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My Warley balls up!! I’ve recently finished weathering a 56xx which is still sporting its old GWR livery, quite a typical thing to see in 1955 especially on goods locos. I particularly like this and it certainly adds a little bit colour as most of our other locos are br plain black! seen here placed on Shwt so…. At warley wondering round having a nose I come across the model rail stand! The 16xx has always interested me as Gloucester had several and at £130 I was very tempted!! snap choice out of several, I ended up thinking we could do the same as the 56xx! So I purchased this one got it home and converted it to EM gauge and running happily enough. unfortunately I’ve subsequently found due to my own stupidity and lack of research, the 16xx only carried this livery in preservation. They were produced by BR and of course came straight out in BR black!! Doh!!! so what to do with it now…..?? I could just dirty it down the same and test people’s knowledge, remove the GWR and leave it weathered green with no emblem or go for a complete repaint. It definitely can’t be left pristine like it is now

A loco which won’t come out with us at exhibition (as it’s a tad on the big side!!!) but I couldn’t resist having one for our own running days. A 2884 class brings in the ballast train, this is made up of a ballast plough next to the loco, 9 herring hopper wagons and a Pway brake on the back. In 1955 these were the last few years left for this classic GWR pway train before catfish, dogfish and sharks came into use

Sorry Guys forgot to take any photos at the show! Too busy which is always a good thing! please to report that after the shake down of the past few weeks the layout ran much better than at Doncaster. Much less issues with the couplings. Still some more things to iron out but generally much much better showing!! febex next in Alton! Should be on for a good outing there! Thanks to everyone who came to see us, and thank you for the lovely comments

I don’t know about helper!! But yes this is my little lad! See how long he lasts before we have to go and entertain him somewhere

And that’s it, all set up and ready for the morning!!

Well we pack Shwt into the car last night ready to set up this evening. It’s a tight squeeze to get it all in one but it does fit!!! this is just a local 1 day show in Barry in South Wales but it’s nice to have the layout out again

Yes it’s done well to defeat gravity has that one!!

One of the interesting challenges of a 2’6 layout is how do you work on the layout without having to reach over all the time. Our solution to fix snags which happen between shows is to lift the boards up on there sides and work on them when that are in front of you like this!! it also provides an interesting view of the track plan of the layout!!!

This afternoon’s train is the regular sand wagon swap, this is usually 3 empties which are brought up to Shwt and then swapped for 3 fulls. Today’s loco is a Class 25 the train is pulled into the loop line where the train is uncoupled from the loco The loco can now proceed slowly into the loading dock to couple onto the full wagons after pulling the fulls out the empties are now also coupled on The empties can now be pushed back into the siding ready to be loaded and the fulls now put back into the loop line The last job now is to turn the train by putting the brake van under the bridge and shunting the full wagons onto it. the train can now depart for the mainline once the crew are ready, can’t head back too soon!!!

The weekly drop off at Shwt, today it comprises of an open, a van and a 16t to be dropped off, the Conflat is to stay in the train for the next station down. To be picked up is an empty 16t and a pal van Here is the process the train, today pulled by a hymek, arrives into Shwt and stops in the old platform The breakvan is uncoupled from the rear and then pushed down infront of the old box where it’s out of the way The empty 16t and the palvan which are to be added to the outbound train are removed from the yard siding and placed on the loop line The full 16t for the coal merchant can now be uncoupled from the back of the train and placed in the siding the open with a tarp on and the van are next to be placed down the siding, the Conflat has been placed onto the departing train the wagons which are being left are now spaced correctly for the provender stores sheds and the coal merchant the departing train can now be coupled together including the breakvan the train can now depart for the mainline having done the daily shunt

The reason Britain’s branch lines just weren’t profitable, here is a photo from a really fascinating book, it’s a showing a delivery of coal to a local merchant, in the book it shows the return trip where the loco came back with just the brake van even though the next day they had to pick up wagons from the goods yard. So of course we like to copy the real thing

Trialling new operators as well today, this one was better than expected! Ish!!

