Wake Model Railway Services - WMRS

10/09/2026

Last week's additions, thanks to Roxley Models.
A Hornby 08844 in EWS, sold as a project, and a Hornby Railroad 37093 in its Police guise.

The 37, I'm rather happy with. It's odd that the 37s' bogies have a fixed NEM socket, rather than the dovetail pocket the 20s/47s/57s/59s/66s have. And the lack of proper headcode box plates is annoying (apparently Hornby lost the lima toolings for them? But surely they could tool up new ones), so I'm gonna have to find some aftermarket ones.
I will be touching up some areas of paint (where the black of the POLICE lettering and the yellow/orange bands cross over different heights), adding directional lights, adding cab interiors plus a policeman as a driver, and adding more weight to aid haulage capacity. I'm not sure what to do about the speaker tho, as I bought the Enhanced Bass speaker to go with it, but the original speaker sits right where I'd want to add weight...

The 08, it is missing the steps at the front end, the upper bodyside handrails, and the cab roof vent hatch (it was also missing NEM pockets, but I have spares), plus the cab interior moulding was loose inside the model. It was sold as a poor runner, but after cleaning the wheels and pickups, and sorting the quartering of the wheels (the wheels can spin on the axle if a direct force is applied), it runs very smoothly on speed step 1/128, even without a stay-alive (it has a factory-fitted loksound v3.5).
I did manage to break off the front lamp irons when I had the model apart, so I'll be searching for replacements. But I have corrected the placement of the rear lamp irons and painted them and the marker lights (as per the prototype), as well as painting the crankpins and cranks yellow. And I think it looks much better for it.
However, I have no idea what the little black part on one side of the upper front end is...

10/09/2026

The latest kit on the workbench. A Slaters NER P7 hopper in 0 gauge.

I have 3 of these bought 2nd hand, with bits missing. I contacted Slaters about a year ago about acquiring missing parts, although I decided to buy a brand new kit and judge what I needed from the contents and instructions of that kit.

The model as pictured is as complete as one of the 3 others, whereas the other 2 have some of the plastic brake linkages, and all 3 lack the brass etches and handrails. I think that this new kit has enough plastic parts for me to complete that single one's plastic parts, so all I should need to complete all 4 are 3 sets of the brass etches.

I was surprised at the poor quality of the instructions for the kit. The printing isn't great, the photographs are black and white but the contrast is off so they're pretty much useless, the steps seem a bit all over the place, there's no numbered parts or a diagram of what parts are what, and theyre just a bit hard to follow.
Fortunately, I've built 4 of the 4mm kits before, and I did research into how the wagons looked for when I did those.

The kit itself is good quality, given its age. However, the corners are a bit awkward to put together (especially as the kit says to glue the solebars to the ends, then add the sides), and the mouldings for the wagon floors are a bit too narrow.

02/09/2026

Earlier this year, I purchased a 2nd hand Accurascale DRS 37/6 (607) that had been in an incident involving the floor. Thus it was missing several parts, including the buffers at one end (and the bufferbeam was cracked), one set of bogie steps, the boiler port blank, the NEM pockets, the glazing for one of the top WIPAC marker lights, and more. Plus, a component on the PCB had blown, so the lights didn't work.

I troubleshooted the PCB and lights by swapping bits around with my 37610, which, being the same type of 37 from the same batch, would have identical electronic components. And it proved that the lights worked fine, just the PCB was the issue.

I contacted Accurascale, who took a while to sort stuff out due to part availability, but eventually got me some bits (including the PCB, that they charged me £15 for. Does their lifetime warranty not cover 2nd hand models?), and I set about fixing the loco.

The new PCB was a simple swap. The bufferbeam replacement was more awkward than I thought.
But, Accurascale didn't send me all the parts I needed. So I contacted them again, and turns out they didn't pass on all of my list of required parts to the team sourcing said parts.
So I still need to reply to their email, listing the rest of the parts required (including the glazing piece and NEM pockets).

I look forward to having my 2nd 37/6 eventually up to scratch.

02/09/2026

An update on Chirk.

On 11th July, I added more foamboard to one end of the layout for a base for the 009 track. I then laid some track, with droppers, and pinned it in roughly the right position. Image 2 shows the clearance over the Standard Gauge that the Narrow Gauge has.
The plan will be to add a lift-out section so 00 trains can run through when needed, but 009 just requires the section dropping in on top.

I did note that this original curve was too tight for my Bachmann Baldwin 10-12-D to be pushed around by hand without derailing, so it was later revised slightly. However, even the revised curve was too tight for the Baldwin to go over without slowing massively, or Linda and the Bowsiders and Tin Car to go over without derailing. So this shall need to be addressed next time the layout comes out.

10/08/2026

I must have an addiction to level crossings...

