Card Models

When I was at school, before the advent of plastic model kits, you could buy cut-out card kits the size of postcards in small kit packs. These were called "Micromodels" described as "Three Dimensional Volumetric" and would be of steam railway locos, old and new, famous buildings, ships, planes, all sorts of subjects. They required good eyesight and lots of patience to construct but made beautiful little models. I made many of them but when Airfix plastic kits came out they soon disappeared from the shops. In the middle 60s I found two kits in my local Hobby Shop and bought them. One was to build a waterwheel and one to build three different trams, a London "Feltham", a Merryweather steamer and horse drawn tram. I never made these kits up but have kept them safely in my "treasure box", but now with this new technology I can scan them in and print them out in colour as many times as as I wish and attempt to make them up.

Here are a couple of advertisements for "Micromodels" from 1954/5 "Newnes Practical Mechanics",

MModel Ad1.GIF (97272 bytes) 3trams.JPG (39816 bytes) Mmodel Ad2.GIF (75322 bytes)

As I thought there were no model steam locos to make up I decided to design my own. My first effort is that of the last steam loco to be made for British Rail called "Evening Star". In 1835 or there abouts the G.W.R. company was authorised to build a railway line from London to Bristol and in 1837 two "Patentee" engines were adapted by Robert Stevenson to fit the broad gauge and run on the line. One of these locos was called "Morning Star" so the name "Evening Star" was presumably a carefully chosen name.

Recently I have discovered a lot more about the fate of Micromodels, how they were bought out, taken to France and then again to the U.S.A. Apparently many American service men discovered Micromodels when they were stationed in the U.K. and took them home. A following built up there and many Americans collect and build the kits. I have found that Micromodels can still be bought today in certain model shops and have managed to buy a few myself. I have also been able to trade scans of a few models which can be printed out and made up, a hobby for those winter evenings now!

I have now completed thirty model locomotive designs and have produced CDs from which they can be printed out at 1:175 or 1:160 scale. The original Micromodel locomotives were not apparantly to an exact scale, I think the 175 scale make the best looking model although the 160 scale is easier to construct.

8' Stirling Single.jpg (40837 bytes)

Many thanks to all those who have sent me emails with kind words about these models.

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Models

Please note that you are welcome to download and use these models for your personal enjoyment but they are copyright and you may not publish them elsewhere without permission from the author. If you like these models please consider my CDs! All designs can be enlarged to 00 or H0 scales.

              NEW     LB&SCR Terrier 0 - 6 - 0 Loco at 'N' gauge scale .PDF format

                  see http://www.semg.org.uk/steam/a1x_02.html

        English Electric Class 20 Diesel Loco at 00 scale
                  Sheet 1 .PDF Format
                    Sheet 2 .PDF Format
                            see http://www.southdevonrailway.com/D8110.html    for photos and details of loco.