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Orchard Wharf – Traverser Revamp
The traverser on board 4 (the “Rest of the World” RoW traverser – left hand end as watching the layout) of Orchard Wharf has never worked satisfactorily. Unlike the traversers at the other end of the layout, which use roller bearings, the RoW traverser used drawer slides. Those slides were mounted horizontally, which was a …read more.
Dec 22, 2024
Copenhagen Fields – preparing for the big 4-0
I hope you have all had a relaxing & productive summer. My modelling has been a bit patchy, following the very intense work prior to the Buxton show. The Raven 4-6-2 class has had some work on the cab roof and front running plates. The layout now has three extra signals on it, with a …read more.
Sep 7, 2024
Kit building brass Mk1 coaches – before the RTR versions arrive
The Great Northern (King’s Cross) suburban services in the 1950s-70s were characterised by the ‘short’ Mark 1 non-gangway coaches – normally hauled by Class 31 diesels. The majority of coaches and trains were formed of compartment third/second class coaches, as manufactured for several years by Bachmann in OO, and these would have formed the bulk …read more.
Dec 28, 2023
Santa’s Sleigh
As usual the MRC held its pre-Christmas mini exhibition in earlier this month. The York Road tube diorama had its first outing with a working train for the show with certain features such as this little 3DP of Santa in his sleigh with four reindeer out front. They had landed on the YR tube station …read more.
Dec 22, 2023
Making Tracks (for Chester) 3
For the third year I (and our treasurer Gus Paul) have had the opportunity to support Pete Waterman, and the Railnuts, installing their latest layout into Chester Cathedral earlier this week. “Making Tracks 3” is the most complex yet as it features Milton Keynes station with 6 platform faces and a bay. Two of the …read more.
Jul 27, 2023
Manufacturer Updates from 2023 London Festival of Railway Modelling
With the 2023 show now successfully behind us, here are the updates from many of the UK’s leading manufactures they shared with us over the weekend, including details of brand new products announced. We kicked of with Accurascale with their latest launch, who also had their Mk1 Suburban coach prototypes on display on our test …read more.
Mar 25, 2023
Award Winning MRC
We were delighted to be recognised in the 2022 British Railway Modelling Awards – presented at the London Festival of Railway Modelling (LFORM) at Alexandra Palace on 19th March. The awards are nominated by and then voted for by the public, and there were string fields in every category Our 2mm layout Copenhagen Fields won …read more.
Mar 21, 2023
Weathering Green Diesels
Since John completed work on EM gauge converting my class 16 (thank you, John), I have been working on weathering/detailing it and two more class 15s whose weathering I had not previously completed for our layout Orchard Wharf. The class 16 (D8405) was factory weathered, so there was not much weathering to do, but I …read more.
Mar 10, 2023
A new home test track
One of the great benefits of MRC membership is access to the test tracks, allowing us to run our models on a decent sized circuit to run them in, and identify any niggles. Many of us will also have a short section of track at home and if we’re lucky maybe a ‘rolling road’ to …read more.
Feb 25, 2023
Skittle Alley for Copenhagen Fields
Further to my progress over the summer holidays (see this blog) The Raven NER 4-6-2 class (AKA ‘Skittle Alley’) now has a running chassis. https://youtu.be/i16nnr6LEfk It will need some careful engineering to get it round corners, but should be OK. It certainly won’t be short of weight and traction when finished. The stepped running plate …read more.
Dec 26, 2022
Bow Junction’s Summer Progress
Bow Junction’s turn to be erected in the Lower Hall started just after the May Open Day so it was erected near the start of June and was taken down and packed away on the middle of August to make room for Putnam. This was in fact the first time that all of Bow Junction …read more.
Sep 4, 2022
Orchard Wharf – fleet of 15s
James has been busy with his ‘late period’ class 15s locomotives. They have all been converted to EM gauge conversion plus had new couplings fitting. DCC has been installed including stay alive just in case our trackwork isn’t quite up to scratch. And of course the slightly fiddly pack of detail parts added. Now he’s …read more.
Aug 28, 2022