Buckjumper

Just catching up... The LSW van is lovely, and I like the pre-shading effect of the darker base coat; detail can get lost in deep browns and this has brought them out nicely. Dave's technique of long bristles in the fibreglass pen to fade lettering works well, and then of course (if you have one) there's always the option of an airbrush and well-thinned mist coats of the base colour and/or traffic grime. As others have said, the outdoor photos with the summer sun casting the network of shadows is incredibly atmospheric. Shelob looks like a nasty beastie. Are you sure Farthing isn't located in Mordor?

Very ad hoc, as are thingamajigs and wotchamacallits. Of course now you have volume 1, volumes 2 and 3 will shortly call across the wind. Volume 4 is about the futuristic designs of an entity called the SR which exists in an a kind loose federation of polities called The Grouping. Very H.G. Wells if you ask me, and best ignored unless you like that sort of fiction...

Brilliant Al, it looks so simple, and the speed of the gates looks about right to me. My significant Achilles heel has always been in the electrickery department (to quote my old Physics Master after having lobbed a stick of chalk at my head with uncanny accuracy; "You're a cabbage, boy!"). This sort of thing usually goes in one ear and out the other without encountering resistance (sorry!), but it does seem fairly easy to apply. You might have actually done the impossible and motivated me to explore the application of servos.

Lovely work Chaz. For small windows it's pretty simple. Microscale, who make the useful Microsol and Microset for bedding down transfers/decals, also produce a liquid glazing material. Sorry, can't show my efforts as everything is still in storage from the flood, but here's a YouTube video showing the simple technique, and the results can be better seen in the quarterlights of this Scammell by Chris Nevard. I find larger openings tend to be less successful as the liquid film is stretched and thus thinner in the centre causing a slightly concave effect as it dries, but I prefer glass microscope coverslips for those anyway.

Excellent, I do like this, and such a simple conversion from the MR wagon too; plans brewing for one in 7mm delivering crates of original Cirencester roundtuits to East London... I'm in broad agreement with webbcompound: except that before WW1 pre-Group Railway Companies sometimes had agreements between each other which allowed wagons (and sheets) which had been loaded on the parent line to be used by the receiving company to, for example, a) specified stations, b ) any station on a direct route back to the parent line, c) to any joint station, d) to any parent line station, e) to any station beyond the parent line as long as the wagon travelled an agreed distance over the parent line. There were many other arrangements, many of which were very complex, and the railway staff really had to know their onions to comply with RCH rules for the correct apportionment of receipts. I know nothing of the MSWJ arrangements as they had no such agreement with the GE (as far as I'm aware to date), but considering the MSWJ's relationship with the GW, LSW and MR it's likely that considerable scratching of each others' backs took place. Under such circumstances a loaded MSWJ wagon arriving at and the same wagon loaded leaving Farthing should pose no raising of the eyebrows nor twitching of the soup-strainers.

Returning to Mikkel's OP on S&DJ Road Vans, during my enforced absence from actually doing any modelling I've been looking at foreign goods workings into London to see if there was anything interesting (i.e. suitably mundane) sent in by the outlying companies. Naturally the S&DJ eventually rose to the top and the thorny question of their covered goods wagons came up. Bixley et al is useful to a point, but rather lacking in specifics so I enquired of a fellow 7mm modeller who has a rather lovely S&D themed garden line, and he was able to supply the following: So there, I'm safe having an S&D Road Van passing through Basilica Fields with Somerset rabbit for the local populace (Christmas dinner perhaps), or even a plain old general merchandise van loaded with Dorset's finest Thingamajigs, and I'm sure Mikkel can forge a suitable excuse for having either type turn up regularly at Farthing too.

Nice work! I always find your posts interesting Job because you use completely different materials to the ones I do, and the results always look fabulous.

Despite continuing to play down your engineering skills, your inventiveness and application is definitely superior to your every-day oligochaeta. However, I'm desperately disappointed that we didn't see the traverser built in time-lapse video to the strains of Rimsky-Korsakov

I suppose a nearby GNR station, Cuffley, is downright censorable in Danish

Wow, nice! Totally agree with Al - the feeling of spaciousness already gives it a very special ambience. The 517 shunting in the last 2 photos is nigh on perfect. If your scenery is to the standard you've applied to everything else so far I think this could be one of the defining layouts of its time, certainly as much as Petherick, Faringdon or Hursley were benchmarks in the 80s and 90s, and perhaps more so. Between you and Mikkel I have to exercise self-control or I could end up thinking a little too much about the attraction ad feasibility of Edwardian GW BLTs.

There's a photo of an NER van in the goods yard at Ware in 1911, so no reason why you should exclude an NBR or HBR one. How else would a wagon load of thingamajigs or wochamacallits arrive in Herts from East Yorks or the Borders? As long as in the pre-Group period GER wagons dominate, you can have goods wagons interlopers from anywhere in the country on GE metals...brake vans excepted - they would have stayed on their own lines or lines where running rights were exercised.

