Getting ready for Alexandra Palace

Putnam will be among the 40 layouts appearing at the London Festival of Model Railways.  The team have been putting in extra hours to finish a number of mini-projects before we pack everything away ready for transportation ‘up the hill’.  Visually there are a number of new buildings along the back of the yard, and …read more.

Ingatestone turns the corner !

After a lot of wiring, testing of the track power on Ingatestone has started – here we have Bachmann Class 37/4 37421 on the up line on board 6 powering round the corner – next Thursday we will be testing the boards that will be attending London Festival of Railway Modelling at Alexandra Palace. Come …read more.

Ingatestone powers ahead !

This weekend saw Lawrence. Mo and Tom make progress with the power wiring for the layout, as well as on the woodworking. Protector boards to avoid track damage on board ends are being fabricated, and the covers for the trolleys that will be home to the corner boards 5 and 6 took more steps forward. …read more.

Layouts on tour – Spring 2016

Our layouts are all designed to be portable, so they can be taken to exhibitions. This spring we are delighted to have been invited to some great shows, including: 20th Feb – Minories (GN) headed into Southern territory at Tonbridge, whilst Happisburgh Goods went in the opposite direction to Biggleswade 12/13th March – Caledonian Goods (aka Mrs …read more.

Ingatestone readies for Ally Pally

With our first official outing only 6 weeks away, when we will be showing as a work in progress at the London Festival of Railway Modelling at Alexandra Palace – have a look at: www.world-of-railways.co.uk/shows/show/the-london-festival-of-railway-modelling/   This last weekend, Lawrence, Mo and Tom were hard at work progressing the side board boxes and getting our …read more.

Ingatestone is so Bracing !

Progress today on the storage and transport boxes for the two side boards – five and six. Tom and Maurice spent today adding the bracing to the side panels which will eventually be mounted on the skates and provide protection. I took the opportunity to do some wiring on the aforementioned boards, to get them …read more.

New Year progress on Ingatestone !

Although we have been quiet over Christmas, that doesn’t mean that we have not been active on Ingatestone, as the photos will attest !   Progress since the last update:   Bob has been busy progressing the bridge nearer the country end of Ingatestone station and has started the drawing of Stock Lane bridge further …read more.

Track building – Part 1

One of the more frequent questions I get asked at exhibitions is how the track is built. Modelling in EM there isn’t much choice for anything other than plain track, but my track building goes back to my teenage OO days. Despite living only a couple of miles away at the time, I originally stumbled …read more.

Manatee Bay

“Manatee Bay” is Eddie Thompson’s winning entry in the MRC’s 2015 layout challenge. It’s a fictitious H0 marine terminal (part of a larger layout) located on a river estuary on the Florida Panhandle operated by Seaboard Air Line Railroad.   The inspiration for the layout came from the March 2014 edition of Model Railroader which …read more.

Old Head

  “Old Head – County Mayo” is Nestor Middleton’s entry into the MRC 2015 layout challenge. The Location The railway came to this remote little part of County Mayo when the Midland Great Western railway of Ireland opened its line to Westport in 1866. Not before long, a short extension was opened to Westport Quay …read more.

Newton Peverill

“Newton Peverill” is Mike Lloyd’s entry in the MRC’s 2015 Layout Challenge.  It’s an N-gauge Great Western terminus, that whilst meeting the criteria of the challenge has been designed to be extended to 8’x1′ to make it more operationally interesting.    

“Narrow Gorge” – OOn3 microlayout

“Narrow Gorge” is Tom Cunnington’s entry in the MRC’s 2015 layout challenge.

Although not his first layout,, it is a first attempt at a number of techniques, including narrow gauge (all the kit-built stock is new for the layout), modelling cliffs and water, and trying to give depth in a very small footprint. It was also a bit of a rush, having previously decided (several times) that it would be a distraction from other projects.

It’s built at 1:76 scale, the same as OO, but with narrower 3′  gauge track – normally called “OOn3”

Here’s the diary of how it was built over 18 days, mostly an hour or two later in the evening (with apologies for viewers on some mobile devices – the photos keep rotating back)