British Railway Modelling (BRM)

Why am I reading the March issue in January?” It's a question we often get asked, and the answer is that BRM has 13 issues a year, with the additional Spring issue following after March. To fit in the 13th, the print schedules are pushed forward slightly throughout the year, with this March issue being the most obvious occasion of being out of ‘sync’ with the calendar year. We've been doing the Spring issue for many years, and we hope you all enjoy getting that extra modelling fix over the 12 months. Attention has just moved to Spring 2023, and as there are some fantastic layouts and practical features planned, you're not going to want to miss it! But before we get too ahead of ourselves, we have a March 2023 issue to…

The Preston and District Model Railway Society's old OO gauge layout, ‘Bee Lane’ had served the club well, but in 2014, the ‘OO’ group in the club decided to think about what was required on a future layout, so all went away to come up with an acceptable scheme. Various proposals were put forward, but it was decided that a location further south of ‘Bee Lane’ on the WCML would be the most suitable. This would include certain prominent features in that area, mainly the junction off the West Coast Main Line to Chorley, Bolton, Manchester and beyond. A distinct advantage of remaining in the local area is that site visits to take photographs and, where possible, measurements, could be made in minutes. It was agreed that the main features should be starting…

The overhead wires are a necessary feature of this and many other modern image layouts. However, there are very few (if any) that include the power box building, feed to the overhead wires and transformer masts. These all had to be scratch-built using photographs and with the principle that if it looks right, it is right. Worthy of note are the two boxes on the transformer masts, which are actually grey in colour. However, due to atmospheric conditions when taking the pictures, they showed blue and look far better in blue. The head-spans were all scratch-built in-situ from ‘H'-section brass and 0.7mm brass wire. The five lattice gantries spanning the junction and the two lattice gallows adjacent to the station were built using the N Brass Locomotive range of structures. The…

Fencing is a mixture of card and Plastikard, scribed and painted as required. I divided hedges with thick card, cut to size, and then applied scatter material of varying sizes and colours to obtain the effect. All buildings, from sheds to garages, are either scratch-built or modified kits, and finished to suit the location. The majority of the hard landscaping has been built ad-hoc and finished using Metcalfe paving, brick and stone papers. Grass areas have been made using the usual method, again using different fibre lengths and colours to obtain the desired effect. Shrubs are from paper, cut to shape, painted, and finished with varnish to give stability.…

These had to be made to fit the available space from the road bridge to platform level and the front ramp, and part of the long rear ramp had to be removable for the layout to be transported for exhibitions. The main structural members are made of brass and soldered together to give the profile of the ramps, stanchions fitted to give stability and height to the ramps, and these were fixed into blocks to give the impression of concrete slabs. Everything was then covered with Plastikard for the footway, which was glued to the brass profile. The rest of the ramps were constructed from rail section, filed down to give an ‘I’ beam effect with all joints soldered, 0.5mm brass wire was soldered to each panel to form the bracing, the fine…

Railways played a huge part in bringing people to the coast, and helped turn these seaside locations into fully-fledged resorts. If you've built or designed a geographically generic terminus station, but want something to provide further interest, I think a promenade and beach sitting in front or at the end of the station is a fantastic option. In this article, I hope to show that it's also not a difficult scene to build - even waves can be created without much effort! Getting started The baseboard for this latest project started as a scrap of 12mm ply. Rather than waste rigid insulation board (or Styrofoam) building up to the promenade, a simple structure is made using four PSE softwood 80mm lengths, which are glued and screwed end-on to the ply base. A 25mm…