Tabla de contenidos para May 2025 en Model Rail

March 26 marked the retirement of Model Rail's founding editor Chris Leigh, 28 years after launching this magazine as a standalone publication, and 33 years since joining the company (which was then EMAP). Chris’ career in railway journalism began in 1963 and he became a household name amongst modellers during his long stint at Model Railway Constructor. Having also edited Steam World, written countless books, exhibited numerous layouts, and produced his own range of kits and components, Chris’ contribution to the hobby has been immense. Current and former members of the Model Rail team gathered to celebrate Chris’ retirement, including previous MR editors Ben Jones and Richard Foster, contributors Dave Lowery, Peter Marriott, Chris Nevard and Ben Ando, plus much-loved retired administrative hero (and our collective ‘auntie’!) Jane Skinner. Model…

I recently acquired one of Revolution Trains’ IWA Rfnoos ‘OO’ gauge timber-carrying wagons, and while I am used to models arriving in a cardboard box with plastic inserts, I was pleasantly surprised that the IWA models arrived in attractive packaging, a really good quality cardboard box with foam inserts and protective packaging for the models. It was a nice touch that the inside cover of the box carried photos of real IWA wagons in service. Top marks to Revolution. The splendid packaging almost distracted me from the model within. The wagons just called out for a load of logs so I spent the next hour in the garden finding straight twigs which were cut to length using sprue cutters where the twigs were less than a tenth of an inch…

The Oban Times of August 18 1894 announced that the West Highland Railway would “afford an infinite amount of pleasure, inasmuch as it traverses an area which reveals an everchanging panorama of vast lakes and mighty mountains… and a tract of country laden with historic associations and memories of the past”. The West Highland Line continues to inspire and excite enthusiast and general public alike, 131 years after that first Glasgow-Fort William section opened. I've certainly fallen under its spell and have made several attempts to capture its charms in model form since the late 1970s. In fact, my first proper layout was based on Ardlui, the station close to the northern tip of Loch Lomond, where the landscape is particularly dramatic. My curiosity had originally been piqued by Ian…

London Bridge is my long-term ‘N’ gauge layout project. It is not the first 2mm scale layout I have built, but it is the first to be permanently based at home. Previous layouts, ‘Hedges Hill Cutting’ and ‘Stoney Lane Depot’, were both portable and taken to several exhibitions over the years. However, age has crept up on me and I'm no longer comfortable in lugging layouts around, setting them up, dismantling them a day or two later and taking them back home. For me the layout is a major project and is taking time to progress. The slow progress is due to a few factors. Firstly, it's a one-person project and I'm undertaking everything myself. Also, with the layout being based on an actual location, all the structures and buildings…

Representing British Rail's final diesel locomotive type, the Class 60 heavy freight locomotive came about during a time of uncertainty, as existing traction types were proving no match for the American-built Class 59s. Government approval was received for BR to procure 100 new Type 5 locomotives, to be built in the UK, with Brush Traction of Loughborough eventually winning the tendering process. Electrical equipment, traction motors and bogies were produced internally, but the bodyshells were fabricated and painted by Procor near Wakefield, while the Mirrlees MB275T diesel power units were built in Stockport. The class pioneer 60001 emerged in June 1989 but it would be March 1993 before the final Class 60 was accepted into traffic. Extensive testing by BR's engineers revealed numerous faults, while issues with the Mirrlees engines…

◆ GAUGE ‘OO’ ◆ MODEL OO Works Holden GER/LNER ‘J17’ 0-6-0 No. 5563, LNER black ◆ PRICE £337.00 (plus p&p) ◆ AVAILABILITY OO Works Tel 01580 882185 ◆ Web www.ooworks.co.uk It's quite remarkable that OO Works can not only find gaps in the ready-to-run market that need filling but quite sizeable ones at that. Its latest model, the Great Eastern Railway ‘G58’ – better known as the LNER ‘J17’ – is one such gap. Hornby was arguably expected to have filled it when it went through its Great Eastern phase a few years ago. Having delivered superb models of the ‘J15’ 0-6-0, ‘B12/3’ 4-6-0 and ‘D16/3’ 4-4-0, it then left three golden opportunities – the ‘J67/J69’ 0-6-0T, the ‘E4’ 2-4-0 and the ‘J17’. Accurascale is, of course, working on the…

SUMMARY PROS • Easy system to use. • Convincing sound and steam exhaust effects. • No unpleasant smells or residue. • Great fun to operate. • Beautiful, high-fidelity models. CONS • Not a lot. FINAL VERDICT Smokin’!…

