Exceptional museum quality model locomotives for modellers, enthusiasts and collectors

Festival of Model Railways 19-20 March, Alexandra Palace

I was kindly invited to participate on the Scaleseven Stand on Saturday and Sunday at the festival. It is more than 4 years since I last attended this show and it was interesting to see the mixed attendance including young people, children, families and even a few TV personalities. I don’t watch much TV these days, but some of the personalities were familiar faces even to me. I am sorry that I did not give you advance warning of my attendance, but I was not expecting to be demonstrating models, least of all my own production! 

The job I had there at the show was to run some production Scale 7 models, a 4575 prairie and ‘Western King’ on Saturday, and ‘Western King’ plus 7000 Castle ‘Viscount Portal’ on Sunday, up and down a short piece of Scale7 track. Lots of diesel engine noise, slow steam chuffing, whistle and horn sounds as the locomotives moved slowly backwards and forwards over 1.5 metres of S7 hand built 2 bolt GWR Bullhead track. Then the next job was turning the locomotives upside down to examine the wheels/flanges, drive mechanism and inside valve gear. Young people were especially interested. Everyone seemed to be enjoying two days out and some semblance of normality.

The bad news is that I have caught COVID which means that I am somewhat limited in work that I can do until I recover and test negative. So I am happy to take calls and emails, but my response may be slower than usual, so please accept my apologies for the lack of rapid response. Sadly I will have to delay the delivery of some Westerns and Castles as I have to self-isolate. I will contact all of you who may be affected by this delay. So far my experience of COVID seems relatively benign, but one never knows until recovery is complete

John Borkowski
21 March 2022