nomisd

To call this a track plan is perhaps over egging the pudding. Lets call it a plan, I think its all self explanatory. I think the site and size of the three different woodpiles will change once I start putting things on the board. The back scenes/fascias will be made out of 8mm OSB/Sterling board. Not the lightest of materials but I have a large amount off suitable offcuts on hand from a recent building job on the house so it seems a shame not to use it. I think that apart from the 600mm gauge track and stock, I have everything to do this. Well not the scenic break but thats not a great problem. Hopefully the kit will be here by the end of the week.

If someone ever asked me what the best kit I have ever built was my answer would unequivocally be Kibri’s Saw Mill and accessories. The first time I built it was by accident. I found it under a table at Ally Pally about 20 years ago. I wasn’t looking for it, I didn’t really want it but it was only 20 quid. I still hadn’t decided what I was going to build as a layout and was dabbling. The price was too good to turn down so I got it. When I made it, it wasn’t really with any purpose but to build it. The thing was it went together so easily, I couldn’t stop! I never did anything with it (but it did once be an industry of a Belgian flight of fancy along with a cement works. I probably still have the doodlings somewhere). I hadn’t given this model a second thought since I put it in its box. It is a long since lost model. But tonight I was looking for something entirely different when I came across one for sale. Its gone up in price but having seen it, I could help myself, I bought one. Especially after I had been looking at for about 5 minutes, I recalled a conversation I had with Mrs nomisd recently. We were in a model shop that I had just come across in a town about 40 minutes from us. It’s the first time we had every really been to this town, only lived down the road from it for 9 years. Anyway whilst were briefly perusing (I did by something, not just a peruse), he had some Roco HOe and I made a brief comment to Mrs nomisd that I had always fancied playing with some narrow gauge. She replied “Well why don’t you?” The more I thought about this, the more I thought “I think I have an idea”. I have in my garage the frames for three 2ft by 4ft exhibition boards. I did eventually getting round to settling on something 20 years ago when I got back into modelling. I had a crack at building the Walthers Cement Works when they released it. I had visions of a three board with a one board traverser board that I intended to put this on and perhaps one day exhibit it at the club I was then a member of. Well life took over and we became globe trotting for a few years before we finally ended up where we currently are (with no intention of moving). The boards have (that I got from some chap in Sittingbourne from a small ad in the Railway Modeller. He made them to order and we went down to pick them up – they fitted in our Focus with ease. Truly the greatest boot a car has ever had) been sitting in our garage since we moved to France. They did briefly become home for my short-lived French layout. They are still perfectly useable. So one should be more than enough for what I have in mind. Rather than being a distraction from my main project this is a sort of practise run. One of the things that I want to do with Greenford Green is use lights. I have never really had any experience of fitting lights in buildings and I want some practise before let loose on the many buildings of Greenford Green. I am interested in seeing how my model building skills have improved over 20 years having built the kit once before. I also want to put a river/canal over as a the scene break. I want to do the same on Greenford Green and have never used water before. I am looking at it more like a large diorama. From a railway point of view, it is simplicity itself. Not a point in sight! Just straight bits of track in at least two gauges. In reality its three but to start with only two of them will work. The narrow gauge to pull wagons of tree trunks in. The standard gauge to take sleepers out (and deal with creosote tanks in and out). There is of course the HOf in and out of the creosote plant. I have thought about getting some working HOf but it ain’t cheap. As for location, it will probably be French. I have a Joeuf C6100 that I can use on the Standard gauge along with a flat wagon for sleeper transport (I have some sort of tank that will suffice as a creosote tank – we are not fine scale modelling here). I also have some other stuff that can be re-used. Narrow gauge TBA. I am setting myself a target of next November for a potential exhibition outing. The kit arrives later this week.

The two layouts in my signature. I say two layouts but its one. Of the buildings Greenford Green - station, platforms, welding in garage, street lights, NCL depot possibly with yard lights, signal box Lyons - All factories, loco shed, tank office Where can I find an idiots guide to Auduino?

The following is expressed in some very basic terms. I am correct in thinking that to control my lights in buildings via DCC I have to have one (or more) lighting controllers that go from the the lights to the DCC nerve centre (and vice versa) so they can become a controlable feature on my hand controller? I am now open to further enlightenment...

