Croydon MRS Competition Night 2024

 Myself and Greg Marshall (Chairman, Beckenham & West Wickham MRC, renown modeller and TV star) had the great honour of judging Croydon Model Railway Societies Modelling competion at their club room in South Croydon.

As usual there was a good standard of modelling to be seen in all the major scales. There was also a new catergory this year where non railway models could be entered, again some lovely entries .This was introduced as Croydon now have a Monday night is any modelling night encouraging former Military vets and those suffering PTSD or mental health issues to use modelling as a form of therapy - well done Croydon! Here are the photos

3mm 14.2 Templot trackbase

Watching the Bexhill West You Tube channel encouraged me to have a go at producing a trackbase for 14.2.

Yes I know the 3mm Society does a chaired trackbase, but I was after something that could be homebrewed and easy to make.

Well bit the bullet and via Templot was able to produce a 14.2 base 3D printed to scale 40' length which took up the length of the baseplate.

Now what to do for chairs? I have a filament printer which is good for printing large items but not so hot for small items like track chairs, it is suggested a resin printer is used for these.

However as luck would have it, I have a load of Society pegged chairs which were produced for point kits using a ply base, so there was the solution.

Here are the results.

To scale or not to scale....that is the question?

Little quiz for you, spot the difference

which wagon is TT 1:100 & which is TT 1:120?

The one on the left is TT 3mm scale, 1:100 and over 50 years old. The young upstart on the right is TT 1:120.

As you can see there is a marked difference, both run on the same track gauge of 12mm to the foot.

TT 120 scales out at 2.5mm and it is amazing what difference 0.5mm makes in the scheme of things.

Photo taken on Paul Hopkins, Exebridge layout.

Exebridge at the Bognor Regis MRE

Popped into the Bognor Regis Exhibition over the weekend, specifiyto see Paul Hopkins 3mm layout Exebridge, here are the photos