Tom F

Although I've not been feeling 100%, I decided to start the tree work. After some experimentation, I realised to try and depict that late November look, the actual seafoam as it comes looks about right. My only niggle is the colour of the stems, so I'm going to try running some thinners of a grey/brown colour down them.

The first layer was 2mm woodland scenics (light green I think). The longer fibres were a make I can't remember as I've lost the card top off the bag, but it recommended by Gordon Gravatt in his book on scenics. I think they were about 6mm in length and were categorised as 'Winter'. Another photo from yesterday. Feeling a little under the weather at the moment, but plan to make a start on my first tree.

Now that is high praise indeed. John T Kenney is my favourite Railway Series artist. It was his illustrations of the quarry that inspired the layout.

Everything seems to have come together fairly rapidly tonight. Once I started with the rest of scenics, the whole thing seemed to just flow. I've been really careful not to 'overdo it', which I think could be ever so easy to do. I want to experiment with dry brushing some of the Noch bracken pieces, in particular with an orange/brown colour in places. Then we are on to the trees which I was initially apprehensive about but after how today has gone, I plan to enjoy the process.

'November 1947 On a cold Autumn morning, Mr Ivo Hugh carefully nurses Skarloey Railway's No.2 'Rheneas' along the two mile mineral extension and is ready to fill the old engine's tank with water from 'Ta'n Ushtey'. They will then pick up the loaded wagons in the exchange sidings, destined for the Wharf at Crovan's Gate. One of the local Ward Fell quarrymen has come over for a quick natter before No. 2 prepares to head back down the valley.'

'November 1947 On a cold Autumn morning, Mr Ivo Hugh carefully nurses Skarloey Railway's No.2 'Rheneas' along the two mile mineral extension and is ready to fill the old engine's tank with water from 'Ta'n Ushtey'. They will then pick up the loaded wagons in the exchange sidings, destined for the Wharf at Crovan's Gate. One of the local Ward Fell quarrymen has come over for a quick natter before No. 2 prepares to head back down the valley.' Top layer of grass is on, now ready to start looking at foliage layers (sparse bushes, bracken and finally trees).

Yesterday, I was incredibly privileged to be involved with the Awdry Extravaganza at the Talyllyn Railway. I had a brief stint on operating the Reverend Awdry's Ffarquhar layout (my goodness that Percy model has a mind of his own!!) Fantastic seeing the original illustrations on display, and the Reverend's Ulfstead Road 009 layout depicting the Mid Sodor Railway. The evening came to a close, with Railway Historian Tim Dunn reading part of the Reverend Awdry's own 'Railway of Sodor' lecture notes. The highlight though, was meeting Veronica Chambers and her husband Richard again, for the first time in 24 years when I first met them at the Reverend Wilbert Awdry's memorial service (when I was 11). Richard took photos of my models of Rheneas and Sir Handel. A truly wonderful day, and was worth the 9 hours in the car. Special thanks to @ExplosiveCookie for organising the event

Aqueduct trough now painted and weathered. Some small details added by the water tower. A deposit of ash added for crews to clear out some of the clinker that will have built up on the 15 mile climb from Crovan's Gate, plus a couple of rotten sleepers on the trackside. Oh, and the first layer of grass work has begun too as you may have noticed!

Many thanks! It’s Treemendous ‘Earth Powder’, expensive at £5 a bag for essentially a small bag of powdery dirt, but it does look good. I used around 3/4 of the packet on the layout. I also added some ash over the top from the fire place and compacted it down with my fingers.

Thanks Rob! Already planning the grassing of the track work (akin to the early years of the Talyllyn Railway). The whole area was secured used diluted PVA.

The top layer of ash has worked pretty well and given a nice compacted look around the sleepers, in particular on the single track section beyond the crossing. Even though it is currently lacking any grass and foliage , it's starting to feel like a real place.

