Tabla de contenidos para February 2024 en Model Rail

A mix of kit-bashed and scratchbuilt structures have filled another gap in the industrial backdrop to my ‘OO’ gauge layout. Another Scale Model Scenery laser-cut wood kit (or part of the kit to be precise) has been trimmed to a more appropriate size, re-clad in Slater’s textured plastic sheet and enhanced with various detail fittings. The lean-to structure needed something to, ahem, lean to, so I knocked up the gable end of a larger building using foamboard as a base, clad with the same brick-textured sheet. Window frames and door came courtesy of a Scale Model Scenery warehouse. Also completed over the past month is the extension to a Bachmann Scenecraft chimney. Salvaged from a previous layout, the brick chimney stack would be perfect for the industrial complex, but appeared…

Workbench EXPERT MODELLERS SHOW YOU HOW There are fascinating modelling opportunities to be had using old bits from a modeller’s scrap box. We all have them, filled with spare parts, offcuts and salvaged items from previous layouts and dioramas. There’ll no doubt be a mix of materials too, including metal, wood, card and plastic. Parts may have been lingering for years, awaiting a second chance. Some of my brass etches have been unused for over 20 years, and are likely to never make it to the workbench - at least for their original purpose - so finding an alternative use saves them from going to waste. We also have the option of purchasing a few extra-cheap products, such as miniature oil drums, wooden pallets, lengths of guttering or fencing, and…

Reviews ◆ GAUGE ‘OO’ ◆ MODEL Hornby-Dublo R30263 BR ‘A4’ 4-6-2 No. 60009 Union of South Africa, The Great Gathering 10th Anniversary Collection ◆ PRICE £320.99 ◆ AVAILABILITY Hornby stockists Web www.hornby.com Many readers will recall The Great Gathering of 2013, the once-in-a-lifetime reunion of all six remaining Gresley ‘A4s’ at the National Railway Museum, orchestrated to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Mallard breaking the world speed record for steam traction. As well as the four preserved ‘A4s’ residing in Britain - Mallard, Sir Nigel Gresley, Union of South Africa and Bittern - The Great Gathering also saw Dwight D. Eisenhower and Dominion of Canada temporarily repatriated from North America. To mark the 10th anniversary of this landmark event, Hornby announced a commemorative set of ‘A4s’ under the Hornby-Dublo banner,…

Ruston & Hornsby of Lincoln was formed in 1918 and the company went on to build small locomotives for a huge range of customers in the UK and overseas. Its ‘48DS’ four-wheel diesel-mechanical shunter, equipped with Ruston & Hornsby’s (R&H) own four-cylinder engine, proved a success, leading to the development of a larger, more powerful version. The ‘88DS’ first appeared in 1938, purchased by Tunnel Cement, with many more following over the next two decades, bound for various industrial locations, such as steelworks, quarries, collieries, gas works and power stations. With an output of 88hp, the ‘88DS’ also featured R&H’s own diesel power plant, with a mechanical transmission and chain drive to both axles. Capable of moving trains of up to 500t on level track, these diminutive locomotives proved highly…

Reviews ◆ GAUGE ‘00’ ◆ MODEL Hornby RailRoad Plus R30171 Class 110 two-car DMU, BR/MetroTrain blue/grey ◆ PRICE £ 149.99 ◆ AVAILABILITY Hornby stockists Web www.hornby.com First released in 1982, the Class 110 became a regular item in Hornby’s catalogue throughout the following decades, offered in various BR liveries and in two or three-car formations. Representing one of the more successful first-generation diesel multiple units, Hornby’s model has remained a favourite with modellers, especially as an all-new version has yet to appear in ‘OO’ from any manufacturer. I still have a couple of ‘110s’ in my collection, dating back to the 1990s, albeit in heavily detailed, repainted and re-motored form - those old Ringfield motors could be a little temperamental! Hornby’s Class 110 has been out of production for some…

