Modellings tips and answers - Inspiration - Tarpaulins and wagon loads - Videos

This week in history

On the 22nd of June 1942, work gets on the way to construct a railway between Bangkok and Rangoon. The railway, infamously known as the Burma Railway, was built by the Empire of Japan who used forced labour including local civilians and Allied Prisoners of War to complete the route. Many of those who were put to work building the railway sadly perished during its construction, leading to the nickname "Death Railway".

Signal boxes are a common fixture on just about all model railway layouts, whether or not you decide to make a feature out of yours is a personal choice. You may decide that a bit of fencing around the back is to be the extent of your diorama, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, however, if you do want to make more of a feature out of your signal box, you may consider installing a realistic interior. The details on Metcalfe's and Ratio's card and plastic interiors in 00 gauge are very impressive and include features such as levers, a table or desk, track plan, coat stand and a fireplace just as you would find in the real thing, there's no doubt that installing an interior is a great way to enhance the look of your signal box.

On the outside of your signal box you can install trackside features such as trunking and dummy point motors for a modern era layout or rodding for a more traditional one.

Of course, not all junctions and sidings are controlled by a signal box, some smaller, more remote or industrial locations require little more than a ground frame or a lineside telephone and a few relay boxes, but these can be modelled too so have a really good think about what your junction's requirements would be in real life and remember that size doesn't necessarily equal detail or realism.

At the other end of the scale, you may be modelling a bigger or busier junction and want a monster of a signal box. The larger and more bespoke your requirements are, the more likely it is that you will have to adapt or scratch build your model as choices are a little limited in this area with most kits and ready-to-plant models concentrating on small or medium-sized structures. But if the thought of scratch building a feature as characterful as a signal box leaves you with a pang of trepidation, then don't worry, some of the finer details such as windows or chimneys are available in model form leaving you free to concentrate on the basic structure.

There is no right or wrong way to model a signal box, but there are plenty of solutions to help you achieve whatever you do decide.

Modelling tips

We keep on adding modelling tips to our website. Here are the latest ones:

You can also access all the articles by visiting this page or simply click the link called "tips" 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:

You can access all the unboxing videos by visiting this page or simply click on the link called "videos" on our website.

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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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