The Railway Magazine Guide to Modelling - Issue 8 - July 2017 - Preview

GUIDE TO

Modelling JULY 2017, FREE

REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS, NOSTALGIA, ADVICE

HMRS:

Guardians of railway history

TRIX: BLASTS FROM THE PAST

RECORD-BREAKING MODELS

FLIGHTS OF FANCY

ELECTRICALS || SIGNALBOXES || LAYOUTS WE LOVE || AIRBRUSHES

CONTENTS

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Contents 12 ON THE COVER The HMRS rotating seasonal layout at the Midland RailwayButterley.

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WHAT’S IN THE SHOPS?

Nigel Burkin reviews Bachmann’s digital sound Jubilee class, the Sparmax MAX-4 airbrush and the Collett 14XX tank engine.

STARTING OUT:

Wiring and electrics.

BLASTS FROM THE PAST

This month Tony Stratford looks into Trix.

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HISTORICAL MODEL RAILWAY SOCIETY

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JUST FOR THE RECORD

LAYOUTS WE LOVE

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READER LAYOUTS

PAST AND PRESENT

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DIARY DATES

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WHY GRIMSBY

LETTING OFF STEAM

Finding fault with finding fault…

LETTERS

Four pages of RMM letters and questions..

Falmouth Society of Railway Modellers.

Ian Lamb looks at signalboxes.

Sarah Palmer pays a visit.

Ian Holloway looks at record-breakers.

Flights of fancy with Darryl Foxwell.

What’s on this month where you are.

Modelling the unfamiliar.

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PHOTO: Jack Boskett

From the editor

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Staff

Editor Sarah Palmer RMModellingeditor@Mortons.co.uk Contributors Michael Watts, Bernard Gudgin, Tony Stratford, Lucian Doyle, Michael Doyle, Nigel Burkin, Ian Lamb, Ian Holloway, Darryl Foxton Production editor Pauline Hawkins Senior designer Kelvin Clements Designer Holly Furness Picture desk Paul Fincham, Jonathan Schofield Advertising manager Sue Keily Publisher Tim Hartley Publishing director Dan Savage Commercial director Nigel Hole Subscription manager Paul Deacon Circulation manager Steve O'Hara Marketing manager Charlotte Park

To advertise, contact: Lynsey Young 01507 529454 lyoung@Mortons.co.uk Fiona Leak 01507 529573 fleak@Mortons.co.uk

Where to find us

Editorial, advertising and administration Mortons Media Group Ltd, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR Tel 01507 529529

www.railwaymagazinemodelling. co.uk

Copyright

© Copyright Mortons Media Group Ltd. Reproduction in any manner, in whole or part, without prior approval in writing is prohibited. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in articles or advertisements, or for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations.

Printing

Mortons Print, Horncastle, Lincs.

Tel 01507 523456

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July 2017

Sarah Palmer Editor

few months ago I found myself down a muddy track leading to the Midland Railway-Butterley – a remarkable enough site in itself, coming as it does seemingly out of nowhere and arriving on my horizon as a diorama of industrial railway history. But this site is also home to the Historical Model Railway Society, whose mission ‘to record Britain’s railways for tomorrow’s generation’ doesn’t fully get across just how much archive material that this remarkable collection of volunteers have preserved for future generations to reference, whether they are railway modellers or railway enthusiasts.

I was enraptured by the stunning working drawings of carriages and locos, some of which bore the patina of their working lives on the shop floor. I could almost hear the hammering clamour, smell the oil and feel the heat of the workshops.

All of which bring me to Lucian Doyle’s opinion column this month about ‘rivet counters’ – the name given to those who forensically analyse model loco detailing and find it wanting.

Having seen the HMRS’s stunning collection up close, it left me wondering, did everyone follow these drawings to the letter, and indeed the rivet? Either way this archive is of huge historical significance and of great potential interest in terms of research material available to modellers and manufacturers.

Also in this issue we have another feature of interest to anyone planning a model railway – where do you choose to model and does it have to be somewhere you know or remember intimately?

Michael Doyle did nothing of the sort and chose to model the former fishing town of Grimsby, a place he’s visited only once! Meanwhile Darryl Foxton talks about the research he undertook of a different kind for his fictitious layout of Trudoxhill Castle.

Plus we’ve got all the usual favourites including reviews from Nigel Burkin, who this month has looked at air brushing, and Layouts We Love, Starting Out and a bumper selection of letters – thanks to all those readers contacting RMM to say they’re enjoying the magazine!

News JULY 2017

If you have any news please email RMModellingeditor@mortons.co.uk

The asparagus line!

The Cedarbarn Farm Shop & Cafe’s 7¼in gauge miniature railway not only carries visitors over its 650yd line – but also takes the harvested crops to the shop.

At present, the sole motive power for the line is a Phoenix Locos' battery-electric Warship, which is recharged inside the line’s Redgate Tunnel.

