That does look good, the hillside isn't too steep which is really important it’s so easy to overdo it.

Regards,

Nick

Agreed - the atmosphere is right on, the mist-shrouded hills beautifully minimalist and reminiscent of a "soft" day in the Valleys.

Nicely understated, Al, and just what Neil Rushby was recommending in another thread somewhere recently...

Thanks all, I'm always glad when anyone says it looks a bit Valleys-ish.

Tim: the retaining wall is made of Wills course stone sheets. You can see where I attempted to disguise the join with some filler.

John: are you calling our valleys soft?

Any layout that features S Wales and 56xx gets my vote!

Nice to meet you last night at The Plough

Regards

Richard

Nice to see you too, Richard! I'm a particular fan of 56xx's too, especially the Bachmann model which I've a particular "thing" for - all the ones I have seem to run so well, and they're nice and chunky too.

Dunno what happened to my earlier comment, seems to have gone blank. Anyway Al, I was trying to say that this is one of my favourite layouts, and that I really like how you've designed it.

How did you shape the curve of the Wills sheets for the embankment - in boiling water or...?

Hi Mikkel - Thanks! The Wills sheets were shaped by gentle finger pressure, applied gradually. The thing about Wills sheets, I think, is that there have been two different types of plastics used. They used to use a very brittle plastic which not only wouldn't bend, but was very prone to shattering if one tried cutting it. The first batch of brick sheets I encountered were like this, and it was very disheartening stuff! Later I tried some more brick sheets and found that the plastic was much more conventional, capable of being cut without shattering and possible to bend with care. I even find it possible to cut with scissors.

That's my theory, anyway. Occasionally (as in this week) I encounter one of the brittle sheets (this time it was in the wood boarding sheet) but all the course stone I've used has been of the softer type.

Good to see you, Martin!