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Modellings tips and answers - Adding lights to a layout

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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.

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Railway song of the week

“Mail Order Annie” is a characteristic example of Harry Chapin’s talent for turning everyday lives into poignant stories. Born in New York in 1942, Chapin was a singer-songwriter and passionate social activist, best known for songs such as “Taxi” and “Cat’s in the Cradle”. Released on his 1973 album Short Stories, “Mail Order Annie” tells of a lonely man on the North Dakota plains awaiting the arrival of a woman he has arranged to marry without ever having met her. Through its gentle, cinematic storytelling, Chapin explores loneliness, hope and the human need for companionship. He died tragically in a car accident in 1981, aged just 38, leaving behind a remarkable musical and humanitarian legacy.

This week in history

On the 30th of August 1906, the Great Western Railway opened its Fishguard Harbour railway station in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The station was part of GWR's plan to take trans-Atlantic passenger traffic away from the ports of Southampton and Plymouth, the first such service used the port just three years later.

Town centre this way, in card!

In previous newsletters, we have explored the diversity of village housing and the large range of farm buildings available in cardboard kit form from Metcalfe and Superquick, but what about the town (or village) centre? this is often the most characterful part and therefore the most desirable aspect to model (apart from the railway station that is!). Well, worry not, because there are plenty of OO gauge cardboard kits representing all parts of a town or village, including its centre, and it's hard not to get inspired by distinctive and iconic buildings such as town halls, village churches and of course, the obligatory public house. Throw in a few convenience stores and ideas for a town centre should be starting to take shape.

But as wonderful and representative as these models are, you may be looking for something a little different. If so, have you considered installing a library, village school, fire station or garage? even a shop with a more unusual purpose will help give your village its own identity, and all of these can easily be modelled in card.

Modelling tips

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

You can read all the articles sorted by categories or from the most recent published one on our website.

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 websit e.

Events and exhibitions

Find all the latest events and exhibitions for the model railway world, on the UK Model Shop Events directory. Hopefully, 2026 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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