Modelling News Blog

News on new model releases, reviews of exhibitions and other happenings in the model railway world.

Permission to Vomit

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Tim Hall

Do you have more money that taste, know nothing about trains, and want the perfect gift for someone you don’t really like?  Then the ‘Spirit of England’ Express from The Bradford Exchange is perfect for you!

The sense of romance evoked by locomotive travel surpasses any other form of transport – particularly when travelling through the tranquil British countryside. The combination is pure delight: a feast for the senses, as unspoilt vistas unfold with every passing moment, revealing centuries of history and mystery. Now you can revisit the time-honoured tales of battles won, trophies raised and British icons born, with the ‘Spirit of England’ Express – exclusively available from The Bradford Exchange and limited to just 999 editions worldwide.

You do wonder exactly who buys this tat. Presumably their target market are people who neither know the difference between England and Britain, nor know the first thing about trains. Although, as has been pointed out, it is a cheap way of obtaining an On3 model of an American narrow gauge train of a type that bears no resemblance to anything that ever ran in Britain. Or England.

You’ll love the wealth of authentic detail devoted to every inch of this heirloom-quality express train and its boldly decorated 2-6-0 steam engine. Each carriage features a solid metal chassis and steel alloy wheels, highlighting unparalleled levels of craftsmanship. At night the drama increases incrementally as the express rolls along the tracks with its engine headlight illuminating the way, and all the car windows aglow with warm, inviting light. Soon, you can look forward to adding coordinating ‘Spirit of England’ passenger cars and free nickel-silver tracks-and-power pack.

You know, I feel sorry for the poor sap whose day job is writing this bollocks. I suppose people have to eat, but…

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ModelZone in Adminstration

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Tim Hall

More bad news on the High Street – ModelZone are going into Adminstration.

“On 26 June 2013, Richard Michael Hawes, Nicholas Guy Edwards and Robert James Harding of Deloitte LLP were appointed Joint Administrators of Modelzone Holdings Limited, The Amerang Group Limited, Modelzone Limited and Amerang Limited (together the “Companies”). The affairs, business and property of the Companies are being managed by the Joint Administrators. The Joint Administrators act as agents of the Companies only and contract without personal liability. The Joint Administrators are authorised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). All licensed Insolvency Practitioners of Deloitte LLP are licensed in the UK”

Like Jessops and HMV, Modelzone is the sort of business that relies on people’s discretionary spending and is always at risk from being hit hard in a recession. And like them it’s in competition with online box-shifters who don’t have the overheads of maintaining an expensive high-profile retail presence.

I’m quite a regular customer of my local branch. Although they’re not perfect, with a fairly limited stock of N-gauge (They don’t stock Dapol’s range at all), as a supplier of things like scenic material they’d be greatly missed should the branch or indeed the whole chain not survive.

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Graham Farish Mk2a Coaches

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Tim Hall

SONY DSC

While the later air-conditioned Mk2 stock have been available for many years, the earlier non-aircon coaches have long been one of the most significant gaps in the N-gauge coaching stock roster. The long-awaited Graham Farish models go a long way towards filling that gap.

Graham Farish have chosen to model the Mk2a variant, introduced in 1967 for use on principle express routes. Unlike the first Mk2s, they were air-braked only, and could not run behind some of the older diesel classes that were only ever fitted with vacuum brakes. The prototypes had long service lives. Though ousted from front-line services by later Mk2 builds relatively early on, they continued on secondary services all over the UK for many years. The last ones survived until the early 2000s, outliving some of the later Mk2 builds by the best part of a decade.

SONY DSC

The three models represent the TSO (Tourist open second), FK (First Corridor) and BSO (Brake Second Open) with Eastern Region running numbers. There is no BFK (Brake First Corridor), perhaps slightly disappointingly since BR built more than twice as many BFKs as BSOs. They’re initially available only in BR blue/grey, the livery they carried for the first two decades in service. Hopefully Network Southeast and Regional Railways liveries carried in later years will follow in due course.

