Modelling Goods Trains, Goods Sheds and Yards in the Steam Era E-Book

Terry Booker

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

This wide-ranging book, written by an experienced railway modeller, demonstrates how, with a little patience, you can produce accurate and realistic models of goods trains, sheds and yards. It presents detailed step-by-step projects and covers basic card-kit building, 'kit bashing' and scratch building. Written in an easily understandable style, this fascinating work is aimed at all those railway modellers who wish to authentically replicate the way goods were moved and handled on Britain's railways during the steam era. Covers the simple tools and materials that are required. Packed with information about steam-era goods workings and how to recreate them on a layout. Shows the reader how a typical goods yard operated and how it was constructed. Demonstrates how to detail, improve, modify and achieve the best results from card kits. Examines the growing appeal of 'download' kits. Shows the modeller how to improve the appearance and reliability of goods rolling stock. Contains many money-saving suggestions and is consistently cost-conscious throughout.

Leseprobe

MODELLING

Goods Trains, Goods Sheds and Yards

IN THE STEAM ERA

TERRY BOOKER

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2015 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2015

© Terry Booker 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 069 0

Disclaimer

The author and the publisher do not accept any responsibility in any manner whatsoever for any error or omission, or any loss, damage, injury, adverse outcome, or liability of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any of the information contained in this book, or reliance upon it. If in doubt about any aspect of railway modelling skills and techniques, readers are advised to seek professional advice.

CONTENTS

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: MATERIALS AND TOOLS

CHAPTER TWO: GOODS WORKINGS IN THE STEAM ERA

CHAPTER THREE: THE GOODS SHED

CHAPTER FOUR: THE GOODS YARD

CHAPTER FIVE: THE MARSHALLING YARD

CHAPTER SIX: AN INTRODUCTION TO SCRATCH BUILDING

CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS, SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

INDEX

PREFACE

In one of my many ‘other lives’ I spent a fair few hours commentating at air shows, where my equally ageing colleagues and I waxed long and eloquently about the beauty of the Hawker Hunter and vigorously debated the merits of the Spitfire Mk IX against the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 ‘Butcher Bird’. As we shared our memories of a time half a century before as if they were yesterday, we were totally oblivious of the fact that most of our audience weren’t even born then.

Our endeavours to recreate the steam railways of the 1950s may be placed in the same category. For most modellers, apart from us fast-diminishing band of greybeards, that railway is now as remote as the Bristol Boxkite was to the one-time youngsters chatting to one another in the commentary box.

From that confession, you will probably guess that my model-making and lineside observations stretch back to post-war Austerity and the earliest days of British Railways. In modelling terms, it stretches from clockwork ‘O’ Gauge on the kitchen floor right up to eagerly awaiting the latest announcements from Bachmann and Hornby. Sadly there are no personal time machines to transport today’s modellers back to an era when a steam railway was always just a short bike-ride away. Nonetheless I hope that the following chapters will at least provide a few snapshots of what the railways were like and how they operated on a day-to-day basis. Naturally I further hope that this may help your own efforts to create a model that is truly ‘railway-like’.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With a half-century of modelling history fast vanishing behind me, it is no easy task to properly credit all those who have contributed to my endeavours. I dread the thought of waking in the small hours to the realization that I have omitted a key figure.

I must start with my late parents, whose generosity, even in the leanest of times, was unbounded. My dear old dad, Bert Booker, was the village smith, engineer, inventor, countryman and a ‘supreme bodger’: he could, and always did, manage to make something out of nothing. Above all he encouraged me to observe and remember everything that was going on in that rapidly changing post-war era. Those memories were, and are, the main motivators behind my modelling.

Next in line are two of the great names from the last century: Roye England at Pendon and David Jenkinson. Their sage advice, not to mention their outstanding creations, continues to keep me ‘on track’.

Due credit must also go to all the countless publishers, editors, photographers and contributors working in the prototype and model press; their efforts never fail to maintain my fascination for the railways. Thanks also to those companies, suppliers and organizations that have helped in the preparation of this book, notably Dapol, Scalescenes, Freestone, Sankey Scenics, Langley and Model Railway Scenery. Special thanks, too, to the archivists who helped to ensure the presence of the period photographs, particularly Elaine at Swindon, Sophia at NRM, Laurence at GWS and Austin at Pendon.

Last, but really top of the list, comes my family. My wife Joan, for nearly fifty years of tolerance and encouragement; for putting up with family holidays that always – mysteriously – seemed to involve close proximity to a railway; and for accepting the constant spread of model-making detritus across the entire house. Thanks to my two sons, whose childhood Saturdays usually meant several windswept hours waving at trains on Shap Fell. Special thanks to Stephen, whose keyboard skills and endless patience turned hundreds of pages of handwritten scrawl into this book.

INTRODUCTION

LOOKING BACK

At the end of the Second World War, life in the countryside and rural villages had, in many ways, changed little from the early 1930s. Horses worked alongside tractors and most agriculture was still the traditional, family-run, mixed farm. The roads were largely tar and gravel and the steamrollers had yet to give way to the new breed of diesels. Not that it mattered much, as most villages boasted few private cars and saw only infrequent bus services and the occasional delivery vehicle. There was also petrol rationing – trust my dad to invest in his BP pump, albeit the only one for miles around (two cars a day was a ‘rush’).