I say Holdenesque but its Holden. I need a station building for my layout. I had this mad idea a few months ago that the station building on Greenford Green should be something in the style of a Charles Holden station building but built for the GWR. Having used the Kingsway Models to build my High Street, I looked at what suitable tube stations he had (at the this point, the obligatory just a satisfied customer disclaimer). Quite a few options. Something I realised quite quickly was if this was going to be a GWR station that was taken over by BR it couldn't really have any trace of Underground branding on it. I decided that Arnos Grove was tbit too much "iconic" in its own right. Redbridge and Bounds Green were possibles - the branding on the towers may have been problematic. I kept coming back to the model of Ealing Common. What was good about Ealing Common was the roof windows. One thing that it is important to include on this layout are lights. Mrs nomisd likes lights on model railways, so there must be lights. One of the reasons for going Holdenesque is lights through the roof windows. There are cardboard windows so they would have to go but thats alright because at least one has a LU roundel in the glass. I then didn't think about it for a few months and did nothing/ Last week I was watching Jago Hazzards video about the real Greenford. It turns out that Greenford has a station built by GWR but designed in Holdens style. This reignited my idea. So I have ordered said station, along with a set of escalators and two Holden bus stops for outside the station. Other than the windows the station name needs changing but that should just be a straightforward create new ones and print on card easy. This presents some interesting options for Great Western, British Railways and British Rail signage where the standard LU signage is. If I were feeling adventurous, I would like to think about the possibility of creating a GWR cast concrete sign on a pole where the roundel is on the front but that may be a bit ambitious. So far I have come up with three replacement window options - 3d printing, building up from material (plastic strip for example) on window material or draw straight onto window material. I think I am veering towards the last one. Any other suggestions gratefully received. I await the kits arrival with anticipation.

This as the title suggests is the building of a OO scale NCL for my layout. The building itself is a bit of a late addition to the layout. I have always had a hankering after some sort of parcels based location. I remember seeing Leicester parcels depot when it was still working and it certainly has its appeal for a modeller looking to run more trains! This is sort of the inspiration. The starting point is the Walthers Rail Express Agency building. My intention is to build it pretty much out of the box but try and Anglicise it. What I am doing is painting it before I put it together. One thing I want to try is a ghost sign for the Greta Western Railway Depot Greenford Green. I have got some dry rub transfer printer paper so am hoping to do hopefully a fair rendition of this. So far all I have done is take the walls and windows and undercoated them using a rattle can of Vallejo black. This is a departure as I have always undercoated in grey. I put it down to watching people building tanks on Youtube. I have then done the walls in a Vallejo rattle can of brick red and the windows and canopy supports in white. What I an impressed with is the way you can go over black with white. I am in a bit of a dilemma of which way round to do the lettering for the ghost sign. I had thought that white lettering with a black surround would be the obvious, easier{?}way to go but having gone over the black with white I am learning this way. Coloured transfers though.This is the inspiration for the ghost sign, when the sign in the picture was far from a ghost. I am currently engaged in painting shelfs and lintels concrete. I'll add some photos later.

A few weeks ago my best mate Gaz came to stay for a couple of nights. Unsurprisingly it’s the first time in four years that he has been to visit us. There have been a few changes since he lasted visited, one of which is the railway. Now Gaz has been my mate for nearly 40 years now and he is more than well aware of my bent for railways. He found out about how serious it was about 25 years ago when he came to stay with me when I lived in Manchester. He came back for a visit to the bathroom with the question “That is a book you have next to the toilet is called The Potato Railways of Lincolnshire? So what its it about then?”! So when we got to the railway I was surprised when what I thought was going to be a cursory “yeah here is my model railway” turned into a hour long conversation about the process of how the railway had got to where it has. It was an interesting conversation. What was particularly interesting was what explaining to someone who used the train to get to work and that’s where their interest in railways ends, how you plan a model railway. What it is that you are trying represent, where the line between fiction and reality lays, what compromises you have to make for scale and on and on. It was interesting explaining the process. One of the things that Gaz was very keen on was to at some point play trains. One of the things we touched on was DCC and how it has sort of changed playing trains. It is something that I am hoping it will make playing trains with people who aren’t used to playing trains easy. I thought about this today whilst I was messing around thinking about a timetable. I like a timetable on a layout. I have operated a few club and club members layouts at exhibitions and they have all been of the run it freehand based on the stock available. I have never operated a layout by a time table so having the opportunity to do so, I have decided to give myself something of that challenge. But the thing is how do you make a timetable rigid enough without losing the element of playing trains? I have an added element of industrial railway that has to operate to its own timetable and to that of BR. And a fiddle yard to work. As I was thinking about it, it occurred to me that if Gaz (or anyone else for that matter) wants to play trains the idea is that with me playing train dispatcher to the willing participant operating as the BR controller, whilst I also keeping the industry ticking over will give them a simple way to play trains. I have yet to do a timetable for the Lyons site. It’s a bit mind bending as there is the slotting in to BR services to take and collect wagons from the exchange sidings. Its also stock flow at the factory! The loco time line is a more of a buying guide for me. Its definitely a “well when those non-existent lottery numbers come up…” list. I am going to do one with DMUs and I might do it with wagons too. My next serious purchase is hopefully a class 73 hauled continental van train. The Midland Region bound pickup goods/Speedlink train is an excuse not just to have vans and vans and a couple of tank wagons. Its an excuse to have a couple of 16 ton open wagons or some Prestflos. I already have a few blue grain wagons that I could wangle into a midlands bound goods train. Some locos on it are very specific. The 47 for example covers a very short window. That’s because I have a hankering after a Straford sliver roofed low numbered loco and I think there is a pretty small window for what I would like. The 31 is a white stripped 31/4 so again exists in a window. I will at some point check piddiling details like when BR blue 73s stopped being a thing, it may be before 1989, the end point for my timeline. That of course isn’t to say that I may be tempted by a sectorised loco but its unlikely. Same in the other direction too. A black livered condenser fitted 94xx or a small shirt button livered tank and a rake of Mica wagons isn’t out of the question. I suppose the point of this post is that its like I told Gaz. Getting the railway to its current state, the most finished I have ever got to, is all about years of planning and scheming to get to a point where trains are running. My timeline will be fulfilled if the track is laid by the end of the winter. Greenford Green is coming along nicely in the background. A station building is on its way. The planning of what order ground works are done continues…

