Posted in News/interest December 6th, 2011
With all the Christmas festivities and the excitment of a model-filled Christmas morning slowly starting to build, we wanted to get in on the festive action. That is why this year we have decided to sponsor our local Christmas tree in Fleet.
Fleet Town Council have thanked us for our sponsorship and as this was only possible due to the support we have had over our first year from our customers, we wanted to thank you all in return!
Posted in Shop, Stock and Offers November 9th, 2011
As another great offer, in the run up to christmas and the new year, we are offering a 3 for 2 offer on all Oxford Diecast vehicles. Simply purchase any 3 Oxford Diecast Vehicles and the cheapest will be deducted at checkout!
Posted in News/interest November 5th, 2011
Having been a member of the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway since 1970, I have always enjoyed the civil engineering week at the end of the summer daily service in the middle of September. Basically this week is set aside to carry out planned repairs or renewals to the track or line side infrastructure, i.e. bridges , tunnels, embankments and cuttings. Of course with a branch line that had been starved of much investment for last thirty years of its life as part of national railway system, meant it was in a pretty poor state of repair, and while we may have planned to carry out a certain project, failure on another part of the railway meant there was an element of “fire fighting” to keep the railway open. Regular maintenance is carried out on two weekends a month such as fish plate greasing, packing ballast under sleepers, and cutting back and burning line side foliage, however you are restricted in what can be carried out as there is a passenger service in operation.
Posted in Shop, Stock and Offers October 31st, 2011
Here at modelrailways.co.uk we have been celebrating a year since we first launched our store back in October 2010 and would like to thank everyone who has supported us over the last 12 months.
As we start looking towards Christmas we thought we would say a little Thank You for your continued support by offering free UK postage untill the end of January! This means that not only will you get free postage on all orders in the run-up to christmas, but it also means you can make the most of any Christmas money you might find in your stocking.
Posted in Railway advice October 28th, 2011
It tends to be forgotten that one of the reasons that made British Railways in its 1956 modernization programme decide to eliminate steam traction was the difficulty of recruiting and retaining firemen. This was because of the poor pay, very irregular hours, and the strenuous and dirty nature of the job. In fact the railway lost over a third of its firemen during their first year of service. It was said that if you stayed more than a year you were there for life. One area not covered where I believe one important reason for firemen chucking the job in was the regular mate system where you were paired with a driver for a period of months or years until one or other of you moved up the links.
Posted in News/interest September 22nd, 2011
Chapter Two – A change of scene
The days spent at Margate passed slowly by and the new point rod run was finally fully installed then commissioned over a weekend, which I was not allowed to join in with – I was deemed to be too young at 15 to work any overtime or come in for duty at weekends!
Posted in Railway advice September 8th, 2011
The shunter at Camberley was known by the nickname of Blossom from his habit of always wearing a red flower in his button hole. Two other things stand out in my memory about Blossom, one was he was very red faced from what appeared to be high blood pressure. These days I think there would be a constant Para medic in attendance waiting for the inevitable heart attack. He was also the last man that I ever saw who still wore a rounded cellular collar on his shirts.
Posted in Railway advice September 5th, 2011
Chapter One – The Beginning of a Lifetime’s Journey.
I joined British Railways Southern Region, as it was then, in 1964, almost some 5 years after the Kent Coast electrification had taken place. Electrification had meant the end of steam and the introduction of a 750 volt dc third rail power system. Alongside the electrification project a large portion of the semaphore signalling and some of the signal boxes controlling those signals had vanished. Four newly built ‘power’ signal boxes had been opened at Faversham, Sittingbourne, Rainham and Rochester in Kent. Many of the smaller signal boxes were ‘Switched Out’, but could be returned to work in the event of problems or for engineering works. The new power boxes controlled Multi Aspect Signalling (MAS) from just outside Swanley to the country side of Faversham in the down direction and from just outside Margate to clear of the river bridge at Rochester (Rochester Bridge Junction) on the up line.
Posted in Shop, Stock and Offers August 27th, 2011
If you are anything like us, in the run up to Christmas you will like to have a good clear out to accomodate all of the presents that you are likely (or at least hope) to recieve.
It is for that reason that we have set up OO Gauge and N Gauge clearence categories so you can find all our reduced or clearence lines in one place.
Posted in Railway advice August 23rd, 2011
I have already briefly written about working on the last days of local freight travelling between each station to shunt the town yards, but an area I have not covered is staff who manned the yards. Normally with one freight a day the person who carried out the shunting duties when the engine was in the yard, would otherwise be employed on station, such as ticket collecting, station cleaning, gardening and climbing the gantries to refill the oil lamps on the semaphore signals.
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