Leaderboard

Yes, good point. I had a look to see if anyone had tried to collect what is available, and there's a CRECY book on 'Wartime GWR' that I hadn't heard of, using photos from the STEAM archive: http://www.crecy.co.uk/wartime-gwr

Time travel is a good explanation. I can track from 10am to 3am the following morning in the state you describe in very short order. However I am unable to travel back. Table has been set and cleared up in my absence.

Looking good. The cardboard idea using real stock is an excellent way to check for clearances. The sector plate can be as simple as a single piece of thin ply, or aluminium sheet with the tracks glued on, and using a domestic brass sliding bolt to align and feed power. O gauge has enough size to get away with using small brass bolt.

I imagine being seen photographing anything remotely strategic, during a war, might have led to a rather interesting, informative and one-sided discussion with someone in plain clothes. If you were lucky. Let alone the issues of cost and availability of photographic materials, which themselves were likely to be viewed as strategic too. i used to work for a company who had a factory in France that had previously been involved in manufacture of film, the Allies had reputedly bombed it... Atb Simon

No. The context of the discussion in the last few posts is what might have been happening in the war. The GWR had already adopted grey for roofs from 1939 as part of the official livery. There were no new iron-roofed vans built in the war, and no (or scant) effort would have been expended on repainting existing roofs, the majority of which were looking like filthy grey anyway.

Hi Jason, thanks for the info. and suggestions. I'm pleased you agree with my planned way ahead. I do think that my two machines will prove to be complementary.

Well worth the trouble!

Very nice, it's not only pleasing to see a halt modelled, but to get that rising scenery from the low ground at the front, is very effective. My dad was born in Shillingstone (and my great grandfather worked on Blandford station) so my layout was originally going to be based on that part of the S&D, like yours. But it gradually mutated into the GWR - but still in Dorset! It could go back to an S&D layout in the future, though, as all the platforms, buildings and signals are removable. I'd be pleased if I did as good job as you've done here.

Getting better with practice. less is more

Easier to move and try new ideas

Just found this postcard on a site that BG John pointed out. It has previously been captioned as dated 1909 on a Wiltshire local studies website. The wagon colours may of course be fanciful - but I'm posting the link here for future reference. EDIT: A few notes from a discussion abouth this with Miss P and Nick: * The wagons appear to be 2-plankers, and the front one has dumb buffers. They don't seem to be GWR engineering wagons, as these appear dark/black in contemporary photos. * The wagons may not be GWR. They could well be contractor's wagons or - even more likely - Bath stone wagons (common in that area). The dumb buffers also suggest this. This website has photos of stone wagons from neaby Middlehill station that appear to be very similar/identical: http://www.choghole.co.uk/PHOTOGRAPHSOLD.htm (see "Wharfs"). * The colouring of the wagons in the postcard may be false. The colourist may have got it wrong, or the colour rendering from scanning/digitally enhancing the photo may have changed the original shade. However, the colours of the lineside structures appear plausible for the GWR. * If the wagons are GWR and the colour and 1909 date is correct, it suggests that GWR red on wagons could still be seen in 1909. If GWR red ended in 1904, it is not unlikely some would still exist in that colour. Or the colour might even still be painted at that date. See: http://www.gwr.org.uk/liverieswagonred.html The next step would be to examine whether there were red PO stone wagons in the area. But so far it does look more likely that they are stone wagons, not GWR. Thanks to Nick and Miss P for their insights!