Things are progressing slowly. I now have all my track and am just about to take the plunge and go all DCC. It was a big gulp! The terrain is decided and laid. I made a whole street of buildings in the spring. Most of them have stayed. During the summer I had a flight of fancy moment when I thought "ah, the station needs to be Holdenesque but built for the Great Western". I filled that because its not a simple thing to do. Heavily kit bashed or scratch built. Having watched Jago Hazzard's recent video about Greenford, turns out that what Greenford actually I am now veering back towards the flight of fancy.. The idea is to populate the tree patch with all trees. Need more trees. A new traffic flow has appeared - a NCL depot formerly GWR Goods Depot. A couple of years ago I had an idea for a layout that was a parcels depot a la Nottingham or Leicester, I think using pretty much all of the buildings I now have on the layout. I have always la single car parcels DMU and who doesn't love a lone GUV or a BG? The base is a Metcalfe petrol station cum workshop. It means there will be two car dealers.... I had to buy it. I found a model shop at Pontivy station when visiting the town for lunch the other day. Sold Peco code 75 track so was able to get my last point. And a bumper pack of Metcalfe paving. Once the DCC order is received, track laying can start. ANd then roads and paths and ground works

The instructions say to put the shop fronts in then build the the other half and join them together. I decided that I wouldn't do that as I could see a potential pitfall with it. This is that the roof of the shops need trimming on one side and that this may create a problem with access and bits coming apart. So I got both sides to the point of the last photo in the last post and then started joining them. I glued the flat entrance door first What I didn't take a photo of before I did this was a filler wall between the entrance and the flats so her it is after the front hand gone on. I then glued the the other side on. I am glad that I took the way I chose as between the last photo and the next photo took nearly an hour of test fitting and slicing the thinnest pieces of the roof edges on the right hand side piece in order to get the best fit. I think that having the shop fronts in place would have hindered the constant test fitting. Next the two sets of shop fronts. The only oddity here was the piece that goes between the door and the shop fronts. I am not sure if I did this correctly as I ended up slicing the piece for this in half as it made more sense to fit it the way I did as this meant that the shop fronts at the flat door and something to be glued to - you can see the piece in the second photo on the right had side shops.. Its all down hill from here with only the finishing touches. First the balconies which are thick card bases with thin card walls wrapped around them. In hindsight what I should have done with these was add a slight overlap around the side that glued to the back wall to act as a tab. I accidentally did it on a couple and it really helped when gluing them on. After this the walls around the first set of flats was fashioned and the canopy over the shops were added. The finishing touches were the edge around the canopy and a decorative piece over the entrance tall windows I have to say that my expectations of my ability has been surpassed by this kit! I think that it is possibly the best kit I have ever built. It has its flaws and there are bits that need touching up (the camera is cruel!) but overall I am chuffed with the outcome.

