Friends of the Rail Forum

One of the early Micromodels, produced a right at the beginning of the series, was a pack containing a Garratt from South African Railways, and a 4-8-4 K class from New Zealand Railways.

The set had six cards, three for each engine. The Garratt when made up, will pan out at around 8 cm.
The cards provide a base - one is expected to do additional work by soaking thread in glue and carving matchsticks!

The set was produced in 1947 and cost 1/3d - actually a very large sum in those days for 6 very small pieces of card!

One day, when I am feeling brave, I will probably give it a go!

I wish I could find an N-gauge Garratt. I'm currently trying to scratchbuild one from a pair of Fleischmann locos, but so far I've only got as far as dismatling one of the locos...

I do N gauge as well - as far as I know there is no N gauge Garrett - except those that have been scratch-built - and the ones I have seen were all terrible.

Now how about scaling the Micromodel and transferring it to brass sheet?

Brass sheet is beyond my skills - it would look truly horrible!

Maybe plasticard - and incidentally, does anyone know where I can get plasticard in South Africa? All the model shops I've been in have looked askance at me as if they don't know what it is (well, admittedly they all specialise in planes and not trains) and advised me to try CNA or a plastic factory.

Of course - what size? What thinness? Here in JHB we have everything - except visitors of course....

Model Train Exchange (Randburg), Esswex (Northclifff), Aviation Shop (Randpark Ridge).

Maybe in January you can give me directions to those shops and I'll go and have a look. Sounds interesting.

Haven't found any decent model railway shops in Pretoria yet - anybody know of any?

I can meet up with and escort you - all three are good, but all 3 are very different. The Model Train Exchange you would like...