Reviews ◆ GAUGE ‘TT:120’ ◆ MODELS • Hornby TT6001 7-plank open wagon George & Matthews • TT6002 7-plank open wagon North’s Navigation, £21.49 each • TT6004 LNER vent van • TT6007 BR vent van, £24.49 each • TT6010 12t tank, £25.49 • TT6012 BR ‘Toad E’ brake van, £27.99 ◆ AVAILABILITY Selected Hornby stockists Web www.hornby.com Although it’s just a little over a year since Hornby went public with its ‘TT:120’ range, the number of new models coming on stream has been modest so far, with heightening anticipation for some of the forthcoming locomotives and rolling stock. The initial raft of freight wagons began appearing towards the end of 2023 and, with a few exceptions, most subjects were aimed at the steam and early diesel eras. A representative selection of…

The Big Picture Railway modelling requires a very broad range of disciplines, with many different skills required to build - and operate - a layout. For a newcomer to the hobby it can all seem rather daunting, and as a result a layout may never get off the ground. After helping Chris Morris operate his ‘Dawlish Warren’ layout for several years, including last year’s Warley exhibition, Mark Greenland decided that 2022 was the time for him to attempt his first layout. You can read more about ‘Eardley Mor Halt’ in an upcoming issue of Model Rail.…

Unusual scenes captured by the lens of Chris Nevard Most will agree that rail replacement bus services are a miserable affair. However, in the land of the inch-high folk, the local bus company has spotted a business opportunity by supplying a vintage bus with licensed on-board catering. Very few passengers normally join the train here, but the rail replacement bus is proving really popular, becoming known affectionately as ‘The Party Bus’. Maybe the railway should take note?…

It may be diesel-powered, but George’s other ongoing project is not a train! Started back in 2021, progress on this 1:24 scale Italeri kit of a Volvo F12 truck had been minimal until a little time off saw me reaching for something non-railway related to potter around with. Thankfully, I managed to finish off the comprehensive detailing work on the engine and chassis frames so the painting process could begin. The frames are now looking good in their glossy red livery, but the cab was less successful. In fact, I made a real hash of mixing up the required shade of paint, resulting in a pretty hideous appearance. Back to the drawing board…!…

What makes this layout great? “Pete has done a superb job of making the railway appear to be part of a wider world, with significant elevation changes both above and below the tracks. ‘N’ gauge allows modellers to create a more extensive area in a small space, and Pete has leveraged this potential to maximum effect.” As model railway enthusiasts, we tend to accumulate a lot of ‘stuff’. Sometimes, it’s things from previous layouts, items we have been gifted, or simply scenic items that we had to buy in a pack of six, and we only needed two. Pete Latham is one such modeller who has accumulated a large quantity of ‘stuff’ over the years. His layout ‘Claremont’ was featured in the 2023 edition of Great British Model Railways, and…

Unless you build a layout for a commission or with the intention, before you start, of selling it in the future, the chances are you envisage running trains on it for years to come. As we know, life doesn’t always go to plan, and the global pandemic set in motion a series of events leading to Chris Leigh donating his Cornish harbour layout ‘Polwyddelan’ to a new home. First gracing Model Rail pages in 2016, Chris’ layout stemmed from his wish to model a scene with a sloping street and on which the railway only played a bit part. “I wanted to build something that was inspired by St Ives after spending countless childhood holidays on the sand at Porthminster beach immediately below the station. I remember in the mid-1950s…

KNOW YOUR STUFF PART 26: BR/Sulzer Class 25 The BR/Sulzer Type2 Bo-Bo locomotives, later known as Class 25, were built between 1961 and 1967, at BR’s Darlington and Derby Works, plus a portion of the final batch at Beyer, Peacock and Company in Manchester. A total of 371 examples were eventually completed, being a progression from the earlier Class 24 design. Numbered in two series, D5151 to D5299 and D7500-D7677, the Class 25s later gained the TOPS identities of 25001 to 25327. Confusingly, the class was not constructed in numerical order and a number of variations existed in appearance. The early Class 25s featured gangway doors in the cab fronts, as per the ‘24s’, while the later style omitted the doors in favour of three large windscreens, while the side…

