David Holman

Still think that first picture might be a model - all the other photos show flush glazing on the cab front....

Spoiling us again, Ernie!

There is always room for a model railway!

Very little happened this side of the water either, though in Kent, the Allhallows branch wasn't built until the 1920s.

Can see what you mean, Mick. Those front windows are deeply inset and the glazing isn't exactly flush. No tension lock or Kadee though, even if the track looks decidedly Peck Code 75.

Delightful.

Got the plywood on Tuesday and have been assembling the two baseboards since then until this afternoon, when [returning from the garden centre], found a package containing my three points from Marcway. Not best pleased to find £200 worth out in the open on my doorstep, but then nobody would know what was inside and doubt if anyone would be interested anyway! As the ply is fairly thin, have gone back to slightly older practice by using the 'ply sandwich' method, where the frames are two strips of 10 cm ply either side of rectangular blocks of 12mm softwood. Screwed and glued, they are light but very strong and stable. Baseboard joiners ensure alignment, with M^ bolts to hold everything together. So, the workshop now has three layouts, with two sitting on the higher shelves and the one being worked on lower down. The arrival of the points has allowed a visualisation session this afternoon, starting with the left hand end. I need to have a decent view blocker here, to hide the hole in the end back scene. Looking in books and on the Web, found that Tollesbury in Essex had a nice, small, timber built station building that suits the space, but also need to find a suitable over bridge to copy.

Shame to hear about that. Light Railway Stores are very good value for such things. There are alternatives,, so try an internet search. Fox Transfers do some, but not sure about custom jobs. Depending on what size you want, Sister's Plasticard do some fairly small letters, so it is possible to make your own.

Fascinating - though well outside my pay grade in mechanical terms! Lovely model, doing well for 25 years use too..

The photos of the train by the water are just splendid.

Looking great, Alan. Not surprised, your colours have always been subtle and muted. Such things are very much in the eyes of the beholder, but certainly works for me. A range of textures too - really brings things to life.

Me too! The photos were taken by CM editor Andrew Burnham at last year's Chatham Show and I gave them the article in the August, so a long wait. However, good for the hobby (and the magazine) that there is plenty of material available. Apart from the obvious buzz of seeing your efforts in print, you get paid too and am thinking there are quite a few layouts and models of this parish that could send in something. All you have to do is check the editorial page, though they do like large file pictures, for obvious reasons. Andrew uses a 24mp camera and natural light on long exposures, but with digital camera it is easy to experiment. They like prototype stuff too and with the recent growth in the range of Irish models, articles on Irish practice, new and old could be useful. Now there's a thought...The NPQ will be at the Aldershot show in October (the one I missed last year) and some GN stock will be visiting too.

Northport Quay will be in next month Railway Modeller.

In 7mm scale you get whitemetal castings for the stools and wire for the rodding = much more robust. One wonders what they do (if anything) in 2mm scale. Tame spiders maybe? Am sure you'll enjoy the static grass machine, though the puffer bottles are still useful for small areas and tight corners. A good tip is to put down a layer of scatter crumb first and then static over the top of that. Never use a single colour either. A blend of several works best and experimenting is very addictive!

Got a lot of the necessary evils out of the way there, Alan and to very good effect as well. Love the rattle cans idea, and while really must try to embrace my air brush more, it is such a faff. Static grass machines much more fun.