News from your model shop - 9th of August 2020

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Don't forget to read our latest modelling tips located at the bottom of the newsletter.

David Connor sent us pictures of his layout. He explains "As you can see it’s a (48” x 27”) fold down style with with storage below and very much a work in progress." For more information and see the picture in full size, click on the images.

 

 

This month in history - In August 1934 the first LMS 4-6-0 Class 5 designed by William Stanier rolled off the production line at the Vulcan Foundry. 842 of the class were eventually built with many remaining in service until the last days of steam, so a big high-five to the Black Five!

If you are a lover of the Isle of Wight railways, until now you could use the Southern "Bembridge" Terrier to represent the Island line. Following the latest Hornby release, you can model a later period with the British Railways "Carisbrooke" Terrier.

 

 

As model railways have progressed through the years so has our desire to have buildings on our layouts that are a little more reflective of the world around us. Make no mistake, the Hornby booking hall and waiting room have done us well for many decades, but they do rather scream TRAIN SET! from the top of their shiny plastic roofs, but what are the alternatives?

Well, the good news is that there are numerous building styles out there portraying various eras and even regions to help you create a more unique layout, and because a lot of buildings nowadays come in kit form, there is opportunity to tweak them here and there to make them truly your own.

Stations are probably the most important buildings on a layout, they usually represent centre stage for a model train's performance with everything else falling into the categories of backdrops and props, so it's really important to choose a station that fits your concept for your layout.

You can get station buildings and platforms in plastic or card kits and they both have their own merits but choosing which material to use isn't a decision that should be taken lightly. Although it's not a hard and fast rule, it is generally considered to give better results if all of the buildings on your layout are either one or the other, so a lot of thought needs to go into not only what visual effect you would like to achieve with your models, but also, which material (card or plastic) you would prefer to work with.

Plastic kits are great because they have textured brickwork, you can also paint plastic kits which is of huge benefit when you want to portray a particular era or region, however, most plastic kits are of smaller or country stations with straight platforms that are hard to shape into a curve, and as very few platforms in real life are completely straight this may be a deciding factor for you.

Many card platform kits, on the other hand, do come with platforms that can be constructed to accommodate curves and varying widths of the platform. This is a much better choice if you are planning a larger station so you can escape the uniformity of several straight platforms of equal width situated in parallel which would look a little bit too neat and convenient to give the effect of a real station. There is also a much bigger choice of larger station buildings in card than you are likely to find in plastic so in some respects the choice has been made for you when modelling a mainline station.

Take a look at the pictures below for comparison, you have three 00 gauge mainline stations all constructed from card kits and three small country stations from plastic, see how both the card and plastic examples look correct for their environment.

 

 

 

 

Further afield, the choice continues with houses, industrial units, shops and anything else you may find in a town or village. Fortunately, as most of these buildings are smaller and somewhat less grand than a station, the amount of choice between plastic and card becomes a little more even with a great range in both being offered from both plastic and card kits in 00 gauge.

Here are some typical examples of what can be achieved with plastic kit versions of a 1960s house, a garage and a carriage shed whilst in card you have an industrial unit, some regency period shops (in low relief) and a fantastic market house.