The immaculately presented Warship normally hauls a rake of sit-on coaches – the ‘Flying Yorkshireman’ train – from a replica Victorian station next to the venue’s entrance on the A170 Thornton Road just east of Pickering.

However, the line, which was four years at the planning stage, also has a freight wagon on which crops grown in the fields through which it runs are brought to the shop.

The main crop taken by rail from the fields to the counter is asparagus. The line, which is built to a dumb-bell design with loops at either end and a passing loop, has also carried consignments of strawberries and pumpkins.

The railway was designed to take visitors to the farm’s 'pick your own' fields, where they can hop off and pick strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries and blackcurrants.

Owner and farmer Karl Avison said: “We’ve been growing asparagus for 15 years and we’re very proud of our Yorkshire crop. Every morning we head out to harvest the Cedarbarn asparagus, which is one of the sweetest varieties you can taste.

“The site has a steam history, because many years ago it was the home of the Pickering Traction Engine Rally.

“At the moment the railway is diesel-only, but we are gearing it up for steam. We intend to invite owners to bring their steam locomotives to run on the line.”

NEWS

in brief

SPECIAL COMMISSION WAGONS Pennine Wagons, suppliers of limited-edition readyto-run N gauge wagons by mail order online, has taken delivery of two new special commission wagons. These latest additions to the range are both 14-ton tank wagons, made by Peco. One is in the livery of Rainford Tar Products Ltd, and the other is in the livery of Jas Williamson & Son Ltd of Lancaster. The wagons are available for £15 each or £27.50 for the pair, from Pennine Wagons.

BIGGEST LITTLE RAILWAY

Railway owner Karl Avison with the line’s Warship diesel and resident traction engine in the background.

CEDARBARN

First track laid at Southwold THE first 3ft gauge track has been laid at Southwold since the Suffolk resort’s legendary railway closed in 1929.

Volunteers have laid the track at the a new visitors’ centre

building being constructed at a former steam works site in Blyth Road as part of a long-term project to reinstate the railway, which once ran eight miles eastwards to Halesworth.

The project will see just over a quarter-of-a-mile of track laid at the site which is adjacent to the original 1879 trackbed, now a popular footpath and cycleway to the River Blyth bridge.

A 74-mile-long potentially record-breaking model railway track is being laid in the Scottish Highlands as RMM goes to print, aiming to arrive in Inverness on July 1, after two weeks of building by a team of volunteers.

The venture will be filmed and the resulting television programme will be produced by Love Productions, the makers of the Great British Bake Off, and probably be aired in the autumn.

Teams of volunteers will be brought together to build it and their progress will be monitored by the programme’s presenter Dick Strawbridge.

RMM writer Phil Parker suggests: “The track they will use appears to be a sort of plastic trough rather than conventional rail and sleeper. That makes sense as there won't be time to lay a proper smooth bed of ballast.

This isn't about building a model railway really, it's an engineering challenge.

“The five teams (56 people in total) will be given a task each day and some components to solve the problem.”

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What's in the shops Bachmann is to reissue its popular OO gauge Stanier Jubilee Class 4-6-0 steam locomotive with upgraded electronics and digital sound fitted to LMS No. 5588 (31-187DS).

Digital g sound Jubi bilee Class Bachmann’s LMS Jubilee Class locomotive has smart lining and a fine finish, which goes hand in hand with digital sound to make a great-looking model, writes Nigel Burkin.

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lthough it has taken a little time, Bachmann has definitely mastered digital sound for steam locomotives, a feature that is complex to capture and arrange for a digital sound decoder – more so th han for diesell and d ellectriic locomotives. Recent releases with on-board digital sound, which include the Robinson Class J11 in OO gauge (31321DS) and the N gauge Castle Class locomotive (372-033DS), all show that the art of factory-installed steam

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July 2017

locomotive sound is now well and truly established in the Bachmann catalogue.

The latest model to be released with digital sound is the OO-gauge model of the popular Stanier Jubilee Class express passenger locomotiive off wh hich h 191 were built in a three-year period

by LMS Crewe Works, Derby Works and The North British Locomotive Company to replace what were considered to be underperforming older locomotives. The LMS had already developed a

high-performance passenger locomotive, the Royal Scot Class, which had improved matters considerably on many parts of the LMS network.

However, it was too heavy for use on many former Midland routes and other second dary lines.

Jubilee Class locomotives were designed by William Stanier in which Stanier tapered boilers were used on a design based on the earlier Patriot Class locomotive.

Unfortunately, poor steaming was experienced with the

locomotives at first until improvements were made to the design as construction progressed. Ultimately, the Jubilee Class became an honest-performing locomotive which dominated express passenger trains on the Midland d Maiinlline from St Pancras and services based around Derby – traditionally known as the Midland Railway routes of the LMS. The class also found itself working on many other areas of the LMS including the north-west of England, which is where the