The 1930s is seen as a golden age for the railways, with the ‘Big Four’ companies competing to present themselves as stylish and forward-thinking. The craze for streamlining reflected the prevailing mood and, arguably, nobody did it quite as well as Nigel Gresley, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LNER. Inspired by events on Continental railways, Gresley’s experiments culminated in the ‘A4’ class ‘Pacific’, derived from his highly successful ‘A3’, but encased in a streamlined cladding. A fleet of 35 ‘A4s’ was built at Doncaster Works between 1935-38 for the LNER’s crack ‘Silver Jubilee’ and ‘Coronation’ expresses between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh, complete with matching streamlined coaching stock. The ‘A4s’ proved themselves to be real thoroughbreds, with No. 4468 Mallard setting a new world speed record for steam traction of…

Reviews ◆ GAUGE ‘00’ ◆ MODEL Hornby R60207/8/9 TTA tank wagons, Shell grey/Esso grey/BP green liveries ◆ PRICE £34.99 each ◆ AVAILABILITY Hornby stockists Web www.hornby.com One of my personal highlights from Hornby’s 2023 announcements was an all-new TTA tank wagon. Although a TTA has been in Hornby’s range since 1973, it was eclipsed by Bachmann’s vastly superior version in the early 2000s. Built in their thousands during the 1960s and 1970s, the 40ton glw (gross laden weight) TTA tank wagon became the standard twin-axle conveyance for petrochemical traffic. Hauled within heavy block trains, one or two TTAs could also be seen in mixed goods trains, especially during the BR Speedlink era, or in short trip freights between depots. Emerging in the early 1960s as part of a wholesale investment…

Locomotive: Class 222 ‘Meridian’ DMU Gauge: ‘00’ Proposed by: Clive Scott What is it? Following on from the Class 220/221 ‘Voyager’ fleet, commissioned by Virgin Trains for its West Coast and Cross-Country franchises in the early 2000s, the Class 222 was designed for the Midland Main Line (MML) route. Although featuring a similar technical specification, the Class 222 sports a revised front end and a different interior layout. Assembled by Bombardier Transportation in Bruges, Belgium, as a mix of four-car and nine-car diesel-electric multiple units, the ‘222s’ entered traffic in 2004-5 and were christened ‘Meridians’ by the incumbent franchise holder, Midland Mainline. Hull Trains also ordered a quartet of four-car Class 222s, branded as ‘Pioneer’ units, but they were absorbed into the ‘Meridian’ fleet by 2008, by which time the…

Peter Marriott looks to revisit the West Highland Line 45 years on. Each year I begin at least one new project, endeavouring where possible to use materials and techniques that I have not used before. My visit to the Warley show in November helped me to decide on a theme for 2024, thanks to some new kits from Peco based on structures from the West Highland Line. It was back in the late 1970s that I built my first proper layout, based on Ardlui, which was also the first time any of my modelling appeared in print (in the August 1979 issue of Railway Modeller). The various layouts by Ian Futers and a road visit to Ardlui lead me to try to replicate that station. But when I look back…

Workbench EXPERT MODELLERS SHOW YOU HOW Once I have completed a layout, I often begin to lose interest in it, consigning it to my garage for several years before salvaging re-usable elements for my next project. I don’t think I’m alone in finding that I get the most pleasure from the building of a model railway, rather than the operation. For this new project, consisting of a double-track main line running through the countryside, I have recycled a baseboard from a previous layout, stripping it of track and as much scenery as possible to provide a flat surface on which to build the new scene. The baseboard measures around 2m long and 0.5m wide and it took just 30 minutes to clear away almost all trace of the track and…

Workbench EXPERT MODELLERS SHOW YOU HOW It is to be hoped that the superb Manning, Wardle 2-6-2T and Lynton & Barnstaple coaches from Lionheart Trains will prompt a renewed interest in On16.5 narrow gauge modelling. That is, 7mm:1ft narrow gauge running on 16.5mm gauge (‘OO’) track. True, 7mm:ft scale accessories, vehicles and figures can be used, but narrow gauge railway buildings in the scale are few and far between. Parent company Dapol has addressed the lack of Lynton & Barnstaple buildings with a handful of kits under the revived Kitmaster label. These new Kitmaster kits are, however, about as far removed from the original range of easy-to-build, cheap plastic locomotive kits as it is possible to get. THE PROTOTYPE The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, opened in 1898, sharing a new…

