Booking Hall

The Tacky Wax arrived and seems to do the job of holding the fur down neatly. The station building has had poster boards added and is now stuck down, just needs 'bedding in', I've added rainwater outlets to the canopy and the rear fencing has been painted, weathered and installed. The barge isn't going to be fixed in the position shown, as it would foul the fencing when the front is folded up, it's going on the other box front. Apart from adding some weeds, clutter and an odd person or two, this box is just about complete. I picked up some useful (and cheap!) 'bits and bobs' at a recent model railway exhibition. Still need to get some yard gates though . . .

Well, the theory was fine, but in practice it didn't work. Having cut a strip of fur, trimmed and painted it, after sticking it onto the canal edging I found that the front of the box would only close to about 75%, no matter where I tried to fold the fur. Moving the hinged edge of the front would have given me more space, but then I would have needed a larger piece of fur - catch 22! For the time being I've 'unstuck' the fur and could just lay it in place (as it is on the photos), but the front edge looks unconvincing, so plan B is to try attaching it with Sticky Wax, so it can be removed and reapplied at will, but as I haven't got any Sticky Wax, that solution will have to wait until some arrives. In the meantime I painted and rusted the barge.

Having never modelled water and its containment before, I approached the canal with a bit of trepidation, and carried out a few experiments before finally deciding what to do. As I have no depth at all to play with, I decided to use the canal 'base' print from a Scalescenes canal bridge kit (which I downloaded thinking I could use the bridge but in the event it was too wide) and after firstly trying several coats of PVA decided that it just didn't look shiny enough to be convincing 'water' and went for the varnish option. In this case, a tin of pale Pine varnish from the £1 shop, which seemed to do the job but really does have quite a 'pong' Having printed out the 'canal' on some quality paper it was joined together and stuck down. Then I made the edging slabs from strips of pizza foam base scribed with a pencil and 'distressed'. After painting and dabbing with various shades of emulsion and acrylic paint (Java Bean and Nutmeg Spice from Wilkinsons, and Viridian and Lamp Black acrylic) these were stuck down and the first coat of varnish applied. I'm pretty happy so far and looking forward to being able to add some more coats to enhance the effect. Then the fun of adding weeds, debris, the half sunken barge etc. can begin! The plan is that the gap between the stone edging and the platform wall will be filled with a strip of teddy bear fur got up to look like patchy grass and scrub, which (hopefully) will fold away into the gap when the front of the box is closed - we'll have to see how well that works! The really tricky bit will be at the canal footbridge steps, which has a separate piece of canal 'wall' stuck to the base and which slots into the main wall, otherwise the front won't fold up.

Thanks Andyram, that's exactly the effect I was hoping to create!

Thanks George, that's much appreciated.

Before I start on the canal, I thought I'd better finish off the railings on the bridge section. I've added more railings and a sliding gate to secure the station at night, together with an electric swan-neck lamp standard.

Hi Glenn, thanks for the kind comments! Glad you're finding this interesting. Setrack points, well, I haven't actually tested them much! They were really the only choice for a layout of this size, and I did quickly run a loco over the trackwork assembled on the desk before installing it, with no apparent problems, but I have to admit that I haven't tested it since installing it - which might be a huge mistake!!! It is possible that I'll get stalling and erratic running (which will rather spoil the operation of a tiny layout like this), in which case I'll have to look at adding extra pickups.

Hi Simon, yes, I spotted this derelict barge on Ebay and thought it would do just fine, but it's a bit bigger than I was expecting! Still (just about) fits though. Hope the exhibition goes well next week. We (Pendle Forest Model Railway Society) usually have a layout there, but next weekend we're off to the Kyle Model Railway exhibition in Steventon, Scotland instead, so won't see you.

Inspired by the picture in post 50, my canal bridge is pretty much complete apart from weathering. To keep it as light as possible it's mainly made from balsa covered by Scalescenes blue brick sheet. Even the girders are balsa and card. The steps are from the Airfix footbridge kit and the railings are Ratio. The bridge deck is cut from a piece of mounting board which has a linen backing, which I thought suggested chequer plate. Like a lot of the other stuff on this layout, the assembly is held in place by magnets. Now for the canal . . .

I've been puzzling how to connect the station footbridge to the canal bridge. Having spent some time this morning thinking about it, I found the answer in this picture. The width of the front flap of the box isn't sufficient for me to model the whole canal width, including a towpath, but I can have half a bridge!

Some 'arty' shots of progress so far.

Platform surface dirtied, it has more tones on it than come out in the photograph but I think I might highlight a few paving slabs to enhance the effect. Buffer stops fitted, some ballasting done (a mix of Javis black ash and real coal fire ash, secured with Pledge Multi Surface polish) and a start made on the ramshackle coal bin.

