So where do I start….

I have always had a passion for model railways; it is so true when people talk about being ‘bitten by the bug’! So now I am in my 30’s and have more time and money to procrastinate in whichever way I see fit, I feel I am ready to well and truly ‘come out of the loft’ so to speak!

The only thing holding me back from my plans of a Havil Junction sized layout (!) is my temporary lack of space in my smallish apartment. I am hoping to resolve this issue fairly soon.

For now though, I plan to get things started by creating a collection of buildings for my first attempt at a ‘proper’ model railway. It is going to be located in the West Riding of Yorkshire, near Leeds during the early-mid 1950’s. More of that later.

I have started by kit-bashing a northlight engine shed, using parts from several ratio kits and various other supplies. The design is not far from the ratio one, although it does differ somewhat. First off it is four road and features an office and detailed interior. I want to get an atmospheric L&Y feel but I’m not holding my breath!

I first drew the basic model up in a CAD package (Solidworks) and printed off the various sections 1-1 scale to use as working templates. I found this a big help; saving time and helping improve accuracy when marking out (I think!).

I wanted the walls to have a realistic thickness to them so decided to line the interior with 5mm foam board. After temporarily assembling the various pieces of exterior and interior wall I scribed the interior brick courses directly into the foam board. I then gave the walls a coat of diluted plaster filler to roughen the glossy appearance before painting the black lower (6 feet or so) strip. What was this black section of wall actually for?? Was it to hide the floor level dirt? The scribing took some time but I am quite pleased with the results.

I’m afraid the only camera I have at the moment is a camera phone so please forgive the terrible photography. If anyone would like to see more detailed images I’d be delighted to take some better images.

When I was happy with the fit of all the wall pieces I glued the exterior brick embossed walls together and added some strengthening plasticard strips. I then sprayed the model with white primer, hoping to keep the white colour for mortar. I think I should have used grey primer as the white is far too white. I then attempted dry brushing for the first time; it takes time and patients doesn’t it?! After several coats of various red/ brown enamels I decided to start some of the interior details and making the small lean-to office.

I want the interior to be fully illuminated so I also started to install the wiring and experimenting with the main ‘industrial’ lights.

I used 3mm LEDs and split 5mm rubber grommets in half to form the shade. The LED fitted perfectly into the hole in the grommet. For the central support I then mounted a chain of these along a plastic ‘I’ section girder, drilling holes in the bottom of the girder and hiding the wire along one side of it. When painted black the wires are not obvious at all. I then repeated this technique twice but using ‘L’ girders for the other lighting strips. I hoped the LED legs would look kind-of like support cables and added a single piece of black cotton in the centre to look like an electrical cable. I’m not too keen on this though… I can’t decide whether to keep them.

The images below show the main shed lights in-situ, as well as the unfinished inspection pits.

The lean-to office is almost complete, I'll add more images soon;

I’d better leave it there for now, I’m starting to bore even myself!!

Pete