First Time User

If you are using us for the first time the following may help you understand our aims and policies as well as get the most out of our website.

For full terms and conditions please click here.

You can browse our website by the categories along the top. These are listed by scale but please remember that some items are not gauge specific, for example:

• Electrical equipment (power controllers, point motors)
• Scenery (ballast or scatter)
• Books
• Digital Command Control
• Catalogues
• Paints, Oil and Adhesives

These can be found under the "Modelling Essentials" Menu. 

If you already know the manufacturers reference number you can enter this in the search field at the top centre of the page above. You can also enter more general search terms. We try and list the manufacturers reference as it is shown in the catalogue, but this can sometimes cause problems if the reference contains a hyphen or dot. Some manufacturers can vary in their application of hyphens etc, so see below for our naming conventions:

• All Bachmann products are shown as xx-xxx (For example 32-000, or 39-260)
• All Graham Farish products are shown as xxx-xxx (For example 371-360, or 374-055)
• All Dapol products are shown with hyphen as shown as xx-xxx-xxx (For example 2D-000-001)
• All Peco products used to be shown as xx-xx, for example PL-10, NB-34, ST-20. In June 2025 Peco amended their range to remove the hyphen, our website has been amended to match! Therefore PL-10 is now shown as PL10 for example.
• All Woodland Scenics items are shown without hyphen or dot

Once you have found the item(s) you require these can be added to your basket. This works in the standard web-industry way and you should have no trouble if you are used to ordering on-line. You will need to register to complete your order and you can do this at the checkout stage.

Once you have registered you will be able to log-in in future and track your order. You can also change details through the "My Account" section which only becomes visible once you have logged in.

On your first order you will not be able to specify a different delivery address. This is for card security purposes so that we can be sure that the transaction is being made by the account holder. Once you have successfully placed and received an order you will be able to specify a different delivery address.

You will be automatically be enrolled in our Loyalty Rewards scheme when you create an account with us - for further details click here.

When we receive your order we will then process this. Remember that all stock availability is indicated on our website and if you have ordered an out of stock item it may take a little longer. The website will show an indication of how long it may take but these are for guidance purposes only. When we are ready to send the items we will send you an email to let you know they are about to leave the warehouse.

All items have their stock availability clearly shown. There are three different stock availability messages:

• "In Stock - Usually dispatched within 24 hours". 
  This indicates that the item is in our store and available for immediate despatch.  We cannot always send the item immediately - you may have ordered more of the item than we have in stock or sometimes the item may be picked up by a customer in the shop before we have had a chance to pick the item ourselves!
• "Temporarily out of stock - usually dispatched within 28 days". 
  This indicates that we are out of stock of the item and that it has been ordered from our supplier.  The 28 days is only an estimate and we can often supply these items quicker than this.
• "New release - pre-orders invited. An expected delivery date may be shown in the product description". 
  This indicates that the item is a new release.  The dates given are only estimates but by pre-ordering these items you are guaranteed to receive them as soon as they are released.

If you have ordered items that are out of stock then we may do any of the following at our discretion:

• Hold the entire order until all items are in stock (generally we will do this if the out of stock items are due within 14 days or so)
• Charge the entire order and send out of stock items to follow post free (generally we will do this if the out of stock items are due within 28 days)
• Charge for the items that are in stock and send out of stock items to follow.  We would then charge for the out of stock item when this came into stock (including postage if the order at time of despatch was below £250).  (Generally we will do this if the out of stock items have no expected due date.)

If placing a pre-order or for something that is showing as 'out of stock', when you order through our website you will not be charged. There are some exceptions which must be paid in full at the time of placing your order and these are clearly shown in the product description. 

You can also place a pre-order by phone or in person at our Camborne or Guildford branch (although the same exceptions for a few items would also apply). You still need to provide your payment details.

If you have placed an order for over £250 to get it post free to within the UK and you subsequently cancel or return an item that would make the order below £250 then we reserve the right to charge postage at our current rate.

The £250 post free offer to UK addresses is applicable to the value of the order at the time of despatch.  So, for example, if you place an order for 10 x new wagons at £20 each, all of which arrive at different times over several months, the value at time of despatch would be below £250 so each despatch would attract the current postage rate.

If you are ordering from outside of the UK, please read our postal charges. 

In the unlikely event you need to return an item, please read our return policy.

Keeping your online payments safe and secure - Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) came into effect on Monday 14th March 2022.

New EU and UK regulations were introduced to improve security for online payments through two-factor authentication. As this is a legislative change, you will see two-factor authentication being used at all businesses that take card payments, including us. SCA will require all online and card payments to be confirmed independently in two of the following three categories:
• Knowledge (such as a password or PIN)
• Possession (such as a message to your phone)
• Inherence (a biometric method such as your fingerprint)

It is therefore referred to as two-factor authentication, or 2FA, and makes paying by credit card even more secure by ensuring that you, the cardholder, initiates or authorises a payment yourself.
From 14th March 2022, when making an online purchase, you may need to authenticate payments (usually via a one-time passcode sent to your mobile phone by your card provider or via your banking app). We advise you to make sure your details are up to date with your card provider to ensure that any purchases go through as smoothly as possible.

We pride ourselves on our customer service and we like to get to know our customers. Please visit our about us section if you would like to know a little more about us.

For the latest news visit our news page here and for daily announcements and offers connect with us on Social Media: