Garden Railway Forum

This show is a first time for me. Four hours travelling each way makes a long day. Loads of detail on plenty of layouts. The only criticism is that you could not keep any of these layouts outdoors. The Roundhouse double Fairlie in steam was a treat to behold. It is also worthwhile to see in real lif...

2018 Bournemouth

I don't normally have a problem with cheapo superglue tubes, but maybe that's because I'm not normal. I simply wipe the nozzle after every application, and then stand it vertically for a few minutes, to allow the glue to run back down into the tube, before replacing the cap. I rarely have to discard...

What are you going to do now it's finished?

Will you have flames shooting out of the chimney and steam hiss from the rivets? Incidentally, steam nor smoke could issue from the smoke box rivets since it is not under pressure.

Surely bonsai trees would be ideal but I never heard of anyone using bonsai in a garden railway. Does anyone have any ideas on this?

Having constructed several buildings in concrete I stumbled across a website 'Bromley Craft Products' which sells texture compounds for brick and stone finishes and various moulding stencils in scales from 1:12 to 1:48 including 1:19 and 1:24. I have not seen or used any of these and wondered if any...

Bournemouth Model Railway shop is due to close down due to retirement. Although offering little in the larger scales local model shops are very useful suppliers of materials and tools. This was the last one I know of apart from Moors Valley Railway. Even Maplin has met its end. Every item now can on...

I really like your dented quarry skips and a realistic well - worn look. Take a look at my 'backscene on a fence' post. You have a lot of fence.

We rarely hear mention of a helical main line which passes over itself at one point and has the advantage of doubling the length of run in a small area, so long as there is enough space for easy gradients. Very good features described for modellers who are keen but not sure how to plan.

We lost our dog a few months ago, but always got her one toy for Christmas which we wrapped in several layers of decorative paper. It was a delight to watch the process of the dog unwrapping the toy.

Oh dear! Who would have thought that 'animals on the line' could turn into 'Morris dancing'? My apologies. The blackbird is back attacking my moss.

I too have just enjoyed a morning cycle to Hengistbury Head, and have driven all kinds of vehicles from motorcycles, cars with and without trailers or caravans, vans, trucks, steam engines and five years on coaches. Just as there are many inconsiderate drivers, so the same goes for cyclists. So many...

Hopefully :thumbright: I can now show a sequence of pictures describing how I built a church which stands up to the weather and the animals, birds, squirrels, cats and a fox. First picture shows the first mould. grfch1.jpg The base is a piece of white melamine board with wooden edge battens screwed ...

grfbus1.jpg A bus is a useful feature on any roadway, but far too expensive to buy an accurate scale model and too time consuming to make by hand. I was at my local 'In Excess' and spotted a stack of ornamental double deckers for £14:95 each. The doorway height showed that it was a little under sca...

Two opposite sides of my layout are bordered by wooden fences. I have allowed access space for maintenance to the fences and the railway, but fences do not provide a realistic backdrop to create the illusion of distance. I got permission the very supportive neighbour who owns one of the fences, and ...

This is truly impressive, your work is an inspiration.

Post box finally managed to get posted Awaiting re-siting, homebuilt swing unintentionally in background, made from single strand of copper electrical
wire bent and soft soldered. Very crude but animal-proof, may redesign.

In reply to gregh regarding gas stove/blowlamp, at least you can see and hear what is happening. You cannot see inside a battery until damage becomes catastrophic. I have never been in favour of sensors on vehicle components and oil level to warn when attention is needed. They do save getting your f...

Sorry for the late reply but have just spotted this one. A useful little tool for scribing a line parallel to an edge is a pair of odd leg dividers, which has one leg with its end either curved or angled to run along the edge of the workpiece.