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Yup... join the club; I know exactly your predicament: (A genuine photo of my desk not 5 minutes ago!) I think we have a problem on our hands...

You're not helping one bit, young chap... Lymington Pier has been an inspirational itch for some time as has your treatment of a seaside theme. Which brings me on to the fact that I'm thinking of Lymington Pier meets Shell Island...........all within the usual 4ft by 16ins.. Rob.

Hi Jamie, I keep coming back to a pre-grouping light railway scenario, perhaps supported by the L&SWR. I agree regarding the Hattons Genesis jobs as these would tick the box for me and I can really see me going down this route myself at some point. The challenge I would gave is curtailing the dereliction that normally surrounds my efforts. I have to say that your plans are providing a degree of inspiration to the Sheep.......the woolly wheels are turning.... Rob.

Thanks! Glad you liked the finished model and particularly pleased it's inspired you to have a go with the hairspray I'll check out the Cromwell and Churchill, thanks for the tip! Thanks Mikkel, a little cross pollination of ideas and techniques has to be good! I must up my game regarding painting figures, some of the military chaps are remarkably good at painting faces. I'd not heard of WD models, thanks for the link This little armoured car is fabulous, I'm never going to get my coaches finished with this kind of temptation!

Certainly is. 40 years ago I was lucky enough to pay an (all too brief) visit to Tony Brenchley's loft, when he was working in Northampton at the same place as my father. It was the first time I had seen such dainty locos, but left an indelible mark on my memory. (Those who know of Tony's interests will realise that the model was of Blairgowrie, in P4, and not actually wired up at that stage!) I feel slightly in lust with them at that point, but having seen that video, it might be full-blown love! So, when do we get to see the other side of it?

What a splendid little engine!

I love it. What a great engine and well worth the time and effort. I think you’ve done a brilliant job.

Years ago I read about a layout that was based on that premise. If I can remember any details I'll let you know.

Absolutely, I tend to find shunting goods more fun than operating a passenger shuttle service, although I've also been looking at those Hatton's Genesis coaches! Very, very tempting, even if they are "generic"; not that I've ever cared for accuracy or detailing! Actually, I might as well post my full stock list research, which are posted more or less ranked in order of most to least likely to be bought (the push/pull set would be lovely, but two bogie coaches would sadly take up half the layout by themselves!): Locos: B4 Dock Tank (Dapol) (SR black) USA Tank (Model Rail) (SR black) Terrier "Cowes" (Hornby) (SR Maunsell green) O2 Tank (Kernow) (SR black) Coaching stock: Maunsell rebuilt exLSWR 48ft comp (Hornby) Hattons "Project Genesis" 4 wheeled coaches (Hattons) (SR Olive green) Maunsell push/pull set 619 (Hornby) IoW LBSCR 4 wheel coaches (Smallbrook Studio) I already have a Q1, and a BR standard class 2 tank to compliment the above; along with a motley assortment of wagons! I'll explain a brief history next blog entry, but Lepe was supposed to, at first, join a rail tunnel to meet up with Cowes. Latterly that turned into the idea of a 470ft pier for steamer services to the IoW and Channel Islands (and further afield), although neither solutions were ever built. The LSWR eventually built the line as it stands today to Fawley Oil Refinery. Edit: Just noticed what you wrote was slightly tongue-in-cheek. I see what you're going for now! Absolutely, it really is a careful balancing act with a space this small. That's partly why I chose the smaller of the two Artitec ferries, if any. A narrow gauge feeder line onto the ferry itself wouldn't really make any sense now that I think about it; although I suppose an extension to the RAF Calshot narrow gauge railway could've been built to Lepe; albeit with a heap of wishful thinking!

This all sounds very interesting and not fundamentally different from my reasoning to focus on the goods side of things given the small space I'm dealing with for Shalfleet Quay, which is 4ft 9inches x 18inches. Although I have got a few of the Hatton's Genesis coaches on pre order and am looking to kit bash a Ratio Midland bogie into a push pull coach...! Lepe sounds perfectly plausible to me. In fact, my understanding was that line was built there to provide closer shipping routes to the Freshwater Yarmouth and Newport Railway docks at Shalfleet. I'll look forward to further developments, I'd suggest that trying to fit a rail ferry in may not be possible. I gave it similar consideration at Shalfleet but couldn't do it without dominating the scene, but a road connected ferry would provide a nice bit of variety. Of course you'd want to ensure that in modelling that you didn't use space that would otherwise be useful to provide more operating interest. You could consider the slipway without the ferry, assuming it's somewhere in transit? It all sounds very interesting, I look forward to seeing further progress.