An SLS special arrives at Shwt on a test run, SLS didn’t usually have coach running boards but we’ve found it helps portray the scenario better

Thanks Rob, there’s a lot more testing to be done, run through a few trains so yeah I’ll get some more updates done John

Shwt out and being tested! First train has been a class 33 with a couple of sand wagons. After Doncaster 2020 the layout went into store and hasn’t been out since so there’s a few bits still left on the snagging list to fix and ensure it’s all working well

Looking forward to it as well, Shwt was out of store yesterday for the first time since Doncaster 2020, it needs a good dust off but otherwise it's just as we left it John

Bars added to the back of the location cases and now stuck in place dotted round the layout in appropriate places

Progress last night including the basic painting of all of our location case (signalling equipment cases) to be dotted around the layout, these are our own design and print as there’s nothing available of the right size or shape

A little bit of paint makes a huge difference, this time it’s the turn of the yard point levers which have had all but the handles painted white and the safety bars also all in white

Now all of the track is painted we have now moved on to some of the other bits which are around the track which need to be finished before we can ballast, the first of these being the catch pit which sits adjacent to the cattle pens. Our standard method of painting is to cover the whole thing in stone grey for the mortar. We then dry brush the brick colour over the top. From there washes of dirt and grime can then be added. For now this is all the weathering we’ll do, we’ll airbrush some more once it’s ballasted and the station is in place

Last night I had several modelling hour available so cracked on with the modified Hall. I’m adding the brassmasters detailing kit which focuses around the incorrect area infront of the smoke box saddle. It’s not for the faint hearted as there’s a lot of cutting away of the running plate and also some on the chassis block. I think it looks the part though

We’re usuning Exactoscale fast track bases which you then slide the rail through, you have to chop the webs out on the outside of the curves and just be careful on the joints as it can look a bit like a curve of straights. we fix ours down with eco stick but just a little bit wet so you have a few minutes to play with it and even any kinks john

But airbrushes are brilliant but useful for very different purposes, I also have an Iwatta high line HP-PS which has a 0.2mm nozzle which is then great for really fine work but I hardly use it. no it’s just for show, I’ve tried to get it spot on to scale and at that size it wouldn’t stand up to being used john

An excuse for a Hall!! modelling a country branch terminus usually prohibits the use of 4-6-0 tender engines, which is a shame because I do have a fondness for a Hall. luckily I’ve found an excuse, this being our ballast train, as can be seen in the picture below. on this service a standard hall can be seen propelling some catfish wagons as they drop a section of fresh ballast. Gloucester had several halls allocated during august 1955 but one of particular interest is modified hall 6985 ‘Parwick Hall’ seen below is our period looking very grotty!! Completed in feb of 1948 she was one a few to have received the experimental livery of lined GWR colours with ‘British railways’ hand painted in GWR lettering as per her sister below! the only slight change to this being the addition of the smoke box number plate added during service so now I have an excuse, time to go and buy one!!! this is a Bachmann modified hall which has been stripped and repainted The next jobs are to add the lining and plates before I can put all of the detailing back on and start wearying it down, I don’t want to have it quite as grotty as it was on the prototype, but still want it to look in loved

Thank you Andy, yes it is all airbrushed, I’ll give a full break down of the paints used. for the primer and the main base coat I used a spar max GP-35 trigger action brush, it’s much more comfortable for spraying large areas and is capable of delivering large quantities of paint over quite a wide spray all of the detail work was then done with an Iwatta Eclipse HP-CS which although it has the same nozzle size (0.35mm) it has a narrow cone of spray the primer used was Vallejo grey surface primer 74.615, this was only used for a half coat to provide a key, if you do a full coat you will end up using a lot of dark brown to fully cover the light grey the track brown which will be the same which I’ll use for ballast weathering, this is Vallejo German camouflage black brown 70.822 We use 2 colours for rust, Vallejo game colour dark fleshtone 72.044 and Vallejo game colour filthy brown 72.037. For the rail and chair rust it’s 3 parts dark 1 part filthy and for the rust wash which then goes on the sleepers next to the chairs it’s 3 parts filthy to 1 part dark. This light rust is also very good for new rail. I hope that helps a bit