Someone somewhere may have drawn up rules about the siting and operation of coal pens but evidence suggests that local arrangements prevailed. You can find a 'prototype for everything', as this small selection from Paul Karau suggests.

I only buy all issues of Railway Modeller and Model Railway Journal these days. The other modelling magazines only get a look-in when they include something of specific interest. I've maintained a full set of the MRJ but the RMs generally get "filleted" after a year or so.

SR/LSWR S15 4-6-0 & 0415 Adams Radial 4-4-2T in 3mm. 7mm Cambrian 'Small Goods' 0-6-0. Oford Maltings from the East Suffolk Light Railway. As expected, the appearance in MRJ No.26 of Bill Richmond's wonderful dead-scale 4mm layout based on the main line out of Euston caused quite a stir. Here is a further selection of photographs.

Model Railway Journal is a no frills, advanced modelling magazine that appears to deliver the goods (tee hee) with every issue. It’s aimed at the “serious” modeller, the magazine set out to provide a forum for those modellers who wished to progress beyond what was on offer from the ready to run manufacturers, whilst also providing a good read for those just interested in the topic of model rail. From issue number 65 in 1993 MRJ changed its cover design for a second time to the style illustrated by issue number 97 on the right. The number and range of contributors was growing, although there had also been some departures. Why waste time compensating wagons when you can waste time trying to avoid it? Dave Reynolds shows you how.I’ll happily browse most of the railway magazines in WHS until Mrs 4630s impatience with me becomes unbearable. Issue number 25 had a specially designed cover to mark a "quarter century" of MRJs. Now in its fourth year, the editors reported that sales of copies were by now eight times larger than the sales expectation upon which the whole venture had been based and that the magazine found readers around the world, including significant numbers of modellers who didn't model British outline or to any specific sets of finescale standards - quite an achievement.

The Model Railway Journal's 'No. 1 Shop' is a detailed, far-reaching series on the art of locomotive building, initially in 4mm scale, but diversifying into both the smaller and grander scales as time goes on.A historic turning point for the hobby - or something else? Experiences, views and reactions on a unique event, rounded up by Bob Barlow. Photo taken at Huddersfield in the mid-1950s showing former L&Y Aspinall 2-4-2T No. 50757 shunting vans in the goods yard

Three photographs from the Great Northern Railway Society's archive showing the evolution of a Nissen hut between 1951 and 1956Guy Williams builds a 4mm GWR footbridge from an etched kit and finds it to be a work of art - the definitive model of a distinctive lineside feature.