They certainly are very impressive models, with an excellent semi-matt finish, close-coupling mechanisms with NEM sockets, and fully-detailed interiors including seats and tables in the correct colours. They certainly capture the distinctive look of the Mk2 extremely well.

SONY DSC

One quibble is the height doesn’t quite match that of Graham Farish’s Mk1s. It’s not a huge difference, but it is noticeable from certain angles if you mix Mk1 and Mk2 stock in the same train. Without a micrometer screw gauge I have no idea whether it’s the Mk2 or the Mk1 that’s slightly under or overscale. Saying that, the difference isn’t enough to be jarringly obvious and probably acceptable to all but the most fastidious.

A few years back, British-outline N-gauge models were the poor relation to continental and American models, with a lot of crudely-detailed models that were years if not decades behind the best models released by Kato, Fleischmann or Roco. But since Bachmann took over Graham Farish and a competitor entered the market in the shape of Dapol, things have improved out of all recognition. These Mk2s are possibly the best British-outline coaches released to date, and I think they are on a par with state-of-the-art continental models.

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N Gauge Society to do a Hawksworth BG

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Tim Hall

Photo by Les Gregory

As anounced on RMWeb, the N Gauge society’s next ready-to-run model will be a GWR designed Hawksworth BG, to be manufactured for them by Dapol. It’s a very useful model for Western Region modellers either for the steam or diesel hydraulic eras, since these vehicles saw use for parcels traffic throughout the 1970s, long outliving the Hawksworth design passenger coaches which had all gone by the late 1960s.

No confirmation on liveries, but I expect to see both BR maroon and BR blue versions. This model will be sold exclusively through the N Gauge Society for members only, but I can imagine that Dapol, having tooled for one 64′ Hawksworth vehicle, will go on to add other Hawksworth vehicles to their own range. Let’s hope so.

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Graham Farish 2012-3 Programme

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Tim Hall

Bachmann have just announced the new models for the Graham Farish 2012/3 programme. It’s an interesting mix of new and retooled items. The obvious modern-era highlight is Freightliner’s class 70s “Powerhaul” locomotive, but I notice the refurbished 37 and the Deltic are being retooled as all-new models. Several new and retooled steam locos as well, with an emphasis on big Pacifics, although the humble GWR pannier tank gets a partial retooling.

Highlights for me include

  • Mk2a coaches, with TSO, BSO and FK being produced. Early Mk2s have always been a big gap in RtR N gauge. Bachmann shrinking down their existing OO models isn’t entirely unexpected, but nevertheless is greatly welcomed.
  • Retooled FK added to the Mk1 range. Probably more useful, to me at least, than the already-announced FO.
  • SR-design Bullied coaches. Again, the 4mm ones scaled down, and will add a bit of variety to my transition era fleet. They did make it to the Cornish main line at times.
  • 50′ Polybulk covered hopper. This doesn’t duplicate the Grainflow hopper of the N gauge society kit; it’s the shorter swing-roofed wagons used not only for grain but a variety of other traffic flows, including china clay and assorted chemical traffic. For a Devon and Cornwall layout, it’s an important signature item for the 1980s/90s.

While no doubt some people might be disappointed in which OO items haven’t been “shrunk”, I’m more than satisfied by the announcement of the Mk2s and Polybulks – Those are two of the most significant gaps for the region and era I’m interested in.

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The 2011 International N Gauge Show

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Tim Hall

I spent a fun day at the International N Gauge show at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre, otherwise known as “The Cowshed”, just outside Leamington Spa. As a show dedicated to N-gauge modelling, with layouts large and small showcasing the possibilities of the scale, and the specialist traders out in force, it’s one of the major events of the year of the model railway calendar. It’s a good time to meet up with a lot of old friends from the railway modelling community, as well as getting inspiration from layouts, and of course buying stuff.

