The new printed sides for Victoria Bridge are now in place, painted, glued and merged around the edges with the existing wooden structure. I have painted the whole thing a creamy colour which is right for the thin uprights either side of the bridge, I just need to add a teracotta-ish shade for the main arch and structure beneath the deck. It is starting to look the part:

OK, I'll come clean and admit some of this sky was photoshopped in, but it is mostly genuine!

Most of my stock (apart from a few wagons) are temporarily boxed up while some house rearrangements are ongoing... a fellow RMWebber kindly loaned a Pannier tank to complete the 1950s scene:

Thanks Alistair!

The detail on the bridge front is nicely picked out by the paintwork. I'm also quite pleased with some weathering experiments on some old Peco wagons. They look a bit overdone, and almost cartoonish close up, but seem to tell the right story from normal viewing distance, as part of the 'picture' in the frame.

The secret to enhancing the detail on the wagons, I discovered, is to paint the whole wagon with matt black enamel paint, then immediately wash it away with hot water from a tap. The hot water of course fails to wash away much of the dark shade, particularly the paint in-grained in the detail and among impressed gaps, leaving the effect you see above. I'll continue the experiments!

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Playing with some photographic angles at the Wyre Forest MRC club night, we couldnt resist trying some modern stock, albeit rather mis-matched. It struck me that for the odd half hour at shows, the model of 'Victoria' bridge could double as an 'Edward Albert' (the bridge of the same design a short distance upstream, which for now still carries coal to Ironbridge Power Station). If the Class 70 shown here had some matching coal hoppers, it would be a good approximation...

http://www.ironbridgeguide.info/ironbridge_tour/tour_03.shtml (scroll down)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/93173492@N00/4034964717/

Maybe I could have a stick-on cooling tower to announce a 'modern image freight' interlude!

The real Edward Albert bridge differs from Victoria Bridge in having double track. Victoria Bridge was built with the same wider deck, but only ever had single track, the top deck being narrowed somewhere along the line. (The wide abutments bear witness to this.. replicated in my model).

I quite like the look of the mixed load of china clay slurry and steel diverting its way though the Severn Valley. As long as it was explained well enough, it might be fun for odd moments with the micro-layout out on the road!

Stock again courtesy of alibuchan of RMWeb fame!

More coming soon.. including project 'shed' (I have been busy preparing a large rectangular bit of garden...)