The railways, although run-down by six years of war, still ruled supreme. They moved the nation’s goods and its people in vast quantities and mostly to time, even if the experience for the passengers was perhaps less enthralling than for the blazer-clad individuals at the lineside, engaged in solitary vigils at country stations or as part of the throng at the end of platforms at the major termini. For us it was an era of great change, great excitement and, especially by today’s standards, of great personal freedom. It mattered little whether one arrived by bus, train, tube or bike; once there, as long you behaved yourself, you were free to indulge in your hobby. We witnessed at first hand the disappearance of the once familiar ‘Big Four’ liveries and the advent of the ‘new look’ British Railways. For many of us the transition from (albeit grimy) green to sparkling, shiny black did not always meet with universal approval. The new official logo was swiftly dubbed ‘the Cycling Lion’, but in our neck of the woods it became ‘the Ferret and Dartboard’, perhaps a more suitable reflection of traditional rural pursuits?

Challow Station on the old Great Western main line, midway between Didcot and Swindon. This was the author’s boyhood haunt in the late 1940s and the 1950s. The Castle is on the down platform and is heading one of the regular ‘semi-fasts’ heading non-stop to Swindon.AUSTIN ATTEWELL

The early days of British Railways produced an abundance of experimental liveries. Some of these were driven by British Railways’ marketing department, while others came from the regions themselves. The former GWR turned out engines with the official style of BRITISH RAILWAYS in a sans serif font, as on this Mogul, but their more prestigious locos had the wording in the old company’s style.GREAT WESTERN TRUST

Whatever their colour scheme there were certainly plenty of trains to be ‘copped’. Expresses thundered through well into 80 mph plus, while lengthy goods trains seemed to plod past on the relief at little more than walking pace. If you were lucky, the local signalman might invite you up into the warmth and highly polished sanctuary of the box. If you were even luckier, and hopped over the fence into the meadow, then a stroll down to the freight held at the inner-home might well be rewarded with a footplate ride back to the far end of the platform. Jumping down from that holy of holies was nothing for village kids used to hopping off moving tractors.

It isn’t at all surprising, then, that those long-departed goods trains hold a special place in my archive of memories.

The rest of that world has also vanished beyond recall. No more Eagle or ‘Children’s Hour’; no more Meccano Magazine or Trains Illustrated. Even the once ‘immemorial elms’ are now but distant memories. But at least modellers can recreate that vanished era, or at least a part of it, in our own mini-worlds.

I expect those brief snapshots will trigger similar recollections from the older readers of the ‘steam generation’ and I hope they may also whet the appetites of many younger and would-be modellers who are keen to discover more about those distant days. This book will try to offer some insight into how the railways worked, particularly in respect of its goods traffic. Above all, it will give some pointers about achieving that most elusive quality: atmosphere.

‘WE’VE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD’

In purely physical terms the hobby has never been better served. Manufacturers, from the giants like Hornby and Bachmann down to the smallest cottage-industry suppliers, are producing items to a standard of accuracy quite undreamed of just a few decades ago. These alone, however, do not make for a wholly convincing portrait of the steam railway. They indeed look wonderfully attractive and realistic, at least as models, but no matter how skilful the modeller may be, to just display and run them ‘straight from the box’ (SFB) will never make for a satisfying representation of the real thing. Accuracy is nothing if atmosphere is absent.

There are already scores of books and guides that will help the beginner to get started in our many-faceted hobby. If one then adds the hundreds of albums and histories that cover the real railway, not to mention all the well-established monthly magazines and countless websites, then the keen modeller is truly spoilt for choice. Nonetheless, despite this plethora of information, no single title or even the most enterprising author could ever hope to cover every aspect of either the prototype or the model. Every reader will have their own particular aspirations, their different skill levels, finances, available space and time – and, of course, their areas of specific interest. It is therefore necessary to establish some early parameters to reveal the aims of the book and its intended core-readership.

TO BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING

This title is one the ever-growing library from The Crowood Press and is a further guide for new or recent entrants to the hobby. That said, even those who already have some experience, more developed skills and an existing layout may still find useful tips towards their future endeavours. Equally, it is hoped that those who are still not fully committed to building their dream layouts will discover some fresh inspiration as well as guidance on how to start and what to buy.

As far as the modelling itself is concerned, the emphasis will be fixed firmly on the most popular scale, usually referred to as OO gauge or ‘double O’. This is universally accepted as working to 4mm to the foot (or 1:76 scale). It normally runs on trackwork described as ‘code 100’ and with a track gauge of 16.5mm. This is the track found in off-the-shelf train sets or available as single items from Hornby and Bachmann. The most famous name in trackwork is PECO. It is available in pre-curved ready-to-lay form generally known as ‘set-track’ and comes in various radii supported by a wide choice of points and crossings. This same system is also available in one-yard lengths as ‘flexi-track’, which can be cut or curved to suit the layout. All these products are compatible and enable the modeller to construct even quite complex track plans easily and reasonably quickly.

There are inevitably some shortcomings with ‘code 100’ track and with the very concept of OO gauge (for ways to disguise these, seeChapter 4). Nothing, however, can detract from its robust character and its ability to cope with a wide variety of different wheel types. It is often called ‘universal’ and the operator can safely run ancient Hornby Dublo and Wrenn stock alongside the much finer-wheeled stock currently available. It will even accept most, but not all, scale-wheeled items.

