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The old Kitmaster Lowmac EK, now produced by Dapol, still finding a use in 2024. Note the hinged flaps on the end loading dock, based on a prototype at Southminster, Essex.

Track re-laying in progress, five years ago. Peco individulay components, flat bottom, curved double slip with switch crossing.

Despite forty years experience of painting pictures, backscenes are a very different art form - I am still experimenting, and learning on the job!

As far as I can tell from old photos, the usual GE design was of wooden construction; it seems that the LNER replaced them with steel as required.

It has to withstand a wide range of temperatures and humidity in the loft environment, so the wires are only soldered where they end at a gate post, leaving them free to expand elsewhere - a lesson learned from wire and post platform fencing that distorted terribly when soldered to each post. The photo shows a post that has been drilled - note the spacing of the rails to keep small animals secure - the top wire is thicker at 0.45mm, the remainder are 0.4mm. The base does slope towards the drain - a layer of 2mm styrene sanded and scored to represent channels cast into the concrete. That's the easy part - the difficulty is in making the gates which are bent from strips of nickel silver, drilled through using another jig - the number and spacing of wires being different to the pen - then the diagonal support is two lengths of square 0.4mm n/s wire (Wizard Models point rodding) soldered to the horizontal bars, forming a sandwich with enough solder run between them to fill the gaps - this needed some tidying up with a sharp knife. Making gates exactly the correct size so they fit between the posts is no easy task...!

Thank you; remember that any success I might have is built on a mountain of failures!

Yes, it was built to replace a Ratio model, now located down the line at Elmleigh Market. Before that there was another, more prototypical version made with plastic rod, which was far too brittle - it is in a vulnerable spot at the front of the board. The bullhead rails were drilled in a simple jig, and wires bent to fit in prototypical fashion . Gates use handrail knobs and wire hinges. All very solidly constructed on a thick plywood base to keep everything straight and level.

Stratford St. Mary cattle dock, based on the LNER replacement for one at Clare, Suffolk. Rail and wire construction, all gates are hinged for photo posing.

Night is drawing in as the last train of the day departs Stratford St. Mary,

Even the prototype was in a cramped location, at the base of Clare Castle Mount, which probably accounts for the shed being slightly narrower than the 'standard' GE sheds of the time. Photo of Clare in 1949, after the awning over the loading bays had been removed. Photo via 'Britain from Above'.

As I (Robin) was largely responsible for rebuilding the goods shed, I can give you some background. Kelvin built the original structure from Wills Scenic sheet material some years ago, partly based on the prototype shed at Clare on the Stour Valley line. There were many compromises in the model, which made it virtually free-lance, so when I decided to 'enhance' it in 2020 it was sawn into many pieces and the remains were incorporated into the side wall where lorry is unloading. The other three walls were all new, still using Wills sheets to match; only the office part was salvaged intact from the original model, although it was also completely re-detailed. Having said that, I must confess that I regret using the Wills material as it is too 'rustic' for the rather fine Victorian brickwork found on the prototype! Ground texture is buit up from fine horticultural silver sand and diluted PVA, laid very wet and rubbed down with various pieces of wood, fingers etc. when dry, then painted and rubbed down again until tone and texture look about right - luckily I had a colour photo of the prototype in the 1960s for reference. The shed was bedded to the ground on a layer of filler mixed with PVA, (with clingfilm over the base of the building to make it removable) with some of the mixture blended into the ground to smooth out the heavily trodden areas.

Stratford St. Mary goods shed interior.

Shades of evening fall over Dedham Road crossing at Stratford St. Mary. These pictures were experiments in using reflected light and unusual settings on my phone camera to show the overall scene with lamps lit. The ever-vigilant pump attendant, also ready to jot down loco numbers!

The photo ''Rush Hour' at Stratford St. Mary' previously posted by my brother was the result of a 'happy accident'. This was the originally intended composition, with a Lima bodied - Hornby mechanism Brush type 2 loco featuring the single B headcode. It has had some extra detailing - handrails, lamp brackets etc. , but no bufferbeam pipes or improved windows. During the photo editing stage I noticed the cab's moulded side windows were not properly fitted, so consigned this picture to the reserve collection, and re-shot the scene using two DMU's.

