I read with interest Barry's comment on 16mm modelling in last month’s newsletter (to be precise I read all of the newsletter with interest, and am learning a lot about the Isle of Wight). It’s true that us garden railway types do like a social meeting - playing trains on a warm summer’s afternoon in someone else’s garden, with tea and home-made buns in the offing, is a joyful experience. Such events were much missed in 2020, so Jim’s mini-meeting on the Winter Solstice was even more enjoyable due to its rarity.

 

I would however point out one factor which differentiates us from ‘normal’ modellers, in that we have the opportunity to run real, live-steam locomotives that live and breathe just like their full-size counterparts. This is not to belittle Hornby’s foray into 00-scale live steam, nor to ignore the fact that many people like to run battery-electric, track-powered or even clockwork trains in the garden. For me there is no pleasure like getting a blast of hot steam up the nose from a safety valve just waiting for you to come close enough, sprinting after a Mamod that has only two speeds, zero and much too fast, or watching a derailed wagon slowly and unstoppably pulling a complete train off a viaduct and down into some well-thorned rose bushes. Truth be told, radio control technology is becoming ever more reliable, miniaturised and economical, so there’s little excuse for unruly behaviour. And when everything does behave itself, the sight of your loco of choice pulling a large rake of coaches or wagons around a scenic garden with prototypical steam clouds, smells and sounds, is the only way to go. You are allowed to disagree.

 

Barry mentioned freelance running as a characteristic of 16mm modelling, and I for one am happy to accumulate a somewhat random collection of stock, some representing particular lines but most not. To some extent this reflects narrow-gauge practice - money is always tight so they acquire what’s available and affordable to create a consist to do a job rather than to look pretty. However there are increasing amounts of prototypical locos and rolling stock on the market which model particular companies, with those from North Wales being particularly well represented. And having just acquired a loco of a type which ran in Southern Africa, I have in front me as I write a just-about-finished model of an SAR brake van, and very smart it looks too. Some matching bogie wagons are on order, so a complete train will eventually appear.

 

This brings me to another benefit of 16mm and similar scales, that you can have up to five notional thumbs per hand and still build your own stock to a satisfactory standard. I never really got on with 4mm or even 7mm kits, it was all very fiddly and required just a little too much skill for me to be happy with the result. However in 16mm it’s a lot easier, and with laser-cut woodwork everything fits together well. It’s therefore possible to build complex structures with much panelling and detailing without having to be very good at it. The aforesaid brake van has over 250 components, but was both easy and quick to build, aided by a mere 45 pages of instructions!

 

At the other end of the scale, I find I can scratchbuild with little more than basic carpentry skills. Axles, wheels and, if you want to be posh, brass bearings, are all you really need to buy to make a flat wagon, a basic goods van or a rake of slate wagons from a few lengths of stripwood. And with a 3D printer lurking in the shed, it’s now only axles. It’s also possible to indulge in creating the ultimate prototype, what in the US are known as ‘critters’, small one-off internal combustion locos and railcars. These were usually built in a back corner of the engine shed, often by the the local blacksmith using whatever materials that came to hand, not excluding his mum’s old washing machine. Building these in 16mm is a niche market, but highly enjoyable for those with the penchant to do so. And of course there’s the recent Christmas present, a Marks and Spencer steam engine fudge tin, just waiting to be emptied of its contents and fitted with a power bogie...

 

Each to their own of course, but when whatever passes for normality in your household eventually resurfaces, us of the outdoor persuasion would be happy to demonstrate why it is, if not the only way to go, then a most realistic and satisfying way to do model railways. One of the many benefits of the local 16mm group is that you don’t need to belong to anything or even to own any suitable stock, just come and join in. What are you waiting for? (apart from a vaccine jab of course).

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