Having determined the main parameters in respect of the model making, we now need to fix the scope of coverage on the prototype. Needless to say we have to place some pretty severe limits on what can be included. Railways have been around for almost two hundred years but there seems to be one period in particular that remains the most popular for the majority of modellers. This is amply demonstrated by the number of layouts featured in the model press and seen on the exhibition circuit. More importantly, it is also the period best supported by the major manufacturers and the many smaller specialist suppliers. It would be misguided to attempt to be too precise over the actual years, but the period from the 1940s to the early 1960s would seem to cover it. This embraces the final years of the ‘Big Four’ (GWR, LMS, SR and LNER) and the early years of British Railways, leading up to the newer liveries and the dawn of the diesels. The period is often referred to as the ‘Golden Years’ and stops short of the radical changes recommended by Dr Beeching.

Once the period has been chosen, that still leaves an enormous amount of railway that could be researched and modelled. Setting further limits is a more difficult task. There were seven complete BR regions, each with its own unique character and characteristics; the network was truly nationwide; there were thousands of stations each served by countless trains of every type and description. But, worthy though all these aspects may be, a line must be drawn somewhere. What is needed is something that would have relevance to every modeller irrespective of their regional loyalties or preferred geographical location. It would also be useful if the focus were on something perhaps less widely covered elsewhere and which could, in turn, throw up a whole range of modelling projects.

It isn’t surprising that most photographers concentrated their attentions on trains like this. It’s an afternoon relief working and is heading for the West Country with the Hall piloting none other than the famous, and fortunately preserved, King George V, best known as ‘the one with the bell’.BEN BROOKSBANK; LICENSED FOR REUSE UNDER THIS CREATIVE COMMONS LICENCE

The answer, of course, may be found within the very origins of the railways and what would always be their largest source of traffic and revenues: freight. The humble goods train, from fast-fitted vans, lengthy loose-coupled coal wagons and the almost infinite variety of the all-stations ‘fly’, was the mainstay of the system from Land’s End to John O’Groats and from Wales to the Wash. They performed their mundane tasks day-in and day-out and were indeed so commonplace that even the most avid lineside photographer tended to ignore them.

Most, if not all, of the country’s railways were originally built for the conveyance of merchandise and raw materials. For Victorian entrepreneurs the very notion of public travel came a poor second to the profits they could make from industry and commerce. Their intention was to replace the horse-drawn transport on canals and turnpikes with something that was more safe, speedy and reliable. The steam-hauled goods train was the obvious choice.

From the modeller’s point of view, the goods train is potentially a far more challenging and interesting proposition than its more glamorous passenger counterpart. A passenger train is just coaches. Although these may vary in number, design and liveries, they are still only coaches. Even the laziest of modellers needs to do little more than open the boxes, add a bit of weathering to the underframes and stick an appropriate locomotive at the front to have a reasonably accurate passenger train ready to go.

Goods workings, if they are to be in any way realistic, require far more thought, research, effort and creativity. The diligent modeller will need to discover more about the various types of train, their purpose, the locos that hauled them and their likely consists (the correct term used to describe the wagons and vans that make up a train).

After an opening chapter describing the tools and techniques that we will be using, later chapters will move on to the various structures and facilities that were the vital interface between the railways and their customers.

AIMING HIGH

The overall aim of the book is to take the modeller, in easy stages, from the shiny new train set right through to the creation of truly railway-like settings in which to operate prototypical goods trains. Those two adjectives will crop up with some frequency as the book unfolds, so a brief discussion of exactly what they mean in model terms is worthwhile.

Authors and modellers can often find it more difficult to explain what they are aiming for than to actually achieve it. Simply relying on words like ‘accurate’, ‘detailed’ or ‘authentic’ somehow fails to capture the essence of the full picture we are trying to present. It goes without saying that all of those are part and parcel of good modelling, but on their own they are rarely enough to convince the viewer. It is more than possible to have accurately scaled models with superb detail and exquisitely executed liveries, suitably posed in an equally well-constructed setting, and yet the scene as a whole still seems to lack an elusive something. It may be an excellent example of modelling skill, but it still fails to capture the essential atmosphere of the real railway. The word ‘railway-like’ appropriately describes what we are seeking, and so it should since it was coined by the late, great David Jenkinson, one of the finest modellers of my generation.

‘Jenks’ was not only a master-modeller in EM gauge/4mm scale and in 7mm fine-scale, he was also an able historian, an author and the one-time Education Officer at the National Railway Museum. (On a purely personal note, he was, as Flt Lt Jenkinson, my Maths instructor when I was an officer cadet at RAF South Cerney.) Towards the end of his book Modelling Historic Railways he attempts to explain the elusive factor that can transform a good model railway into something more. David’s layouts, like those of many enthusiasts, were largely in imaginary settings, yet they incorporated in superb detail both the trains and the structures that were appropriate to his vision. His definition of ‘railway-like’ simply required that, ‘had the railway existed at this time and in this place, then this is how it would have looked and worked’.

