by Ångström
1. For ease of oiling, fix a hypodermic needle directly to the spout of an oil bottle.
2. After you have glued down a cork track base, run over the whole cork with a 'Surform' file paying particular attention to the joins in the cork. This flattening process will pay dividends in the long term.
3. When making your own points from flat-bottomed rail, make the actual blades from bull-head rail. The extra flexibility will make point operation easier.
4. Attach a grid of bare copper wire under a layout. The wires from the common return of each electrical section can be soldered to this grid.
5. When using a water-based paint for painting stonework, rocks, etc. mix some plaster with the paint as this will give an ultra-matt gritty stone-like finish.
6. Hammer rows of staples under a layout wherever wiring is run and thread the wires through the staples. This will keep the wiring tidy and will pay dividends when alterations need to be made or faults located.
7. When track cleaners start getting worn down, glue them to a piece of 5mm thick balsa wood. This will double the life of the track cleaner as it won't crack up when it gets thin.
8. Take along some green, brown and grey plasticine with you to an exhibition with your layout. Use the plasticine to hide the base-board joints. It will only take 15 minutes.
9. Make the last sleeper before a baseboard joint from printed circuit board, nail it down and solder the rail to the sleeper. Any small misalignments can then be corrected with a soldering iron.
10. If you receive brass buffers with a loco kit or coach kit, plate the buffer heads with solder as this will simulate steel. This is done by cleaning the surface, applying flux, touching the surface with a hot soldering iron, and then wiping off any surplus solder with a rag.
11. If you are having difficulty straightening the nickel-silver wire provided in kits for handrails etc,. hold the wire taut between two pairs of pliers and anneal the wire over a candle flame.
12. An easy way of modelling stone walls is to make the walls from balsa wood and then burn the stone outlines into the wall with a hot soldering iron.
13. If you find a lump of foam sponge rubber or sponge plastic from an old cushion or pillow, tear it up into small pieces and use it as foliage for trees or bushes.
14. When painting coupling rods and the like with silver paint, mix the paint with about 50% of matt black as this will produce a more steel-like effect.
15. If you don't like the appearance of the chromium plates wheels that you get with some proprietary models, paint the sides of the tyres and flanges with matt varnish mixed with a little matt black. Avoid getting paint on the wheel treads though.
16. If you feel like making your own coupling chains, go to a stationery shop and buy a box of lilli pins. These are about the right size for one link in a 4mm-scale chain. After snipping off the ends, bend the links to shape with a pair of miniature round-nosed pliers.
17. It is very difficult to solder two pieces of piano wire together. However, if you bind the piano wire with fine copper wire first, soldering will be easy.
18. Never screw a worm wheel to an axle with the grub screw provided. This will always leave the worm wheel slightly eccentric. Instead secure the worm wheel with 5 minute Araldite. If it is required to remove the worm wheel later, a touch with a soldering iron will kill the Araldite and the item will be easily removed.
19. When modelling in cardboard, first paint the card with a coating of shellac as this will stiffen it.
20. If you break or wear out a needle file, don't discard it, but grind the end into a small chisel. These are very useful for cleaning off excess solder from a model.
21. If you use soldered trackwork on copper clad sleepers, solder any connecting wires directly to the rail rather than to a sleeper, as the joints between rail and sleeper have a habit of breaking off with fatigue.