Rolling stock

A hospital train (or ambulance train) is exactly what its name suggests - a train that acts as a mobile hospital. There have been many variations of hospital trains since they first appeared during the Crimean War in the 1850s.Earlier hospital...

There are hundreds of different wagon types operated on UK railways. One numerous older type commonly seen in model form is called an Insulated Van, but what are they?Insulated vans were a type of covered wagon very similar in appearance to...

Cleaning the wheels on your rolling stock is an incredibly important job that helps to keep your models running smoothly and reliably, but it's also a laborious task and one that many would like to see take as little time as possible.There are...

With so many kits of railway coaches and wagons out there for consumers to choose from, why do so many still come with plastic wheels?It's no secret that metal wheels are favoured by many modellers these days, and it can be disappointing when...

The term Pannier locomotive is used to describe a specific type of steam locomotive with distinctive 'panniers' carried on the side of the boiler.  These panniers were used to carry water and fuel thus removing the need for a dedicated tender....

As the name suggests, gunpowder vans were used to transport gunpowder and other explosive materials by rail. The earliest examples started to appear in the mid-1880s and later versions could be seen on the network well into dieselisation. They...

Zamak Rot (also known as zinc pest or Mazak rot) is a problem that plagued some early diecast model parts due to impurities in the alloys used.The impurities have the potential to corrode parts from within, resulting in alloys becoming...

A Presflo wagon is a railway wagon specifically designed for the transportation of cement.After nationalisation, the Ideal Stock Committee reviewed British Rail's inherited fleet of wagons and soon discovered that a suitable means for...

When the railways were nationalised in 1948, the newly formed British Railways inherited a vast number of aging and non-standard steam locomotives. Realising that manufacturing and maintaining such a fleet would not be in the company's best...

Magnetic couplings are popular with many modellers who desire the automatic uncoupling of rolling stock in their sidings or goods yards.Most magnetic couplings are a type of Janney coupler (knuckle coupler) and can be fitted directly into NEM...

Traditional model railway locomotives transfer power from track to motor via wires. However, a split chassis locomotive works in a different way.A traditional model railway locomotive picks up its power from the track through its metal wheels....

Most model railways struggle to accommodate full-sized passenger trains, to do so would require huge platforms and therefore a huge baseboard, and that's a luxury most of us don't have. So how long (or in this case short) can a passenger train be...