Silver Sidelines

My last session featured some of my older models of BR (LMR) steam 4-6-0s. On that occasion I had started to strengthen some of my rakes of coaches and had added additional second class BR Mk1s. Six Up The Hornby ‘Staniers’ are relatively light weight. The Bachmann ‘Portholes’, despite some criticism of the bogie design, I think are free running. Adding an extra Bachmann Mk1 to the ‘Staniers’ and the ‘Portholes’ did not cause any haulage problems on my gradients. My Bachmann Mk1s appear to be heavy and rather sluggish coaches. A rake of six Mk1s was maybe a ‘coach too far’ for some of my 4-6-0s. With a good run the train would manage the gradient but the performance was rather frantic. I would clean the coach wheels and check the bearing cups with my reaming tool. The old split chassis type Bachmann Jubilees weigh in around 308 gm. Mine have quite a good haulage capacity. The new Bachmann Jubilees have a space inside the boiler for the DC chip and th...

The Xmas period has provided an opportunity to bring some of my older locomotives out of retirement. I was prompted in part by questions about the running of old Palitoy / Mainline 4-6-0s. Holiday Reliefs – Mainline Jubilee and Scot on Bachmann Chassis When I returned to the hobby in the late 1970s both Mainline and Airfix had just started to produce their range of super detail plastic models. The contrast with Hornby Dublo and Triang was amazing – was Meccano management asleep on the job? While Airfix concentrated on tender drive locomotives the Mainline / Palitoy range featured engine driven locomotives. Mainline Baby Scot ‘Illustrious’ - black painted wheel rims In 1980 I bought Illustrious and Royal Scot from the local model shop in Morpeth. These purchases were followed in 1981 and 1982 by Jubilees ‘Orion’ and ‘Leander’ from Johnson’s in Alnwick and Trent’s in Swindon respectively. Mainline Jubilee ‘Leander’ The wheel rims on these early M...

As the winter solstice approaches I thought it appropriate to look back at some of my earliest railway models. My first ‘train set’ arrived one Christmas in the early 1950s. I am guessing that it was 1953 or 1954 when I received a clockwork Trackmaster tank engine, a Graham Farish suburban coach and four Graham Farish goods wagons. Trackmaster Clockwork engine from the 1950s prior to sale in 2007 1950s Graham Farrish suburban coaches – repainted and fitted with Hornby bogies prior to sale in 2009   Sole remnant of Graham Farish steel mineral wagon from 1953 compared to recent Bachmann wagon My father was not a train man. I need to give him some credit for he must have asked for advice ‘in the office’ before purchase. The rolling stock came with an oval of track on a solid board. Perhaps it was Wren track. There was a big green tunnel made by a family friend. Years later my father confided that it had been a nightmare to pin the steel rail which seemed to...

How to construct the baseboard? This question seems to be asked on a regular basis. I will describe my own experiences. The woodwork in progress I have used the same basic approach for all three of my ‘big’ layouts. I would say it is my variation of the ‘L’ Girder technique. ’L’ Girder overview according to CJ Freezer I spent some time this weekend searching through old periodicals to see if I could find the original article that inspired me to use the ‘L’ Girder technique. No luck – I think it was a US layout. I did find an article in the Railway Modeller from September1969 which linked back to an earlier article from October 1966 which I do not have. These articles provide a useful overview of the technique but differ slightly in detail from my own practice . For my basic structure I made ‘L’ girders by screwing and gluing 1x2 inch planed timber to the top of 1x3 inch planed timber to form an inverted ‘L’. PVA provides the bond and a few strategically ...