Valid to UK only - excludes oversized items
Using a back-to-back gauge for your model railway ensures that the wheels on your rolling stock are spaced correctly...
A poly-cap is a type of plastic cap often used in model-making kits, especially for assembling figurines or model...
Graham Farish is a name you’re likely to come across if you're interested in British model railways, especially in...
Semaphore signals, those distinctive mechanical arms that once graced railway lines across the UK, were largely...
Kato track is a popular choice in the world of model railways, known for its quality, ease of use and versatility. If...
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A backscene is a proportionately sized photograph or painting that sits upright at the back of a model railway layout depicting the landscape that you would typically see in the distance in real life.The function of a backscene is to add...
​The simplest way to answer that question is to take 1 foot of real life railway and shrink it down to 3.5mm and there you have it, H0 gauge.But it is not quite that simple because when you shrink down engines, rolling stock, buildings and...
DAS is an air-drying clay. When dry it can be sanded and painted. It is ideal for many model making applications such as buildings, walls, terrain, even school projects, you name it! You are only limited by your imagination. When using DAS make...
4mm scale in railway modelling terms is the most popular scale. It is 4mm of the model being one foot of the real thing. This gives a scale of 1:76. While most people would refer to OO gauge and 4mm scale interchangeably, this is not fully...
A turntable is a means of turning your engine around. An example of this would be, if you have several engine sheds at the end of your layout, you would have track coming from each of your sheds leading up to the turntable. When you drive your...
Wire Glue is an electrically conductive glue/paint which has many uses in the hobby world. It is ideal for both AC and DC circuits that carry low voltage, such as the ones used on model railways. One example I can think of is joining wires and...
A bow pen also known as a ruling pen was designed in the early 1900’s for draftsmen for drawing straight lines of different thicknesses. These pens resemble a fountain pen to a certain degree with two tapered metal foils coming to a point and...
Although both a vertical cutter and a standard one do the same job, they do have different purposes. The vertical track cutter allows you to cut track which has already been secured to your base board whereas the standard cutters allow you to cut...
There is an unwritten rule that you do not mix enamel and acrylic paint as they are completely different in their makeup, enamel being a solvent based paint and acrylic being water based paint. In all my years of modelling I have never tried to...
The term permanent way refers to the ballasted track. This is what is usually called in the UK the railway track and in the US railroad track. It encompasses the rails themselves, the sleepers (or ties in the US), fasteners, chairs and ballast as...
Next18 is a DCC decoder standard that is smaller than existing decoders and designed to fit in to locomotives that have limited space, such as N gauge engine and and OO gauge steam engines. The maximum size of a decoder is about 15mm x 10mm. The...
Traditionally gravel ballast has been the forerunner for track beds in railway modelling and gives your layout an authentic look, and is still used as the main form of ballasting today. Ground cork ballast is relatively new in comparison but...