Columns now added to the canopy and holes drilled in the platform surface for the locating pins. I now think that I've placed the columns a bit too near the platform faces, but as I superglued them on for strength, AND drilled the platform, I'm going to live with it! Next job is to similarly add some locating pins to the platform steps, and paint the platform surface.

Hi there, yes, just regular supermarket pizza. Ours came mainly from Morrisons, I assume other brands are similar. When you've a 15 year old in the house, raw materials are not a problem!!!

Some progress with the station building. Just needs painting now and poster boards and signs adding. The chimney is in two parts so the top half will be detachable with the canopy roof. It's a bit tall at the moment, and I'm not entirely happy with the corbelled top (or lack of corbelling, in fact!) so that will have to be attended to.

Having partly glazed the ridge and furrow roof (and joined the two sections together), I did battle with the airbrush again and this time, using some new acrylic paint and thinners, had a good 'weathering' session - the roof, bridge, factory wall, houses and yard wall all got a blast of 'grot'. I'm much happier now with the blue brick colour, hidden under years of 'grime' Next job, scratchbuild the platform building.

Thanks for the observation Stubby, it made me have another look at it. Interestingly, the railbus roofline is considerably lower than conventional stock, but even so. I have cut down the support columns by nearly 2mm, and I will make the timber building (only one now, as it looked a bit crowded with two) 4.5mm lower, to give some clearance under the girders, and I'll make so support bosses to go on the building roof.

In between gardening, a bit more progress today. The two canopy sections are now assembled, but still need a few panes of glass fitting, and weathering. I've also made a mock up of the timber-clad station buildings to test appearance and size. I think they're a bit too tall, but if I reduce them in height the roof girders wont rest on them unless I think of another way to do it.

Thanks for the encouragement, Jerry.

I'm not having a good week. I thought the blue brickwork looked rather too 'blue'. Having just looked again at the Scalescenes scratchbuilder page, I see that I should have ordered the DARK blue brickwork! Grrrrrrrr. . .

Progress has slowed considerably, but that's because I've made life hard for myself!! Not content with just building the Airfix canopy as designed, I thought it would look better cut in half and used side by side, as a ridge and furrow canopy, with four columns supporting the front and the girders resting on the yet-to-be-built replacement buildings at the rear. Added to that, I have also 'distressed' the woodwork, and added detail such as support rails and guttering. Couple that to a day wasted trying to use my new airbrush to paint it (note to self - next time DON'T use forty year old paint!!) and I'm still not in a position to finally assemble and weather it yet. meaning that I also can't start on the replacement buildings until I'm sure of the position and the size. Now 50% through a planned three month project. Ho hum. The canopy will have to be removable for the lid to close, so I've fitted the columns with pins to locate in holes in the platform.

I'm having second thoughts about the station building I built from a Scalescenes kit. It just doesn't look quite right in this context! I'm thinking that I maybe need a smaller, rectangular, timber building with a flat roof, sheltering under a canopy. This will give 'something to look through' in order to see the trains. So, I'm building an old Airfix station canopy kit that I've had in the loft for at least 30 years. I'm planning to make this look rather run down, as though some of the canopy glass got blown out during the war and was never replaced, and to paint it in faded LMS colours, as if BR never got round to spending any money on the place. The sort of effect I'm looking for is superbly modelled on the P4 layout of Halifax High Level station, King Cross. Looking at the Airfix kit though, I'm not sure the designer had ever had any structural engineering training! The truss bracing leaves a lot to be desired, so I've cut much of it away and replaced it with something a bit more prototypical.

A couple of inspiration photographs. One is of Pendleton station in Salford, with the closed Manchester, Bolton and Bury canal right at the back of it. The other is of Crown Street goods station in Liverpool. I particularly like the ramshackle nature of the coal storage arrangements and the patched up brickwork of the tunnel parapet.

Thanks Rob, it did have me puzzled for a moment . . .

Not much done on the layout this week, due to the need to check over and carry out a few repairs to my ironing board layout "Weydon-Priors" which is at an exhibition this weekend. What progress there has been has concentrated on the platform and steps. The platform pieces which have so far featured in pictures are Hornby and live in my scrap box. They just happened to be almost the right length and so I used them on a temporary basis. The final platform has been built from PECO edging and Wills York stone paving sheet. With it in place I could check the height from footbridge to platform and finish off kitbashing the Dapol footbridge kit for the steps. Although it's unlikely that the rear of the platform would have had an oversailing edging, especially backing onto a canal, I find that I need this recess to allow the built up bank of the canal somewhere to go when I fold up the front flap of the box.