Having proven that my scenic ideas for Wheegram Sidings would allow the two boards to fold with no conflict, I have started on more permanent work.

There are still some ideas needing proof; about how the servos, indeed all above-board bits & pieces, could be hidden and yet remain easily accessible for repair and maintenance.

Of course, Mr Sod’s law will ensure that no repair or maintenance will be required as long as the required work area is easy to access. Should I totally hide the servos etc then you can rely on the fact that a few seconds after the glue has set there will be a failure!

My idea is that the retaining walls will not be easily removable without damage, but the road which backs them will have a single screw fixing to the layout proper, backed up by a system of dowelling that holds it rigidly to the permanently fixed retaining wall.

As I’m writing this, how that “dowelling” will be achieved has to be decided and proven but present thought involves using Plastruct square tubes and aluminium strip. Remember that weight is a serious premium with this venture.

The stricture of weight limitation means that hardboard and other timber products need to be rejected or at least minimised; Extruded foam and foam board are high on the list, with foam board more likely because the card backing gives protection against crumbling of the foam. Apart from that I have sheets of the stuff in stock.

A couple of years ago I asked my local supermarket what happened to their display/advertising boards when they were life expired. “They go to the tip”. I asked if I could have a couple of those in current use when they came down, having already seen that they were indeed foam board. “Yes we’ll ‘phone you when we get the new lot, some time next week”.

They did, but they had saved me the lot; some twenty or so sheets of six-millimetre foam board, each about three foot by four. I was too embarrassed to admit that I only wanted one or two sheets. I think I have sufficient foamboard to see me out!

I have in the far distant past used card about 1mm thick and, based on the ‘egg box’ principle, proved the strength of one of my card buildings by actually standing on it – a model of Rowsley station building if my memory is correct, but it was nearly fifty years ago!

On a recent trip to purchase some mount board destined to become the proposed factory on ‘Wheegram’, the lady sales assistant asked what I used it for and ended up selling me large off-cuts at a much reduced price. More importantly she suggested that I would find “backing board” possibly to be stronger, showing me a sample sheet. When I said it was too large to go in my boot, I ended up leaving with some long by narrow off-cuts of that too, again at financial saving. My hope is that this light but strong card will become the removable road section that allows me to access those servos.

As far back as the mid 1960’s my hobby was building layouts, but truly scale layouts of real places like Holmfirth (long before I moved to live there); Hayfield, the only single track branch I knew as child, being two of my own, but I helped with others like Birch Vale which I eventually came to own. Obviously the buildings had to be scratch built and most of my income was needed by the household, and as card was freely available from all sorts of packaging, …….. Need I go on?

When I first read how Pendon emboss their card buildings I was most chuffed, exactly what I had been doing for years! However their team then artistically paint the embossing with water colours while I used to scribble all over mine with children’s wax crayons in yellow, brown, black and green to achieve a good likeness of the mucky stone work which abounded our railway system. The tunnel mouth on Wheegram has been done like that but wax crayons have long gone - along with my children and even grand-children! I tried weathering powders and my finger tips this time; not too bad when finished off with rubbed in charcoal scribble; takes a long time to get clean finger tips back though.

No pictures this week but I’m taking them as I progress so perhaps a few next week along with, hopefully, a report about progress towards more permanent scenery.

Enjoy what your doing,

Dave