About ModelRailwayEngineer
I’m Andy Leaning. Welcome to ModelRailwayEngineer, my internet man cave, where I share unique tips, guides, fun stories, videos, and photos of my passions: model and miniature making, railway layouts, and home engineering projects.
By day I work in cyber security in the media and when not doing that I live with my wife and son in Surrey in the UK. Model making and model trains are my life-long hobby however and when not working or spending time with my family I can be found in my shed/studio playing with my models or researching, photographing and writing articles for this website – ModelRailwayEngineer.com
The name, MRE, comes from three of my passions:
Model making | Miniatures, dioramas and model making and painting, read how I started with scale models and miniatures, | |
Railways | Making model trains and layouts (read more about my journey with tiny trains and model railways). | |
Engineering | Projects in my shed – steam engines, Arduino programming, woodwork and 3D printing, etc. |
I launched the site in 2013, and since then, it has grown to become a huge repository of articles and carefully curated content on model railway and model making with comfortably over half a million people visiting it in 2022 and over 40,000 followers across social media channels. You’ll find regular updates on techniques, tips, news, project updates and reviews, all centered around these topics. Learn more about my vision, aims and goals for the site here.
The vast majority of the articles were written by me, with the tips and techniques tested and proven on my models and layouts beforehand.
The reviews are, unless otherwise stated, my experiences of using the products and are independent of the product manufacturers with no incentive or commercial arrangement — unless stated I buy all the products at normal retail prices.
I’d love to hear from you about your experiences; take a look around the site and if there’s anything I can help with get in touch or even better join the MRE community over on Facebook.
Alternatively, take a look at some of the best Model Railway Engineer articles.

ModelRailwayEngineer,
August 2023.
You can connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, join the model railway builders community or subscribe to the MRE newsletter
For the record, unless explicity stated, all articles on MRE (this website) are all my work and the views shared here are solely mine and not those of my employer or other organisations.
> A final, personal, note: I spend a huge amount of time testing, photographing, writing and researching techniques for these articles and pay for all the running costs of MRE out of my own pocket. If you found this article useful you can support me by making a donation on my fund-raising page. Thanks and happy modelling, Andy.