Art Deco Shops and Flats And so to the final (for now) model - the Art Deco Shops and Flats. This is big, the finished model comes in at over 18 inches long. Its made up of two halves, joined with a centre piece. The following photos are of the second half that I made. This is all the constituent parts of the right hand side but have fitted all of the windows and shop fronts. The next step is to fit the end, the roof and the flat wall together to form the basis of the building (from three different angles) Next is the curved wall and windows, here in its flat form and here after I had held it in the palm of my hand and run the handle of a Swann Morton over it a few times Its is then attached to to the structure by the tabs. The formers had been glued on but I forgot to photograph them before I started to glue the wall section on. I spent quite a bit of time getting the tabs to fit correctly so that the wall covered the edges of the formers when glued down. I also left it a while to let the glue on the tabs to dry completely as still wet glue was one of the things that caused problems the curved walls on the cinema, I then stuck the walls to to the formers. On the first section I tried to do it a little bit at a time but found that as I stuck it down I couldn't get to the next section of the former as the wall was in the way! On the second attempt I put a thin layer of glue on each former and then folded the wall over it. Both way required some extra gluing afterwards to stick down bits that wouldn't/hadn't stuck. The roof of the shop fronts )or the floor of the flats depending on how you look at it!) was the added I now have the two sides of the building, next to join them.

Whilst I may have ordered my track, it hasn't actually arrived yet. Its coming from a French model shop and the day after I ordered it I got an email informing me of a rupture (or supply chain issue as I believe the current argot in English is for such things). Anyway they reckoned it will be about a month before it appears from Seaton - they did offer to send my fishplates but I decided that they could all come together! I have spent this down time building the main street at the BR end of the layout (see here if you are interested). So there is nothing to report on this half of the layout. However I have been thinking about a very important aspect of the layout that I should probably come to a conclusion on sooner rather than later - the hoary chestnut that is couplings. Consider this post a sort of musing out loud to try and order my thoughts (and if anyone wants to throw their 2ps worth in, based on their experience, opinion or prejudice then go right ahead). The main reason that I am posting this ramble here is that as modellers go we, industrial modellers, are probably looking for a greater amount of hands free coupling than most other modellers so will probably have opinions on it (not that other don't but oh you know what I mean). The way I see it I have three options: 1) the factory fitted loop and hooks 2) Kadees 3) 3 links. I know that other options are available (eg Greenwich) but I think that my practical choices (for stuff like ease of availability, amount of fettling required, etc) I have these three options. Given my criteria for hands free uncoupling, option 3 is a non-starter and its fiddly in 4mm. Its hard enough in 7mm. Which leaves me two options. Now option 1 is, well lets face it, ugly. Its ugly on the rolling stock and it would be ugly on the track having at least 11 (off the top of my head) uncoupling ramps on the layout. But its efficient, there is absolutely no modification to any out of the box rolling stock required (kit built a bit different but not rocket science). And I have to say, there is a certain amount of nostalgic pull to it as a system - I have very fond memories of playing trains with a sprung uncoupling ramp on my train set as a kid. That brings us to option 2. I like Kadees - they look like they should be on a railway vehicle (whether they should be on BR locos and wagons of the 1960s to 80s is another question), they are pretty efficient, the infrastructure to operate them (ie a whacking great magnet) can easily be lost under the track (especially as it is my intention put the track on Woodlands Scenics track underlay. I have a load of the magnets as I considered Kadees for my previous layout so got the starter pack of couplings and magnets and whathaveyou. I would have to change all the couplings. And the problem of non NEM fitted rolling stock (old and kit built) is a bigger but not insurmountable problem. Now obviously the reason I have to decided before I start laying track in anger is because if I go for option 2, the magnets have to go down as part of that track laying. So what am I going to do? Answers on a postcard!