When asked similar questions about my own loft layout ‘Wessex Lines’ or my exhibition version based on the former Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Junction Railway, I usually describe them as being ‘prototypical’. This is now a fairly common term and can embrace everything from the landscape, the period, the various scenes and cameos right through to the trains themselves and the engines at their head. It even includes the speeds at which they run. As an impromptu test of my success, or otherwise, I often challenge viewers to reduce themselves to an inch high and try to imagine they are ‘spotting’ at the platform end, strolling through the village or helping out on the farms. If they are convinced by the possibilities of this adventure then I have probably got things right and my miniature might-have-been is indeed ‘prototypical’. The real accolades, however, are when visitors, unprompted, point to cottages and tell their companions that those were their childhood homes, or when an elderly gentleman spots a certain loco and tells me that’s exactly how he used to sling his cycle on the tender ready for a quick getaway at the end of his shift.

The early 1950s were renowned for the large number of elderly little engines that had somehow managed to escape the cutter’s torch. Three of these ex-MSWJ 2-4-0s spent their last years around the author’s home territory; it’s natural that a scratch-built example should be a resident on ‘Wessex Lines’.

Our aims, irrespective of whether it is a small diorama or a large fully operating layout, should always be to appear ‘railway-like’ and ‘prototypical’.

GETTING STARTED

I hope the following chapters will offer even the newest of modellers some guidance on how these objectives might best be achieved. The hobby should always be fun and the intention is not to resemble a lecture room: if you are still opening the boxes and have never handled a paintbrush or scalpel, there is no need to feel anxious. If the various ideas and techniques appeal to you, then by all means use them, but always remember that it is your railway, your layout and ultimately all your own work.

Railway modelling is the same as any other occupation – the more you put in, the more you will get out. That doesn’t just apply to making your own buildings or improving your rolling stock; it applies equally to the tools, methods and materials that you use. Be imaginative and don’t be afraid to experiment, as you may hit on an idea that has previously eluded the rest of us. On my various projects I do things no more and no less than ‘my way’. After a half-century or so they suit me and I continue to find them (mostly) enjoyable and (usually) satisfactory. I’ll be flattered if you take them up and even more flattered if they inspire you to discover your own alternatives.

This lengthy milk train with fifteen six-wheel tanks, two ‘road-rail’ tanks and Hawksworth full-brake, and a ‘County’ in charge, was acquired second-hand at numerous toy fairs about 2005. By early 2015 it had more than doubled in value and was worth close to £400. Even now, though, if you are patient it is still possible to shop around and find bargains.

It is interesting to reflect on the relative costs of railway modelling over the decades. In the last forty years or so the price of ready-to-run (r-t-r) locos has risen from a few pounds to well over a hundred and a basic wagon from under a pound to nearer ten. In that same period, however, the quality on offer has risen to previously undreamed of heights, while relative incomes have risen even higher. Nonetheless our hobby is not, nor ever has been, cheap to run.

I am very conscious of the fact that for many of today’s modellers, young or old, that ‘tenner’ may be just as hard to find as was the spare ‘quid’ in my day. As I too have frequently had to model on a proverbial shoestring, I have tried to tailor the various projects to a minimal budget. They should be relatively easy to construct and use only a few low-cost tools and simple materials. The kits that are demonstrated are competitively priced and considerable emphasis has been placed on recycling and second-hand purchases. I hope this will encourage everyone at least to make a start: one can always upgrade later as skill levels and/or finances improve. In case you then decide that the hobby is not for you, at least it won’t have cost an arm and a leg to find out.

A LAST LOOK BACK

To conclude this introduction I would like to take you back to the halcyon days of steam railways, of Tizer and banana sandwiches, of cheap-day child returns, Billy Bunter at Greyfriars and Dennis the Menace in The Beano. When setting our ‘prep’, my elderly history tutor at grammar school would always utter the following exhortation: ‘Read – Mark – Learn and inwardly digest’. Sixty years later I can do no better than echo his words. Take all the advice you can get from every available source: books, magazines, exhibitions, DVDs and the Web. Study all the methods, materials, techniques and achievements of fellow modellers past and present. But don’t just slavishly copy their efforts: ‘Never model the model – always model the prototype’.

You are now free to plough through the rest at your leisure. All the projects have been researched, built, photographed and written up specifically for the book. To put it in everyday language, what follows is a step-by-step or blow-by-blow account of model-making from opening the packet to the final positioning and the scenic setting. Where possible I’ve also tried to include any additional tips from my other modelling activities. It is to be hoped this may help you to avoid the many mistakes that I have made during a lifetime of railway modelling.

This Churchward design, specifically for the fast and heavy overnight freights, was one of the Western’s most powerful locomotives. Spotters dubbed them ‘Night Owls’ as they were rarely seen in daylight. Although they are currently available only as kit-builds on the second-hand market, there is speculation that one may eventually appear as a ready-to-run.GREAT WESTERN TRUST

CHAPTER ONE

MATERIALS AND TOOLS

The model railway hobby has many aspects, each of which will have a varied degree of appeal to its enthusiasts. It is true that the solo modeller engaged upon his or her home or exhibition layout will naturally need to become proficient as a ‘designer’, ‘carpenter’, ‘electrician’ and a bit of an ‘engineer’ – and that’s just to get the baseboards in place. The actual construction and operation of the layout will then demand yet another blend of skills; these embrace the whole package of imagination, planning, budgeting, researching, soldering, and all those ancillary techniques associated with craftwork, artistry and painting. With the ever increasing impact of technology, some understanding of computers and electronics is also fast becoming a near essential. All in all, it’s an extensive portfolio of skills and is far removed from that needed when all we had was an O gauge Hornby clockwork train set on the kitchen floor.

