Platforms - the curse of all my previous model railway endeavours. Platforms can make or break a layout, I've seen so many in exhibition videos (insomnia and YouTube!) that mar an otherwise nice layout. The first thing was to establish if there is such a thing as a 'standard' GWR/BR(W) platform design, and the result was no, at least in the time frame being modeled. This is due to so many on the fringes of GWR being built by constituent companies - the same goes for station buildings etc. It seems that a brick front is pretty much standard for all but the smallest pre-BR stations, SR excepted, with practically any surface from gravel to tarmac via slabs - or combinations thereof.

Over the years I've tried all sorts of methods of making them, from planks of wood with brick paper to propriety ready-made, and all points in between. The results were either ugly or didn't match the track layout and looked, well, dumb. So I spent an insane amount of time googling platform parts, walls etc, and kits to see what best suited my needs. When designing Soddingham the original idea was for it to be a goods-only establishment, but I couldn't help myself and just had to have one, very small, two coach platform (I'm thinking auto-coach or DMU style of thing - something like Hallen Marsh, near Bristol, c. 1980). To this end there is one dead straight road for it, to make life easier. I wanted to make sure that adjoining tracks were clearly not ever platformed and resisted the temptation to 'fill the gap' between them, so the platform would have to be quite narrow. Research suggests that 6ft is the narrowest prototype platform, and is indeed the O Gauge Guild minimum standard (I go with the Guild on standards, they are more likely to be accurate than some bod on RMWeb pontificating about what he doesn't know for sure) - so 6ft (ish) it is.

The LCUT platform kits met the spec - brick walls with a slabbed surface, and handily cut in half give about 7ft width. It remains to be seen how the slabbing pans out after painting (the marks are very shallow), but the worst case is to keep the edging and 'tarmac' the rest - time will tell.

So I ordered 3 section kits (c.175mm long) and an end ramp kit. As I was cutting the kits in half I needed something to support the back edges in such a way that it looked deliberate. LCUT also supply plain brick walling which is three bricks taller than the platform surface. With coping stones and a fence this will give a very 1970's look to the thing, so I ordered 4 of these as well.

The first thing was to cut the paving in half. And change the blade, this one was a bit raggy.

This was nice, as the cut left the slab pattern intact, with no edging along the back wall. These are cardboard and were a bit banana, but again the choice of glue helped here. The front brick walls come with two courses to be added at the top which have to match the existing ones perfectly - it is possible to assemble them 'upside down' which results in the sections not joining up correctly. I found this out the hard way, but luckily was able to pull the two courses off and reposition them. I forgot to take a photo, but it's not rocket science

To support the platform surface at the rear I glued bits of the sprue at the correct height.

The kit is supplied with bits of MDF that form crosses to support the paving, but as I was only doing half the width I chopped then in half. Well, actually tore them in half - these were really difficult to cut (three broken craft knife blades) and sawing them just made a mess.

I did save a couple though, and made two jigs to get the walls the correct distance from the rail, and keep them vertical while the glue went off sufficiently. You can probably see the mistake I'm making here.

At this point I realised I'd not added the additional strips of brick to the top front face of the walls, which I then did. This actually compounded what I was wrong. Still, next I put the back wall in, with card jigs to get the spacing right.

Off-cuts of cork used to lift the platform to the same level as the rest of the formation.

When sufficiently glued, I moved on to the next section.

And then put the paving in place, using the torn halves of the supports to, er, support the platform surface.

I'd still not spotted the blunder... but nearly done. These platforms are built of sturdy stuff. Unfortunately the platform walling, from the kit, for the back of the ramp didn't mesh with the additional walling I'd ordered. This seems a bit odd, but hey ho, it's out of sight. The drill is a bit OTT, but with the steel rule makes sure everything sticks flat. As it was now the middle of the night, I retired to my pit.

Next morning I fitted the ramp - I need to order some more back wall pieces, but as there is more to do at the other end (the siding with the glue on it will have a short 'parcels' platform at the end of it, about 400mm that extends from this existing one) so I need to plan that out and order what's necessary.

So, after a couple hours just to be on the safe side what with Soddingham's geology being a little prone to subsidence due to offcutbaseboard strata, away go all the tools and jigs and the 08 gets to run by and check the clearances. Oh eck, it scuffs the platform edging. Dammit. I checked all the numbers and realized what I'd done. Forgetting to add the two brick strip along the upper faces of the front walls before making the jigs, I'd made them basically 2mm too near the track, and as a result the overhang was also 2mm to near the track. Rescue plans.... a) Rip it all up and start again; b) somehow cut 2mm off the edge of the platform (a non-starter really, getting the edge straight would be very difficult); or c) move the track. Fortunately my method of laying track made c) dead easy, just lift the pinned sleepers a little with a screwdriver, push the sleeper down to expose the head and the use mole grips to pull the pin out...

... then move track across 2mm, well 3mm for safety, and re-pin into it's new place - checking the approach still looks nice.

Any road, here it is. The wider bit I was on about is where the gronk is parked in the photo. The white bits on the platform edging are where the part numbers have been cut away, not errors. Just panting needed now....

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