Sliding Doors – Red or Blue?

  Class 321 Electrical Multiple Units (nick named Dusty bins)  are the work horse unit on the Great Eastern main line through Ingatestone on the Essex and Suffolk commuter trains. They come in 4 car formations, but run in multiple to cope with the peak hour demand, so we need a number of them. Although …read more.

Skills Transfer Days 2016/7

One of The MRC’s aims is to ensure that modelling skills are passed on to the next generation. It’s perhaps easy for experienced modellers to forget how daunting it was to take some of those key steps in developing techniques, and all too easy for the less experienced to put something in the ‘too difficult’ category.

So we’re continuing our series of ‘skills transfer’ days, to allow a small group of people to try out something they may not have tried before with more experienced modellers on hand to help them. During the day each attendee will work on the kit/parts supplied to learn the techniques and hopefully take home a working model. These courses have been running successfully since 2009, and have been popular with positive feedback. Space is limited on each course, so please book early.

The courses take place at Keen House, 4 Calshot Street, London N1 9DA, and generally start at 10am and run until 4pm with a lunch break.

We’re pleased to confirm the following dates:

A G-scale commission – Part 4 – The Django Express Arrives

The owner of the venue was persuaded to allow us to put removable brackets up along the way to support the layout, which was a major relief, as we were worried that if supported only on the legs if someone grabbed it and fell over, they could bring the layout with it. The brackets not …read more.

A G-scale Commission -Part 3

Work continued, with more track laid, and the wiring following closely behind. The connectors are 3-pin XLRs, with wires linking directly between the sockets on the boards and then to each section of rail. There are separate jumpers between each of the boards. The wire is thicker than we’d normally use, to make sure it …read more.

A G-scale commission – Part 2

Work has continued over the weekend, with all 15 boards now made. The picture here shows 12 of them with some of the underside cross-bracing. What’s more, they all fit together, but our work-room is only about 10m long, so it’s not possible to erect the full length at one time, even if we didn’t …read more.

A G-scale commission – Part 1

As you can imagine, we get a fairly steady stream of requests to help others make bespoke model railways, from a huge range of people – private individuals, TV and film productions and fixed installations in  commercial premises. We aren’t in a position to help with most for all sorts of reasons (normally unrealistic budgets and timescales), …read more.

“Blacklade” in Hornby Magazine

MRC member Stephen Siddle’s OO gauge layout “Blacklade” is featured in the June 2016 edition of Hornby Magazine – which is on sale now. You can get a taster for the layout on our Blog, but there is more about it including some lovely pictures in the magzine.

Ingatestone goes to the Palace !

A very successful weekend for Ingatestone at the London Festival Of Railway Modelling held last weekend at Alexandra Palace. After the safe delivery of the three boards (numbers 4 to 6), the “in progress” demo drew a lot of attention and positive comment from the show-goers. Over the weekend, all of the group took their …read more.

3 Red Panniers Project – Blog 2: It’s ‘EM’ Easy

Progress on L96 continues as I make preparations for detailing on the tank body. Meanwhile, I have started work on the second Pannier ‘L90’ which will be converted to EM (18.2 mm) gauge. For this, I have bought a Gibson conversion package which includes the following: OO/EM Wheel set + Axles Crankpins Coupling Rod Bushes …read more.

3 Red Panniers Project – Blog 1: Farewell GWR

Red Pannier Tanks became a standard feature on the London Transport Network until the 70’s. Their small size was ideal for transporting goods across the Sub-surface network, many were seen trundling across the Metropolitan Line in the final years of Steam on the Underground. There has always been something about Panniers that I have found …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.