This is right up my cobbled street. My favoured is the girl next door - the Great Eastern - and my project, Basilica Fields is set in a similar timeframe, c1890-1907. I had initially intended to run up to 1914, but was already dealing with too many anachronisms without having to contend with the blatantly visual changes to the permanent way and signalling in the middle of the Edwardian period on the GER so dialled it back a bit. My project allows several other companies to make an appearance, and the NLR is one which could have a cameo at some point. As you've probably found out , there is a dearth of kits available; a nice set of etching for the 51 class but no castings from Kemilway, and three kits for the Park 0-6-0T. The Andrews kit has recently gone out of production, but he was also behind the Gladiator (nee Javelin) kit which has recently been upgraded. I'd greatly favour that over the Ace kit which can be very hit & miss in quality. However, the NLR was the White Van Man of the 1890s and 1900s; having accrued running rights over various other companies lines, it shuttled goods on their behalf in their wagons all across London, so NLR locos could be seen rubbing shoulders with the GER, GNR, GWR, LNWR, and Midland - especially in the Docks. A bit of modeller's licence and you could have an NLR Park 0-6-0T shunting alongside a GER 0-6-0T, a GNR 0-6-0ST, a GWR 0-6-0ST, an LNWR 0-6-0T and a Midland 0-4-4T. The only bit of scratchbuilding you'd need to do initially is an NLR brake van. A nice example of companies occupying the same lines is the layout Arnold Lane and Millwall Goods. Google is your friend, but here's a few links for starters: https://www.model-railways-live.co.uk/Layouts/35/Millwall_Goods_And_Arnold_Lane/ http://wiganfrmexhibitionphotography.weebly.com/millwall-goods--arnold-lane.html (photos a bit washed out, but a Park tank is in there) A bit of video:

And then volume 2, then WSP hav a nice LNW pair, and a nice L&Y pair,and the one on the North Staffs, and the trio on pre-Group LNER, and OPCs's Southern pre-Group trilogy, and... And soon you realise you're a wagonphile!

There are 4 M&SWJ wagons in the Ken Werrett list, one of which is the 10T van no.303 illustrated in June 1975 RM, and another is the 8T Van (could this also be the same as the Midland 8T van by Coopercraft?) no.158 with a through pipe in MRN December 1961. I have both drawings on a computer I can't access atm due to the current circumstances, but I know someone who can.

Then I can recommend the comprehensive and fully illustrated (photos and diagrams) 13-page guide to point rodding in the most recent Great Western Railway Journal #89 and is worth the cover price alone (the 25 page article on West Ealing was right up my street too!). There are a number of members on here who have a comprehensive knowledge of GW practice in this area - you're much safer taking advice from them! Wouldn't want to make the layout look like a subshed of Stratford Thanks, but very slowly, unfortunately. Trying to get the loss adjuster, insurance company and surveyors to even talk to each other to progress the claim is...frustrating. Problem is that there are so many people in the same situation and manpower resources are not only finite but stretched to the limit. Latest estimate to completion, now nine weeks in, is at least another six months.

The sweeping curve looks fantastic Dave, and the short track panels between the switch & crossing work is full of character. Looking ahead, and apols if this is teaching granny to suck eggs, but it's worth thinking about the point rodding before ballasting, particularly placing the stool sadles and where rods pass under the rail.

All Components do miniature plug and socket sets which are as cheap as chips: http://www.allcomponents.co.uk/product/miniature-plug-and-socket-sets-11706.html

Interesting post Mike. When talking about the upper-middle and upper classes colours were another key; the dark heavy colours of the middle decades of the century giving way to pastels, especially shades of green, though the older generations continued to wear the darker shades. Top hats shrunk in height too, but again the older generation tended to continue wearing the taller hats. Of course at any given time there were always a percentage of ladies in mourning dress. Lower classes were obviously less flamboyant with dark colours prevailing.

Graham Beare (Western Star) wrote some useful entries on 1890s GW Permanent Way my blog three years ago when I thought the first segment for Basilica was going to be the Metropolitan & Widened Lines with a GW siding off the former. Plenty of pointers towards source material, drawings and modelling info. Worth a look? Links to individual posts below. I will be returning to Artillery Lane and Gun Street in the future. GW PW for Gun Street depot part 1 PW and S&C practice for the GW in the 1890s - sources. GW PW for Gun Street depot part 2 PW and S&C practice for sidings in the 1890s including drawings from Harvie (1898) GW PW in the Victorian period GW chairs Modelling the PW for Basilica Fields includes GW 32ft rail & 13 sleepers

Very interesting! It's obviously the loco body for 7562 (low single arc cab roof removed mid-30s) paired with the tender for 65476 (post-1892 S23 type) in the post-1926 configuration with water gauge intact and raised coal guards fitted, so a bit of a hybrid at present. 7542 and 65431 usually ran with the earlier pre-1892 S23 tenders with D-shaped lightening holes in the frames. Of course tenders were swapped, and 65476 ran with an early S23 for a few days in Feb 1952, and there are at least two photographs of it doing so, but it was short-lived and quickly got its usual one back. Anyone not in the know would be forgiven for thinking that was the norm, though. Balance weights are over-large too, but the whole mock-up gives the impression of the J15s and is to my eye very encouraging!

Tr

Hi-de-hi campers; perhaps in 'cool' terms more Paul Shane than the Fonze, that chap. Non UK residents may want to look that one up... Nice work Job.

Nice looking loco and a fantastic looking model. I understand the swine factor isn't solely the lot of the shot-down 4mm version and that the 7mm one has it's own set of challenges in the motion and requires significant butchery of the cylinders in order to get it to go round curves.

There was a layout in the RM in the late 80s - Blaenycwm I think - which had colliery sidings on a gradient, and locos uncoupled and left the wagons seemingly parked up with their brakes on. ISTR the trick was simply a length of wire concealed in a hole in the track which came up under the wagons at least to axle height, preventing them from running back down the hill.

Small job but a massive improvement! I like your restrained weathering of the stone too.