bazzer42

That turned out well. With some gorilla glue and quick action clamps I've managed to frame the baseboard with no screws at all. A coat of blackboard paint is drying as I type. A coat of backscene blue should dry quickly tomorrow looking at the forecast.

Thanks Big D. Making Tracks resides beside the bed along with some select Railway Modeller mags. I keep Building Micro-layouts beside the place where I sit and think. I do like Bere Alston. A bit of progress with some wood framing for the styrodur although if I had checked it when it arrived I would have spotted two pieces cut in 3mm MDF not 6mm as requested. Cut My Plastic (usual disclaimer) were very apologetic and replacements have been sent. If I had my time again I might have bought 3mm for the back as it is weightier than I expected. I did order some 3mm for a front cover so may resort to that. I'm raising the foam base by 16mm to give a gap for wiring. I'm also considering running the goods siding and kick back as a separate line in the fiddle yard, as Mr Lunn would know points eat space.....we'll see after the framing is done.

Fourth time lucky? This could be a final attempt to find a micro solution that works. Mk1 had a hidden fiddleyard that was plain daft on reflection. I have had two attempts at using a traverser that makes me think I’m not destined to build one where the b tracks line up vertically. All three used the same baseboard frame with the layout built on 40mm styrodur dropping into it. I have always been a fan of Paul Lunn’s Pwllheli plan and a great admirer of Julian’s Portwey. I noticed that Julian commented on the difficulty of getting traversers to work so I intend to follow his idea of a one board layout/fiddleyard that I can stand on end requiring a square foot for storage. To be honest I'm not much of an operator so something to plug and play will hopefully work for me and if not it should be easier to sell on if one board and I’m bored. My son has just used laser cut mdf to panel his hallway. The supplier’s prices were reasonable so I’m hoping I can build a 6mm mdf box to house this. If that works I will try and salvage layout 2 (Pengwith) and layout 3 (Brean) The track plan I am toying with combines a Portwey style island platform with a Pwllheli siding with the kick back to a warehouse industry. I had always planned (haven’t we all got a 101 ideas we want to try?) to build an eighties Burnham on Sea layout assuming it had expanded dramatically in the 1950s and 60s to be a commuter favourite for Bristol. The warehouse is a cider industry factory after the famous (or infamous if you drink too much half and half) local producer that expanded from it’s site in Watchfield and is now a subsidiary of a Taunton company, cue a cargowaggon on a micro with a 40 inch x 12 inch scenic area. Running the mid to late eighties also gives me scope for some colour with red royal mail vans, satlink /civilink wagons and possibly a GW150 class 121. The intention is to keep the layout vaguely western region so that Burnham can also become a Welsh valley station with a metal pressings plant in the warehouse. Merthyr Tydfil station in the 80’s had a lovely 70’s rebuild building and an island platform so I’m thinking a butchered peco office building kit might make a good low relief structure. Fate (an auction site) offered a limited edition Cardiff based class 108 so passenger movements covered. I think a GW150 class 121 is moving me more towards the Home Counties but with a vague warehouse/factory does that matter? At 62 I'm not sure how many more layouts I have left in me but I still have a hankering for Bridgwater yard 1983. My home town that saw nuclear waste, chemical tanks for Cellophane, VEAs for Puriton ROF, refrigerated produce and wire on KEV wagons. Probably no more than an inglenook but that is for the future (although I have started a ratio overhead crane). My only other craving is Mercy Street, an Ian Futers inspired 3 point special based on the outskirts of Glasgow. Can fate provide a Strathclyde liveried dmu??

Didn't Airfix do western figures. The wagon train set may have been a little more peace loving than the cowboy and politically incorrect opposition

Hope you're enjoying the build, I struggled to complete mine without taking a razor saw to the blighter. If you need any bits I have some odds and sods left over from an attempted low relief build.

Didn't hear any steam up in Bream and may have ruined the Liverton Quarry disaster! A couple of phone shots as crossed the footbridge. Fountain Inn was acting as changing rooms. Living 2 miles away this thread is one to follow. I'll stop hijacking.

Shame you couldn't have made it Saturday, we had an 08, an 03 and a class14 acting in a scene for a future casualty episode. To those in the know it won't appear prototypical but to average Joe it will be fine. I liked the class 25 too. Average Derek

Good thing with micro layouts you can often get away with good side out. I have an 08 that has a gap under the cab on one side so....

They don't look so bad when weathered and ballasted but your mods would have improved mine.

If you plan to use 25mm poly for rigidity would you be better using styrodur on it's own? I use 40mm styrodur which is totally rigid and other than a cork tile surfacing I use as is. The sheets I ordered came in 4 x 2ft that split nicely with a knife to give 4 x 1 micro layout sheets. A picture paints a thousand words. PS trying to edge with foam board was fine but not as a backscene as paint caused it to warp.

Sorry to hear your news. I'm lucky enough to still have my father although he is now in a nursing home and won't know who I am anymore. Life is tough at times.....we need model railways for our sanity.

Moving the goods shed is feasible but the cranes plonking days are more difficult. I noticed some bloke on Highbridge Wharf glued his DAS down ....the Wills crane sits on a DAS base... that said I quite like it there and semi tempted to over grow it to make things look a little more run down and hanging on. The nissen hut I've had misgivings about for a bit, perhaps I should do a Sir Nevard and add allotments? There is a lovely view in the Ian Allan colour series of a 22xx at Highbridge beside some unfenced allotments.