Compared with a few years ago the overwhelming majority of the layouts were British outline with only two or three continental European or North American layouts on display. I’ll put this down to the steadily improving quality of British models from Dapol and Bachmann in recent years.

This show has become a popular venue for nanufacturers to unveil their new products. One highlight for me was CJM‘s class 50, which for a suitably eye-watering price makes the Farish one look like the dated relic it is.  Dapol‘s big annoucement surprised a lot of people. After a lot of online speculation as to what class of locomotive it would be, it turned out to be a range of working semaphore signals. They will initally be available as upper and lower quadrant home and distants, although bracket signals are also planned. The samples I saw in action certainly look impressive, driven by a small motor and worm rather than a solenoid, and seem straightforward to attach to a layout. Just drill a 13mm diameter hole.

Bachmann also had a number of new products on display, including fully-decorated Metro-Cammell class 101 DMUs, and advanced samples of the 4-CEP and Seimens Desiro EMUs. I can see some SR and LMR electric layouts in the coming years.

As is usual for this sort of thing, I ended up spending far too much money, and the stuff I bought, such as a class 24 and a secondhand blue class 108 DMU, had a decidedly Cambrian flavour. I did resist the temptation to buy a brass BLS Ae6/8, a Zurich S-Bahn double-deck set. or Dapol’s Grand Central HST, the latter of which looked superb but wouldn’t fit into any layout I might conceivably build.

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Warley 2010

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Tim Hall

I’ve been going to the Warley model railway exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham for years now. It’s a big commercial show with huge crowds rather than one of the more friendly local or specialist shows, but it’s size means it’s a also a gathering of people you haven’t met for years.

There were a lot of great layouts in all sorts of scales, eras and nationalities. I know some people are only interested in layouts in their own gauge, or aren’t interested in anything outside of a certain region or era, but that way you can miss out on some great modelling.

“Aberdare” was one such example. This was a pre-grouping Taff Vale in finescale 4mm, with a very interesting track plan, and the strange loco depot design with two separate engine sheds because of the narrow site in the Welsh valleys. Another one I liked was the compact HO Danish layout “Havnegade”, set in the late 1960s, reminding me of a family holiday in Denmark around that time, with GM Nohabs in the original maroon livery and those distinctive 5-axle diesel railcars. Closer to my own modelling interests was “Loch Lochy”, making it’s exhibition debut, Scottish blue diesel N, very nicely modelled. And in 7mm scale, a massive “parade of trains” style layout of Barmouth Bridge. Somewhat truncated of course; the real bridge is nearly a mile long!

I also loved the TT3 layout – This was very much not a detailed finescale model, but very typical of the sorts of layouts people built in the 60s and 70s. Indeed, it reminded me very much of a layout I built around that time! My TT3 stock is still in my parents’ loft somewhere!

One of the big hits of the show was “Blackmill”, a large contemporary layout based on Blackburn in Lancashire, so popular you couldn’t get near it all day. Even at 4:30 in the afternoon, at a time when the crowd starts to thin out, it three deep in front of this layout. Ditto the Model Railway Club’s massive “Copenhagen Fields”, 20 years in the building and still far from finished.

Bridport Town

While I’m not really into narrow-gauge steam layouts, Bridport Town is one I’ll make an exception for. While fictitious, it has a verisimilitude that all too many narrow gauge layout lack. I think one element, apart from the superb level of modelling, is that all the locomotive fleet doesn’t include anything that’s uniquely associated with a specific British line. For example, the 4-4-0T is (I think) a proposed but unbuilt design by Hunslet for the Lynton and Barnstable. And those ex-War Department Baldwin 4-6-0Ts ran on a great many lines.

Sadly my bank balance too a bit of a hammering; Messrs Dapol and Bachmann had too many shiny things on sale, including the new Mk1 coaches and some weathered Silver Bullets.

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