Category: Model trains
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What Did You Make?

Or – if you are still cutting and gluing – what are you making? Is it a little airplane from a kit? A ship? A doll house? A working railway? Good – all you different makers, would you be surprised to realise that you are all making the same thing? What? You are making yourself…
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Do Miniaturists Live Minimal Lives?

You might get that impression from the television and movie portrayals of model makers. We seem to be the losers skulking in the basements of the world. Many of us are psychopaths. Well, that may be you, but it isn’t me. My childhood interest was converted to professional purposes and served me well for forty…
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Forbidden Modelling

What an odd concept. Who can forbid scale modelling? Well, quite a few official bodies, as it happens. Try to fly a model airplane, run an R/C car or boat, or scramble about the local oval with your model tank and see what a squawk it raises. These restrictions multiply when there are clubs and…
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The Toy Train People Have An Advantage

Model railway builders who exhibit their layouts have a pretty big task to do – they have some major haulage and construction to do to set up a display. Once done, however, they have a distinct advantage over the model builders who make plastic kits; the toy trains move. The model railway maker might be…
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Let and Hindrance

Ever stop to consider how often the demands of other people rule your life? I mean your hobby life. If you are a target shooter of any sort the police regulations are strict and getting stricter. You are at the command of every police officer, departmental clerk, or politician. You are hemmed in by journalists…
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“I’m Doing This To Educate The Public”

Horse shit. You’re doing whatever you’re doing for yourself. To have fun, hopefully – but you are trying to justify the expense and the time by making it seem altruistic. Just come out and admit you’re doing it for you, and we’ll be happy – for you. I’ve encountered this porky in any number of…
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Never Too Late

Except if you dined at an Ethiopian restaurant the night before and feel you might need to seek a toilet. No matter how fast you are, you will never be fast enough. And there is no point in getting up and thinking you’re done. You might as well settle in for the day. In the…
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No Change Out Of $ 665

But you will have a small locomotive and several carriages. Plus an oval of track and a controller. What we used to call a toy train set, but would now be referred to as a toy train investment. I should be careful of it – the 1:120 size of the set will mean it is…
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F-16A – Part Three – In Every State Except…

In every state of the Union and nearly every country of the world, the heading image would raise little interest; it’s a toy airplane with a lead weight glued in the nose. In California, I suspect, it would cause sirens to wail and lawyers to leap from their kennels. Lead! A known carcinogen! A dangerous…

