Mikkel

Thanks everyone :-) The loco in the last shot is No. 34, one of an unusual Dean duo built for the Cornish branches. It can be seen in action on Farthing here. The loco was made by Dave Perkins who had a similar interest in the Edwardian period. I've always thought the design looks a bit NER'ish, somehow, but can be seen as minor relations to Dean's larger ill-fated 0-4-4Ts. The coaches were brush-painted with the excellent Vallejo acrylics. The panels were done by flooding them with paint, a surprisingly effective method, I find, that does not require masking off. I've decided to repaint the rooves though, they're just too white! I had forgotten about the reference in Russell, thanks Nick. Those worn down miner's trains make a tempting project - sometimes all that pregrouping splendor becomes almost too much of a good thing!

Brake Third, Third, Composite, Brake. Above: Small layouts require short trains. Recently I've been looking at prototype examples of short GWR formations in pre-grouping days, and options for employing them on Farthing. Here are some of the more obvious/common ones to start off with. Above are the classic Ratio 4-wheelers, with an RTR-bashed PBV at the end. The Ratio kits constitute a T47 Bke Third, an S9 All Third, and a U4 Composite respectively. I am not sure why these particular coaches were chosen for the kits, but if joined to a V5 PBV as seen at the back of this train, they form one of the sets built for the Ruabon & Dolgellau line in 1900 (although it is unclear to me whether these sets ever ran individually, or only in multiples?). Add another Composite, and you would have a formation similar to the Cardigan branch train around 1911 - albeit with different diagram numbers. The V5 was built from the ends of two Triang coaches, as described here. Brake Third, Composite, Brake Third. Above: The Brake Third / Compo / Brake Third formation was very common on GWR pre-grouping branchlines. There's a prototype example here. In this case the leading Brake Third is a Holden "Metro" coach, of which some were devolved to branch services and mixed with non-Holden 4-wheelers (eg the Faringdon branch set). The "Metro" is a modified Ratio kit using Shirescenes sides - a quick way to add a bit of variety, although it involves a number of compromises (details here). Brake Third, Composite, Third, Brake Third, Siphon. Above: This is about the maximum length of train I can reasonably fit in the bay platform at Farthing while still preserving full operational scope. The Brake Third / Compo / Third / Brake Third arrangement was another fairly widespread 4-wheeler formation. It was apparently known as an "A" set in Edwardian times and a "WW" set in the 1920s. In this case I have added a 6-wheeled low-roof Siphon at the end, built from an old K's plastic kit. Of course, it wasn't all so streamlined! Far from it, in fact, as discussed in this entry. Personally I actually prefer the ungodly mix of different coach styles seen on many GWR trains, not to mention the really short trains that ran on some branches. But more on that later. Sources: See GWR Branchline Modelling vol 2 by Stephen Williams for a discussion and list of formations on selected branches. Note: The GWR would have called a Brake Third a "Van Third". I use the former term here as it seems more intuitive.

Hello Ray, yes I know what you mean about having lots of code 100 lying about! But I do think it can work well, with careful attention to the painting and blending in with the surroundings. And the finescale track offerings can create problems of their own. As others have observed, the sleepers on the Timbertracks panels are very "thin" indeed, and my initial experiments suggest that extra care is needed in a situation like on Farthing where the ground surface has to be more or less level with the sleeper height.

Good stuff as always, Pete. The colour markings for the wiring are particularly neat. I'm itching to recolour one of them while your back is turned :-)

Very nice. I especially like the top photo. The Hornby buildings work well here, I think. Interesting to see how the elements go well together, although nothing has been weathered/painted yet. Sometimes things just fit together, but it takes a good eye like yours to make them do it!

Hi Dave, many thanks for that info. A quick look through Atkins et al does suggest that wagons constructed after this date all have the reversible type. I wonder if the non-reversible shoes were replaced on older wagons within a short period of time, or if they continued carrying them?

Hi Will. Great texture, certainly seems worth the effort. I also really like the darkish colour you've achieved in the last photo. Been scratching my head over the pink tool in the 4th picture - is it a tooth brush of some sort?!

Yard lights and mist sounds really good - I can see that is must be hard to photograph though! The camera I use is an Olympus "mju". Allround, it is definetely nothing special and I would not really recommend it anymore (!) as there are now much better offerings out there. But it happens to have a macro function for close-ups that works well, and it is very small so can be plonked anywhere on the layout. As for sharpness, I tend to simply take multiple shots until one is actually in focus :-) But the depth of field is not good, as you'll notice. Chris Nevard's photography is fantastic, talk about sharpness! Sounds like you're a serial layout builder rather than an operator :-) Wemyss Bay station would be quie something as a model. If you like challenges and problem-solving why not go for it? (easier said than done, I think!). Don't know if anyone has done a layout of it before?

