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Railway Modeller
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Railway song of the week
"I've Been Working on the Railroad", as performed by John Denver, is a cheerful rendition of one of America's best-known traditional folk songs. With Denver's warm, distinctive voice and gentle acoustic style, the song celebrates the spirit of hard work, camaraderie, and simple pleasures. Although its exact origins date back to the late nineteenth century and remain uncertain, the tune has become a much-loved classic, enjoyed by generations for its memorable melody and lively sing-along appeal. Click on the picture to discover it:
Starting with OO gauge diesels, the Hornby Class 31 presents a lovely example of early BR green livery without yellow warning panels, representing the locomotive as it appeared when first built under the 1955 modernisation plan. This model is as "as new" with no signs of wear, comes factory fitted with DCC that's been reset and fully tested, and includes its original box with detailing set. The Bachmann Class 37 'Cwmbran' is another good choice, finished in BR blue with large logo livery. It's in excellent condition with DCC fitted, runs beautifully and comes complete with its original packaging and detail parts. Moving to N gauge, the Kato set offers something quite different – a complete 6-car EMU set that's perfect if you're modelling Japanese railways or simply fancy something a bit different on your layout. The set faithfully reproduces the original paint colours of the 475 series, features directional lighting on the first and last cars, and all vehicles couple together easily.
Have you ever considered incorporating a cameo scene into your layout? A lot of modellers do, and it seems to be a natural progression once all of the track laying and ballasting has been completed, but, where do you start?
A cameo scene is where you model a story or an activity within a scene, for example, some workers getting an engine ready for the day in an engine shed or some figures in a street scene busking etc. The scene can be anything you wish, even bizarre or humorous if you choose, it is purely a matter of imagination and personal taste, although don't forget, if you intend to exhibit your layout then it should probably also be non-offensive!
Occasionally, we all need a little inspiration for our layouts, to help with this Busch have produced a range of ready-made cameo scenes in 00 gauge, below are just a few including:
The "Plant Nursery" set. This set can be used on its own to create an outdoor nursery or you could add your own building alongside to portray a garden centre. Although this set is more of a diorama than a scene, it does give you the inspiration and opportunity to add many activities such as a forklift or lorry loading or unloading, shoppers browsing or a burger van in the car park.
The "Market stall with vegetables" set. Many layouts have a town square, why not add a market?
The "Crowd control barriers" set. These barriers are brilliantly generic just like in real life, they can be used at car shows, animal shows, county shows, road works or anywhere else where crowds would need to be directed or controlled.
The "Park benches, trees and stone cross" set. Not all cameo scenes have to be an explosion of activity, you could add simple activity to a street or park with a memorial. This is an excellent way to distinguish your model town or village from the usual portrayals.
The "High-pressure cleaning" set. Hand car washes are everywhere these days, if you are modelling a modern-image layout, this cameo is well worth considering.
There's an impressive number of ready-made cameo scenes available in N gauge too, and it's always worthwhile rummaging through the figures section of your model shop for inspiration, here are a just few to give you an idea of the kind of scenes you could include on your layout including, Christmas tree sellers, a humorous take on a graveside service, some old boys playing checkers, a newsstand, dog wash and a campfire scene.
- What is a CCT van?
- What radius of tracks are Hornby curved platform sections for?
- What do I need to add smoke to my model locomotive?
- How long should my freight train be?
- When painting models, what is the toothpaste technique?
You can access all the unboxing videos by visiting this page or simply click on the link called "videos" on our website.
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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