Last week I took delivery of a open wagon driving truck in 7 1/4 gauge which you sit on to drive the Class 08 locomotive I previously bought. Thus begins an adventure into ride-on railways. This honestly is a surprising amount of fun – see what I mean in this video :). As a beginners hobby this is not particularly well documented online and there … Continue reading First ride-on adventure
Since moving house I’ve not had much time to spend preparing the attic for my model railway. At the weekend I finally finished the flooring necessary to walk around and set up the baseboard (largely thanks to a great mini-saw from Mac Allister). In preparation for an enjoyable winter getting my trains up and running I decided to gather all of the boxes (moved or … Continue reading Winter weather means model trains
The open source track planning software XTrackCAD is a fantastic tool in anyone playing with model railways but without a stable release in 5 years it’s lagged a little behind Apple’s operating system updates. Installing on OS X 10.10 does not work out of the box but if you follow these steps you’ll have a running application in no time. Download and install the latest … Continue reading Installing XTrackCAD on OS X Yosemite
Actually our Burns supper went very well. Michelle managed to feed 12 people and we fitted them into the dining room too. Unfortunately someone found the speed controls for the trains inside the dining table… A couple of fast corners later and see what happened… Thankfully everyone survived Continue reading Dinner was a train crash – literally!
Well it’s railway time and I’m finding that my plans are far more elaborate than ever before so I need a way of planning the layout so I can test various turnouts and track combinations before I have to start cutting track etc. No bother when there is great software out there to help you and XTrkCad is just such a great (and open source) … Continue reading Compiling XTrkCad from source on Mac OSX
Being a member of the OO Live Steam Club was bound to rub off eventually and it seems that it has, manifesting itself in a brand new “Silver Link” A4 Live Steam engine. This really is a magnificent beast and is a fine addition to my collection. I steamed it up for the first time today and was surprised at how well it ran. The … Continue reading A shiny new live steam engine
So I unpacked the boxes and assembled the equipment to steam up my new Flying Scotsman for the first time. Oil and water added, switched on and the steam began to build. So many funny noises that we all stood back at first. Once it was up to pressure a reassuringly familiar steam valve sounded and the room started to fill with the nostalgic aroma … Continue reading Flying Scotsman all steamed up!
The next step in model railways – Live Steam! Yes, a real steam powered engine in OO gauge – incredible engineering from Hornby. Unfortunately the line has been discontinued and the stock was all sold a little while ago. However the great guys at 2ktechnologies received a little extra stock that was found in the factory and offered a great price on these last chance … Continue reading Hornby Live Steam
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