My layout Bowton's Yard, originally thought up in 2000 and having been underway, among other work, ever since, has at last reached the stage of building the last mill type building, the sum of which make up the layouts back scene.

There are in total nine buildings, all typical of Lancashire textile industry in the vicinity of the Lancashire- Cheshire border area known locally as Tame Valley. All are in card plus some foamboard (ex supermarket adverts and totally free!) with Scalescene's brick paper (and a much modified kit) but totally freelance. One is actually a true scale model of Globe Worsted Co. at Slaithwaite (you have seen it if you ever visited Expo EM North held at that Yorkshire village), but it has changed from Yorkshire stone to red brick.

In fact the layout is supposed to be on the Cheshire side of the border and represents what may really have happened had not John Summers & Son Ltd moved from Stalybridge in North East Cheshire to Shotten in North West Cheshire.

The Stalybridge steel works had a very inconvenient rail connection, hence the move to Shotten and massive expansion. In my version of history a freight only branch came off the Guidebridge to Stalybridge line on the east side of Dukinfield station, continuing on the Cheshire side of the River Tame and terminating inside the works.

Bowton's Yard is about half way along the branch where there was (still is in reality) a suitable, relatively large flat space. This did of course make the branch project much more viable.

Originally this last building was to have been " Co-op Dairies", but then I remembered that it was line-side rather than rail-connected. So, briefly, it became "Dukinfield Spinning Co. Ltd" but the name had to be split into two name boards of equal size which that latter name won't. So it became "Dukinfield" - "Cotton Co. Ltd.".

The design is freelance to suit the sight. The window frames are also freelance and were produced via CorelDraw, Silouette Studio and a Silouette Portrait paper cutter using 0.013" high quality card.

Just two pics:

A cruel close-up of the windows and my new all-singing-all-dancing camera didn't do as well as expected!

The full building.

Both posed on my bench; may upload some again when it has been fixed to its foundations.

Dave