♦ GAUGE ‘OO’ ♦ MODEL Rapido Trains UK GWR Dia. O18 open wagons • 971014 BR grey ‘Hybar’ • 971017 PBA blue ♦ PRICE £32.95 each ♦ AVAILABILITY Rapido stockists Web www.rapidotrains.co.uk Designed for general merchandise traffic, the GWR built nearly 3,000 Diagram O18 five-plank open wagons between 1914-24, examples of which remained in use well into the British Railways era. A good many also found second careers with industrial users and port authorities, and several have survived into preservation. Rapido's new ‘OO’ rendition of the Dia. O18 wagon is now available in 19 different versions across GWR, BR and Rhymney Railway liveries. There are also Port of Bristol, Port of London and Manchester Ship Canal variants to choose from. The five-plank timber bodyshell is well captured, with superbly moulded…

The Big Picture Anybody who has watched plenty of science fiction television or films will be familiar with the laws of causality. For those who aren't familiar with the term, the premise is that a single decision in the past creates an entirely new timeline and one cannot simply go back in time and change an event expecting everything to be the same in the present. We often think about this in our own lives with the expression ‘I wonder what life would have been like if I hadn't…’ Fortunately, model railways allow us to play out these hypothetical scenarios without inadvertently changing the course of human events. Russ Pigott has done just that with his enormous room-filler ‘Cley-onSea’. You can read more about how he built it in a…

Richard Foster and George Dent present four new titles that will inspire and inform your modelling. STEP ON THE GAS A timely release given that KR Models’ miniature take on this gas-turbine powered oddity is still fresh in the mind. ‘Oddity’ is just one way to describe GT3, yet do not dismiss this book as such for it is a superbly researched account, not just of GT3, but of turbine power on Britain's railways. Stanier's Turbomotive, the ReidRamsay and Ljungstrom designs all get good coverage, as does No. 18000 and APT-E. It's the access to the photographs and documents of GT3's creator John Hughes that makes this such a fascinating read. An essential addition to your library. (RF) Book: GT3 The Unrealised Dream by Tim Hillier-Graves Price: £30.00 Availability: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk FOUR-COUPLED…

Paul Bambrick reveals how he employs made-to-measure sheets of thin alloy sheet to form curved backdrops to his layout projects. If you're thinking of starting a new layout project, or re-doing your backscene rear panel, here's an idea that might be worth a try. Most of the backscenes that I produce now, even on permanently installed layouts, use 0.9mm thick, soft alloy sheet to do the job. This material has a great many advantages over inflexible wooden panels, as it's lightweight and strong, but also very easy to curve into shape. The material can be mail ordered, already pre-cut to your chosen size (see panel). In order to establish the dimensions, it's best to set up the rear panel as a temporary mock-up using mounting card. or even regular corrugated…

“What makes this layout great? The framing of ‘Hafod Vivian Sidings’ completely fools your brain into believing you are viewing a scene through a broken window. The beauty of this is that your brain then understands why the scenery is so small, as your mind believes you're looking down on the scene from an elevated position rather than floating in the sky.” There is much to be said for the argument that growing up in the 1960s was far easier than growing up today. Children were given far more freedom to explore, there wasn't such a thing as health and safety, and so long as you were back home in time for your dinner your parents didn't really care what you got up to. It sounds much nicer than the…

◆ GAUGE ‘OO’ ◆ MODEL Dapol 4D-088-003 Class 88 88007 Electra, DRS ‘Compass’ blue ◆ PRICE £199.95 (DCC-ready) ◆ AVAILABILITY Rails of Sheffield Web www.railsofsheffield.com The ‘OO’ gauge Class 68 has been one of Dapol's most popular – and most acclaimed – diese-outline locomotives of the past decade, being reprised for several production runs and catering for the various liveries that have been carried by the Stadler locomotives since their introduction in 2013. With the Class 88 electro-diesel locomotives carrying a strong resemblance to the ‘68s’, many of us with an interest in the modern scene had wondered if Dapol would also add this fleet to its portfolio. Happily, as announced last year, the ‘88’ was indeed in the pipeline, being produced as an exclusive commission for Rails of Sheffield,…

James Holden used the same boiler and cylinders from his ‘Claud Hamilton’ 4-4-0s4‑0s to create what was Britain's large-t-0‑6‑0 in 1900. The GER built 60 ‘F48s’ between 1900 and 1902. A batch built in 1903 had Belpaire fireboxes. They became ‘G58’ and 30 were built until 1911. Rebuilding the ‘F48s’ with Belpaire fireboxes started in 1908 but the final locomotives were not complete until the 1920s. By this point, the ‘F48s’ had become LNER ‘J16’ while the Belpaire engines were ‘J17s’. Superheating was introduced in 1915 and the last, No. 8218, was not converted until 1932. The ‘J16s/J17s’ were initially based at March and Peterborough East for working coal trains. This continued through to the 1930s, although Cambridge, Kings Lynn, Norwich, Parkeston and Stratford had ‘J17s’ based there. The class…