My plan for the RAILstuff competition is a scene from Thomas. Depicted slightly differently between the RWS and T&F, so I'm gonna do a hybrid between them.

The scene is from when Thomas was stopped by a policeman on the Quarry Tramroad for not having any tram skirts.
It is a single track on a tight curve, so fits the bill perfectly. I will need a 4-way signpost, 3 telegraph poles, a bicycle, a policeman (ideally sitting), a small building plus some scrap/metalwork, and some fencing. Plus perhaps a flatbed van.

I chose this due to its simplicity, its recognisability (if people know the Thomas stories), and how few bits I'd need, given my limited budget and timescale.

I have drawn out the locations of things on the board, and will see about forming the hills in the coming days. My boyfriend is also bringing me his N gauge Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel later this week, to help me scale things.

Who knows, I might even fit a sound module under the hills, loaded up with some lines from the TV series (and maybe the Trampy Movies...)

10/08/2026

Thanks to RAILstuff, the N gauge competition layouts have arrived today. One curved one for me, one straight one for my boyfriend to build.

I have already glued on the feet and the track on mine, although the overhang of the kato track is more like 1mm rather than 0.5mm as the instructions say, when keeping the ends of the track pieces within the etched lines on the board.

I will do a post later to explain my plan. It won't be as complex as some of the layouts I have seen, but I am hoping to make it possibly more detailed than Fulwell Crossing, my 00 gauge Peco Rail200 competition layout.

I am also thinking about getting more HEX-Track modules in the future, to do a small collapsible N gauge layout made of many different scenes. Although I don't really do N gauge, and will be borrowing stock from my boyfriend so I can get a feel of the size of things for the layout.

08/08/2026

Well, that's a first.

A while ago, I purchased a Tamiya 1/35 T34/76 tank kit from a local model shop. And it has sat in its box, in my pile of kits to build, ever since. Until tonight.

I just opened it up, and found:
1x Sprue A
1x Sprue B
2x Sprue C
1x Sprue D (in two halves)
1x chassis moulding
1x body moulding
1x pair of tracks
1x bag with metal axle and screws
1x sheet of transfers
1x english instructions
1x japanese instructions
1x assembly tips sheet

0x Sprue E...

This is the first time I've had a kit with a missing sprue. The instructions don't mention having 2 Sprue Cs, but it does say to make 10 of the normal road wheels, and a single sprue C only allows 7 to be made.

I have contacted the shop I bought the kit from, to ask about getting a new sprue for it. However, it is after 9pm on a Saturday, so I am not expecting a response until probably Tuesday (the shop isn't open on Mondays).

I could make decent progress on the kit without Sprue E, but I don't want to start until I hear back about the missing sprue.

29/07/2026

28/07/2026

One project for the near future. A Golden Arrow Models SR Maunsell D3/12.
3 of these locos were built in 1937, I believe using the same English Electric 6KT engines as used in the LMS D3/6s and D3/8s (later class 11), LNER D3/9s, GWR D3/10 and D3/11s, SR D3/13s (later class 12), and the BR D3/2s (later classes 08 and 09, and 13).
Originally SR numbers 1-3, they became 15201-15203 under BR, all being withdrawn in 1964 and scrapped.

This model is a resin body kit, designed to fit a Bachmann class 08 chassis. The donor chassis already had one of its running plates removed, so I shall need to replace most of it. But the kit does require cutting away some of it and the top of the rear bufferbeam for the cab to fit.

I have only tidied up the mouldings as seen on the model here, as these kits come with a lot of flashing. However, I will need to do further refinements to get the rear of the cab to fit snugly, and to smooth out parts before I glue bits together.

I like unusual locos, so this little pre-08 will fit in nicely. Now I need to find a Heljan class 11 and a class 12, and the mislabeled 15101 (labelled as a class 11, but is actually a D3/11). Plus get one of the upcoming Accurascale class 10s, and a Bachmann class 13...

28/07/2026

I'm a little behind posting compared to actual layout progress, because layout progress had to come first before the open day.

After I had added the standard gauge track to the scenic section, with correctly spaced sleepers for the location, I then added it to the end boards which are non-scenic, so I didn't need to space the sleepers.

I decided that I should space the tracks at the outer ends correctly to link up with Fulwell Crossing, which I believe I set up using the standard Peco Streamline track spacing, should I want to connect it in future. The tracks are perpendicular to the end of the board, for ease of joining.

I then painted the non-scenic areas using the same green paint as I did for Birdforth's non-scenic boards. I should really have done this before laying the 00 track, as I couldn't paint under the rails while the track is down. So that area shall remain unpainted.

I also added foamboard to raise up the 009 fiddle yard area, added some blocks of 5.5mm ply under the 009 rail aligners so they are more stable, and laid the tracks in the fiddle yard.
I should really have gone with shorter points. But, electrofrog ones were necessary due to the short wheelbases and general small size of 009 stock.