Hello

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.

Railway song of the week

Recorded by the San Francisco jazz traditionalist Turk Murphy and his Jazz Band in 1955 (and brought to light here following a suggestion by reader Mike Asbury) "This Train" is a spirited adaptation of the traditional African American spiritual dating back to the 1920s. Centred on themes of purity, faith and salvation, Murphy’s quintessential Dixieland arrangement uses syncopated brass, rolling banjo rhythms and bluesy woodwinds to frame the train as an uncompromising metaphor for spiritual transport: it carries only "the righteous and the holy," explicitly turning away liars, gamblers and backsliders. The track stands out as a vibrant bridge between early 20th-century gospel music and mid-century revivalist jazz, exemplifying Murphy’s devotion to preserving and reinterpreting classic American roots music. Click on the picture to listen to it:

 

Not the butchers the bakers or the candlestick makers

Although not many of us are modelling a candlestick makers, we do often turn to the more traditional butchers and bakers to populate the high streets of our railway layouts. Along with a local pub, the inclusion of these businesses is almost obligatory, and rightly so as they are also present in many small towns and villages, or at least they used to be in fondly remembered times gone by. But what if you want a longer high street? what other types of shops could you model?

There are several different styles and types of shops you can consider to shake up your high street, give it some character, and even modernise it if you wish, especially in OO gauge plastic kit form. Vollmer's Lidl supermarket is a prime example of the evolution of a real high street in model form. It is large enough to represent the store whilst being small enough to fit into a reasonably sized diorama. If space is an issue, an interesting option is to install some railway arches shops. The example by Wills Kits can be incorporated into a real viaduct with moderate skill or used as part of a back-scene to add a metropolitan feel to your station approach.

For smaller or older towns and villages, Vollmer's repair shop indeed makes a convincing local garage, but choose not to include the signage, and the building has a multitude of uses from a florist to a farm shop. If you are prepared to print your own signage, Dapol's 'shop with flats above' makes an ideal newsagent, chip shop or take away and markets can be easily produced using stalls and kiosks from a multitude of manufacturers. Whatever the size, era or theme of your high street or town, there are plenty of models you can use to make it, extend it and give it an identity.

   

   

Another way you can escape modelling tradition on your high street, is with the use of figures to give purpose to generic or existing shops. This is not a new concept and Langley Models has been producing white metal cameo sets for quite a while, including scenes that depict a fishmonger, a saddlers shop, a hardware store, a motorcycle repair shop and a blacksmith. Modern scenes tend to be modelled more from plastic, but there's a huge selection of them to choose from in white metal, the 'fashion store figures' being just one.

       

Of the many problems that modellers face to make their layouts unique, modelling an interesting and varied High Street is certainly not one of them!

• What is the dome for on a steam locomotive?
• What are railway telegraphic codes?
• What is the best material to use for railings?
• What are whistle boards?
• What is involved in using an airbrush?

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.

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

If for some reason you do not want to receive this newsletter anymore, click this link to unsubscribe