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🚉 Model Railway Must Haves & The World's Largest Model Train Museum

By Justin, 29th June 2024 | Weekly Newsletters

Morning gang!

How's things? Hope you've had an amazing week… It's been a bit hot this week hasn't it? As we worked last weekend while Elizabeth was working over the weekend, we had our weekend on Monday and Wednesday this week and we timed it pretty well with weather. Although we did manage to pop down to the harbour on Sunday to enjoy some of the lovely food the various fish dishes the local restaurants and food outlets were serving as part of the Feast Week celebrations down in Meva. Ate far too much but it was all rather delicious!

Wednesday was lovely and warm so we headed down to Pendower beach for the day and had a go at paddleboarding. We've been meaning to have a go for ages, so while the weather was lovely and warm, we thought it was a good opportunity to give it ago. Elizabeth mastered standing up on it really quickly. She looked a complete natural on it. Us older folk took a little while longer to get anywhere near to standing up! But it was brilliant fun. I was the only one to actually fall off after getting knocked from the side by an embarrassingly small wave. Looking forward to getting out on it again though as soon as there's a nice calm day again.

Work wise, things have progressed really well this week. Jess has been working hard on the website, making a few subtle tweaks to help you guys find things quicker and easier, as well as sorting out how we manage these newsletters. And Stu's been cracking on with our eBay store as well as putting the finishing touches to the next issue of the Railway Modellers Club First Class newsletter which is due out this coming week all being well.

Tina's been working her socks off with Scott, Carl & Klaire downstairs to keep everything running smoothing with fulfilment and production as well as helping me with a few prototyping tasks… Her builds are so darn neat!

New Product Development

This week, Sam's been finishing the village welcome signs. He's really gone to town on these beauties! They're something I've been wanting to add to the range for, quite literally, years but never really settled on a way to do them. But Sam has completely nailed them! Every town & village needs them, and they're a fantastic way to personalised your layout. Details and link in the new products section below.

And I've finally finished the Pigsty, so that's now available to order as well as making a good start on the next low relief building which is going to go on our street diorama eventually… I'll post some build pics later today if I get chance over in the community.

In the meantime, it's over to young Sam for this weekend's videos.

Good morning! Last week I mentioned that Summer is in full swing, which is certainly the case in Cornwall. It has been hot, hot, hot all week and it's only going to get hotter. I hope you have had an excellent week and will make the most of the weekend. I'm not sure how many of you have been keeping up with the Euros but I've been watching the games live whenever I'm free to do so. It's such a shame because there have been some exciting games to watch until it comes to the England games which have been boring. Fingers crossed we get moving and score some bangers because there is so much talent on the team.

Before we hop into the usual videos, we have another great upload from Dylan and James, check it out -

I mention this every week but please keep sending us your images that include our kits. We are looking for both images to feature on our social media and in the catalogue. You can send these via the help desk - help@scalemodelscenery.co.uk. Thank you so much to everyone who has sent any in already.

Right, now it's time for the scheduled programming.

Must-Haves In Model Railroads

The first video this week comes from a familiar face, Jimmy from DIY and Digital Railroad. In this, he discusses his must-haves when designing a model railroad. Some of these include a track plan, the position of towns, industries and more. There are some brilliant suggestions in the comments as well so once you've finished this short video, go and have a read.

Largest Model Railroad Museum

The second video this week comes from Iron Horse Model Railroad. In this, he takes a visit to the Largest Model Railroad Museum, "Traintastic". This is the latest expansion of the Mississippi Coast Model Railroad Museum which started in 1990. The building itself has 50,000 square feet of exhibit space with interactive train displays, outdoor train rides and engaging exhibits. Brian does a great job with this tour so thank you for making this video!

Incredibly Realistic Wild West Diorama

Before we finish with an exhibition video, here is an incredible diorama from Smol World Workshop. This Is full of brilliant techniques that you can easily apply to your own layout, even if you are doing scratch builds. One detail that caught my eye was the paint peeling part, haven't seen anyone do that before. The diorama itself is in G Scale (1:22.5) but these methods can be applied to any model railway layout.