It is not the intention of this book, however, to attempt to cover this entire field. We can safely leave most of it to other authors and just concentrate on the enjoyable side of building all those kits and bits that go into making our layouts both attractive and ‘railway-like’. Fortunately that means that we will need little in the way of technical wizardry, expensive materials or lavish toolkits. Most of what we do can also be safely carried out on the proverbial kitchen table.

For the benefit of newcomers to the hobby, and perhaps as an ‘aide-memoire to more experienced modellers, this opening chapter will take a detailed look at the various materials, finishes and tools, and at the uses to which they can be put. It will also pay due attention to the important question of ‘cost’. Our hobby has never been cheap and today’s ever-increasing prices and declining disposable incomes have created a problem that shouldn’t be overlooked. It is a sad fact that there is a current trend to demand and expect instant gratification. This, of course, is quite achievable even on a model railway, but it always comes at a price. Instant ready-to-site (r-t-s) buildings are available from any high street dealership, providing your budget can stretch to them. The kits and materials on the neighbouring shelves will cost much less and, with the expenditure of more time, effort and some imagination, help to deliver an end product that is probably better and certainly unique.

MATERIALS

CARD

Card comes in an almost infinite variety of sizes, shapes, consistencies and qualities. It is certainly the oldest and most traditional material used by scenic modellers, especially those working in the smaller scales. The exquisite card buildings on John Ahern’s ‘Madder Valley’ showed just what could be achieved with this most simple of media, much of it relying on the recycled packaging of the late 1940s. This iconic layout is now on permanent display at Pendon Museum, who are themselves the most outstanding card-modellers of this generation. Although recycled card is, fortunately, no longer a necessity, it still has its uses and even its own aficionados.

Mounting board

This is probably the most commonly used form of card and is certainly the largest size of sheet that is readily obtainable from most art and hobby shops. It comes as A1 sheets in a variety of colours, all with plain white on the reverse. Some outlets may also offer smaller A3 sheets, albeit at a slightly higher price prorata. Thicknesses vary according to which brand you buy, but between 1.2mm and 1.5mm appears to be the norm. Most of us tend to use the white side since this accepts pencil, watercolours, pastels, acrylics and even enamels. The black and grey sides, however, do have their uses, especially when employed as a reinforcing material or for internal walls and ceilings. The card, though strong and commendably smooth, is not actually a proper single sheet, but is in fact a series of paper laminations. These can become ragged and separated if poorly cut, and sharp blades and firm pressure are necessary for best results. The laminations can sometimes be an advantage, since the removal of the outer layer leaves a rough inner surface that is textured and more absorbent. This can make excellent stone walls when painted with watercolours. Sheet costs can vary from less than £3 to nearly £5, but it is worth looking out for offers of four for £10. Mounting board is sufficiently robust to be used structurally and unbraced for everything from garden sheds to large barns. It is also well suited to the construction of platforms, docks, bridges and viaducts, and even for roadways and yards, providing they are relatively flat. It will accept brick-papers, embossed plasticard and most fillers or modelling clays, although it is recommended to let all of these dry out under pressure to prevent warping. The A1 sheets are fairly bulky items to handle and it’s best to cut off a suitably sized workpiece to fit on your modelling desk.

Card and paper materials are the mainstays for the kit and scratch-builder. They are easy to obtain and relatively inexpensive; even ‘scrap’ or recycled items have their uses.

Recycled card

This can come in all manner of shapes, sizes, thicknesses and quality; the one common factor is that it’s free. The best way to approach it is to examine the many sources that arrive on your doorstep or end up in the supermarket trolley, and select the few that appear to have the best potential. Much of it will be too rough or too flimsy for modelling purposes, and even the better materials are only needed in smallish quantities. Store the chosen items in something like an A4 or foolscap envelope, which will keep them together and help you to keep track of how much, or how little, you’ve accumulated. The most common sources will be the traditional cereal packets and the backs of A4 pads. If you can find any, the small plain pieces sometimes found as internal packaging with chocolates or biscuits are worthwhile additions. The actual thicknesses tend to range between 0.2mm and 0.8mm and all can have their uses. They can be used for complete buildings, but in this role they do need to be laminated and well braced. My own preference is to restrict them to roof templates, garden walls and wooden fences. In particular they are suited to any curved or irregular shapes for which mounting board is too inflexible. Typical examples are curved platform-faces and retaining walls, the undersides of bridges and, of course, the insides of tunnels.

Postcards

These can be purchased in the form of postcards and record cards or you can recycle the non-glossy plain areas of greetings cards. It is also possible to obtain similar material in packs of A4 drawing card sold by most art shops. In general terms this is the thinnest card one can find, but it is also reliable in respect of its quality. It is useful for such detailing jobs as door or window components, quoins and relief brick- or stonework. It is most frequently encountered on tiled roofs, either in strip form or laboriously cut and laid as individual tiles. Most of these cards will take acrylics or watercolours and, once tried, the modeller will quickly discover other jobs for them.

