May 26 product news

Hello again. To kick off this post, a quick update on a couple of buildings that have been under development.

First of all a timber platform goods store building (BK35).

This features horizontal overlapping boards (weather board) and is intended to complement the North Eastern Waiting room kit BK24. Buildings of this style could be found employed in a number of roles around a station. For the purposes of this display model I have imagined it being used on a platform as a parcels office with a small goods store room behind the double doors. It could however just as easily be used as a porters room and barrow store at a larger station. Alternatively it could function in the station yard as a stores building or maintenance workshop.

The kit follows the same construction style as the NE waiting room, depicting the characteristic modular buildings used by that company, later inherited by the LNER and BR(NE) region. As such the display model is wearing a representation of the LNER green and cream colour scheme. The modular nature of these buildings readily lends themselves to modification or 'kit bashing' with a few simple cuts allowing sections to be moved around into new combinations perhaps with parts from other kits for a larger building.

A second building project has been this 'Tin Tabernacle' - a relatively low cost chapel often associated with isolated rural communities linked to industries such as mining or fishing.

This is not yet a kit, it is still at the development stage. The model shown in the photos is a combination of new castings for the main walls, combined with roof parts adapted from other kits, plus some scratch built details.

It is intended to have the model available for inspection at shows and I will be canvassing opinions from customers. If you cant get to a show but have some thoughts you would like to offer, please feel free to drop me a line using the contact form. If all goes well it could be a kit before too long.

Moving on now to developments in the narrow gauge stock list.

The reworking of the NG10 ventilated / milk van is almost complete, the first test build is shown below unpainted.

Similar work has been taking place on the NG11 Goods Brake Van shown below partially painted.

Finally, completing this trio of long wheelbase vans, the cattle wagon (NG19) is now available following its upgrade.

These vehicles are freelance designs intended to capture the feel of the larger common carrier narrow gauge lines and as such take their inspiration from designs once found on the Isle of Man and in Southern Ireland. These systems operated on 3 foot gauge, but to keep in proportion with O-16.5 track, the vans have been reduced in size slightly. Typically 92mm long by 42mm wide they would particularly suit a layout of 16.5mm gauge depicting a 2'6'' gauge prototype operation.

Previously only available as body kits, these now come complete with chassis and metal wheels. The patterns for the body castings have been slightly modified and detailed, and also include an all new floor casting to accommodate the 3d printed underframe. Coupling arrangements are left to the builder.

The next show is the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association annual show in Burton Upon Trent on Saturday June 13th. We aim to have many of the new products available, plus the usual show specials, bargain rummage boxes and possibly some ex-display buildings for sale. Hope to see many of you there.

February '26 update part II

I know what you are thinking - you wait ages for an update, then two come at once. So to explain, I thought it might be better to split the update as it became clear it was turning into a very long post!

So to continue, I mentioned in the previous post about new narrow gauge wagon chassis. Visitors at the Trent Valley Group's modelling day in Mickleover may have noticed a small collection of wagons on the stall with the sign 'Under development'. Here's a quick summary of what was on show:

First up, two of the long wheelbase 4-wheel wagons; NG09 covered van and NG25 3-plank drop side open with curved ends.

Test builds of NG09 & NG25 with revised chassis.

The covered van has a new cast floor which accommodates 3D printed underframes with leaf springs as are used in the 4-wheel coach kits but with the addition of long brake levers and single brake shoe each side. The 3-plank features the popular one piece cast body which will be supplied with the usual cast head-stocks and end stanchions, but will now include new 3D printed underframes featuring coil springs. These are similar in style to those used on some WHR stock and some more recent RNAD vehicles, many of the latter entering preservation. It is intended that all the revised wagon kits will be supplied with brass bearings and spoked metal wheels as standard.

Also receiving attention have been the NG01 2-plank open and NG28 1-plank open, both of which have only been available as bodies for some time.

NG28 1-plank wagon.

These have a shorter wheelbase chassis, also with coil springs, single either side brake and brake lever. The chassis assembles separately which is then fitted to the remastered body castings. In many ways they are new kits.

Finally the steel open. This wagon has been on the periphery for some time, a few were available on eBay and at shows while I tinkered around with the design.

Steel Open wagon.

The steel open again has a one piece cast body and shares the same chassis as the 1&2 plank opens. I hope in this latest form it will prove a popular addition to the wagon fleet.

Hopefully the first of the new kits will be available from the web shop in the next few weeks, suppliers permitting!

When time allows the cattle wagon, ventilated van and tool van will also be given new chassis.

