The Club builds and operates layouts in a variety of scales.
A3 Rolling Road – Big modelling continued
I haven’t been modelling, as such, but learning how to manage the A3. To do this I made up a rolling road from laser cut components so that all the subtleties of fire and water management can be achieved with the convenience of an engine running on the spot. The engine prefers quite small coal …read more.
Apr 13, 2020
Building for Bow Junction
I’ve been working on the buildings for Bow Junction. I have built a foam board mock up of Bow Station building which will help us design the final model. I am at the moment making plastikard sections of the classical mouldings that adorn the building , with a view to having them cast in resin. …read more.
Apr 13, 2020
Baker Street signal cabin in S scale
This S scale cabin was started some while ago but ground to a halt due to delivery (!) issues of the ‘crittall’ windows. However this has now been resolved using my ‘silhoutte’ cutter. The windows were redrawn on its dedicated drawing program and cut from thin self-adhesive black vinyl. You might even note the work …read more.
Apr 10, 2020
Going Big – Modelling to 3.5″ gauge with Live Steam
As you are obviously all well aware, our Covid 19 world has moved in to a very strange place in the last month. Many of us are is lockdown and people are allegedly going mad with nothing to do. Fortunately, most modellers have far too many incomplete projects in their stash drawers to keep them …read more.
Apr 4, 2020
Members’ Layouts – an Introduction to Golden Mile
As well as contributing to our Club layouts, many of our members have their own projects at home – and here’s an example of just one of them. “Golden Mile” is inspired by the 2mm Scale Association’s golden jubilee competition this year and a chance purchase of some wagons at a deep discount. The requirements …read more.
Feb 12, 2020
Bow Junction – ready for another busy year
Bow Junction is our 7mm scale layout, which is being built to Scale 7 specification. The main difference from standard finescale 0 gauge is that the track gauge is 1 mm wider and the back to back dimension is 2mm greater. Also the thickness of the wheels is less than finescale 0 gauge. It is …read more.
Jan 11, 2020
Renumbering Coaches
Here’s a simple project to renumber coaches to avoid having duplicates on the layout or make them specific to your region. These are Bachmann Mk1 sleepers – for the ‘next’ project, and with 3 of both types (SLSTP and SLF) in the rake I needed to renumber at least 4. They’ve been converted to EM …read more.
Dec 29, 2019
Where to buy model railways in London
You may be one of the hundreds of households that has received a Hornby or Bachmann OO model railway train-set for the first time this Christmas – perhaps even a Graham Farish one in N gauge. We hope you enjoy it. Once you have discovered the fun of what is included, your mind (or certainly …read more.
Dec 25, 2019
Happy 175th Birthday to Ingatestone
On the 12 May Ingatestone turned 175. No we haven’t been building the layout that long, this was the birthday for the prototype station at Ingatestone in Essex on the Great Eastern mainline, which is our inspiration. One of the team was able to go along to the festivities, and while Kev will be writing …read more.
Jun 24, 2019
Finescale learning session
Please see below for details of upcoming learning session on converting stock to run in the finer scale gauges.
Jun 24, 2019Spring 2019 Point Building Workshop
This Sunday the Orchard Wharf team are having a point building workshop, and are opening up the opportunity to other members of the Club. They have a series of complex points to build, and this workshop will be teaching the fundamentals of shaping and soldering rail and getting the relationships between the rails right to …read more.
May 19, 2019Action Plan for Bow Junction until 30th June 2019
Not much will happen during April since in Keen House Copenhagen Field is being erected for the Open Day on Sunday 28th April, and Mike Randall is adding the ramp on the lines to Fenchurch Street. The Plan is that all our boards will return from Mike’s workshop before 28th April. On the 28th April …read more.
Apr 12, 2019