It's been a cold few months so limited work done in the railway room/man cave. That said, I decided to attempt to model a canal scene as I regularly walk the dog along the nearest towpath.
The pics show work in progress but with the canal now in situ. It's a piece of thin ply mounted on bits of scrap wood, painted a dirty green and with several coats of gloss varnish added. The lock gate is knocked together from scraps of balsa reinforced with a few ordinary pins cut to size and a few other scraps from the "bits" box that no modeller should ever be without. The bridge is obviously a Metcalfe kit adapted to the location (purchased on a very enjoyable first visit to "Grimy Times" in Warrington a few weeks ago with this in mind); the width of the arch dictated the canal/towpath dimensions!

Lots of detailing still to do to embed the canal-side house and pub as well as the inescapable messy bit of hacking the polystyrene landscape formers to shape and covering with plaster etc.

To complete the scene for the camera, there's a Bachman Hall on an up express comprised mainly of old (40-yr old at least) Hornby Thompson stock. These started life as teak-finish coaches, resprayed a suitable maroon (Halfords spray can - Damask Red, an old BL colour; I had a mini once that matched!) and lined and lettered. Bogies have been replaced and flexible paper corridor connections added. All this was back in the day when I was first modelling on a "shoe-string"' but they still look good to my eye!