Online Catalogue last updated 17th of September 2023
In this book Stan Bray gives detail instructions, and a whole host of useful hints, tips and ideas on building model and miniature locomotives, be they steam, electric or i.c. powered, all based on more than fifty years experience of building locomotives.
Whether you are a beginner taking your first steps into locomotive building, or a more experienced builder in any gauge from Gauge 1 to 7 1/4", you will find this book an indispensable aid to making those awkward bits, taking short cuts and constructing a model of which you can be proud.
Each chapter looks at a particular area of the locomotive and shows how it can be built, with numerous photographs and drawings showing parts, and set-ups for making them.
Throughout, the book is written in Stan's own individual style with lighthearted diversions and asides. It also recounts the exciting early days of international contacts and `Meets', of which he was one of the pioneers in the 1970s, and many photographs of model locomotives from around the world will be found throughout this book.
When he started writing this book, Stan's aim was to produce something practical and useful, but also different and enjoyable; as the reader will find in the pages of this book, he has more than achieved this objective.
Stan Bray is one of the longest serving writers on model engineering at work in 2003 and has built a large number of model and miniature locomotives, in gauges ranging from `00' to 5". He has also built numerous stationary steam engines and other models.
Born in London, too many years ago to mention, into a family where a number of the male members were footplate men on the LNER, Stan's youth was mis-spent in engine sheds scrounging footplate rides, and running a Hornby clockwork railway.
An engineering apprenticeship was cut short by World War II; after service in the Middle East, Stan returned for a short period to engineering, but then took a number of jobs until he was appointed Associate Editor of Model Engineer, then Editor of Model Engineers' Workshop and also of World of Model Engineering. Since "retiring" he has worked freelance as well as continuing his links with Model Engineer, serving as Club News Editor until recently and also contributing a regular construction column called Brays Bench.
A great traveller, Stan led the first British model engineering contingent into Europe, as told in this book, and first met the publisher thirty years ago, when both were equally surprised to find the other at Öhringen in Germany.
This is Stan's twelfth book relating to engineering and model engineering, and his first book on model and miniature locomotives.
Code No. 010601, ISBN 0953652378