Exeter Model Railroad Exhibition

Finally, we have excellent coverage of the recent Exeter Model Railway Exhibition which took place on the 22nd of June. At this exhibition, there were 47 visiting layouts, club layouts and dioramas as well as trade stands. In this video, SDJR7F88 takes some great videos of 13 different layouts.

For up-and-coming exhibitions, you can click here.

Well, that's it from me. Fingers crossed you enjoyed them. I'm always interested in seeing content that you guys have made or anything that you find interesting so feel free to send me videos via my email, sam@scalemodelscenery.co.uk. Leave a comment down below if you have any thoughts about these videos or the Newsletter in general. Have a great rest of your weekend.

New Stuff

We've got a couple of crackers lined up for you this weekend then in the new releases section…

Customer Reviews

KX113-OO Pigsty - OO/4mm/1:76
So chuffed to finally get this out there on general release. We really enjoyed working on this kit and it's going to look the absolute bees knees in your farm scene! With a prototypically uneven roof line, lots of dirt and scruffy brick/stonework, poseable doors and even interior wall detailing… this is going to turn your farm scenes into a real talking point. Order yours here.
S034-OO Customised Village / Town Welcome Signs - OO/4mm/1:76
An essential item for pretty much any modern image layout. Each set is carefully prepared for you with your own choice of village or town name, and you can choose from five different village logos. There's also a load of modern street signs to detail your layout included too, so they're great value! We even pre-cut them for you so all you have to do is release them from the sheet & glue onto the included grey rod. Order a set for your layout or diorama here.

New Items & Back In Stock This Week…

We've had another large delivery from Gaugemaster this week including some of their incredibly popular 3D printed items and some really nice new backscenes.

Gaugemaster GM493 Barrels (Pack of 10) - OO/4mm/1:76
Great for detailing your industrial and lineside scenes
Gaugemaster GM494 Traditional Dustbins (Pack of 10) - OO/4mm/1:76
Essential for every street scene & backyard
Gaugemaster GM472 Pay & Display Car Park Ticket Machines (Pack of 2) - OO/4mm/1:76
Got a car park? Then you're going to need ticket machines! They're solar powered too 🤣
Gaugemaster GM473 Vending Machines (Pack of 2) - OO/4mm/1:76
Every platform or station concourse needs at least one vending machine.
Gaugemaster GM491 Relay Cabinets (Pack of 4) - OO/4mm/1:76
If you're modelling any modern image scene, then there are a must-have.

New Backscenes from Gaugemaster… No layout is complete without a backscene… and these might be right up your street…

Gaugemaster GM710 Mountains Scene (Large Backscene) OO/HO
A stunning, photographic mountain backscene suitable for OO & HO scale layouts.
Gaugemaster GM711 Moors Scene (Large Backscene) OO/HO
From Yorkshire to Exmoor, Dartmoor to Bodmin… this is the perfect backscene!
Gaugemaster GM759 The Dales (Small Backscene) TT:120 / N
If you're modelling in TT or N gauge and your layout is set in the countryside, these could be right up your street.
Gaugemaster GM760 The Mountains (Small Backscene) TT:120 / N
The N/TT:120 version of the mountain backscene above.
Gaugemaster GM761 The Moors (Small Backscene) TT:120 / N
And again the N/TT:120 version of the moors backscene mentioned above.

Right, that's about it for this edition of the weekly news. As Elizabeth is working again this weekend, we're heading down to HQ shortly to crack on with a variety of things including finishing the kit I'm working on and getting a shed load of admin sorted.

Have an amazing weekend folks… And of course…

Keep on shunting…

Justin, Tina, Elizabeth, Lola & The Team

P.S. This weekend's header pic comes from the incredibly talented Railway Modellers community member AW Moore. We absolutely love this diorama which we're proud to say features a fair few of our kits. When I first saw this posted up I did a double take as I thought it was real! Shooting the photos against the backdrop of open farmland just works so well.

A few kits you might spot in use:

P.P.S. Missed a newsletter? You can read all of our recent newsletters online here.