The initial stage to constructing the facade is the towers. This is simply three pieces of card that form a box with the fourth piece which is already on the side. Both sides done The next step is the foyer and doors. This is where you need to start forming curves. It is initially formed by a single piece which is definitely delicate. It essentially is a single thin strip of card about 10mm wide with two pieces coming down from this to form pillars. Once it is cut out it then needs to be bent. The order in the instructions is to bend and glue the front (adding tabs at either end to glue it to the walls) and then add the roof. I came to the conclusion that it was probably easier to glue it to the roof and then fit it as a single piece. This was mainly because of the curve on the roof - it seems easier to fit the curved shape (the roof) to the piece that needs to be curved (wall and pillars), otherwise you will end up with gaps. So thats what I did The floor is then added (which I have already done in the previous photo) and the doors fitted. These are thing card, scored to make the curve and then glued with tabs. Next is the lower part of the wall. This is made of thin card (with windows cut out and glued behind), which has tabs on the ends to glue it to the towers. It also has two thick card strengtheners glued behind it. This phot was just after it was all glued and its a bit lumpy where the glue hasn't dried. It did eventually dry however....this is where its started to go south. The next part is the sign part of the front. This is thin card, mounted on thick card piece and then bent to sit above the windows. I didn't wait long enough for the window section to dry and in putting the sign section in managed to tear the front away from the tab in about the top third. I then went to bed! This morning I went back and decided that it would be okay because it wiould be rescuable with a later part so carried on. The columns are the part that I hoped would cover the problem. As you can see (left hand side as you look at it) they haven't. Its not the only problem - the sign frontage doesn't fit on the right hand side as you look at it, there is a gap between the tower and the sign and wall. Look at the photos I think I have pin pointed the genesis of this problem And then I turned it around to address the wall at the back of the sign and roof piece and found that I had done this I finished it by putting the raised sign letters and the advertising boards on and placing the canopy. I am disappointed with it because I think I could have made a better job of it. I think that I am going to give it another go as I think I know how I can do it better. I am not going to bin it straight away though as part of this exercise of building these kits is to try and gove myself an idea of of space and placings on the layout so it it is a more than adequate place holder for now. And so the last kit (for now), the one I approach with some trepidation - the Art Deco Shops and Flats

Cinema Everything else is just prologue. This is a much more testing kit. Its not particularly hard but has many stages and takes some patience. It starts with the sides which have cut outs for windows and shop fronts The rear walls have an option for a fire escape. This is pre=positioned so you have to decided where you are going to put it Cut it out and erm, hmm thats not supposed to be like that It should be more like this So glue the door in and then take the piece that I had cut out and take a piece off the top of it to fill the hole. More than passable. Each wall is glued to a side and then the two back walls joined together. However when I come to put the two halves together I discover a more fundamental **** up than cutting too large a hole Yep, I managed to cut the hole for the fire escape in what should be the top of the wall. Hmmmm. After a couple of minutes berating myself for not being more careful, I come to the conclusion that its not actually that great a problem. The wall without the fires escape is being glued to the back scene so you will never see the two walls tother. So its not that much of a problem. It does however prove the cut twice, measure once adage, or something like that! The roof was then trimmed down to fit inside the walls and that then brings us to here Next the front and all its curves....

Semi Detached House For some inexplicable reason, I didn't see fit to photograph the actual process of putting this kit together. Which is a shame as it was different to what had come before. With this, a card box was built in thick card and then the brickwork was laminated over this in thin card. The windows are printed on the thick card and holes cut out of the thin card to line up with them. I am pleased wit the bays. They are in thin card that have tabs on the side to glue tit to the house. It needs curving so I just put it in the palm of my hand and ran a pencil body of it and it bent on its own. The roof isn't glued down yet, chimneys aren't there and the finishing off of the edges hasn't been done yet. And I am not sure about the garage (I know its not straight). But yet again, it looks like it envisioned. Next the cinema.

Second Hand Car Dealer This is on the face of it a straightforward sides and front building. The main problem with it came with the front. It has some, admittedly fairly simple, curves at the top of the building. The problem is that there is a second pice that overlays them and getting the same curve was difficult. However I think that the end result was okay, it probably won't me any prizes but I am not entering it in a competition! I am happy with the end result. I haven't done the chimneys yet and the roof needs some fettling at the rear but I am not going to approach that until I put it in place. The scene is building up quite nicely and is definitely looking like the picture in my head. That is all the "simple" ones done. The last three all involve more complex shapes that just essentially a box. I am going to start with the semi detached house and garage.

