jazzer

That's interesting. At a glance I woukd have said 30/40 wagons. Funny thing about model railways, it's all about illusion. None of us have enough space for even a prototypical BLT, so the trick is to somehow make the model look bigger and more spacious than it really is, something that you seem to have achieved really well here. Glad to hear the Great Central stayed open. Modellers license is a wonderful thing isn't it ? Keep the pictures coming.

Wow! With all those long freights coming through this must have been one of the highest revenue earning lines on the Western Region. I am surprised the WR' s finances were so bad in the '60's with that amount of freight being handled. Where are all those freights coming from and going to ?What a great location to watch trains though, a spotters dream ! Seriously though, a great video. Loved watching it. How many wagons are the trains made up to?

Absolutely brilliant. So typical of many locations all over the country in the steam/diesel changeover era . Well done.l

I usually read these threads without bothering to log in so I haven't commented before but I just had to say how much I enjoy this layout and find it very inspirational. I am one that follows the Rev Peter Denny's thought that OO guage is best viewed from at least 3 feet away so I never pay a lot of attention to the finer details but tend to stand back and look at the bigger picture. I think the reverse curves you've created really capture the feel of the railway scene almost anywhere in the country ., and looks terrific. BTW , for me to say a layout looks good when there are diesels running, especially 'orrible blue diesels then it's got to be really good. Any chance of improving it with a few more steam locos though ?

Thanks to all if you for such a variety of suggestions. I am on a learning curve so I will be trying various suggestions to see what works best for me, but I am grateful for your input.

I am making my first ever attempt at building from card and plasticard and so far its not going according to plan ! The idea is to build a goods shed based on Swanage, and if that works out then a representation of the Swanage station buildings will follow (slightly reduced in size ) and then the layout will be based on that location. My difficulty is getting the stone effect of the buildings. There do not seem to be any styrene sheets that look the part so I am experimenting with card and plasticard covered with DAS modelling compound scribed and painted. At the moment I have not built the complete goods shed, just experimenting with plain sections of card. The problem is that although the effect is satisfactory for a first attempt, when the Das dries out it seem to shink and cause both card and pasticard to bend slightly, and if I bend it back flat then the DAS gets a big crack in it. The happens with both card and plasticard. I have tried giving the material a covering of diluted glue before applying the DAS but that doesn't seem to make any difference. I don't really want to finish the buildings and then find out I they start to bend. If I cant get this sorted then Plan B will be to switch the location to somewhere GWR and use some brick style plasticard that fits the location, but I want to stick with the Swanage branch if I can as that gives me a wider choice of prototype locos to use- everything from M7's to Bulleid pacifics. Any suggestions ? Am I using the wrong materials? Shall I go ahead and complete the buildings in the hope that being stronger than plain card they won't bend ? Or shall I go straight to Plan B Thanks in advance. Geoff