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Modellings tips and answers - Rush hour on your layout

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Railway song of the week

Remember 1844? In this era when the railway was still a new and astonishing marvel of speed, the French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan penned "Le Chemin de Fer" (The Railway), a highly obscure yet groundbreaking piece of piano music. Subtitled an étude (study), it is a blistering "moto perpetuo" that requires prodigious technical skill to play, imitating the relentless, clattering and then exhilarating rush of a steam locomotive and is noted for being one of the earliest musical compositions ever to explicitly represent the new technology of the train. It is a stunning display of virtuosity that captures the thrilling, almost frightening acceleration of modern transport as experienced in the mid-19th century. Click on the picture to listen to it:

This week in history

On 22 October 1895 the famous Montparnasse derailment took place (in Paris) when the Granville-Paris Express over-ran the buffer stop at Gare Montparnasse, marking a dramatic and famous railway accident.

Picks of the week

If you're passionate about vintage railway models, there's something rather special about acquiring pre-loved pieces with their own history. The Tri-ang TT gauge girder bridge parts set offers you the chance to construct a classic piece of TT gauge infrastructure, comprising two girder bridges (one complete, one requiring cross pieces), along with various incline piers and high-level bridge supports, some even retaining their original boxes and instructions. Moving up to OO gauge, the Bachmann set of three ZHV 16t steel mineral wagons in BR olive green livery demonstrates what can be achieved with careful weathering, featuring expertly applied weathering, real coal loads, and converted hook-and-chain couplings whilst retaining the NEM slots for easy modification. The Lima Class 43 Intercity 125 HST set in OO gauge includes both a powered and dummy power car plus three matching Mk3 coaches, all in splendid condition and fully serviced – a wonderful representation of one of Britain's most iconic and successful locomotive designs.

The charm of vintage Hornby Dublo buildings cannot be overstated, and this selection of OO gauge platform and station buildings includes three two-storey control towers (one in exceptional, nearly new condition signed 'Newark' with green doors), a platform section with waiting room, and two sloped platform ends, perfect for recreating that classic Dublo station atmosphere. For motive power enthusiasts, the Wrenn 2-6-4 tank engine in OO gauge, finished in unlined LMS livery and numbered 2679, represents a lovely example of Wrenn's Basildon production, having been carefully mothballed since 1978 and recently given a full service to restore it to perfect running order.

Dressing your workshop

There are many considerations to take into account when planning a model railway, era and location are the obvious ones, time of year is another, but what about the time of day?

At first glance, this might not seem that important, but assuming your layout has some figures on it, you will need to give them an activity to do if you're to avoid them appearing too randomly. To help give your little people purpose, try thinking about the time of day. Mid-day on a quiet branch-line, for example, will have a relatively relaxed feel about it, with just a few shoppers or tourists milling around enjoying their travels. Rush hour, on the other hand, is a very different story and there's plenty of hustle and bustle to be modelled during this time of day.

Sourcing figures for rush hour scenes is no problem, there are plenty of serious and comical sets to choose from including (in OO gauge) calmly seated passengers patiently waiting, or in contrast, sets of commuters going for it hell for leather to catch a train. But don't forget to give your rush hour figures a scene to validate their activity. Not all rush-hour activity involves catching an actual train, morning commuters will often buy a book or a coffee, they often have to queue at a ticket barrier, if they're lucky, they will find a bench to take the weight off their feet while waiting and most will travel either to or from the station on another mode of transport. So try to add a few kiosks, vendors, seats, ticket barriers and maybe a taxi rank to your diorama, it will give you places where you can concentrate your rush hour activities.

N gauge fans will be pleased to learn that rush hour is just as easy to model in their gauge too. The same rules apply, be sure to include plenty of figures rushing around and queuing, but don't forget to give them plenty of reasons to be doing so. Why not model a platform buffet or a book stand? And if you don't like the sound of a taxi rank, try some bus stops instead. Also, don't forget the subject of luggage, rush hour is when station porters are at their busiest, so include plenty of baggage carts and trolleys to give your station and forecourt a good helping of hustle and bustle.

Modelling tips

We keep on adding modelling tips to our website. Here are a few:

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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 still 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.

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