Small row of shops This is again a fairly straight forward box like construction. Possibly the most trick part of it is cutting out the front wall. I thought it was going to be because of the curved tops on the roof. No, it turned out it was the order that I chose to cut things out. I started at the bottom, which meant that I had the long, thin pieces of cardboard in the way when I was wielding the ruler to cut out the window, A couple of times I caught one of the pillars and nearly ripped it off. Lesson learnt for the future. I had what I thought was a light bulb moment - Mrs nomisd has a box of water colour pencils, why not try these for colouring the cut edges. And it worked pretty well I think. However (isn't there always a however?), when I was gluing the windows in from behind, glue came into contact with the painted surface and I ended up with this above the right hand upper window Not the worst thing in the world but irritating. The kit comes with 8 shop fronts however so does the row of shops that is going opposite it and even the cinema comes with a couple of corner shops attached to it. So I had to get them all out to make sure I didn't end up duplicating. Because the art deco terrace and the cinema don't come with alternatives, I am going to end up with two florists but it could have been three. I decided to go off piste and assemble the roof and the rear walls in a different order. The instruction ask for the rear wall to be added to the front and side walls and then the roof placed 7mm from the top into this box. There are then brick paper to add to the gap between the top of the roof and the top of the walls. I decided that it was possibly easier to measure the 7mm and fit the roof then add the brick paper and then add the rear wall. It worked so I am happy with it. Other than that the only disaster was glue on the side iof the building and managing to put my finger on and lift the top layer of the print. I think that I have repaired it okay. Finished article - front, rear and in situ. Chimneys and roof dividers are not glued down yet and I am still undecided about what to do with the cut edges. I do like the water colour pencils but if they are going run its a problem. I have tried normal coloured pencils (meh) and felt pends (too vivid) I have a set of all the Bs arriving tomorrow so will try that as well before making any decisions. Used car dealer next.

Good advice - sadly it was too late as will be demonstrated. I decided that I wasn't going to cut out the windows, my life is too short. I stuck the the windows in, eventually. The first time I did it I realised that I had started on the right hand side where the door is. I quickly pulled it out and stuck it over the other side. In hindsight I should have probably left it where it was as I think all of the openings are the same size and I would have just had the door on the left. I then added the sign. This took longer than you would expect as I spent a long time considering the best orientation! I opted for this eventually. Gluing the end walls - I was a bit concerned about this as I wasn't entirely convinced that they were going to stick but the corner strengtheners work a treat Then the only problem I encountered. Partly of my own making. The lobby is cut from thin card and then folded , stuck to a piece of thick card with two tabs and then stuck to the outside wall with two further tabs. I decided that the floor was in the wrong place so cut it off, It was only after doing this I realised I was trying to construct it upside down and the floor wasn't in the wrong place at all. This meant that I had to glue the floor to the strengthener as a separate piece and I made the whole exercise far more fiddly than it should have been, if only I had scanned it! The roof was the final piece, this comes in two parts and is glued with a joiner underneath. Actually this also cause a problem as for some reason I decide that rather than sit on top of the walls, it went inside. It doesn't and this of course caused joints to unglue! I very quickly realised the error of my ways and repaired the damage. The above photo is with teh paving that comes with the kit. It is only sitting on this as I am not sure what I am going to do about paving (and indeed roads) yet. Finally temporarily in situ What I haven't done yet is decided what I am going to do about the cut ends. Probably pencil but how? For example there is a bare card edge on the end of front wall, this is various colours going up the wall because of the various materials. Try and match each colour or just go for a single dark colour? As a first go at one of these kits, it was fairly straightforward. Next the small row of shops, which should be a bit more of a challenge as it has curved bits of overlay,

1960s Supermarket Before we go any further, you will notice that this post is title 1930s High Street and this is a 1960s building. Well, the thing is that the street was built in the 1930s and I am modelling it at anytime between the 1960s and 1980s, so there is a space in a 1930s street for a building built in the 1960s, let us assume it caught a stray bomb during WW2. I have decided to start with this kit as it appears to be the most straight forward one. It comes on two sheets of thick card and two sheets of thin card. The thick card have the front, end walls, roof and strengthening pieces printed on them. The thin card has the windows, lobby and signs. I have cut out all of the pieces on the thick card. I now have two decisions to make, one easy and one a bit of a poser. The easy one is what the shop is to be. There are three options for this - two late 60s supermarket options, Tescos and Fine Fare and a modern guise as a Sports Direct (the supermarket presumably having moved to a retail park on the outskirts of town). I have decided to go for the Fine Fare option because the the entrance doors are a bit more ornate having FF handles (and there was also a Fine Fare in the town I grew up in, the Tescos not arriving until, well it was built out of town in the mid 1980s). One word of slight criticism on the window. Both the Tescos and Fine Fare windows have the prices shown in pre-decimal money meaning that although it is billed as 1960s and 1970s supermarket, in reality they aren't really relevant after February 1971. Its only a minor point, more-so for me as it s not going to be at the forefront of the scene but its a point nevertheless. The second decision is a bit more difficult. There is an option to cut the individual windows on the 1st and 2nd floors ot and put some from one of the thin sheets behind in the gaps to give a little for depth to the windows. Whilst this would undoubtably look good and I am weighing up the fiddly factor. There are 16 individual windows to cut out, which is 16 potential occasions to make a complete horlicks of the whole thing. One of the main things that concerns me is the 14 window bars that would be extremely delicate and I can see one or more getting damaged. I think the likelihood is that I won't do it but will sleep on the idea.