♦ GAUGE ‘OO’ ♦ MODEL Accurascale ACC2755-31110 BR Class 31 31110 Railfreight grey ♦ PRICE £169.99 (DCC-ready), £269.99 (DCC sound) ♦ AVAILABILITY Accurascale stockists Web www.accurascale.com The humble, versatile and long-lived BR/Brush Type 2 Class 31 was thrust into the limelight in 2024, with no fewer than two superb all-new, highspecification models entering the market from Bachmann (see reviews in MR329/330) and Accurascale (MR332). The first wave of Accurascale ‘31s’ concentrated solely on BR blue examples, and we had great pleasure in testing a pre-TOPS version of 5544, with alphanumerical headcode boxes and a full array of as-built details, such as train heating boiler fittings, raised waist-level beading and bufferbeam cowlings. The handful of initial releases also included a couple of prototypes in their post-refurbishment condition, including the ‘31/4’ sub…

♦ GAUGE ‘OO’ ♦ MODEL Oxford Rail 12ton seven-plank mineral wagons • OR76MW7034 GWR grey • OR76MW7035 SR brown • OR76MW7036 LMS light grey • OR76MW7037 LNER grey ♦ PRICE £16.95 each ♦ AVAILABILITY Oxford Rail stockists Web www.oxfordrail.com Hot on the heels of Oxford Rail's new batch of 12ton tanks (reviewed last month) is a quartet of new 12ton mineral wagons. Launched initially in 2015, Oxford's seven-plank opens are based on a Railway Clearing House (RCH) design from the early 1920s and employed by countless private owners and the main railway companies of the time, with tens of thousands of examples constructed up to 1940. Based around a timber chassis frame, with a 9ft wheelbase, the body featured a hinged door at one end, plus side and bottom discharge…

First announced in late 2022, Model Rail‘s first collaboration with Accurascale has now come to fruition, with the arrival of our exclusive ‘OO’ gauge Class 31 31116 RAIL Celebrity, in its unique British Rail Infrastructure livery. The hitherto anonymous Brus Type 2 was chosen to mark the first decade of our sister title RAIL magazine, while wearing BR's ‘Dutch’ grey/yellow civil engineers’ livery. Initially, the locomotive was named RAIL 1981-1991 in October 1991 but, two years later, it famously gained a one-off Union Pacific Railroad-inspired scheme of harbour mist grey and armour yellow, with twin red bands, with the colour scheme being applied at Derby Etches Park and sponsored by Pete Waterman. To mark the occasion, 31116 was re-dedicated as RAIL Celebrity, and soon became a cult favourite with enthusiasts,…

To mark the manufacturer's 10th birthday, Irish Railway Models has revealed that it is working on a ‘OO’ gauge model of the legendary Great Southern Railway (GSR) three-cylinder Class 800 4-6-0. A trio of these express passenger locomotives emerged in 1939-40, being built at Inchicore Works, and were famed for their impressive performances on Top Link Dublin-Cork services during the following two decades. Eventually displaced by diesel traction in the late 1950s, the ‘800s’ were reduced to secondary and freight services before the final example was withdrawn in 1962, with doyen No. 800 being preserved and currently on display at the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum. The models will feature flywheelfitted five-pole motors, 21pin DCC sockets and, for sound-fitted models, a twin speaker arrangement, with a large ‘mega bass’ unit…

Having chronicled my build of a number of HST units, featuring various Mk 3 coaches and power car sets, we now come to the beating heart of these models – the power bogies. The PRMRP Class 43 power car kits, as shown over the past few issues, have been a joy to build, with a mix of etched brass, cast whitemetal and resin components coming together nicely. Modellers have the option of purchasing a ‘basic’ kit, which includes the parts to produce an unpowered model without wheels, or a ‘full’ kit, with motors, gears, Delrin chain and wheels provided, so all that's required is paint and transfers. While the following demonstration concerns bogies for a Bo-Bo diesel or electric locomotives, the basic techniques are the same for six-wheel Co-Co bogies…

What makes this layout great? This layout isn't about putting in thousands of hours of painstaking modelling to accurately render a location. Rather, it's an exercise in showing what is possible in the larger scale in a short time, and it plays its role perfectly. Qestion: is it possible to build a fully functioning layout over one weekend while at an exhibition with hundreds of people walking past you, wondering why your baseboards are bare when everything else is a completed layout with moving trains? Answer: yes, if you're the Gauge O Guild. We've proven in the pages of Model Rail before that building a layout in a matter of days is possible, but building one over just a weekend takes speed building to a whole new level. Tasked with…

