David Holman

Good way to increase a layout's usefulness. Should I ask how you are going to widen the track?

That is a beauty.

Must be very deep pile carpet! Fine work Alan.

Can only agree with the comments above. Lovely stuff.

Fine work John and certainly looks well worth it.

Two fine 4-4-0s!

Will be a very good place for photographs.

Forward thinking seems to be very much part of the project. It is estimated it will cost at least two million and they are hoping that the time scale will encourage 'ownership' as like GSWR90 says those involved mature with the engine. Only time will tell.

In the latest Railway Magazine is a short article about a new build loco, of all things a Midland & Great Northern 4-4-0. They reckon it will be a 20 year project. One of the reasons for choosing it, apart from being a very pretty engine, is its small size should make it economical to run, including a firebox designed to use ovoids. Certainly nothing if not ambitious!

Those shutters will be a lot easier to model than window frames!

Certainly looks like 20 could only be turned in one direction. Nice collection of fishing boats too. Something else to add to the list.

A fine ensemble. There is something rather nice about a mixed take of vehicles and certainly more interesting than a fixed unit railcard set...

Lovely stuff and coming on a treat.

The itch to raid the scrap box is getting stronger...

Google photos of the Rathmelton quayside show red doors, with very peeling paint, suggesting it had been that colour for quite a while. Indeed, enlarging your photos shows the same. They also show it's not exactly the finest stone that's been used. Rubble would be a better description and even the brickwork around the openings looks decidedly second hand! All adds to the charm, of course and some talc to texture the paint might not go amiss.

It is indeed, Leslie. Booked over a year ago when the name hadn't been finalised. Guess I'd better let them know...

Working dioramas rule. Everybody should have (at least) one!

One for the 'prototype for everything' file! An Albion lorry chassis, with home made buffer beams, no couplings (just chains) and running on split spoke wagon wheels. Would be fun to create something similar and might be possible to squeeze a High Level motor gear box in the front end, under the bonnet. In 7mm scale, a natty little project, perhaps with an old Corgi Classic, like the Lipton tea van - though the scrap box may be a better option.

Older weighbridge for me. That new building sticks out like a sore thumb and compromises what is actually a nicely balanced scene. Such are the perils of prototype modelling - however 'right' you get it, at some point new evidence will emerge to annoy you! Maybe the best option would be to model to weighbridge building on a removable sub- base that allows it to be swapped according to period? As for back scene painting, while blue skies with fluffy clouds might seem nice, it is far easier to paint an all over pale grey, almost white, sky that we often have. Trees are another matter though. The photos seem to show them in winter - in which case ditch the paint brush and use pencil, crayon, fine marker pens etc, which are far more controllable. A good foundation for trees in full leaf too. Either way, start with colour pictures of the real thing. I find any photo that has trees in the background the most useful and then try to copy what is just an overall effect, rather than fine detail. I use hogs hair brushes and acrylic paint to stipple on a mix of greens, adding blues, yellows and some grey/black as I go along. These will blend together as you add the layers while wet but you can also leave patches of sky showing through. The most important thing though it to keep the colours fairly muted. Too bright and they stick out in a bad way. Tree bark is likewise rarely brown, more often a mix of greys and greens. Paint what you see, not what you think, as my art teacher used to say. I think it is a superb scene and well on the way to being a superb layout!

Fab.

This year's Railway Modeller Christmas special edition features a fairly extensive article on the Fry Collection.

Having never come across such things, had to Google them and discovered a weird and wonderful array of tools. Every day a school day! That said, will probably stick to soft iron garden wire to hold a boiler in shape for soldering.

Interesting to see how tidy and, especially litter free the 1950s pictures are. These days we are plagued by the stuff, most of it take away food packaging. Which only goes to show how society has changed in recent years and, let's face it, how lazy society has become...

I started building the Wantage tank ((No5), aka Jane, aka Shannon, formerly of the Sandy & Potton Railway, for my Loose End layout. Soon after I started the scratchbuild (one of my first), Model Railway Journal ran a series of articles by Laurie Griffin to build your own - with the option to buy all the castings and a specialist set of wheels, to go with it. Serendipity or what? Apparently many sets of parts were sold, but (as far as I'm aware), very few got turned into models. Laurie was a former Chatham Club member and his articles were absolutely perfect in terms of me building the model, which runs as well as it looks. Since embracing Irish railways, I've always aimed for a 'Jane Layout' one day, so it's nice to be able to work on it at last.

Decided to try and fill in a complete section this week, so made a start with the left hand side, where I'd got several pieces on the go, namely the platform, loco shed, water tank and coal stage - none of which had been painted, or indeed fixed down. However, the first job was to paint the some of the back scene: a few trees, plus a suggestion of the platform merging from 3D into 2D. The platform was was covered in some Howard Scenics embossed brickwork that I've had in a folder for a good 20 years [!], then coloured with wax acrylic crayons, followed by a wash of mortar colour. The platform surface is just thick card, with the paved edges being plastic sheet. Surprised myself by creating concrete colour with a mixed of mainly white, plus small amounts of yellow ochre & black, applied in several thin washes. I'd actually tested this on a garden water feature which I've been repairing & found it a good match for the real thing. The other items have received a couple of coats of paint, but now need detailing & weathering, but couldn't resist posing a few items of stock to help set the scene.