No the ones that I received didn't. I certainly know the smell, the books and papers I took from my late fathers study stank of stale smoke he being a 3 ounces a week of Golden Virginia man

My current layout is a a small single platform terminus based in west London (the thread in the layout section is here for a more detailed explanation). The plan is to have a 1930s built High Street by the station. At the bottom of the hill, it is the intention to have a suggestion of a residential street- the green rectangles behind the word ROAD on the right foreground below For quite a while I have been eyeing the Kingsway Models website, to which I will add the normal disclaimer I have nothing to do with other than a so far satisfied customer. I first ended up there whilst looking at cinemas but after I browsed around it for a while (and once the idea for the layout crystallised) I came to the conclusion that the range of kits were essentially 1930s built west London suburbia in a box. I eventually took the plunge and ordered some kits last week and after the now obligatory payment to get them out of French customs, they arrived safe and sound this morning. They are (top row L to R) Semi Detached House and Garage, Second Hand Car Dealer, Art Deco parade of shops, (bottom row L to R) Majestic cinema, 1960s supermarket and a small row of shops. With the exception of the house (which is destined for the second photo above), their eventual positions are all marked on the first photo. I have had a quick look at them out of the packets and they look very nice and have clear and complete instructions. All of my previous modelling in card has been with Metcalfe kits anding that these are going be a very different prospect. I think I am going to start with the 1960s supermarket as it appears to be the one that looks the simplest to get going. It is my intention to record the whole exercise in this thread. So I better start then...

Very little progress has been made but I have finally ordered track so that is something. What I have also managed to obtain is some of yer actual rolling stock. I now have enough vans to actually form a train! Said train on what will eventually be the internal connection to the (real) Greenford depot. The middle line is the milk tank siding and the line on the foreground is the BR line. And a gratuitous shot of a half full sidings.

A milestone has been reached, After much deliberation, I finally got around to ordering track. This is on its way and will arrive in the next couple of days. So it may get laid this year ;-) I have been working a bot more on the High Street area. I got hold of some Woodland Scenics 4% risers to make the sloped road surface base. I could have hot wire cut some foam board but decided that I would get a much more even surface bby getting them ready made. I have also decided to lower the High Street area to two levels of foam board rather than three, so down to about 60mm from base board height. This gives it a more gentle slope on the road, which I think is probably more in keeping with its surrounds. I have also done some more accurate plotting out of the buildings. It is my intention to use Kingsway Models kits throughout. Once I found them I decided there was really no other option - its like a pick and mix for suburban London modelling. I am still at a bit of a loss as what to do with the large blank area on the right which currently has row of shops in it. I think a cab office is a must but I need to find a suitable looking building, which I haven't found so far. The other thing that occurs to me is a pub wouldn't be out of place. Again haven't found a suitable 1930s style building to act as pub. I have a feeling that I may end up having to build these myself..... I have also purchased rolling stock but will post that in the industrial thread, link below.

