Garden Railway Forum

Because of my location I have discovered an almost complete lack of 16mm modellers. I know there are several in the North of Wales (That's where the real thing is!) but in the South West, nothing!!! I have only one colleague who does 16mm in the garden and he is a great supporter of my madness. He i...

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I have been building 16mm stock for over 35 years now, firstly for indoor exhibition layouts but more recently for outdoors.   I have never had a garden railway of my own and thought I never would. However, with time on my hands and the opportunity to go for it I thought I should make a start. BUT.....

Having 'won' a Bachmann Jackson Sharp Passenger Car kit on Ebay I couldn't decide what to do with it. It just sat in its box for a few months until one day I saw a railbus advertised somewhere and suddenly bells began to ring..... The conversion was pretty straightforward once the idea formed. It co...

Thank you all for your messages of support and approval. I really do appreciate all of the generous comments and remarks. It's always nice to be accepted amongst like minded modelmakers. Whether prototypical or not, the same amount of effort goes into producing a model to an acceptable standard and ...

Well done you!

Hard work, long hours, little thanks, but now enjoy the moment.

New world of opportunities out there for you and I am impressed with the plans already. You WILL succeed!

The final proof that my Rail Taxi actually runs.
I must say I am very satisfied with the result but I am easily pleased!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEPZ7SD977k

Now..... for my next trick.....

I don't have a railway myself but will soon be visiting a friend's garden railway and will see what I can do.... Of course the weather might play a part in this plan as Wales, and particularly the part I happen to live in, has suffered with some of the worst heavy rain for many years and I doubt you...

Well, this is it... the final chapter. I have finished my greatest challenge to date! The Rail Taxi, as designed by Rowland Emett, has been the one model I have waited years to attempt and now I feel justified in its construction. The last few details, such as the general rusting and neglect of the ...

Dave, I now have the article published in SMT and having read the piece by Colin Binnie about his Rail Taxi I can see even he had exactly the same reservations about its construction as I had....Quote ...... 'The prototype was chosen as an exercise in techniques that were new to me and which I had a...

I have decided my Rail Taxi will be Claret in colour, sadly not in flavour! I have sprayed the whole model concentrating on the main sheetwork. The rear hood is hand painted in satin black and the smoke box and firebox picked out separately. More detailing to follow will include some rusting and wea...

Wonderful information, many thanks for that. I am a member of the 16mm Association, does that mean I can download this article or is it available another way?

Where have you been all this time??? I have been enlightened to the wonderful work of Colin Binnie during this exercise but completely unaware of other models of this Rail Taxi until recently. It looks like 32mm gauge? It is well boxed and looked after (as it deserves). Is it in your own collection?...

As all of Emett's cartoons of this era are in black and white there is no way of knowing if Emett even thought in colour? I fancy a dark colour to give some body to the skeletal nature of the model. I think a light or pastel shade would not show up against the open nature of the build. Also, because...

Just keeps on getting better, and better, and better, and ......well, you know!

So.....here we are in primer. I think it ties everything together quite nicely and gives a better impression of the overall model without the distractions of diverse materials and colours as before. It shows the various textures of what are pretending to be metal, ie. boiler, smokebox, bodywork etc....

More photographs as the previous entry did not allow.....

Having made the separate units, the next step was to fit them together. First thing was to hinge the doors with doll's house brass hinges stuck in with tiny flat headed pins and superglue. Once in place the spacing between the front screen panel and the rear seating pod was established allowing the ...

Now that we know of your building background it all becomes clear why the model is so convincing. The structure, and especially the timber framing, is straight out of the building manual. The strange thing is, if you do this during your working day, why aren't you doing something completely differen...

This just keeps on getting better and better!
Hard to imagine what you can do next to top this one.
Keep them coming, please!
Peter.