Very nice Dave, as you say I think military modelling has a lot to offer our part of the hobby. For the 4mm modellers, the 1:76 (sic) WD Models range is so tempting. I've recently ordered one of their LGOC lorries for conversion to a GWR vehicle: http://www.wdmodels.com/

It really is an attractive idea (I do love your plans for Shalfleet Quay), and I'm torn on what idea(s) to take further. As an aside, whilst coming up with potential names for the project, I even mashed together Calshot and Cowes to form Coweshot; although I doubt the name will be used! Anyway, two weeks have already been spent mulling over options, and I'm no nearer to working out what I want! The appeal of the IoW and branch lines like Hayling Island are the shorter and older (therefore more interesting!) stock that lasted on them far longer than anywhere else on the mainland. That also goes for more industrial freight areas like Southampton Docks and such with their diminutive B4 tank locos (I really must get one!). So'ton Docks is inspiring, but urban isn't really my style (and besides, Graham Muspratt's Canute Road Quay fulfils that nicely); a crampt more rural wharf however could work in my favour. I'm also keen to have a bit of narrow gauge, as was my original intention with the new layout; and particularly Calshot based! I suspect what might end up happening is two separate layouts; one being Calshot, and the other an alternative history for Lepe. I like the idea of an Artitec ferry (the HOe version as it's smaller!); I could either leave the rails in place on the ferry, or remove them and just have it for cars. Potentially, leaving them in place could allow both narrow and standard gauge to be included on the Lepe layout. Lepe I was going to save this for a future blog entry, but might as well post them here for the time being: Above: To give a flavour of Lepe, here are the coastguard houses and watch house; all very pretty! Above: Two of my initial ideas for the dual module layout of Calshot and Lepe. Both have positives, but both have flaws (for starters these are not scale drawings, so will be optimistic with regards to what I can fit on 4ft max boards!). Both plans use a fair amount of modellers' license; especially Lepe. Oh, and there will also be a lighthouse at Lepe, as per the one built circa 2000: My biggest problem is the space required to make it look plausible/fit in the standard gauge. I want to avoid large boards, and especially board joins where possible; which puts maximum size (that will fit in my car at least) at 4ft x 3ft; the same as Calshot MkII. Even that's a little big for carrying through doors, so 3ft x 2ft would be better! Fine for NG, a little limiting if you want a SG station, no matter how short the coaches are. There's also the problem that all my layouts have had; it's no fun to run a passenger service if the station is right by the scenic entrance/exit because the layout is so short! An IoW station is a nice idea with those gorgeous 4 wheeled coaches, but a focus on freight will make the most of the limited space. I suppose the traverser could act as half a run-around loop to save space, but would obviously make the scenic hole twice as big at least! The other problem being that the more I look for inspiration, the more locations I wish I had space to feature a little bit of: RAF Calshot (NG) Lepe Ashlett Creek (NG) - Including a large mill and standard gauge travelling crane Hythe Pier (NG) - Not much operational potential, but I love the pierhead overall roof in particular! Lymington Pier (SG) - Used for the basis of my fictional station at Lepe, earlier. Alderney Breakwater/Holyhead Breakwater railways (SG) (These are similar in theme, so I've bunged them together) Industrial: Fawley Oil Refinery (SG/NG) So'ton Docks (B4 and USA tank locos!) No doubt there are more I have forgotten about, but now that I look at the list; most inspiration occurs where there's a sea and railway in close proximity!

On the subject of plank loads, timber was imported in large quantities into the UK from Scandinavia from way back. From the 1820s it was realized that to maximize the ships loads, timber sawn into planks could be stowed more economically than in log form. Surrey Docks in London had huge timber wharves and the ships cargoes were off-loaded plank by plank by 'deal porters' who carried lengthy planks from ship to the timber stores on their back. There is a sculpture showing the method in the dock area today. http://www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/25874997 The SDJR's Highbridge Wharf had a substantial timber import trade from the 19th century until WW2. In Chris Handley's 'The Maritime Activities of the S&DR' John Bland's timber yard can be seen around 1900 with great stacks of sawn timber stored under sheets in the open. Their large timber sheds and saw mills reached the height of their business between the wars. I have only found one photo of a train laden with timber planks in 1924, there on the Wharf, but they must have been transporting the imports away by rail from the 19th century. So to suggest that only raw, unsawn timber was transported prior to 1905 seems unlikely, if timber was being imported in planks well before that.

Dave, What you have shown as the Slater's product and as fitted to your model is derived from the Slater's GWR Cattle Wagon kit... and hence are "long" buffers, too long for a simple four plank wagon. Chris Brown and I have access to parts of the GWR forging catalogue and our info includes the forging for the shorter wagon buffer - we provided that drawing to Slater's Plastikard last year and asked David White to produce a 7mm equivalent buffer stock / buffer ram with the spring internal to the stock (as per the typical POW models). I understand from David that the product is available now. regards, Graham