Moving now to some scenic accessories, following requests for stone wall capping to be used with the stone building sheets, I have developed a flat style of capping to represent riven / split stone, typical of slate walling. The photo below shows a test piece used in conjunction with a strip of wall cut from the BC23 slate wall building sheet.

Riven stone / slate wall capping.

The second form of capping depicts slanted stones, a style commonly used in dry stone walling. The test piece shown below uses a strip from the BC21 rough stone walling sheet.

Slanted dry stone wall style capping.

Currently the wall cappings are only available at shows. As they are still a very new product I'm keen to canvass customer views before committing them to the product list.

Whilst on the subject of the building sheets, the B32 weatherboard planking sheet is now available. Sometimes known as lap board on account of its horizontal overlapping planks, or clapboard siding, it is a classic feature of many lightly constructed railway buildings. The building below was constructed to illustrate a possible use.

Scratch-built office building constructed using BC32 weatherboard sheet for the walls.

I often get asked about the best way to cut resin sheets. In the past my preferred method has been to 'score and snap' using a couple of passes with a heavy craft, then snapping along the score line. Recently however a customer suggested the Tamiya scriber II tool. I tried it out when making the model above. This cuts using a hooked blade. When pulled lightly towards the user it easily cuts into the resin, removing a satisfying curl of resin swarf in the process. A few passes are needed to get through the sheet, but the end result is a very clean cut. If you've not used one before, they take a little getting used to at first, but do give very good results. Probably best done on an old cutting mat, as a new blade is very keen and will go through the surface of the cutting mat before you have realised!

Our next show dates are in March, with Narrow Gauge North on the 14th in Pudsey and then Howden show on the 21st where the narrow gauge stock will be swapped for the standard gauge items. Hope to see you soon.

February 2026 News

Hello and welcome to the February '26 news update. This was supposed to be the Christmas / New Year round-up, but with a very busy Christmas period and 3 successive weekends of show commitments from mid-January to early February, there has been very little opportunity to draw breath. We had an excellent weekend at the Normanton and Pontefract show, displaying the buildings range together with the O Gauge rolling stock. The following weekend saw the annual trip down to Mickleover with the 7mm Narrow Gauge products for the modelling day held by the Trent Valley area group of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association. Finally, the Festival of Railway Modelling in Doncaster required all hands to the pump to get our club layout, Invermire, over to Doncaster Racecourse for what must have been one of the best attended shows of recent years.

As far as product news is concerned, the focus for the latter part of 2025 was on revising and updating a number of kits. Regular visitors to our webshop may have noticed that certain 422 products seemed to disappear from the listings. This is part of the ongoing review of the overall product range since acquiring the additional Port Wynnstay kits. Many of the absent 422 kits will reappear in due course as improvements are made; the NG rolling stock in particular is being worked on to bring it up to a similar specification as the Port Wynnstay NG kits, with improved chassis and wheels being included as standard.

One of the building kits to have received some attention is the BK25 stone river bridge kit. This is designed to carry a single track Standard Gauge line, but could comfortably accommodate some of the larger Narrow Gauge prototypes. The updated version of the kit now comes with wing walls, complete with short end pillars and capping, as shown in the photo of the display model below.

BK25 Stone River Bridge Kit with new wing walls.

The origins of this kit came from the requirement for a multi-arch stone bridge for the club layout Invermire. Whilst Invermire was set up at Doncaster I managed to get a few quick photos. Expertly constructed by our Club Chairman Mike, the stone road bridge is unfortunately not so easy to see from the front as it runs immediately behind the main girder viaduct.

The three bridges of Invermire, Road, Rail and Foot.

The bridge had to be designed in modular form to allow it to be built on a curve. As a modular structure, the BK25 kit can therefore be built either as a single arch bridge or easily extended to form a multi arch viaduct.

View of Invermire road bridge from the back of the layout. The semi-circular buttresses were created using spare castings from the rail viaduct piers.

Anyone wanting additional arches, just drop me a line to discuss your requirements.

Whilst Invermire was set up, the opportunity was also taken to get a few photos of the Harbour-side cottages which again started off as a club project and became the 'Rural Cottage kit' BK09.

Once again beautifully constructed by Mike, built in low relief in combinations of doubles and singles, they are mounted on their own narrow base boards which act as scenic extensions to the main layout boards combined with the photo back scene.

Finally, in Narrow Gauge rolling stock news, the bogie saloon brake has returned to the product list. It has a new one piece floor casting and new bogies which are supplied with bearings and metal wheels for 16.5mm gauge.

The model also has new 3D printed vacuum pipes and revised roof lamp holders and underframe trusses.

Thanks for dropping by, hopefully back with some more news soon.