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Hello
We have just added lots of new items to our website: J67 engines, Airfix starter sets, 28mm medieval buildings (for Pillage, Saga and other games), several OO9 engines, Victrix Pillage rulebook and miniatures, and so much more that we cannot list them all here!
Click here to see them all.
Don't forget to read our latest modelling tips and unboxing videos located at the bottom of the newsletter.
Most images in this newsletter are clickable for more details.
Feel free to send this newsletter to your friends, family and club members if you think they will benefit from it. They can subscribe for free.
This week in history
On the 28th of August 1915, the first train operated on the newly reopened Ravenglass and Eskdale railway, Cumbria.
The original line had a 3ft gauge but encountered financial
difficulties and had to close just two years earlier. The new owners,
Robert Proctor Mitchel and model maker Wenman Joseph Lowke, set about
re-gauging the line to the 15in gauge that remains today.
Railway song of the week
Tucked near the end of their album Loaded (1970), "Train Round the Bend" is one of the Velvet Underground’s grittier excursions, a reminder that even on their most radio-friendly album, the band never fully abandoned their downtown grime. Built around a swampy, dirge-like riff and a distorted, almost claustrophobic mix, the track captures the heavy, grinding momentum of a train pushing through the outer boroughs of New York. Click on the picture to discover it:
Picks of the week
Starting our journey in the early 1960s, we have the charming Hattons Originals Class 121 'Bubblecar' in Network South East livery. This single-car DMU, affectionately nicknamed for its distinctive shape, brings a touch of rural branch line charm to any layout. Fast forward to the 1980s, and we find the Lima Class 47 'Diamond Jubilee' in Railfreight Distribution grey. This workhorse of the rails represents a significant era in British freight operations. Jumping to the late 1980s, we have the Bachmann Branchline Class 158 'Express Sprinter', a model that showcases the modernisation of regional services. Each of these models offers a unique snapshot of British rail history, perfect for creating diverse and interesting scenes.
Now, let's look at some more modern offerings. The Lima Class 66 Freightliner "The Hope Valley" represents the backbone of modern freight operations in the UK. This powerful locomotive, coupled with two Dapol KQA/KTA pocket wagons, makes for an impressive consist. For those interested in N gauge, the Kato EF210 Container Train Starter Set offers a complete package to get you up and running with a modern Japanese freight scene.
Making it Summer
Most railway modellers will
model a particular era or location, but not many will have considered anchoring their railway to a
particular season, and those that do, often opt for the challenge of recreating winter scenes, and why not? but what if you want to indicate a
summer scene? in this case, you may well be wondering what kind of things you can do to achieve it.
Apart from the weather, there are a huge amount of differences in the
world around us giving little clues that summer is upon us,
trees now have fruit, not blossom;
farmers are shearing sheep and making
hay bales,
combine harvesters are starting to make an appearance in the fields and
flowers are everywhere from carefully cultivated gardens and planters to wild varieties painting the countryside with colour.
All of these things can be successfully modelled in OO gauge.
When it comes to vehicles, there's always a wide variety of
agricultural machinery, tractors and combine harvesters to choose from.
Hay bales are no problem either with ready-to-go varieties making the
job easy and static-grass type hay for use by more advanced modellers.
Trees can be sought with fruit added or in special packs containing just
the fruit to be used with existing trees or to create a realistic
sprinkling of fallen fruit on the ground and flowers can be represented
using a special scatter or models of individual plants.
With the scenery taken care of, you can further hint at summer using a variety of
cameo scenes. Try adding some
sunbathers to your park, an
ice cream stall to your high street, some
tourists to your platforms, a
harvest scene to your countryside, some leisure activities to your water feature or back on the farm, some
shearers hard at work giving the sheep a hair cut.
These are just some ideas to make your scene summery, but the very
best part of modelling the summertime is it's a great excuse to run
those summer specials, so what are you waiting for?
Modelling tips
Unboxing videos
You want to know what is inside the boxes of modelling products? We open them for you!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified before everyone else or simply click on this selection. Please note that
videos are at the bottom of each page.
You can access all the unboxing videos by
visiting this page or simply click on the
link called "videos" on
our website.
Events and exhibitions
Find all the latest events and exhibitions for the model railway world, on the
UK Model Shop Events directory. Hopefully, 2025 will give us plenty of opportunities to attend events all over the country.
Do you need to order?
Send us an email or give us a call to check
availability or to reserve anything, whatever scale you model in. As
usual, if we do not have in stock what you are looking for, we will
order it for you and you will get it fast (usually within a week if the
manufacturer has it in stock). We place weekly orders with most
suppliers.
Remember, you can park for free for one hour on the High Street. So no excuse not to come and visit us!
Upstairs Downstairs is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am till 4.30pm. Obviously, our website is open 24h a day and we can post to most locations, including Europe, USA and Australia.
Upstairs Downstairs
3 Pier Street
Sandown, PO36 8JR
Isle of Wight
Tel: 01983 406 616
http://www.trainshop.co.uk or find us on Facebook
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