Paper

This can be considered as the very thinnest type of card since its applications clearly fall into that same general area. All paper is described not by its thickness but rather by its weight. This is given in grams per square metre (gsm), and the greater the weight shown then the thicker the paper. The usual weight for copier paper is 80gsm, high-quality writing paper will be over 100gsm, while drawing and art papers will range from around 130gsm to more than 300gsm. At these higher levels, however, we are really talking card by another name.

Paper, in appropriate weights, is always handy stuff to have in one’s storage envelopes. In its heavier versions it can be used structurally as a substitute for card, while also providing a high-quality smooth or textured finish. The medium and lower weights will produce roof tiles, albeit better suited to buildings towards the rear of the layout. The very thinnest of papers, such as might be found in the cheaper ranges of business envelopes, can be cut into the correct depth strips and used for roof slates. I would add a note of caution here, though, as in the real world slates are very thin and, at any distance, the rows and individual slates appear as little more than black lines that separate one from the other. A simple painted version may look more realistic than the overlapping strips.

Other types of paper shouldn’t be overlooked. ‘Roll your own’ cigarette papers, for example, make excellent curtains and can be carefully cut into appropriate shapes to hang on the washing line. An even greater degree of scalpel skill can fashion them into garden plants like rhubarb. That just leaves tissue paper, which will often prove useful to form the terrain-skin on the latticework of formers used in the construction of embankments and cuttings. It is also a workbench essential whenever painting is in progress.

WOOD

Here we are not talking about the DIY types needed for baseboard work, but rather the more delicate stuff usually intended for our fellow modellers of aircraft and boats. These woods offer two distinct choices: the softer balsa type and the stronger, more brittle version usually just known as ‘hardwood’, which may have different origins.

Balsa

Balsa is available in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from ¼in thick sheets measuring roughly 4 x 36in to the thinnest strips, barely 1/16in square, available in 36in lengths. It is very easy to work. The only tools needed are a scalpel or craft knife and some suitable glue. I use it to reinforce buildings with ¼in square or triangular strips fixed where necessary. Sheet balsa can also be used to form complete inner shells for buildings, clad with thinner grades of card. The thinner strips are invaluable as detailing aids and are perfect for the interior woodwork on barns and timber sheds, especially for the often complex roof trusses. The 1/16in strips are very easy to drill and, with a little watercolour weathering and nylon-thread wire, make excellent representations of typical field fences that are past their prime.

Hardwood

When it comes to timber-built sheds and planked fencing, there is nothing that looks more like wood than wood itself. This is where the hardwood version comes into its own. The strips are much thinner than balsa and it is easy to select lengths that can be cut into near-scale planks. Because the wood really is ‘hard’ I find it easier to discard the scalpel in favour of a pair of side-cutters, or small tin-snips, if you prefer, which usually give a clean cut with minimal crushing. The smaller square sections, though more difficult to drill, also make good fence posts and are less prone to breakages than balsa. They do, however, need to be painted with acrylics or enamels as they tend to repel watercolours.

Matches

These must be among the most popular items ever to be used by the DIY modeller. Even in these scale-orientated days they still have their uses and remain cheap and easy to get hold of. They do seem to vary a bit in size, but the most common brands are usually 38mm long and 2mm square. If they are to be used for fencing that would yield posts of 6in square timber in 9ft 6in lengths, so there is an ample amount that can be buried below the surface. They are rather oversized to form the usual field boundaries with barbed wire, although they do pass muster if they are cut or split in half. Better applications are to use them as the upright supports for wooden fences or, sanded smooth and with a tapered top, drilled to accept 0.2mm plastic rod or florist’s wire to represent the typical roadside barriers of concrete and steel pipe.

Some of the other DIY materials that merit a place on the modeller’s workbench: fillers, various types of wood (including matchsticks and coffee-stirrers), plasticine and clay.

MODELLING MATERIALS

Plasticine

This is a perfectly straightforward material and large blocks, most commonly in grey or terracotta, may be obtained from art or craft shops for about £2. It tends to fall midway between a material and a tool. In the former role it is useful for cement capping on chimney stacks, into which it is then easy to seat the various pots. Plasticine is simple to sculpt with a palette knife, making it a good choice for creating steps up banks, decorative wall-capping or as an alternative way of scribing stone walls. When making trees I also use it extensively for shaping tree-trunks and main branches around armatures of sedum stems bound together. In its role as a tool it is useful for holding structures upright while the glue sets and for adding weight to wagons, where it also helps to hold other materials in place. Finally, it can make a further contribution to the wagon fleet when used as a base for actual loose loads, such as coal, sand, ballast or stone.

Modelling clay

This is often called ‘air-dry clay’ since that is what it is designed to do. It may also be bought from art or craft shops, but is usually about twice as expensive as plasticine. Its principal use is as a coating to a card base that can be effectively scribed to represent any chosen form of stonework. This is normally left until the clay is properly dry and hard, usually about twenty-four hours after application. It begins to dry almost as soon as it is exposed to the air, however, and in a warm room, or under a hot tungsten bulb, speed is essential as it quickly becomes unworkable. Seal the bag as soon as you have taken the amount you require or you will have a large rock-hard lump next time you need it.

