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Pat Garland pic half way down https://www.lambournvalleyrailway.info/newbury.html with a Dean Goods on what is described as a pickup goods, but actually a hay train, in early BR days. The wagons could be en route for Didcot. (In which case, presumably marshalled into a DN&S goods at Newbury goods yard, but that it a lot of flaffing around shunting.) Can't help thinking though that Lambourn to Didcot would probably have been a lot quicker by horse and cart. The economics of hay transportation must have been very iffy.

When painting my Edwardian period figures (Andrew Stadden), I initially prime them white, then use enamels to paint them. I always mix up colours (never using anything straight from the tin), and mix up 3 shades of the same colour, a base colour, one a little darker (by adding slightly more of the darkest colour used in the mix) for the shadows, and one a little lighter (by adding a touch of white) for the highlights. I tend to apply paint where it is needed with a very fine brush in the shadows rather than an all over wash, and dry brush the highlights. A few photos of my endeavours follow : I perhaps should add that these are all 2mm scale, so do look somewhat better in the flesh than they do blown up to huge proportions on screen!!! Ian

Oh, well spotted - thanks Miss P. If anyone were to model that, people would roll their eyes! Apart from the fire hazard, I wonder again how it stays on board. Still, remembering hay loads from my childhood, once it was all tangled up I suppose it did have a certain mass and weight. Or perhaps no one cared about the hay and it was all an elaborate money laundering scheme.

A closer look at a better version of the photo doesn't reveal anything about the lettering on the wagons, I'm afraid. I have now found a para which I initially missed in The Lambourn Branch where the authors briefly speculate that non-LVR wagons - especially GWR - were used for in-and outgoing traffic that went beyond Newbury, as transshipment at Newbury would have been too troublesome. This suggests to me that LVR wagons did not travel outside the line. Edited to clarify

Lovely work. The climbing rose is particularly convincing, I think. I am reminded of this photo of Lustleigh, which I keep returning to: http://www.lustleigh-society.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/station-flowers.jpg

There is not much more wagonry, and most of the photos of LVR days are also on the LVR website. As the GWR took over fairly early in the line's history, it does tend to dominate. It is an excellent line history though. Lots of bucolic 850s and panniers on short auto- and goods trains (post 1920s bias). That and Robertson's work on the DN&SR are among the best line histories I know. He did a follow-up book called The Lambourn Branch revisited. This is more of a miscellany of his findings since the original publication. It has certain issues with the printing, though I did enjoy some of the photos and documents/correspondence on the line.

I think this problem affects all aspects of modelling that with which we are not familiar, certainly industrial subjects. We model what we see, or what we think we see, or even what we would like to think we can see, often with only a basic understanding of what 'it' is nevermind how it works or even why it's there. The example given of signals plonked in random positions is a good one, it winds me up too but I'm an ex-signalman. But the station car park on the same layout will be fine because everyone knows how car parks work even if they don't drive. Collieries, distilleries and dairies suffer the same problem. At one time it seemed like every Scottish layout had a white painted distillery in the corner where a quaint 0-4-0 (usually of a type never seen in the highlands) shuttled a couple of grain hoppers and some opens full of casks about. There were small distilleries, it's true, and some if them are very pretty. But most distillery traffic was coal in / empties out. This was Dewars in Perth - lots of rail traffic in evidence but not very pretty. Or quaint: https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1246412 And here's a quaint scene at Balmenach on Speyside. I bet nobody models the buildings on the right as derelict (which they were by this date) or the 7 story corrugated asbestos granary in the background ! https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/29/344/ Threads like this and the several now running on milk trains and dairies go a long way to addressing this :-)

Continuing to drift gently off-topic, I note that the Wikipedia article on the LVR, evidently quoting the Wild Swan monograph, states that the carriages were purchased from the Lincoln Wagon & Engine Company, though further down the were bought from Brown, Marshall & Co. I believe that the Lincoln Co. was primarily a rolling stock finance and leasing firm (vide Turton's Fifteenth) so what I think may be going on here is that the Lincoln Co. were acting as broker for Col. Archer Houblon; this suggests to me that the Lincoln Co. also procured the wagons for him - or at least the six ex-GER wagons; he might have dealt directly with Met for the later dozen. The carriages do look to have been specially constructed for the line. Coming back on-topic, I'm having difficulty convincing myself that the four wagons with sheeted loads of hay are all Great Western vehicles - the second and fourth look to have wooden solebars.

Second-hand, as the website says. Very second-hand, judging by the photo of the Met C&W Co. ones (4th photo down) - though they do appear to be all of the same type so they may have been sold off from Met's hire fleet rather than simply being old wagons for which the company was acting as broker. This photo (9th photo down) gives the best view of the ex-GER wagons, two of them, from which it's clear they are this antique type, dating back to the 1860s in design, if not necessarily construction. Plus of course there's the inevitable Midland wagon - not a D299 but a 3-plank dropside, D305, of 1880s vintage (Drg. 213). Rather more surprisingly, what I first assumed was a SER or LCDR covered goods wagon (Kentish van or van of Kent) is in fact lettered H&BR!

I agree about crossing a Rubicon when you paint ModelU figures. I wouldn’t use anything else now. I’ve even had a go at sculpting my own figures in 4mm and my layout has a few of those. They’re ok if they have their back to you! Personally I prefer enamels for painting anything and that includes figures. I stir the paint very well, wipe the stirrer onto a palette and then have a black, white and dark brown handy for mixing lighter and darker shades. A very pale dry brush is helpful afterwards to highlight the fantastic detail these figures have. I certainly agree about avoiding shiny figures at all costs, I think glossy figures must be my no.1 pet hate, they look so plastic. You’re doing a great job on your figures, trial and error and lots of practice. Keep up the good work!