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Layout Construction
Tips, techniques and guides to model railway construction, including baseboards, track planning, backscenes and track work.
Railways in a garage? One enthusiasts view
Following on from the recent post on fitting a garage out for a railway, here's another railway builders experiences of having a railway in the garage. [...]
Disguising tunnel access
Tunnels are great but they also present a problem. How to gain access to the track buried deep inside a tunnel without having ugly gaps in your scenery.
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How To Make Cuttings For Your Model Railway
Does your railway track lie flat on its landscape? If you answered yes, your model railway is wrong.
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5 Must-Have Tools To Transform Your Track Work From Terror To Triumph
There are an astonishing 10,072 miles of track in the UK.
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Quick tip for better backscenes
Here's a quick tip for more credible back scenes and realistic layouts. [...]
Layout Progress update: hills, inclines and tunnels
Rich verdant hills tower over the river valley below. Mine workings perch on rocky outcrops as tired railway lines sneak their way up through tunnels and [...]
Keeping a layout clean — what I use
Keeping a model railway layout dust and debris free during construction is a pain. Here's how I keep mine clean without damaging the delicate parts of the [...]
Reader Question – what to do with track offcuts
Recently a reader raised a great question. What to do with track offcuts? [...]
9 Top tips to laying flexitrack
Flexible track is a quicker, easier, option for track work but comes with its own problems. Here are the 9 best tips from the collective wisdom of the Internet [...]
How I fixed my runaway trains
I recently ran into a frustrating problem where my DCC locomotives just ran away by themselves. After a bit of head scratching I found an answer. [...]
What’s The Best Glue For Polystyrene / Stryofoam
Just a quick post on the what is the best glue for Polystyrene and Styrofoam expanded foam sheets, both hugely popular for making landscapes, hills and [...]
Laying track across baseboard joints
If you're laying track across a baseboard join, you'll need to secure the track at the edges. The tried and tested technique for this is Copper clad sleepers. [...]
How to tip: cheap, authentic, point control
Using electric point motors for a model railway can get expensive. But if you just want to remotely control your points there's an alternative, cheaper, way. [...]
Model railway minimum curve conundrum – what’s the smallest radius?
What's the minimum curve radius for model railways? The numbers you need to know for Z, N, OO and HO track from Peco, Hornby, Märklin. [...]
How my money-saving-Nija wife is helping helping me make a model railway baseboard for free
How my money-saving-Ninja wife is helping helping me make a model railway baseboard for free. [...]
How they do it: Sunday Scribbles on baseboard inclines, track, modelling tips and more for your mental toolkit
Want to build a better railway? Whatever your level of model railway building this week's Sunday Scribbles has something for you with five quick tips from [...]
How NOT to clean track, part 2
Cleaning track is a fundamental maintenance task on a model railway but it's surprising how badly wrong it can go.
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How NOT to clean track, Part 1
This gem of track cleaning advice was overheard in a model railway shop the other day. And it's wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. [...]
How To Build Inclines Your Trains Can Climb – Maximum and Recommended Gradients UPDATED
If you want a fun and interesting model railway then you'll want your trains hauling up hills and hurtling down. Here's how to work out the space and gradient [...]
How To Make A Tunnel — The Trauma Free Guide To Model Railway Tunnel Building
"There's a light at the end of every tunnel" says the old adage. Yet for anyone who's tried adding a tunnel to their model railway it can sometimes seem a very [...]