Thanks Neil! Yes, like that shot too. Once trees are added it should enclose the area nicely and look less like the end of the layout. Last night I scattered the earth powder over the bulk of the layout to give a 'soil/earth' effect, heavily inspired by the late 1940s Talyllyn Railway. Next stage will be the start of grassing the area.

I've just finished the surface work for the forestry track (using a reference photo of the crossing the early 1940s, in the Boyd 'Talyllyn Railway' book).

That means a lot Chris, especially with you working on the TR. I had a magical time down there last week. I hoping to start volunteering in the locomotive department in the Autumn.

Thanks Rob! I'm looking into doing the first lot of ground work shortly. A base of PVA with Treemendous 'Earth Powder' sprinkled over the top, then the initial grass work can begin

The forestry road has now been resprayed, carefully masking off the timbers on the crossing. This is an area of the layout I'm really looking forward to working on, and works as a nice visual balance to the aqueduct and quarry sidings. It will feel very self contained once the foliage, ground cover and trees begin to appear. The other important feature, will be the 'Taylforth Timber Tractor', kindly being kitbashed/scratchbuilt by @Corbs . Rheneas propels empty bolster wagons over the crossing. When Pete Taylforth arrives in his trusty Douglas Timber Tractor, Rheneas will marshal the wagons ready for them to be loaded with logs, destined for far down the valley.

Last night I finished remaking the forestry crossing. One of the changes has been to add timber sleepers on the outer edge of the crossing, which is how it was on the Forestry Crossing on the Talyllyn.

Ha, I can see that now! That's so random....but also so like the real thing (I'm always seeing faces in rock formations!)

No. 2 'Rheneas' takes water from 'Ta'n Ushtey'. Once I start adding the autumnal trees and ground cover, it really should start to come to life.

Thanks J! I must admit, it was one of the contributing factors that I stopped modelling for a good 10 months. It ground me down on twitter and deleting my account was the best decision I could have made. The RMweb thread and my own group (which I am glad to see you have joined) are a welcome outlet for series Awdry discussion.

Thank you Chris! I'm working on with help from a friend of mine. Chapter 1 is completed and I'm just working on to discussing the arrival of Skarloey and Rheneas. It's a long term project, as I want to avoid using any copyrighted material from the Railway Series (which is owned by Mattel), so photography will be made up of Talyllyn Railway and my own layout shots. That's the plan anyway.

Good to hear from you Jaymz! I'm afraid I came off twitter over a year ago. I found the 'Thomas Community' generally didn't help my mental health. I tried to make it clear my models weren't 'Trains with faces' and it was about depicting a real railway as Awdry intended. On one occasion I did ask that I wasn't tagged or people didn't post TV series related content to my profile which didn't go down particularly well. It was the worse decision I ever made posting my Awdry modelling on twitter. This is why I now limit where I post to RMweb, or sharing in a couple of Facebook groups.

Evening all There have been some developments of late. No. 2 'Rheneas' is now finished, depicted between roughly the years of 1945-1952. To quote the Reverend Wilbert Awdry: ''After Rheneas’ return, though Skarloey was occasionally steamed till retirement in 1950, Rheneas was the mainstay of the service, and though deteriorating under hard usage yet with careful maintenance by Mr Peter Sam (Manager) and Ivo Hugh (Fitter Driver) performed incredible feats of endurance.''

Morning Rob and many thanks! I originally started working on locos and rolling stock over a year ago, but last summer my mental health took a bit of a stumble and I stepped away from modelling (other than client's weathering). Getting back into it was one of the best things I could have done. The plan is to make small micro layouts of a number of other Skarloey Railway locations.

Early today I finished the work on the rock face extension. I'm really chuffed (excuse the pun) with the finish of the area. It has that cold, damp feeling about the place which I love. This has just spurred me on to carry on writing my book 'The Skarloey Railway: A History', which will feature photographs of Scaca Fell, and the future layouts I plan. I also managed to take some photographs of dying bracken on tonight's short hike. Quite useful for when I come to painting the bracken on the layout (as I'm depicting the Autumn). Next step will be to finish the aqueduct supports.