Model Railway

S.N.E.R. stands for the Scottish North Eastern Railway, it was the result of a merger between the Aberdeen Railway and the Scottish Midland Junction Railway in 1856.The Aberdeen railway (opened 1847-1850) ran between Aberdeen, Forfar and Arbroath...

Dreaming up track plans for a layout is somewhat an art in itself. A common mistake is to sketch a layout on a scrap piece of paper that realistically, has no chance of fitting into the space available (we're all guilty of that at one time or...

When new to the world of model railways, it's likely you will read many articles explaining the best way to go about those crucial first steps, and you may well be advised to make a general-purpose locomotive one of your first rolling stock...

When modellers talk about quartering, they are referring to the side-rods on their locomotives being set to the correct position in relation to each other.Contrary to belief, the side-rods on either side of a locomotive do not rotate level...

With so many functions on a modern or advanced multimeter, and so many reasons why you may want to use one, it would be impossible to answer the question 'How do I use a multimeter?' comprehensively. However, most modellers will only want to check...

A composite coach is a railway carriage with accommodation for more than one class of passengers.In the early days of pre-nationalisation, this typically meant that a single carriage would have had first and third class accommodation. In later...

There are a few reasons why your analogue controller could be cutting out, but the most probable cause is a short circuit.Many controllers have a built-in safety feature where, if a short circuit is detected, it will automatically cut out. Some...

Screeching model railway locomotives are a common problem that most modellers come across at one time or another. If your engine is partial to the odd screech, it will likely be one of two things, but in either case, it rarely means it's the end...

Traction tyres were used on many older model railway locomotives to improve their traction, not surprisingly, when they break the locomotive is often left unable to move little more than itself.This can be very frustrating and is a problem...

When building a model railway layout, or any diorama for that matter, you will most likely want to place at least a few buildings on it. Whether it be a simple station or an all singing and all dancing village, buildings are a big part of a...

When choosing turnouts for your layout, you may have noticed there is a choice between turnouts with insulated frogs (sometimes called insulfrogs) and turnouts with live frogs (known as electrofrogs), so what's the difference?Model railway...

A bolster wagon is a railway wagon designed to carry long items such as rails or posts.In appearance, bolster wagons look very similar to flatbeds and feature little more than a chassis with a large flat load bed fixed on top. The difference...