Spring has arrived - Time for garden railways

We have been blessed with fantastic weather this week; and what better excuse to get out into the garden and try out the new 7mm stock that has arrived since last autumn.

First up is a test run for the RJH/PWP Class 37/4 (37 421) that recently returned from being finished by Aardstorm models. www.aardstorm-models.com/ On its first run out it performed very well, 10 airbraked wagons being dispatched with ease.

The second new arrival is 08 100 which was acquired from the Gauge O Guild stand at the recent Basingstoke show. A Bachmann Brassworks loco, finished by Tower models, it also put in a superb performance.

For comparison purposes, I lined up the brass 37/4 against  the Heljan 37/0, surprisingly there is a significant size difference, the Danish machine being around 1 1/2 cm longer.

With some more coaches arriving next week I'm hoping the weather holds out to enable another running session next weekend.

Where to see Widnes Road in 2012

Somewhat belatedly, as I have already taken Widnes Road to the Canterbury model railway show in January; here is the brief list of exhibitions that I am attending with Widnes Road this year:

10/11th March         Basingstoke & North Hants MRC - Aldworth Science College, Basingstoke

13/14th October      Croydon Model Railway Exhibition - John Rusking College, Selsdon

24/25th November  Shoeburyness Model Railway Exhibition - Southend Leisure Centre 

Also to look forward to sometime later this year; Widnes Road will be appearing in Model Rail Magazine. The photo above was taken when Chris Nevard popped round in January to do the photoshoot. I've seen the finished results and they are fantastic. 

O Gauge Class 37 - Finishing by Aardstorm Models

Many years ago (probably well over twenty years in fact) I purchased a Post-War Prototype (PWP) O gauge class 37 kit. This represented was a pretty steep learning curve for a 17 year old who at the time had been used to detailing Lima class 47's, but I wanted an O Gauge 37 to run on the layout at the model railway club I was then a member of, and there were no other options available at the time. I had actually built 90% of the loco by around 1992 (three years later) but by then I lost interest in 7mm as I was no longer a member of a club with a 7mm layout, and had no layout to run it on. It was then out back in the box until I could get round to finishing it. 

Twenty years later, I now have a O-gauge garden railway, so I thought I would see what needed doing to finish this part built kit off. The problem I have is that my modelling standards have (slightly) improved in the intervening two decades; I couldn't face undoing work I had already done, and have many other newer kits to distract me. So... I decided to send the lot off to Aardstorm Models www.aardstorm-models.com/ and see what Trevor could do with it. The answer is, he can work miracles, as these photos will attest to, 37 421 is now ready for action in the garden as soon as it stops raining, now I just need to finish the rake of 1980's airbraked speedlink wagons to run behind it.