George Hudson

I've really got to get those beacons more yellow on the model!

Oh yes, Mo Mowlem Hall. The original was "Mowlem Hall" where the famous Arbour Boxing club was located. Hence my little ref to the late politician of great integrity whom I admire. This is one of only 6 photos I can find of the building which btw was my sister's secondary school before it becoming a boxing and a very dodgy night club.

Thanks Michael, I'm delighted that you have spotted some of the little details. Also thanks for the tips on traffic lights etc. I'll certainly incorporate those onto the layout. I still haven't finished all the roads (I have a thing about them all having to have cambers) so that's very helpful. I have a pack of old road signs which I am going to start adding since we're getting near completion of some boards. The traffic lights are copied from Langley. I bought a pack of theirs to get the dimensions and copied them with cocktail sticks and bits of plastic tubes, I find things more fun to make if I can!

Many thanks, and here's part 2. Mostly the same old buildings I've been peddling on here for years! :-)

Thanks to those who have been interested in developments at Aldersgate. Here's an update covering the East End/Shoreditch part of the layout. Warning: no trains have participated in this video.

Afternoon all, After a longish break I have returned to modelling the City around Aldersgate. This low relief building is inspired by an office building on the corner of Threadneedle Street and Bishopsgate for those who know the area. Of course it's much less detailed than the original and these photos show my "hairy" modelling in all its glory but the general impression at normal viewing distance is fairly good, if I can say that. As ever thanks for your interest. Andrew

That's where I'd be and the operational side would be minimal probably; for me it's a lot about the buildings and layout composition (in the sense of a painting). Would love to do broad gauge also!

I'm tempted to do a micro layout of a terminus around 1840 now Hornby has produced its pioneer range.

After a lot of trial and error I knocked up some roof support from a combination of 2mm card and plastic strip. To fix these to the walls of the terminus I made some "gutters" again from 2mm card strips the central gap of which would hold the supports. This would be a friction grip so the whole structure can be dismantled for maintenance and access. These parts were all sprayed green then anthracite. and fixed in place. This will need to be improved with some plastic mouldings (yet to be sourced) to represent cast iron decoration in Victorian style and strips connecting the supports lengthways i.e. parallel to the rails, to represent more supporting ironwork. As it is I think it represents a good start to finishing off the largest structure on the layout.

Here's some more shot also showing why I need to get some roof girders in, pronto! The column on the far platform isn't fixed so I can straighten it!

Sorry, that's all a bit of a miss mash of pictures but I think you've got the idea!

Adding some detail, though people might like to see how the whole scene comes apart for maintenance and retrofiting (in this case brackets

That's very kind of you to offer to help. I'll try to have ago myself and if I fail, I'll take yo up on your kind offer.

It has no supporting girders beneath the roof. Structurally, as a ,model it doesn't need them since the dirty glass canopy sits on a perfectly clean perspex canopy which make the whole thing totally rigid for handling. It needs internal girders of course like the real thing even though they are just for show.