Gosh, it’s been well over a year since my last post. But it has been a crappy time and life has thrown my wife and I some right old spanners to contend with.

The worst of it was when my dear old Mom passed away in mid November after an 18 month long battle with Bladder Cancer. Thankfully she was in a care home for the last 6 months so she was extremely well looked after and had little pain to put up with in the end. Marvellous places.

Whilst all this went on modelling took a back seat, understandably, but I did manage to get a few hours in here and there. I’m thankful for the distraction it gave – immersing yourself in the unimportant is a great stress reliever. I really feel for those who have to juggle work and life with the needs of a very sick parent – it’s quite a strain. Watching her suffer from this dreadful disease was unbearable at times.

It was around early June last year that the late Bob Barlow, another victim of this savage illness, contacted me about doing an article on my Shadow Box Roundhouse for his new magazine – Finescale Railway Modelling Review. It was just the right sort of ‘pick me up’ I needed at the time. In fact, Mom was so delighted that she insisted on showing her copy to all of the other residents when it arrived. She rallied just a little and it provided her a much welcome, although all too brief, distraction - for this alone I shall be ever grateful to Bob and the Greystar team.

After her passing I threw myself back into modelling which helped enormously in the aftermath. So I thought I’d push the Shadow Box concept further and have a go at modest station scene. Here are the results.

Waterloo Sunset. XP64 with its new livery pulls in to the station. The station scene rough covers the BR period and therefore reflects the dilapidation of these Victorian super structures at that time.

The following shots are taken under the Shadow Box lighting rig. This has been simply placed over the top of the roof and uses 12 v Halogens as the light source. I wanted to create a Cathedral like atmosphere with shafts of sunlight beaming down through broken skylights.

The following are shots of the construction methods used.

The simple baseboard set up.

The plasterboard jig for the arches.

Once complete the arches were transfered to a board with a detailed plan of the wall and curve of the baseboard.

Completed wire roof structure before the covering went on.

The Mirror trick. This doubles the length of the scene - it was crucial to get this exactly square on the end of the model in order for it to work.

Last train at Platform 5 - the magnificent Bachmann Peak. The Mirror really comes in to its own here and perfectly reflects the curving sweep of the layout. There really are only 3 coaches in this scene.

Are any still available? Might be interested in a few if they are.

Best,

Alan