Since we launched our exclusive Ruston & Hornsby ‘PWM’ locomotives (see page 103), I've been slowly assembling a motley array of engineers’ wagons to complement my BR Departmental yellow version. While the larger track panel-carrying vehicles and crane are the most eye-catching, there's also a need for some more humdrum examples. Having picked up one of Kernow Model Centre's exclusive Bachmann 13ton high-sided open wagons a few years back, complete with factory weathered finish and S&T (Signal & Telegraph Department) markings, I'd been pondering the creation of a suitable load. Inspiration duly arrived with a fascinating plastic kit from the Polish MiniArt brand. Model: Bachmann 38-326Z BR 13t High-sided wagon S&T Cable wagon (KMRC Exclusive) Price: £24.95 Availability: No longer available new, but available pre-owned from dealers As featured in…

◆ GAUGE ‘OO’ ◆ MODEL Cavalex Models CM60010DBS BR/Brush Class 60 60010 DB Schenker red ◆ PRICE £194.95 (DCC-ready) £294.95 (DCC sound-fitted) ◆ AVAILABILITY Cavalex stockists www.cavalexmodels.com It's been two years since Cavalex Models revealed the subject of its second ‘OO’ locomotive project and, following the huge success of the Class 56, we have been expecting great things from the ‘60’. With a well-regarded model still in Hornby's range, and with a new version to come from Accurascale, the market for 4mm scale Class 60s is becoming a little crowded. That said, the enduring popularity of the real Type 5s and the huge variety of potential liveries makes for a more viable project. Indeed, there's a palpable appetite for highfidelity replicas which provide greater prototype accuracy and heightened levels of…

While Direct Rail Services scored points with enthusiasts for its use of classic ex-British Rail diesel locomotives, the need for a modernised traction fleet had become a priority by the late 2000s, as the operator gained new freight contracts. While the ubiquitous Class 66 served a purpose to an extent, there was also a growing need for locomotives equally at home on express passenger services, thanks to sub-leasing arrangements with other Train Operating Companies, such as Chiltern Railway, ScotRail and TransPennine Express. As a result, Stadler Rail won the tender to produce a fleet of 3,800hp Class 68 Bo-Bo diesel electric locomotives, with the first of a 34-strong fleet entering service in 2013. During the four-year build programme, Stadler proposed a dualmode version of the locomotive, capable of running primarily…

♦ GAUGE ‘OO’ ♦ MODEL Hornby • R30352SS LNER Class W1 No. 10000 • R30350SS LNER Class P2 No. 2002 Earl Marischal, with steam generators ♦ PRICE £324.99 each ♦ AVAILABILITY Hornby stockists Web www.hornby.com First mooted back in 2022, Hornby's DCC-controlled steam generator-fitted locomotives created quite a stir. While the smoke generator principle was nothing new, with numerous off-the-shelf models incorporating a simple oil heating element in the past – including Hornby's GWR 2-8-0 – results were always a little hit-and-miss. In contrast, Hornby's new system uses regular water as the ‘fuel’ and, most importantly, the operation is linked to the various DCC-operated sound functions. Offered initially on Gresley's famous LNER Class A3 and the all-new Stanier ‘Black Five’, Hornby's latest pair of steam generator-fitted locomotives arrived at stockists…

♦ GAUGE ‘OO’ ♦ MODEL Rapido Trains UK 977002 GWR Dia. N19 Loco coal wagon ♦ PRICE £32.95 each ♦ AVAILABILITY Rapido stockists Web www.rapidotrains.co.uk The Great Western Railway employed a fleet of special wagons to convey steam coal from South Wales pits to locomotive sheds across its network. Initially, timber-bodied vehicles were built but, from 1889, the first iron-bodied wagons appeared in the form of the Diagram N6 open. Rapido's new GWR Loco Coal wagon portrays the Diagram N19 vehicle, built from 1913 and featuring rolled corners, similar to the shape of the ‘Iron Mink’ vans of the day. Equipped with generous 5ft 4in wide side doors, the wagons were designed to make the unloading of coal as easy as possible, whether it be into steel tubs for large…

◆ GAUGE ‘N’ ◆ MODEL Revolution Trains ‘Cartic-4’ car carrier RT-N-CAR4-101B Original version, RT-N-CAR4-125B with side screens and roofs ◆ PRICE £149.95 per four-car set ◆ AVAILABILITY Revolution Trains stockists Web www.revolutiontrains.com British Rail and the Ford Motor Company collaborated on a new design of high-capacity car carriers, resulting in the ‘Cartic-4’, consisting of four permanently coupled, articulated double-deck vehicles. More than 500 four-car sets were eventually built during the late 1960s and the wagons were employed for the transit of cars from factories and ports to distribution points across the UK, as well as for BR's own Motorail passenger services. Originally, the wagons featured twin open decks but, to reduce the risk of damage, mesh and fibreglass screens were eventually added during the 1980s, while roof panels were also…