CoombeTown

As promised the signal box roof is now fully tiled and awaiting weathering. The 2 correctly sized windows are painted, glazed and fitted. The door wall windows/door will have to be reprinted as I double accounted for fitting tolerance... Showing the changing view, 7310 pulls into the station with a passenger train. The paint steps, handrails still to go. And also, plenty of painted sculptamold painted ready for the Ash cess alongside the headshunt. For the time being I'll only ballast up to just before the point whilst the rest is waiting for point rodding & ground signals, but it will be nice to get some proper scenery down at that end of the layout.

With these trips in the bag, I was spurred into life with progress on Coombe Town. It has not been totally quiet since my last post, but this weekend has seen some big progress. First job this evening was to construct the staircase for the signal box, although the porch is yet to be built. I'll share some more progress tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll finish the roof and a few other bits.

It's been a while and a lot of travelling, but today I made it to the Bristol show. Between this and SWAG last weekend, we really have been spoilt in the West Country. For me, the highlight of the show today was Old Elms Road. For a layout so large, the detail was incredible, and the weathering of the scenery and the stock really brought it all together.

In the calendar ready next year. Thank you for organising another great show this year and being willing to put on the next! Dom

I spent a lot of time on & around the WSR growing up. Dunster is lovely, but you can also walk from there on the coastal path behind the beach to Blue Anchor. It's a good walk if the weather is good, and there's a nice cafe facing the sea behind the station. The other is Stogumber, it's a single platform & up above the village, bizarrely with the station building the opposite side of the line. There's apparently some good walks in the forest behind as well.

I managed to download the rest of the photos from the DSLR last night with the results below. 5541 Arriving at the Platform 6408 Enters Coombe Town on Autotrain duty. Then arriving at the platform And finally sat awaiting departure time I also captured the video below of the departure.

I also did some investigation on 1470. This a youchoos zimo sound decoder & stay alive Fitted. On the Gaugemaster Advance system the engine was running & sounding great and was one of my favourites. However, since I switched to the Z21 start placing the engine on the track creates a spark and a burning smell from the decoder. It seems the circled component is the issue. Has anyone else had issues with the MS decoders on a Z21 system?

Last night I spent some time just running, photographing and tweaking to improve performance and get some enjoyment back. Most photos are on my camera and will follow in the coming days, but this is a stack from my phone. 5541 entering Coombe Town looking across the yard.

Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted 5541 sneaking into view. I took a few pictures of the train in the wider scene, plenty of work still to do. And again ready to depart. Next work will be the plastercloth across the landscape, installation of the final trees (whenever they arrive), and then make some continuation of the landscape which is obviously lacking in the last image.

A week off, so some progress made. I've painted up a load of accessories for the platform, with fire buckets still to add, and some metalwork to the suitcases. A few views of the overall scene, showing the new toilet privacy fencing.

A day off work again, and a bit more progress. I built up the frames to mount the poster boards, painted and fitted. Quite successful really. I've put an order in for some bits today, hopefully I'll be able to get a little scene together soon.

I'm away with work for a few days now, a bit of theme for the coming months. But it did allow some time at home this morning to get 3/4 poster boards ready for the frames to mount them to the building. The Bristol and Minehead posters have meaning to me, but the bath just looks nice with the boat.

Cheers Rob, I'm glad it's giving the feel of the prototype. Dom

Looking fantastic as ever. Could I ask where the manual point Lever came from? It and the planking surrounding look wonderful. Thanks, Dom

After the success of the other night's photo as well, I decided to take another shot showcasing the station building a little more. Seen below is 1504 pulling into the station.

Given Coombe Town's 1950s heritage I felt the buildings looked far too clean and bright. So once I'd finished picking out some stones on the station building, it was hit with an overall coat of brown weathering powder and some highlights with white & smoke to finish the look. I'm pleased with the grubby feel so will be adding it to the Goods lockup in the near future as well. Poster boards next and then I ought to get an order in to Wizard models for fire buckets.

Yet more rolling stock arrived today, in the shape of some of the Rapido GWR wagons. It's nice to get some variety in Stock to make a difference, looking forward to the LNWR vans with the high sides as well just to fully mix up the van fleet. Posted on the relevant thread, but really pleased with this image so will share here as well.

Mine arrived today, ordered Saturday night, so impressive speed from RoS and Royal Mail. 2/3 seen here behind Rapido 15xx 1504 entering Coombe Town. They're nice wagons, think I'm going to have to stop messing about and get the weathering powders on these sharpish.

I did manage to find time last to finish the tiling on the roof, including the ridge tiles. The York Model Making tiles do make life a lot easier laying an entire row in a strip. It just needs a coat of varnish and some weathering now. I also received some of the office furniture that a friend has printed to my design. Hopefully I'll get this painted up some time this week. The booking office desk and ticket Shelving at the back, and station Master's desk at the front. Next for the building itself is picking out some stones in other colours so I can get on and get the poster boards attached.

As it happens, some time this week turned into, in about an hour... Front tiled, just the back and ridge to go The station building looks really at home next to the lock up now, really bringing the station together. I managed to order some N-brass poster boards as well before the business closed, which I think will really finish off the view from the front.

Well it's been quite some time since I managed to sit down and model. I've been away with work a lot and it's only going to increase. Fortunately with a couple of weeks in England, it's time to sit down and crack on. This weekend I've managed to sit down and paint the stone chimney. Both are now glued into position with flashing applied and painted. The modelu guttering has also arrived and been painted, so hopefully there will be some time this week to begin tiling.

Am I going mad or is that a Western Region number on the front coach? Is this part of the midland set or have I stumbled upon something?

Not masses of progress in the last week, work is still busy and I did not appreciate how long chimneys took to build. Both now built, brick one fully painted, stone one now has base colour beyond the primer in the pictures. A view across the entire platform to show how the buildings all interact.

Thanks Andy, bizarrely the photos of Broadway that I’ve been using as reference has vertical planking, with what looks like running in board posts. So much for standardisation I guess…

I've managed to knock-up the basic roof structure, still a bit more to add to the underside before it's ready for painting though. I took a couple of pictures of it in position, just to get a feel. With a newly returned to service, 82020 on the layout as well. There's just something about the 3MT tanks I like, it'll be nice to see 82045 on the Heritage circuit in the next year or two.