new operating smokebox door that matches the prototype better and also acts as the battery door. Daniel Foard These G scale coaches are made from plywood, with IP Engineering axleboxes and buffers. The wheels are Bachmann and LGB couplings. Roofs are thin gauge sheet metal. They are to match two IP Engineering coach kits I have made. All four coaches have taken approx. 12 months to make. Graham Lomax ‘Fiji’ is an 0-6-0 tender loco used originally in Fiji…