A quick diversion into the philosophy an conceit... What are we trying to do when we build our model railways? What are we trying to evoke. I don't think that I would be breaking too much new ground to suggest one of the things that we are trying to do is evoke a moment from our youth. I wrote my first train number down when I was six (a class 85 at Wolverhampton station on the way back from a family holiday to the Cambrian Coast in 1976). It was inevitable as I think I may have just been emulating my dad but it stuck. My personal Golden Age of Railways is anytime from then until about 1986. For me, thats when railways were railways (other opinions may apply). So when it comes to building a railway, thats what I am trying to evoke. But, but... That has its constraints. If we were to take a ten year slice of time and say we will build a railway then, we can only have the locomotives, rolling stock, infrastructure that were current then. However I quite like Hymeks. This are outside of my Golden Age period as they had all been withdrawn. And of course I snookered myself from the off by having two rash purchases of a GWR railcar and a class 15. This are certainly outside my Golden Age. So my reasoning then becomes have a 20ish year time period that means what runs can become more fluid. This obviously falls down immediately as the streamlined GWR railcars were all withdrawn by 1960 and the others by 1962 so this sits at the very edge of my time period. The other thing to consider is that there are a couple of posts in the J Lyons & Co Ltd, Greenford Green Depot thread about the history of the real locos that worked at Greenford. It turns out it is possible to get a OO scale model of every loco that worked at Greenford. This obviously set cogs whirring. Now I am not adverse to modelling steam and the idea of a visiting LNER J50 and a GWR 97XX and nice rake of GW livered Mica vans certainly has its appeal. What I suppose I am saying is that whilst there is a date range applied to this layouts title, I think its more of a guide. I think it could certainly go back to the 1930s. I have a friend who models GWR in N but has quite the collection in OO that he can't run so I have access to some GW steam (his Earl on my late French base layout as some nice visual distraction). That brings us on to conceit. Conceit in my head is a fancy way to describe modellers licence! In many ways this layout is an after thought. The main attraction was the Lyons factory. I am an industrial enthusiast. In real life mainline railways don't hold much interest to me. Don't get me wrong, I was a trainspotter and I still love travelling by train and am always on the lookout out of the window. But the thing that get the juices flowing are industrials. The same applies to modelling. Greenford Green station is a way of putting the Lyons factory in context. Don't get me wrong, it will get as much love and attention in its building and operation as the factory but it wasn't what I started out wanting to build. I have given this some thought and in reality, the idea of a small three road exchange siding, which passenger trains run through the middle of, along with a loco sidings opposite a former GW dead end halt station, all controlled by a fully manned ARP signal box actually existing are somewhere near unlikely. Certainly until the mid 1980s. But when did we let that stop us? Anyway all of this is a very convoluted was of replying to @M.I.B to say, lets never say never about trains running between Greenford Green and North Cranford. I quite like the idea of timetabling my trains to and from somebody else's layout.

Well since the downtime thing happened, I have done very little. However I have been cogitating on things like what track to get and what to do with the BR side of the layout. To that end I have started a thread in the layouts section. One thing that I did come across whilst browsing the Brian Webb Armstrong Whitworth book, I came across another loco that was used at Greenford and is/was available as kit, the mid 30s AW demonstrator spent a few weeks at Greenford when it was hawked around sites on test.

This really should be read with this thread at this point to get the idea of where I am already (it is still imageless but I will eventually address that, probably, perhaps ;-)) . Bit the short story is... Greenford, 1930s. Lyons want to open an ice cream factory somewhere close to their factory (that they referred to as a depot) that they had opened in the early 20th century. Turns out that a developer wants to build houses and shops on the north side of the Paddington branch of the Grand Union Canal. (they did actually really look for a site for an ice cream factory in the 1930s but it wasn't really built until the 1950s when I believe it was in the triangle at Greenford). A station is built by the GWR and named Greenford Green (its a real place and too good a name to ignore for my fictional station). It its a halt so beloved by the GWR at the time, designed for Autocoach trains, later GWR Railcar and BR 121 class single car DMUs which have a regular service to Acton. The regular mundane passenger service is enlivened by a small but busy exchange sidings with the Lyons factory. Locos work light engine to pickup out going, full loaded van trains from the sidings which are converyed there by Lyons own locos. A link between the two Lyons sites runs under the same canal and that conveys the empties from (what became the Greenford Old Side) where they have been delivered by pick up goods trains. There is also a daily services of milk tankers to the site. These can be delivered to the either exchange sidings by BR then be worked internally by Lyons. All WR wagons are tripped from Acton. Inter-regional trains also operate with ER, MR and SR locos all turning up to take trains. They are mainly destined to the yards around London (Temple Mills, Ripple Lane, Willesden, Brent, Feltham, Hither Green) but trains also run direct to the ports of Southampton, Dover and Harwich and trains can also work directly to Birmingham, Bristol etc. This is the point that someone would go and here is my plan. However I seem to have done my planning on the baseboard. So to start of with an overview of the layout with now scribbling. Scribbling on the shops and station bit Next bit along Then. Everything has been pretty self explanatory until now. This are is the J Lyons and Co Sports and Social Club grounds (the real one was somewhere else a bit further west). When I was doing the initial planning, one of the things that surprised me about the actual development of Greenford in the inter0-war years was the preponderance of sports grounds and fields. I have no idea how I am going to do this at the moment. A low relief rear of a sports club. bar and changing rooms has come to mind with some trees on the left towards the road. To start of the industrial half. The double slip is the end of the exchange sidings and the entrance to the factory. The BR line curves off round the corner with the Lyons system behind it. The factory has no track as I only have enough to play around with one half of the layout whilst I work out how much new track to buy. The two lines then pass under the canal, the internal line behind the milk tanks A wider angle view including the Lyons loco shed