Thats a fun diorama. You only get a Blue Peter badge if you add a silo made from a toilet roll inner tube..... 

Very nice. Clever use of the small size of the stock. Hard to believe there is room for two wagons on the top right spur!

Any plans to try out some rope shunting?

Many thanks, Mikkel! Yes, the plan is to carry out some experiments with couplers first, then move onto rope shunting. The only problem I can foresee at the moment is the light weight of the tiny wagons, so I'll also experiment with optimum weights. I'll post updates on the results.

Thanks, George! It's taken from a panoramic aquatint of Brighton seafront made in 1833: This Panorama – Historic images of Brighton and Hove (regencysociety.org).  There's a lot of coloured townscapes and street views from the early 19th century, so it's possible to photoshop a quaint pastel backscene that invokes the period - and of course that's easier if you only need two feet of backscene for a microlayout!

In full approval of what you’re doing, particularly keeping the length right down, although I would want to up the width a bit more?

Yes, there's a good case for a bit more width, especially for scenic development! Y points keep to the length down, but they need more width than other points, hence the skewed angle of the pointwork relative to the baseboard. 

Having said that, it is possible to run small 00 stock on the layout, e.g. LBSCR Terriers & L&YR Pugs and short wheelbase Hornby wagons.

I must admit I was very slow grasping the pun in the name. With old Brighton behind, I was thinking of a small layout with a “Regency” look:

http://www.crowleymodelmakers.com/interprtive-historical-museum#/new-gallery-48/

Thanks, Northroader, that is a wonderful website! I loved the other models as well. The classical architecture used by 1830s railways is one of the attractions of period modelling for me. The Tudor and Gothic trends that followed are architecturally interesting, but to me the clean lines of classical designs look much more elegant. The Dublin and Kingstown Railway did have some wonderful architectural features, as shown on this lithograph from 1834:

The Dublin and Kingstown Railway would be relatively easy to model, as it was originally a standard gauge line and the Bachmann John Bull loco (shown in my diorama photos with its leading bogie removed)  could be bashed into one of the line's first locos.

The atmospheric extension to Dalkey was actually quite successful for a while, and early steam locos would have struggled to cope with the gradients on this section of the line. The Kingstown station is quite attractive:

On the subject of early railway architecture, I've always thought the SER's first Tunbridge Wells station (drawn by John Bourne in the 1840s) would make a wonderful compact model:

I love these glimpses of your modelling, George! That looks very nice.

36 minutes ago, Spodgrim said:

Ian - Reminds me of Woolston from when we were kids. Or Micheldever (which is possibly  a William Tite station) which I suppose is the same era as you're modelling, 1840's

Funnily enough, I was looking at some photos of Woolston yesterday and thought, as I always do, "I wonder why Hornby / Bachmann haven't made a model of that station!" I guess I might be a bit biased, but it's a lovely little building. (It also reminds me of some of the LBSCR stations as well, such as London Road and Seaford.)

As far as I can see, Tite didn't do any work for the SER. I'm not sure who designed the Tunbridge Wells station, but the 1846 building is still there:

57 minutes ago, 45587 said:

I'll stop hijacking your thread now, Ian.

 

Please don't stop, George! The blog exists for everyone to share their thoughts and ideas on early modelling (or just early railways), and I'm sure most of the value comes from the comments. I certainly learn a lot from them.

That is a very nice model! I don't know any way to add fluted sides to an existing tender, although very thin plasticard glued onto the tender top at an angle might work for anyone with an infinite supply of dexterity, patience and stoicism. Does anyone have any suggestions?