sendNewsletterForm.php (GIF Image, 3 × 3 pixels)

Modellings tips and answers - Modelling with switches - Videos

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

Reader Martin Cooper contacted us to suggest "Loco-Motion" by Little Eva. This is an iconic pop track that epitomises the early 1960s' upbeat and dance-centric music culture. Released in 1962, the song was penned by the celebrated songwriting duo Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Originally intended as a demo for another artist, Little Eva, who was Goffin and King's babysitter at the time, delivered a performance so compelling that she became the definitive voice of the track. The song quickly gained traction, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and establishing itself as one of the era's most memorable dance tunes. Its catchy melody, cheerful lyrics, and irresistible rhythm encouraged listeners to embrace the "locomotion" dance craze, which became a sensation in its own right.

The charm of Loco-Motion lies in its simplicity and universal appeal. With its infectious call-and-response structure and easy-to-follow dance instructions, the track transcended age groups and audiences, making it a staple at parties and social gatherings. Little Eva's spirited vocals brought authenticity and joy to the performance, cementing her place in pop history despite her relatively short-lived career. The song’s enduring popularity has seen it covered and reinterpreted by various artists over the decades, with notable versions by Grand Funk Railroad and Kylie Minogue, demonstrating its timeless appeal and significant influence on pop and dance music.

Click on the pictures to listen to Little Eva and to Grand Funk Railroad (live):

This week in history

At midnight on the 30th January 1933, the railwaymen of the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) walked out in a strike action that was to last 67 days. The dispute was in protest over the railway company's plans to cut staff wages. The cuts were seen at the time as a way to combat depleting profits resulting from road competition. Despite the severe hardship of the striking employees and support from other industries, the strike ended with the battle being lost.

Do you have one?

A wide variety of modelling subjects feature rigging from naval vessels, antennas and wire rigging for WWI aircraft and civilian aircraft subjects. Adding this critical detail to our kits was a difficult task until now. Rigging from AMMO is the most versatile and easy to use rigging product available today. The elasticity will enable you to work with ease, never snapping, breaking or bending line during assembly. Black material makes it easy to see in fine scales, all Rigging is paintable allowing for realistic replicas. This product is the perfect solution for rigging and wiring naval vessels, aircraft and civil vehicles in all scales. Use cyanoacrylate (super glue) for assembly. Each blister comes with 2 meters (6.5 feet) of rigging material.

Available in 3 sizes from 0.01mm to 0.03mm.

A switch to a neat solution

Once you have gotten your head around the components and wiring needed to install accessories such as lights, signals, electric points or anything else involving electricity, you may well be starting to think about how your switches, knobs or buttons might look at the business end of your layout. The good news is, the solution has already been thought about for you!

Peco has a comprehensive range of switches to cover almost any accessory that you could ever want to install. More on the switches later, but what is really interesting is the various methods they have come up with to make the switches look neat and tidy. There is even an option for solderless installation.

But first, if you are comfortable attaching a few wires to their switches, the PL-27 switch console is a neat unit that houses up to six of their switches. The unit is surface mounted onto the baseboard and comes with stickers numbered from 1-12, so if you have more than six switches, the numbering can continue across to a second unit. If, however, you wanted to countersink your switches into a baseboard or control panel, Peco also produces a switch mounting plate for just that purpose and provides an equally desirable finish.

For the solderless option, the PL-50 switch module unit is a console that your switches plug straight into without wiring them first. The wires from your accessories simply plug into a special sprung socket on the outside of the unit making installation quick, neat and solder-free. The module has space for three switches and can be extended infinitely using single module add-on units. It should be noted though, only switches of the same type and purpose can be installed into each PL-50 console unit. That means you will need one unit for your turnout switches and another for your signals and so on.

If it's turnouts that are to be controlled by your new switches, the easy, no soldering solutions just keep on coming. Peco's PL-34 wiring harness is specifically designed to slot straight onto PL-10 point motors using spade connectors, again avoiding any soldering. If you have a larger layout and the harness doesn't quite reach your switches, simply use terminal blocks to add additional wire to the circuit.

As for the actual switches, all you have to do is decide which colour levers you want. Peco's range of passing contact changeover switches (mainly used for point motors) come with black, red, white or yellow signal box style levers to replicate real life procedures. Add to that a blue single-pole on-off switch and a green single-pole changeover switch (on-on switch), and you can control everything from turnouts and signals to building lighting and sections of isolated track all from the same neat and organised consoles.

Modelling tips

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

Or re-visit these slightly older ones:

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, 2025 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

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