Shock, and horror, what has been a fairly miserable June has just, a few moments ago, bloomed into some actual proper sunshine. A perfect chance to get a snap of Victoria Bridge, with some enhanced bushyness in the foliage department, basking in the seasonal weather... at last.

I'll let you into the recent useful, technical developments, but first a scene from a gala day on this miniature present day SVR, with the little '813' saddle tank (see my previous blog entry) with an Arley-Bewdley local, with carriages concocted from Dapol Collets, with sides adapted from some Etched Pixels/Ultima overlays, with an improved garnish of printed toplights and brass doorknobs from the same source.

(813 is not quite set for close up photos yet, she needs a front buffer beam and sundry other details...)

"the sounds of the riverbank, a dog splashing through the shallows and a grumpy RMWebber cursing a broken mountain bike are interrupted by a whistle"

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But enough of dreamy summer days, what of the windy, damp evenings that have kept modelling activities firmly indoors, well they have been productive:

A neat, basic but effective fold away fiddle yard has taken shape:

Which will allow the layout to fufill its dual role, as a simple scenic shelf to display stock on the wall, and as an occasional exhibitable 'layout', more of that later:

There will be some form of 'armco' around the bends at either end just in case a derailment happens!

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With a 'circuit' in place, it was time for an innaugrial service. The honour of this first exploratory crossing fell to my most humble machine, an ancient Minitrix 2-6-0 updated with Dapol bits to better resemble the real thing, with a little extra internal weight to aid traction, it now struggles with six carriages, an improvement over struggling with two!

Before too long, little 46443 will probably be replaced with a new Farish version, but for now it only seemed right that this charity shop bargain, which inspired me to start the project, should have a moment of glory:

"our day at the gala continues with a little mixed traffic loco bursting from the forest with a modest rake of mark ones"

The rusty colours in the background of the scene suggest the beginnings of Autumn, which I suppose fits in with the September gala scenario.

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Some more scenes from the garden photo-shoot:

Some of the lighter areas of scenery are tell tale signs that the glue hasn't quite dried...

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With all of this activity, with trains actually moving, I am hoping to exhibit the layout locally soon. Watch this space, I will post more when I am sure of the details (Kidderminster in July).

Looking forward to the upcoming Member's Day. I'm 90% sure I can make it. I'd love to bring Victoria Bridge to the event one day, maybe if there was a (very!) small space in a corner next year, as the layout is so simple it is more about showing off a variety of stock, it would be a great excuse to get all of those projects finished!

"as the train trundles towards Arley, thoughts turn towards going home for a Barbeque..."