Keith, the fence is ratio concrete fence posts painted by misting over various car body sprays to get a concrete effect. I noticed several S and D stations would use what appeared to be pipe or tube in similar posts (lovely set on the Blandford Forum bay) so used some .64mm piano wire I had to hand. I can't even remember why I bought the wire but probably for the garden railway. The kit comes with spools of nylon thread that I could not get to go tight on previous layouts. Nobody likes a droopy fence! Ratio v Wills? Ratio kits I find have many parts to make what could be a single bit in a Wills kit. The signal box on here is basically only four sides and a roof (3 components normally but added corrugated for a change) . The Ratio Highley GWR signal box kit has a separate frame for the walls and window components meaning it is easier to paint and get a nice clean line. Painting the Wills panel frames e.g. goods shed and signal box require a steady hand and a fine brush. I think it is probably a case of thinking what looks right where and then preparing yourself accordingly for construction. The Peco station and small lock up probably fall between the two. I love the station kit and had one painted brown and cream on a GWR blt. A sheet of Slaters corrugated is always handy to tweak things if you want your kit to look a little different and a carefully wielded razor saw allows a bit of variation if you choose. The coal yard hut is a Wills wooden station and a wood yard roof.

Ooooh a 7mm simplex....

Latest thinking below...

Thank you for the kind comments I didn't expect a Brean revival! I couldn't help but endorse the Betjeman film. Dad has alzheimer's but we can watch that and we are having an easy chat. I took him across the moors about a year ago to trace the old route from Burtle. I was surprised how easy it is to trace the line on Google maps. I still think the sedgemoor area across to Burnham is the best of Somerset, perhaps that's childhood bias? The layout James 48.5" x 13". I bought a job lot of 2ft x 4ft styrudor (spelling?) at 40mm thick it seems man enough to not need supporting too much and light enough to throw around. I have built a frame to drop these standard size modules in (tried China clay and a somewhere gwr blt) but beginning to regret that I didn't lower the front face to allow a harbour or embankment. Swings and roundabouts as I am a cheapskate and wire in tube my points. I agree with Marc that more is less and have decided to drop the provender store. I think the centre area will carry a nissen hut used as a builders yard/ store. Another ratio kit that can create a disproportionate amount of cursing to the dozen parts.... I also built or dismembered a free ratio hut (a crib from the beautiful Penhydd) with the excuse that it suffered collateral damage when a confused dornier aiming for Filton dropped three bombs destroying the original goods shed and killing 3 heifers. Thereafter referred to as the Brean blitz. After reading Mr Cider's post perhaps the RAF were more likely villains? I must get back to work on it as I get easily sidetracked and have already collecting some 7mm narrow gauge for a farmyard micro. I will put a picture up of the latest thinking. Thanks again for the additional Brean and Birnbeck photos. I can recall a late sixties walk to the fort with dad and siblings when it was free to walk around. I attended a residential course in a hotel near the pier in the late 90s. Their claim to fame was the Beatles had stayed there and you got the impression you were seeing the same decor that Ringo enjoyed. Sorry for hijacking my own thread!

I can recall poking around the works with my dad on a Sunday morning after closure, must have been keep out signs as I think I spent the whole time tenterhooks thinking we would be arrested. We didn't see any police or any "Highbridge teds" I worked for a year in Highbridge after leaving school in 75 and I didn't give the old station a second thought. Have you seen the Newman family blog? They lived near Bason Bridge, some nice photos (including winter 62 in colour) . A different time indeed, a ten year old child riding on a footplate to Templecombe and back! Thanks for the inspiration Rob, got a little Brean on the go here and it's all your and JB's fault!

Lost enthusiasm for dcc diesel sound and stepped back in time to the area where I grew up. I'll confess that I have been inspired by the Sheep Chronicles and John Betjeman and thought I would like a small slice of the Somerset and Dorset myself. Assuming Mac Pyrkes Berrow had extended on it would have terminated at Brean. A simple loop and three short sidings will give an opportunity to shuffle wagons. I'm inventing plenty of back stories to justify freight such as the fort on Brean Down being used as an RAF radar station. I'm afraid there is very little scratch building going on and most items readily reveal their source (love a small wills kit, apart from the timber yard). Strictly one engine in steam and DC power. I will add some photos as they give an idea where I'm at as of tonight. Buildings are placed roughly where I expect them to end up but any views or ideas welcomed. A small raf compound between the sidings feasible? Is that provender store ( a pig to build) too large? Apologies for the background.....tidy as you go says Mrs B..... I can't believe as a teenager I worked in Highbridge and just assumed the old railway buildings would be there forever...

If it doesn't please your eye it will always jar so best bite the bullet. Love the cheapskate modelling as you call it, thought it was just me! Don't spend if I don't have to.

Portwey is always my first port of call for inspiration :-) Not sure what I've posted there but it gets you there...enjoy!

Hi Ralf, like the track layout, I spent ages working on a design with a run round and found the best for me was a siding each way from the loop. I'm running short goods so not a problem for me either. The picture if it works may show where I am. Got to say I do like a dock scene.

Thanks Rob, I have some woodland scenics still sealed and somehow they do look sticky uppy resistant... I assume they are spring or summer type colours, should have asked earlier!

Sorry to trouble but what length and colour fibres do you use for the grass? WWS?

Thank you for the life is too short comment, I've been wanting to try clay but wonder whether it is as easy as portrayed in articles. Too early to ask whether if you had your time again....