A stay-alive (or keep-alive) is a capacitor that can be used with a DCC decoder. It stores power to allow for a more effective and constant power to your locomotive motor and therefore, smoother running. However, there are issues with fitting the...

Ballast is not really a uniform colour. Although it would have started off the same colour on a prototype line, over time the ballast would be susceptible to everyday dirt and grime from the locos. Here is an example taken at Havenstreet Steam...

On the real railway line, the ballast would have come from a local quarry so the colour would reflect this. The colour will mostly epend on the type of stone common ones are limestone and granite, with colours varying from white to grey and brown....

For an analogue system, the maximum voltage supported by the engines is about 12V. Most analogue controllers will deliver a bit more but constantly running your engines with 13V or even 14V may damage their motors (and does not look very...

If you think of the different seasons, autumn follows summer so therefore if the summer has been hot and there has been little rain most plant life will suffer due to lack of water and start to die, as is the natural progression of the seasons....

Tension lock couplings are the standard couplings for model trains in the UK. These are the ones we all know from Hornby and the couplers fitted to most new rolling stock. Basically it is a pair of latch like hooks which will connect to the next...

I was talking to a very nice gentleman who asked me "what is the best way to create seaweed?" He wanted to affix it on the underside of a pier for his seaside layout. I explained that there are various forms of scatter and foliage available,...

In my experience, stranded wire is preferable over solid wire. Stranded wire is more flexible than solid core wire, which gives you more flexibility when routing cables under your layout. Also, if a strand of wire should break for what ever...

7/02 wire is a wire made of 7 strands of 0.2mm wire. Stranded wire has the advantage of being flexible while solid wire is more difficult to bend. 7/02 size usually used for model railways for most connections. For example, this would be used as...

It would very much depend on what part of the summer you are trying to create. If it is at the beginning of the season then everything is still lush and spring fresh, but as you move through the season and things start to dry up due to lack of...

As we all know it takes 360 degrees to create a circle, a standard curve is 22.5 degrees and a double curve is 45 degrees. So to create a circle using double curves you would need eight pieces of track, and to create a circle using standard...

Once upon a time I would have said a newly bladed junior hacksaw and some warding files, but these days I would have to say get a pair of track cutters (not to be confused with sprue cutters which are entirely different). The reason why they are...