New Railway Modellers Forums

Hi all Since reviving my layout in 2017 I had done little alteration on it until 'lockdown' meant I had to cancel three planned trips away, so I have been working on it a lot recently. One project I had wanted to do for quite a while was to build a 1960s-era 'panel signal box'. My BR/WR layout based...

I've had a Tri-ang P4.5 controller since 1964 and it still works perfectly - it also has all the original parts. I now have two in running order and two as spares back-ups, just in case....... They are great for older locos, and will easily handle two Lima DMUs or Class 52s running together. The ori...

A big 'thank you' to all who have responded above, plenty of good advice and ideas there. Much appreciated.

I'd appreciate some hints and tips from any one on here with experience of carrying out alterations to plastic carriages/locomotives, in connection with a small project I have in mind. I would like to remove some fixed bodyside doors (at present depicted in relief on the bodyside) to make an apertur...

My Hornby Class 35 Hymek has always had a rather pronounced lean to one side, and the model in general seems rather lightweight although it has a decent haulage capacity (sufficient to easily get 5-coaches up my steep flyover). I decided to investigate the cause of the lean, and possibly cure it. Di...

Thanks for some inspiration and ideas, Timbersurf. Your steam-era shed with the incandescent-effect lights (and hidden wiring) looks particularly good! The next phase for me is lighting my 2-road PECO diesel depot which I have done with a 6-strip of LEDs glued to the ceiling, as they are out of sigh...

Some good suggestions there, Glencairn. May I add a couple? In the period up until the mid-1960s there were often 'pigeon specials' organised by pigeon-fanciers to take racing (homing) pigeons to a start point, where they were released and flew (hopefully) home. These trains were made up of parcels ...

I'm currently working on a project that has been a gleam in my eye ever since I first built my layout in my loft nearly 30 years ago - the ability to create a night scene with street lighting, building lighting, etc. The appeal is that the layout lighting focuses the eye on the models and the scene,...

Hi John

May I add my welcome too.
I'm a 'returning' modeller (retirement has given me the luxury of having enough time to restart my hobby) but relatively new here too. Your experience of figure modelling will, I am sure, come in useful to some of us railway types.

Thanks 'Bufferstop'. It is the points which are the problem; some of them have been in situ for over 20 years so might be suffering from some track spread as you suggest. My track is almost exclusively PECO code 100 - except for a few Hornby curve sections. Its not the joints that are rough :o but o...

Interesting topic. Often the retailer, although with perhaps some railway/prototypical knowledge, will know a lot less about particular rolling stock than a specialist modeller who may well have built up a knowledge store over many years in the hobby. I travelled on many Mk2d and e/f vehicles back i...

Thanks for posting these photos, my other half has been pestering me for years to go to Mallorca and i've finally relented - we're going next March and staying in Puerto de Soller. Looking forward to some vintage traction!

I have just obtained two sets of these from Peterspares for a trial. I had a couple of wobbling Mk1s and had robbed a spare vehicle of its pizza-cutter wheels to get them running smoothly again, so I wanted to replenish my stock of spare wheelsets. My rough Code 100 track and Lima points is intolera...

I'm with Geoff T on the merits of running grooved wheels sans traction tyres, and always replace mine if they break. I am old enough to remember steel driving wheels with milled edges on some old OO Tri-ang kit from the 1960s; not sure if Hornby also did this. The milled edge was designed to give mo...

Thank you John. You are correct that the point crossings appear to be the main problem. I did some testing whilst watching the bogie wheels of a Heljan Class 35 at dead slow speed. It ran fine until the leading wheels came to the 'X' of the points, then there was just too much clearance/not enough g...