“What makes this layout great? “The club recognised a need and decided to act on it. The result is a lovely little layout which can be transported easily and safely, thanks to the enclosed baseboard, giving the operators peace of mind while on the road.” Throughout our lives, our priorities change, sometimes with primary life goals and sometimes with more minor, less significant changes. The same is true with the desires of model railway clubs. What was once a superb exhibition layout could, in the future, become too large and cumbersome to be transported around the country. This was the case for the Beaconsfield Model Railway Club, whose previous exhibition layout ‘Beaconsbury’ required multiple cars and operators at every event, so in 2018 the club decided something smaller was needed…

◆ GAUGE ‘OO’ ◆ MODEL Hornby R3897 Ruston & Hornsby ‘88DS’ 4wDM No. 20, BR Rail blue ◆ PRICE £113.99. ◆ AVAILABILITY Hornby stockists Web www.hornby.com Hornby’s diminutive Ruston & Hornsby ‘48DS’ diesel shunter proved popular upon its release in 2019, so it was a logical step for the Margate team to tackle the slightly larger ‘88DS’ too. Announced in 2021, four versions of the ‘88DS’ arrived with Hornby stockists just before Christmas, encompassing an industrial duo (North British Distillery Co. and Rowntree & Co.), plus a pair of British Railways examples. Departmental No. 84, in North Eastern Region Civil Engineers lined green livery, is joined by Rail blue No. 20, as reviewed here. Depicting a four-wheel shunter built in 1957 for BR’s Western Region, No. 20 spent its life…

◆ GAUGE ‘00’ ◆ MODEL Dapol 4S-018-012D LSWR ‘B4’ 0-4-0T No. 91 Jersey, Southampton Docks dark green ◆ PRICE £126.36 ◆ AVAILABILITY Dapol stockists Web www.dapol.co.uk First released in 2018 (see MR250), Dapol’s LSWR ‘B4’ received a further production run last year, with models arriving in late November, catering for a variety of liveries and eras. Of special note is No. 91 Jersey, in LSWR-era Southampton Docks lined green livery, with cutaway cab, as reviewed here. The ‘B4‘ 0-4-0Ts were built between 1891 and 1908 - with No. 91 being part of the initial batch - and were ideal for dockyard shunting. When the LSWR purchased Southampton Docks in 1892, the ‘B4s’ became synonymous with this location, until they were usurped by the ‘USA’ 0-6-0Ts during the 1940s. Locomotives working…

Reviews ◆ GAUGE ‘OO’/‘N’ ◆ MODELS • Bachmann 37-865B HRA bogie hopper, DB Cargo red, £69.95 each • Graham Farish 373-865A HRA bogie hopper, DB Cargo red, £46.95 ◆ AVAILABILITY Bachmann stockists Web www.bachmann.co.uk Hundreds of highcapacity wagons were left redundant following the sharp downturn in coal traffic during the late 2010s, with DB Cargo cascading many of its HTAs into aggregate traffic. However, these 100-ton capacity bogie hoppers, built by EWS in the early 2000s, could only be partly filled, owing to stone being much denser than coal. As a result, loaded trains contained a significant amount of empty space within the wagons. To improve efficiency, DB experimented with a shortened HTA, cutting out the central hopper bay and welding the two ends back together. A single prototype, numbered…

Reviews ◆ GAUGE ‘TT:120’ ◆ MODEL • Peco TTR-7000W • 7001E • 7002S • 7003M • 7004B • 7006P 7-plank open wagons ◆ PRICE £18.95 each ◆ AVAILABILITY Peco stockists Web www.peco-uk.com For its first foray into ready-to-run ‘TT:120’ rolling stock, Peco has chosen the onceubiquitous 7-plank open wagon, with models now available at retailers. Tens of thousands of these 9ft wheelbase wagons were built during the first half of the 20th Century, by private builders and railway works, following a design approved by the Railway Clearing House (RCH). Featuring timber frames and body, the wagons were used predominantly for mineral traffic, featuring a combination of end, side and bottom doors to suit various means of discharge. We received eight of the initial releases for review, encompassing ‘Big Four’ liveries,…