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Enter the wonderful world of railway modelling and explore this charming and worthwhile hobby, with modelling enthusiast Chris Ford.

Railway modelling is a lifestyle hobby enjoyed by millions of people from all walks of life, including famous stars like Sir Rod Stewart, Jools Holland, Pete Waterman and even Hollywood A-listers such as Tom Hanks. As a mainstream leisure activity, it encompasses a huge array of artistic, creative and technical aptitudes. It is incredibly rewarding and fulfilling, a great way to learn lots of new skills, and can be enjoyed equally at home or by participating in a local club or group. But knowing where to begin and how to navigate one’s way through the myriad of wondrous things the hobby offers can often be overwhelming to both newcomers and experienced modellers alike.

Hence, this brand new publication which takes a candid and sometimes humorous look at the hobby today, guiding the reader through the multitude of options and choices with which he or she is faced. From what size of models to choose? Where to house a layout in the home? What controllers do I use? Where to get more advice? Should I join a club? In fact, all the information one needs to integrate this ever-fascinating hobby into one’s busy life and including examples of many inspirational model railways built by hobbyists of all persuasions.

The author, Chris Ford, is a lifelong enthusiast who has built layouts in various scales and gauges and is a frequent contributor to Railway Modeller.

In this months issue...

WINTER WONDERLAND

A traditional Christmas scene, with a twist - Huib Maaskant shows how he created a setting for a television advertisement.

KERETAPI MINYAK SAWIT

Jan van Mourik and Henk Wust had the idea of creating a layout in HOe based on a Malaysian palm oil factory and its associated narrow gauge railway.

EASTON - PLAN OF THE MONTH

Ken Wearing was drawn to North American in N after modelling British 00.

+PLUS!

All the latest news, reviews and layouts from around the world!

 

RAILWAY OF THE MONTH

Ellerton Road
Alan Turner recounts the story behind this 7mm scale pre-Grouping Midland Railway layout, which has been constructed over the past two decades by the East Staffordshire Group of the ScaleSeven organisation.

PLAN OF THE MONTH
Hayling Island
Ray Newman rekindled childhood memories of the 41h-mile Hayling Island branch - which closed 60 years ago - by creating a faithful depiction in 00 of the line's characterful terminus..

 

PLUS ALL THE LATEST NEWS & REVIEWS...

In this months issue...

KREIT

Anthony Bilton was inspired by an old album of photos and created a table-top tail chaser in HOe recalling the Stubaitalbahn south of Innsbruck in the 1960s.

STUTTGART

One man's dream in N, regrettably never fully realised - the remarkable private achievement of Wolfgang Frey, preserved for posterity and now open to the public.

VALBRUNA LUSSARI

A halt in the eastern Alps - Luca Klobas presents his new HO diorama, set on the Pontebbana line in Italy.

PLUS!

 

RAILWAY OF THE MONTH

Potters Bar & South Mimms
Phil Clarke chose to replicate the glamour of the East Coast Main Line during the 1930s, when Gresley's A3 and A4 Pacifies reigned supreme, with this digitally controlled system housed in a loft space.

PLAN OF THE MONTH
Tunbridge Wells West
Andy Offen has fulfilled a dream by modelling this former London Brighton & South Coast Railway station in Kent as it appeared in the BR steam era, in N gauge.

 

PLUS ALL THE LATEST NEWS & REVIEWS...

In this months issue...

AUSSERBERG

Roger Ellis describes his fixed home Swiss HO layout based on the Bern-L??tschberg-Simplon which offers the opportunity to run some long trains.

MOULIN MARGOT

Claude Fandel created a large scale field railway scene in a small space, in collaboration with Marcel Ackle.

LA PLAINE SAINT-DENIS

A micro layout in HO set in the Paris suburbs -Wieger Pasman demonstrates that less can be more.

PLUS!

This track models the most common form of concrete sleepering in use in Britain today, with flat bottom rail. PECO Streamline O Gauge Code 143 - Concrete Flexible Track.

SL-702FB PECO Streamline O Code 143 Flexible Track & Concrete SleeperTie

Flat bottom rail, 914mm, 3ft length / Nickel silver rail

View the film here: 

 

RAILWAY OF THE MONTH

Westcliff
For his pre-Grouping Great Western layout, Richard Butler imagined how West Bay in Dorset might have appeared had it developed into the thriving holiday resort envisaged by the original promoters of the railway.

PLAN OF THE MONTH
Abbots Ripton
To mark this year's centenary of the 1923 Grouping, Josh Williams suggests an East Coast Main Line layout set in the first year of the London & North Eastern Railway's existence.

In this months issue...

CENTRAL ALONZO

Sugar and passengers on the Hershey Railroad in Cuba - Andy Gautrey continues his fascination with electrified interurban lines with a new HO layout.

KEANE'S COVE

Debbie McMillan introduces her latest project, a 5-3-3 'Inglenook' switching puzzle in HO.

VERNIERS-MEYRIN

A childhood dream come true - Yann Mon baron describes a large French-Swiss HO layout created by Claude Court.

PLUS!

 

RAILWAY OF THE MONTH

Ashdan Junction
A passion for the Western diesel-hydraulics and memories of the 1970s BR blue era led Barry Platt to create this fictional West Midlands station, with an emphasis on entertaining the public at exhibitions..

PROJECT OF THE MONTH
A Peppercorn K1 in N
With no ready-to-run model of these Eastern Region Moguls in 2mm scale, Ian Cairns set about creating his own from a 3D-printed body and proprietary locomotive and tender chassis.

Adapted from the existing PECO Setrack Curved turnout, this brand new development allows us to add a really useful component into the classic Streamline OO/HO Code 100 range. At last we are able to offer a tighter radius turnout for Streamline users, something that has been requested on and off for a long time. 

Curved turnouts are fantastic space savers and their benefits are often overlooked. Given that so many layouts are built to be located in small spaces the use of curved turnouts ought to be greater than it is, so these new Streamline turnouts may well address many concerns that modellers have when planning their model railway.

This turnout has been derived from the existing Setrack curved turnout the geometry departs from the common frog angle adopted by the Streamline system (which is based on a common frog angle of 12 degrees) - this turnout has a 11.25 degree frog angle and the inner radius is just 438mm, or 17.2 inches. This should not be seen as any disadvantage and the real benefit is that they will allow much tighter access where it is needed, such as in restricted places where a layout has to loop around into a fiddle yard, for example.  The standard Streamline curved turnout has a minimum inside radius of 762mm, 30 inches, so the difference is quite clear to see.

Adapted from the existing PECO Setrack Curved turnout, this brand new development allows us to add a really useful component into the classic Streamline OO/HO Code 100 range. At last we are able to offer a tighter radius turnout for Streamline users, something that has been requested on and off for a long time. 

Curved turnouts are fantastic space savers and their benefits are often overlooked. Given that so many layouts are built to be located in small spaces the use of curved turnouts ought to be greater than it is, so these new Streamline turnouts may well address many concerns that modellers have when planning their model railway.

This turnout has been derived from the existing Setrack curved turnout the geometry departs from the common frog angle adopted by the Streamline system (which is based on a common frog angle of 12 degrees) - this turnout has a 11.25 degree frog angle and the inner radius is just 438mm, or 17.2 inches. This should not be seen as any disadvantage and the real benefit is that they will allow much tighter access where it is needed, such as in restricted places where a layout has to loop around into a fiddle yard, for example.  The standard Streamline curved turnout has a minimum inside radius of 762mm, 30 inches, so the difference is quite clear to see.