Branwell

Interesting. I had the plumber round yesterday and was talking to him about his son who's into model railways. Anyway, he also works in the local toy shop (quite a big one) and apparently it's got to the stage where the manufacturers are telling them to bin any returns (even if it's just for something like a missing buffer) so he's acquired quite a stock simply by giving a good home to models that would otherwise have gone to the great model scrapyard in the sky.

Which one of the three?

Val's is a bit more hesitant than the others ... and she's the only one with two hands showing!

There was a Blue Peter annual that had a photo on the front cover of the then presenters holding a photo of them holding a photo of them holding a photo ... of them holding a photo. Found it!

Only if it's dry and brittle.

Wooden ones presumably.

Paintbrush.

Hi David, Welcome to 2mm finescale. I find a pair of flat nosed pliers help with the bending. Hopefully others more knowledgeable in matters Caledonian will be able to help with the transfers - might be worth posting in the 'any questions answered' thread though. Regards, David V

I use Vallejo, usually over grey primer, and the results are ok, but if I want the white to really stand out I'll go over it with either liquid gouache or pastels. Normally though I can live with the acryllic as I prefer muted colours. I'm painting some buildings I've made at the moment and having gone over the window frames with gouache, I'll be using an off-white pastel to tone it down a bit.

Wouldn't it depend on the gradients involved as well? If it was mainly uphill to the terminus, then presumably tender first running would be on the return journey to the junction station, but if it was mainly downhill to the terminus, would they run tender first on the outward journey? It might depend on where the train originated from or was going to as well - if if was coming from or going further afield than the junction, and there wasn't a change of engines at the junction then presumably that would have a bearing on the direction in which tender first running took place?

Hang about - that is a picture of a model you know.

Wish it was that way the other side of the county.

I'm surprised there's no snow on that on!

I've just stumbled across it as well - excellent modelling. Will have to keep an eye out for the layout at exhibitions - any bookings for next year yet?

Not strictly true. I've got absolutely filthy rooting about trying to find old deeds before now. And then there was the site visit when I got covered in paint, but that's another story.

Sorry, sir! Won't happen again, sir! Has anybody mentioned Coniston yet??

I'll tell you where's got a lovely train shed ... and quite an impressive station building as well ... and it's still there ... and there are drawings of it ... Richmond (the North Yorkshire version, not the one down in that there London).

Piel station was actually on Roa Island - Piel Island itself is about half a mile away and has a fascinating history. There's not a lot of it, but it's got a castle, a pub, it's own King, and it was where Lambert Simnel's army landed in 1487 when the Yorkists rebelled against the Crown. The line was built to serve the passenger steamers which called at Piel Peir and opened in 1846. One suspects that there would have been something there before the railway arrived to serve the steamers, but most of the developmeent of the island would appear to post-date the arrival of the railway which linked the island to the mainland - the Roa island Hotel for instance wasn't built until 1849.

Limonene is a gentler solvent than MEK. I use this - http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=LIMONENE - both for laminating and for detail work, but if I want a really strong bond I'll use something like butanone. Works well with both Slaters and Evergreen.

I use Limonene for laminating two layers together and haven't had a problem with warping, but if you're bothered about solvent getting trapped then drill some holes in the plain plasticard where they won't be noticed.

Redutex do some corrugated sheets in N - I've not tried them, but I've used some of their other texture sheets and have been impressed with them, albeit that they're not cheap. http://tienda.redutex.com/en/87-industrial-roofs

It was looking good before, but it looks even better in place on the layout

Really starting to look the part now, Jim. By the way, where are the facilities going to be? Tis a long way down that staircase ...

According to "Bashers, Gadgets and Mourners" the handwheels were/had been replaced with handles in/by 1947.

Back working on the buildings for Lightcliffe - the signal box is finished, the main station buildings are nearly there (need to add the signs and posters as well as some ventilators for the WCs), the stone staircase is being painted, and I've just started work on what we think was a warehouse/store on the Bradford bound platform (there was no rail served goods shed at Lightcliffe nor was there any accomodation for the porters in the main station buildings). The latter building has actually been a real pain to work out. There are a number of decent photos of the platform side of the building and from those it looks a pretty straight forward construction - two windows and a door. The Bradford end of the building's a plain stone wall so that's simple as well, but then a photo came to light that showed that the Halifax end of the building had a door in it ... and that said door was at a lower level than the doors onto the platform. So we've got a split level building. Frustratingly, none of the photos that I've found show the whole width of the Halifax end of the building and we've haven't come across any yet that show the non-platform side, so that's going to have to be guesswork, the only help being an aerial photo that appears to show a loading area. Anyway, I've deliberated enough and windows and doors have now been marked out on the sheel of the building in readiness for cutting out. Photos I've previously posted of the other buildings have disappeared due to Photobucket blocking images, so I'm attaching some more as well as a couple of photos showing the marking out of the warehouse building.