The BTH type 1 - Class 15 - seen in the video with 90 wagons, reveals it's inner workings. Dave Alexander's whitemetal kit had many details, notably the window frames, replaced with nickel silver. The motor is fitted with a large flywheel, and is suspended from a brass frame to give clearance underneath for the driveshaft, connected directly to the wormshaft on each bogie, which also allows a full depth cab interior. There are a couple of large Scalextric gears that transfer power from the motor to the driveshaft, which is fitted with my own design of very compact and hard wearing universal joints to suit the very short drivetrain. Electrical connection from the bogies to the chassis is by Gibson plunger pickups, with press-stud pivots allowing easy removal.

A three-quarters decent photo of Elmleigh Market, with the two Ipswich based NBL type 2s departing with a freight for Harwich. The photo was focus stacked manually, using selections in Photoshop Elements. These days I use focus blending in Affinity Photo2 software, which makes the process much quicker. There is still a lot of work to do in the station area; this photo dates back more than two years, before the backscene was repainted.

That's right, although there have been times when it was virtually abandoned, rebuilt, decayed and damaged by heat, neglected and revived again before arriving at it's current state. Luckily, having two of us working on the project has kept it going when other interests take over or enthusiasm sags.

A recent video of the Class 15 demonstrating it's haulage powers. Ninety fairly heavy wagons, arranged in order of stability to avoid derailments, cresting the 1 in 100 climb from the mainline storage tracks, passing Elmleigh Market Junction.

Sorry, the only way it would be transportable would be in small pieces, probably in a skip!

The original (imaginary) location of the station was to the west of the village of Stratford St Mary, with open fields in the background and a fictional large house beyond the level crossing. Years later, when cycling around the area, it occurred to me that a better location would be on the B1029 Dedham Road, east of the village, and the photos show me referring to Google Street View images of the area during the repainting, although I kept the large house with Scots Pine trees from the original painting. The sky had also faded badly, and was repainted with some trick perspective for viewing at different angles.

The character of Elmleigh Market station, on the Great Eastern main line, is quite different to the sleepy backwater of Stratford St. Mary. Standard 4 76033 started life in the early 1970s as an Airfix kit, later rebuilt almost entirely in nickel silver, only the basic boiler, tender frames and tank surviving from the kit. Yes, I know the prototype 76033 had a recess in the cab side for token apparatus.!

Plan of Stratford St. Mary, and an incomplete track plan of the scenic sections, including Elmleigh Market.

Hi Barry Ten The gates at Stratford St. Mary have very delicate copper wire infil rods, although the gates are brass and quite sturdy, a collision is something to be avoided at all costs. There are relays incorporated in the operating unit which isolate the approach tracks to the crossing when the gates are open to the road. These isolating sections stretch for several feet before the crossing on the approach to allow for DMUs and push-pull trains powered from the rear, to be halted in time. The system allows trains to depart from the platform road when the gates are closed behind it, but a diode does not allow trains to reverse into the gate. Similarly, trains are able to proceed along the single track away from the crossing in the opposite direction, and once the crossing is clear the gates can be closed behind it. It's not a foolproof system, but it has avoided careless mistakes so far! Robin.

Paul I assume you are referring to the concrete level crossing posts at Stratford St Mary. Firstly, use a grey aerosol primer, assuming the wood surface is smooth. The gate posts are quite small compared to your bridge, I tried to keep the surface free of brush marks, and used a couple of coats. I normally use Humbrol 64 light grey as the basis for mixing grey tones with very small amounts of other colours added - 67 Tank Grey is my usual substitue for black, and to tone things down if needed. I had some good photos of the prototype concrete posts, so it was relatively simple to match the colour; after all, it is what I have been doing as an artist for forty five years! I think I used Humbrol 71 Oak to give it a yellowish tinge, but this colour is difficult to find these days, 103 cream might do as a substitute. But I might mix colours that I have to hand in ways that are best avoided by the inexperienced! Mix a small amount of talcum powder with the paint to give a good matt surface with a subtle texture.

A short video showing the inside motion of a scratch-built J19 from a few years ago. Many compromises were made to squeeze everything into the OO width chassis. There are only a few videos on the dedicated YouTube channel at the moment, but more are sure to follow in due course.