FILLERS

There are a great many types of fillers available from most DIY outlets and no doubt most modellers will find a use for most of them. The projects described here, however, will require only a ready-mixed lightweight interior filler, which usually comes in either large tubes or resealable tubs. Most major brands produce something of this type, but my preferred version is from Wilco and currently retails at less than £4 for a 600ml tub. It is long lasting and more than adequate for the tasks described in the projects, for example as a scenic surface on background cuttings, roadways and to smooth out the steps where surfaces meet. In diluted form and combined with PVA and paints, it has been used as a surface skim and as a coating for scratch-built walls.

FOAMBOARD

This is an ultra-lightweight substance consisting of a central core of plastic foam laminated between surface layers with a paper-like texture. It is becoming widely available in art or craft shops, usually in white but occasionally in black, as A3 and A1 boards and either singly or in packs. It has nominal thicknesses of 5mm and 10mm, but the latter is hard to find and the former is often closer to 7mm. It is easy to cut with a scalpel or craft knife. Foamboard has many applications, including reinforcing buildings, creating terrain formers and even making complete tabletop baseboards. When using it for baseboards it is best sourced from a local signage company, who will be able to cut it to size from the large sheets supplied by the manufacturer. My portable ‘East Ilsley’ layout comprises nine scenic boards, each of which measures 4ft 6in x 2ft 6in but weighs barely three or four kilograms even with all the track, buildings and fully detailed landscaping.

PLAY FOAM

This has many different trade names for what is basically the same product. It is soft, child-friendly foam rubber that is very easy to cut and comes as A4 and A3 sheets in a wide variety of colours. The main use that I have found for it is as track underlay, for which it is invariably cheaper and far easier to work than traditional cork. Its thickness of roughly 2mm makes it very convenient for bringing yard surfaces up to sleeper and rail heights. Most art or craft shops stock it and the usual cost is around £1 per sheet.

ASH

If you have access to a coal or wood fire then the finely sieved ash is perfect to represent loco-ash or, mixed with fine ballast, to give the worn-smooth surfaces found in yards and around sheds. If you can’t get hold of the real thing, cigarette ash can provide a possible alternative for those who ignore the health warnings.

TINFOIL

Like many other materials, tinfoil comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Those that are most easily obtained are sold as baking-cases for tarts and muffins, or they can be recycled from supermarket cake and pie dishes. In both types the part we need is the generally flat centre portion, which is cut out and sides are discarded. Roll a round pencil or similar object across the foil until any creases or dents have been smoothed out. The objective is to reproduce the once common sheets of corrugated galvanized iron. The next step is to use the pencil and a ruler to gently scribe as many lines as possible at 1mm intervals on each small workpiece. One always needs quite a lot of finished sheets, so this task is well suited to a batch process. Finally cut out as many rectangles as you can, each measuring roughly 24mm x 12mm to represent the normal sheet size of 6 x 3ft. Save any offcuts as some may still be usable. The finished sheets can be fixed to any wall or roof using smears of any clear glue; they may need to be pressed down to get them all suitably flat, but don’t press too hard or you risk spoiling those vital grooves. They can be painted with enamels or acrylics but may require an initial spray of primer. It is worth noting that it is almost impossible to source 4mm scale metal tin: I have only found one packet in the last fifty years.

POLYSTYRENE PLATES

When extracted from its decorative rim, the flat centre portion of the picnic plates sold by supermarkets can be glued to any card template and lightly scribed to give a very passable version of stone walling. It will accept water colours, but these may give better results if applied on top of an emulsion paint primer. This material is very easy to work and is much lighter than card of the same thickness, but it is rather fragile and needs careful handling until it’s safely installed on the layout.

Many items can be put to a good use even though it may be far removed from their intended roles, such as polystyrene picnic plates, tinfoil baking cases, cottons and string, nylon thread, foamboard and children’s play foam.

NYLON THREAD

This is a sort of ‘superfine cotton’ and is fairly easy to buy from craft or sewing shops. Over the years there has been much debate about the best method of representing fence-wire. The general consensus is that cotton is too thick and attracts dust; the alternative of fine fishing line is better but can be difficult to keep straight, becomes brittle over time or when fixed with superglues and is, in any case, almost invisible. It is usable, but with care. Nylon thread has none of these problems and can be tied, glued or threaded with equal ease. It generally comes in brown or black and can be painted with thinned enamels as necessary to show signs of newness or of rusting with age.

FLORIST’S WIRE

This is a soft metal wire used in flower arranging. It comes in a variety of thicknesses, usually in 12in lengths. It is normally found in most craft shops but some larger florists may have a limited selection. It can be bought as multi-packs containing several different thicknesses or as separate packs with greater numbers of just one size. The very thinnest sort is only marginally thicker than the nylon and is an acceptable and easy to use alternative for wire fencing when threaded through wooden or plastic posts. Thicker versions can be used for pipework or, as I use it, for hook couplings and vacuum or steam-heating pipes.

The best advice I can give about materials is to be resourceful and try anything that looks promising. This may seem a lot of effort when compared to buying a named product from a model shop, but it is worth remembering that a commercial product may not exactly match your specific requirements. It is far more satisfying to discover your own solution.