Mr Rossi happily brought home his new widescreen TV. Then it hit him....

Hi Bob, what a great slide show, the scenes are so full of atmosphere. I especially like the look into the goods shed with the open van, and the company vehicle having its wheel changed :-) The colours blend together very nicely, that's often one of the hardest bits, I find. The Replica/Bachmann panniers are my favourite RTR locos, you make them look really good. Often fancied building a whole layout around a couple of these, eg the Brentford branch, which had several of them working the docks there. Many thanks for sharing - brightened up the evening of a dreary day!

Thanks. You may be right about the merits of simple weathering, it's just that I made the "mistake" of looking at Craig's fantastic weathering (especially of the underframes) here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/3646-p4-finney-28xx-currently/page__view__findpost__p__26970

Thanks. Sounds like doing it as a simple PDF file will be enough for my purposes.

That fruit van has real character, very nice. The handpainted "Wilmer" wagon is impressive. Are the letters handpainted too, or transfers?

Good to see progress on this. Lovely set of points! With your superb buildings this will become a really spectacular layout - can't wait to see more :-)

Looks better all the time, Will. The "slant" of the rock face is very convincing, I think. The hoover experience is interesting, you may have discovered a solution to the problem of simulating non-loco wagon shunting!

Hi Nick. Good to hear I'm not the only one with a sizeable "to do" list :-) For some reason these vans made me think it would be nice to build the body in real wood. Does anyone do that anymore? Just for the record, rainstrips have now been added. It seems they were only over the doors at first, later extended to cover the full length of the roof.

Lisa, that's a great idea and the ebook concept is interesting. Many thanks for sharing! Can I ask how you set up the ebook? I just checked and I see there is various softaware available. Can you recommend anything in particular?

Yes, outside framing really does add character to a van doesn't it ! On the weathering front, I would ideally like things a bit more subtle, right now it's pretty much grey on grey. I did add a murkish brown brushed upwards on the lower parts, but it doesn't come out. Agree that the Vallejo range is really good. The rich pigmentation makes is great to work with, I think, and it thins down very well. The fact that it's non-toxic and not messy means an entire wagon can be painted while still being social with the family ;-)

Hi Robin. I chickened out :-) It's all glued, the good (?) old way! Yes the Geen kits are very much "feel-good kits" (ie no stress!).

Been working on this little van - an Outside Framed 8 Ton Van from the David Geen whitemetal range. Still need to add rainstrips, I completely forgot about them! According to the instructions, these lovely O/F wagons were introduced in 1879 - although the Atkins et al bible seems to have different dates? I tried out Vallejo acrylic primer this time, brush-painted on. Doesn't look so neat at first sight, but once the van was fully painted I couldn't tell the difference between that and those of my wagons done with spray-painted primer. A nice feature of the kit is the inclusion of both grease and oil axleboxes (top lef and right respectively). The vans were built with grease axleboxes, but many later received oil boxes. The kit also provides for both non-reversible and reversible brake shoes. I went for the grease boxes, but used the reduced 8 Ton classification to suggest the 1900s. I haven't been able to find any record of when the reversible shoes were introduced? Posed in front of "The depot". The wagon will form part of the shunting puzzle together with other wagons currently being built. My stock weathering techniques are still rather crude, so any suggestions for improvement are much appreciated!

Hi Chris, the white washes over red are the same as on "The bay", as are the English bond bricks (*). Hopefully this will help enhance the illusion that it's all part of the same station. I must admit the colour scheme is just, er, "generic", and not based on any particular regional style, which with hindsight it should have been. Many thanks for the link to the photos, great atmosphere! I particularly like the "Milk and Fish depot" shot (fifth picture)! Those milk depots from the turn of the century are very modelable - I've a long-term plan to do one of the GWR London milk depots some day. BTW, the Science & Society library also has some interesting photos of similar scenes (although the search function seems to work best if you know the location), eg: http://www.sciencean...ations= (*) Except for the platform sides on The bay, where I got impatient and stupidly used a different bond. We always end up regretting such decisions!

Great setting! Wiltshire is also among my favourite parts of the GWR. Lovely locos too, the sentinel does looks great in GWR livery. Look forward to following this :-)