With the weather in Fairbourne having been a bit blustery I've been concentrating on "indoor modelling", mainly involving T-Cut, renumbering, and adding DCC chips and chassis to locos.  I've also made a start, using my newly acquired ability to solder, on adding lights to an Oxford Mk3 rake, not recommended for the faint hearted, and non-masochists.  A couple of brief forays to the shed have allowed a bit more tweaking of the backscene, but substantive work has had to wait until this week and the arrival of spring-like weather.  Hopefully I will be able to crack on with a number of tweaks and reliability improvements over the next few days.

One relatively big change is I have decided to get rid of "Wentec", the trendily named "plastic Polytechnic" in the corner.  I'd tried to cobble it together using some scrap parts of Faller and 3d printer origin but frankly it looked a mess.  So, bullets were chomped and a complete rethink led to me deciding to recreate a small part of Wednesford's 19th Century growth spurt that wasn't destroyed by messrs. A Hitler and H Goering Planning Consultants, and I decided that in an act of philanthropy, the LNWR built housing for it's workforce employed in the engine shed, previously located where "Euneda House" and the prefabs are now, or in the goods shed which occupied the site of the Civic Centre, or on the station.  A series of pedestrian alleyways served courtyards of two up, two downs, and a school was built which in the evening would house "mutual improvement classes" for the workforce.  

With Wentec now in bits in the shed, a batch of plaster cast half depth terraces was bought via Tatbay from the guy who made the retaining walls I used, who is based in Stafford.  They are nicely painted and have sufficient depth for me to add lighting.  I'll probably 3d print some light boxes to fit inside the plaster casts at some point.  The paving is the familiar "inthegreenwood" laser etched MDF/ply units I've used pretty much everywhere on the layout.  The school is of course Hornby Skaledale "St Michael's" which I bought for a previous plan and was still in the loft.



For a change, and reflecting the Victorian age, I decided to stain the footways with a brown wash to simulate York stone.  In the school yard, cheaper concrete paving has been used painted with Posca paint marker and given a wash of the brown stain.  The railings are fibreboard, from eBay, but are prone to damage.  However, as a series of iron railings that miraculously survived wartime salvage squads, they would be pretty battered and bent, so they don't look too bad.



The "Francis Webb" Primary has a small garden to teach the local kids a bit about gardening.  It has absolutely no connection with me running out of paving strips.

Weed growth between the wonky railings and the retaining wall.



The wasteland at the end of Ramsbottom Row, which will separate the housing from the AC Electrics factory.

I'm quite pleased with the end result and it should give the corner of the layout a nice homely feel, contrasting nicely with the Euneda House block and the modernity of the Swan Centre, whilst helping to connect the site with the old railway uses that were there until the Blitz.  Eventually I'll wire up some suitably old fashioned lighting, and illuminate the school and some houses.