FINISHES

This is the area that falls between the two fields of ‘materials’ on the one hand and ‘tools’ on the other. It is true that some materials are almost finishes in their own right, but even these need a little bit of extra effort to obtain the best results. The following list includes both DIY and off-the-shelf products, since each will find a role for both the kit-assembler and the scratch-builder.

PAINTS

Primers

These are the brush, spray or aerosol paints that are vital when preparing metal items for final painting with enamels, acrylics or watercolours. In our particular context, however, these are not generally needed since metal does not figure in our projects, apart from tin sheets. For our purposes primers are base coats or undercoats designed to give a better result to the final finish. We need to consider only two possible candidates: the matt white enamel used as the base coat on plastic or metal figures, and any suitable matt emulsion that we can use scenically or, as needed, on structures made from card.

Enamels

These need no explanation and have few applications on these types of projects. Matt white, mentioned above, has a further role in helping to pick out details on ironwork, fencing and telegraph poles. Matt black also has its uses on ironwork and fencing, and in addition helps to create a totally shadowed effect inside buildings. Except for these two essentials, the only other small tins we need are those for the various ‘track colours’ and the correct house colours for our chosen region or company.

Acrylics

These have now acquired considerable status among the modelling fraternities. They have become viable substitutes for both enamels and watercolours and are widely available in both standard ranges and in specific railway or military ranges. They can be applied by brush or sprayed on, and they give outstanding results in the right hands. If you’ve not used them before, however, they need a bit of practice and have a tendency to dry quite quickly, clogging up brushes and nozzles. It’s sound policy to keep a suitable solvent/cleanser within easy reach.

A wide range of items are available to make life easier for the kit or scratch-builder. These include pre-printed papers, downloads, and a wealth of individual components and accessory packs in plastic, white-metal, brass and, more recently, in laser-cut woods.

Watercolours

These might be considered as more the preserve of artists or children, but, as a long-term modeller, I would hate to be without mine. They vary quite considerably in their quality and characteristics, but this is one case where the most expensive types are not necessarily the best option for our purposes. The two main players are Winsor & Newton and Rowney: both market a huge range of colours in either tubes or their solid equivalent, known as ‘pans’. Below these there are numerous opportunities to buy cheaper, but quite acceptable, alternatives from the emerging discount art shops. The main use for watercolour is as the finish for scratch-built card structures, but I also use it on almost all my figures. If you are just starting out and wondering what to buy, I would suggest getting a smallish and inexpensive box or palette with about a dozen colours. This would be adequate, but I would suggest buying an additional small tube of Chinese White, which is always useful to soften and tone down the brighter hues. (Brushes will be discussed below with the other tools.) The other important application for these paints is to colour the exposed white edges that are so much in evidence on card kits. The manufacturers usually suggest treating these with felt-tip pens, but I can’t go along with this as they are nearly all in bright primary colours and tend to dry with a slight shine, which makes the end result almost as obvious as the original fault. Watercolours enable you to get an almost exact match and, of course, dry completely matt.

PASTELS

These can be bought singly or in sets and, like watercolours, are variable in both quality and price. It is worth scanning the shelves in stores such as Range or Hobbycraft to find their cheaper sets of neutral tones. These are available in both ‘cool’ tones (black through descending shades of grey towards white) and ‘warm’ tones (dark brown through descending rusty hues to cream). Ideally both are useful for all the weathering tasks to which we can assign them, from locos and rolling stock, buildings and scenic settings, right down to subtle shading on figures. If you can’t find any suitable sets, then buy them individually in decent range of tones. You should always choose a greyish-blue, which is perfect for sunlit sooty roofs.

PENCILS

These are more tools than finishes but they are useful for weathering engines and rolling stock. The shiny graphite traces they leave behind are ideal for representing the wear on metal from the constant contact with human hands and hobnail boots, for example on steps, ladders, handrails, handles and latches. (The main uses for pencils will be described below.)

TALCUM POWDER

This is a useful weathering aid and can represent dust on vehicles, rolling stock and buildings. To be really effective, however, it is best applied to matt surfaces and some practice is required to get the best results. It is extremely cheap and easy to use since any errors or shortcomings can be quickly wiped off with a damp cloth. It is definitely environmentally friendly and certainly makes your workbench smell nice.

COMMERCIALLY PRODUCED FINISHES

There are more than enough of these to constitute a whole section and the selection is continually growing. They can be divided into two distinct groups, both of which are widely available in model shops or online. The first group includes all the various liquids and powders that can be applied to models in much the same way as the more DIY items already discussed. They are extremely effective and can be purchased as single pots or in small sets of interrelated tones. Their downside is that they are quite expensive and, since a little goes a long way, you may well be spending much more than you need. The second group is huge, embracing all the products that can provide an almost instant finish to any building or lineside structure. They are aimed at the scratch-builder or anyone wishing to customize a kit-built or ready-to-plant model. The simplest of these are the basic brick-papers, followed by those with self-adhesive backings. More recent products may have a textured finish. Finally there are plastic sheets that offer full relief detail but need painting. All of these have their uses and they deserve their place in the modeller’s stock box. The recent and ongoing expansion of items available to download has greatly increased the variety and quality of what is on offer.

Types of paints that can be used range from DIY ‘match-pots’ to top quality enamels or acrylics in specific colours. Wherever possible you should test them first to ensure you have the right paint for the job.