Sommaire pour December 2025 de Continental Modeller

Heide is on the international line which connects Antwerp with Roosendaal in The Netherlands. It is located in a sub-municipality of Kalmthout. Before the station and the village of Heide were built, the area looked very different. Until 1880, the area around the current station consisted of an unspoilt landscape of heathland and dunes. This changed dramatically when sand was extracted from the Kalmthoutse Heide from 1888 onwards. This sand was used for large projects such as the construction of Antwerp Central Station and the raising of the ring railway around Antwerp. To transport the large quantities of sand efficiently, a branch line was built towards the Kalmthoutse Heide. This development attracted workers, as well as traders and industry, and thus the village of Heide-Kalmthout was born. In 1897, the…

The layout was planned for display our March 2025 exhibition. At Myles’s suggestion, it was based on Curry Siding on the Alaska Railroad. Myles also picked the name. Max and Earnest made suggestions for the scenery, and David agreed to make the buildings. The 48" x 18" baseboard is made from 6mm ply as usual with 1" x 1" softwood at the joints to save weight – none of us are getting any younger! I did think about gluing and screwing the joints but rejected the idea as it would make recycling more difficult, so as normal joints are simply screwed together, hence the softwood. Curry Siding is just that – a single siding, so to make Portage more interesting to operate and watch, a three-way point was added. The…

The Modalohr lorry carrying wagons, named after the Lohr company based in Alsace which designed the principle and the system (infrastructure for loading and unloading, and, of course, the articulated wagons) are in service on several long distance routes across France, which means fewer heavy lorries on the roads. This therefore makes a significant contribution to protecting the environment (less pollution, less road wear, less noise, etc.), as well as saving energy. In HO, LS Models has offered highly realistic models of the Modalohr wagons for some years, with various products, both end-of-train and mid-train wagons. The Corail coach, adapted for accommodating lorry drivers, was also part of the LS Models range. In this article I will show how to further improve these intermodal wagons by installing red end-of-train lights.…

A period of lockdown with no exhibitions, coupled with approaching dotage, prompted me to lay up my Sankei Valley layout and build something smaller. It is on a single board just 1.5m long and 0.6m wide (5' x 2'). It has a little bit from here, a little bit from there, little bits of scenery from everywhere, mostly gleaned from layouts in CM. After much pondering a continuous circuit with a branch was favoured. The continuous run would be good for the locomotives. It started with the baseboard. Weight was a major consideration (age tells!) for portability and loading into the car for transport to shows. Space in the car was critical, hence the size. 6mm plywood for the baseboard was cut to size by a local builders’ merchant. Before…

Please send details for possible inclusion to: Peco Publications, Beer, near Seaton, Devon, EX12 3NA. E-mail: clubs@railwaymodeller.co.uk Saturday 22 November BANSTEAD, Surrey Organiser: North Downs Model Railway Circle. Venue: 3rd Banstead Scout Group, Scout Ridge, Banstead, Surrey, SM7 1RB. Open: 1000-1700 Admission: adults £6.00, U16s £3.00, seniors/disabled visitors £5.00, families (2+2) £12.00. All profits to 3rd Banstead Scout Group. Amenities: free parking. Refreshments, Features: layouts include Oregon (N), Lafayette Spring (HO), Five Mile Siding (HO), Willis Bluffs (HO), Neumarkt HO) and Angle Crossing (Sn42). Trade. Contact: Stuart Robinson 07758 458827. E-mail: stuart.robinson27@ntlword.com Website: www.ndmrc.info/Home/Tadworth.htm Saturday 22 November EATON BRAY, Bedfordshire Steam in Beds. Organiser: Bedfordshire 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers. Venue: Eaton Bray Village Hall, Church Lane, Eaton Bray, near Dunstable, LU6 2DJ. Open: 1000-1600 Admission: adults £6.00, accompanied U16s free.…

As modellers, sometimes we get anchored to techniques that become more and more rigid and persist even when they no longer have a reason to exist. Sometimes we hide behind preconceptions related to our own experience and resist designing or creating something innovative. The layout featured here represents something I found beautiful and achievable, according to the famous modelling motto: “low cost – high yield”. After almost fifty years of experience in modelling using plastics, I came across something unique, inconceivable until then. At first glance Chrüzalp, as its builder had named it, was simply beautiful and eye-catching. It was for sale and I had no hesitation in making an offer, which was accepted. Once it arrived in my workshop, I had a surprise – it was largely made of…

This house is the third in a small row on Wim Wijnhoud’s layout La Ligne du Gerize. In the previous article (October 2025) I described the construction of the stone houses; this deals with the construction of the plastered building. Basically, this building was built in the same way as the stone buildings. The walls are made of styrene and the upper storey floor is placed between them. The advantage of this floor is that it gives the building strength and keeps the windows easily accessible. We do not want to delve deep into the house once we start installing the windows. Once the frame of the house was made, I painted it with primer. Then, one by one, I smeared the walls with slightly diluted white wood glue. Model…

It was in 1925, a hundred years ago, that the metre gauge Réseau Breton reached the Atlantic coast of Brittany, across the Crozon peninsula. The origins of this network of lines, though, dated back to the latter part of the previous century to link up inland rural areas and it was considered important enough for its construction to be granted state funding – Intérêt Général. Between 1891 and 1907 five lines were opened, all radiating out from the central market town of Carhaix to link up with existing standard gauge routes to the north, east, south, and west. Carhaix was (literally) the railway centre of the network and apart from being the departure, and arrival, point for all lines, it also housed the workshops and principal locomotive depot. The last…

This is my second layout of this name. Construction of the first started in July 1977 following a holiday around Sognefjord and Voss. Progress was swift, then in January 1978 construction came to a halt when I got engaged to an Italian girl I had met at work. All money and energy went into our house, though a small branch terminus was built. (A house must have a model railway!) It was inevitable that following our honeymoon in Italy my next layout would feature the FS (St.Nazario, see CM March/April 1981). (I wonder – is this the longest interval between magazine appearances?) The years passed and my modelling was varied, to say the least. In 2010 I felt the urge to build a bucolic Scottish branch and my take on…

It is a typical day in the small French village of Saint-Aubin, some time in the 1960s. The afternoon lies languid over the cobbled streets. It is late summer, and the sun shines a warm gold on the façades of the old houses. Rue des Étoiles winds its narrow, twisting path through the heart of the town, past the small park where the old men play boules every day in their shirt sleeves. Their voices echo softly among the plane trees as the silver balls roll quietly over the gravel. The square in front of Monsieur B.Junk’s pharmacy is, as always, a hub of activity. The pharmacy’s façade, slightly weathered, spoke of many decades during which villagers sought advice and medicines there. Through the shutters with their green slats, a…

Loco-Revue Les Dossiers Thématiques 09 Petitville-sur-mer Terminus Océan Edited by Alexis Avril Éditions Loco Revue, BP 30 104, F-56401 Auray Cedex, France. www.locorevue.com297mm x 210mm 116pp Softback €16.80 ISSN T.B.A. ref.L11659 French text The leading French model railway magazine Loco-Revue continues its quarterly additional offering with another themed collection with the emphasis on practical modelling. This ninth issue (dated September – October – November 2025) is devoted to one HO layout, Petitvillesur-mer (Smalltown by the sea), a seaside terminus created by the prolific and accomplished modeller Olivier Taniou, now a regular contributor to Loco-Revue. His work also appears in CM from time to time since we first encountered him and his wife showing a portable layout at an exhibition in France some years ago. In contrast, Petitville is being developed…