Letters Miniature Railway, 19 West Park, Castle Cary, Somerset BA7 7DB atob@onetel.com

Welcome I welcome this new magazine.I hope it will appeal to the many people who would not consider themselves railway enthusiasts,but who love the glamour of a full-size steam locomotive,but also the charm of its reduced replica. ‘Replica’ is not the right word,though,because while many miniature engines are just that - copies (often exquisitely engineered) of their big brothers - they are increasingly being designed on the principal of being as large as possible for the rail gauge on which they run. Scale miniatures,on all but the 15-inch gauge, require the driver to sit on the tender or a special driving truck and reach into the cab to control the tiny levers and feed the little firebox.Modern locomotives,even on the narrow 7 1 / 4 " gauge can be 24" wide - large enough for the driver to sit in a cab.A standard gauge locomotive built to these proportions would be 15 feet wide and 25 feet tall! Victor Johnson London

Scale can cause all sorts of problems.This line-up of locomotives at the Weston Park Railway in Shropshire are all 7 1 / 4 ”gauge,but built to very different scales.More on gauges and scales elsewhere,but not,we hope,too much of it!

Trevor Heath

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Thanks! I have been enthusiastic about miniature railways for many years,but found the coverage in the mainstream railway press most unhelpful.It is comparatively hard to find where the railways are,when they are open,and what to expect on arrival,so I'm delighted to find a new publication devoted to miniature railways. Weights and measures are a problem,and I wonder whether you intend to stick with the long-established imperial conventions or move over to exclusively metric measurements? My personal feeling is that metric will be needed to attract a new generation,for whom feet,inches,yards and pounds are a foreign language. John Holroyd Halifax,West Yorkshire

When and where to use metric measurements, imperial measurements or both is a big problem. We’ve decided to use metric in most cases, except with certain historical items, and the imperial miniature railway gauges, which are so widely known and understood. But we intend to stay flexible on this issue, so that may change. (Eds)

www.miniature-railway.com

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Miniature Railway 1