£1.38

Had you considered the possibility that the photo was taken in a neighbour's garden? Why would it have to be on their own property? They may have visited a neighbour for tea or something like that. Having studied the maps,and recent photos, I personally think this is a perfect fit for Oldbury & Bromford Lane station. The goods shed roof and the chimneys of the iron works in the background, platforms on an embankment, wooden LNWR station building, the number and alignment of the houses behind the women, with a gap in exactly the right position for the alleyway shown on the maps, the lower ground to the right of the road etc. etc. It all fits perfectly. I can't imagine there could be another location like it TBH.

I suggest Aberdeen, Bradford, Salisbury(?), Chester and Wakefield too.

Edinburgh

William Logsdail's view of Ludgate Hill is my favourite - looking east to St Pauls. Overall though, a spectator view of a model looking west fits the site better, I think.

Ken Brand's book is a very thin paper booklet. It does have a few photos and a list of buildings in narrative form - plus a map of surviving buildings in central Nottm. It is fairly superficial though.

The building does still exist, so in theory it can be measured. It had recently been hit by a vehicle though, last time I passed it, so had a barrier in front.

I am not sure about the fencing. I blew it up on my high resolution screen and TBH it looks vertical to me. In fact the near "fence" may even be iron railings, with a wooden fence on the far side of the tracks. Look at the top of the fencing to the left and right of the women in this enlargement. The top, at least looks way too thin to be wood.

I suspect the track formation included more than a few of these... I would love to make a model as my ultimate trackwork challenge, but challenge it would be! Some of the curves are quite sharp too, so not for long-wheelbase locomotives. In fact, the stock building programme for a pre-WW1 layout would probably be an even bigger challenge than the track TBH. It would make a fascinating layout though. There would be bankers on trains south from Farringdon, of course. A post-WW2 layout would have one great advantage, quite apart frm any track rationalisation - the Luftwaffe had cleared the whole area east of the line to make a convenient vantage point for spectators. Prior to that, trains would have been difficult to see except when crossing the various bridges

This article is interesting http://www.semgonline.com/RlyMag/ChathamConMoorgate.pdf

LCDR City trains were split in the suburbs, so only half of each train went to Holborn Viaduct and half to Victoria at one time I believe. So, until 8-car EMUs started running to Holborn Viaduct in Southern days, Holborn Viaduct only needed short platforms. Pre-WW1 the Ludgate-Snow Hill line was very busy with commuter trains to Farringdon and beyond, or to Moorgate. Lots of coal trains too.

You are right about the track - it looked very complex. Even worse was the northern end of Ludgate Hill, adjacent to Holborn Viaduct. Here are drawings taken from 'The Engineer', showing before and after shots of the Edwardian rebuilding.

The building with the tower on the third photo in post #38 is a Watson Fothergill building too, by the way - originally a temperance cafe, I believe. The tower part still exists as a takeaway kiosk. WF's offices in George St. Nottingham was really designed to show off a variety of styles and features he could incorporate in his work. Not one for the faint-hearted to build a model of. I admire your determination! I quite fancy doing something based on the former Black Boy Hotel myself, but doubt if I would ever have a layout worth building it for.

As I said a few posts ago, that looks very much like a LNWR timber station building too - with a WC vent in the roof. I am pretty certain about that now I have looked at one or two examples.

Ludgate Hill is a fascinating station too - especially in the early days when the track plan was like a plate of spaghetti!

Just seen this and TBH the structure behind the tallest lady's head looks remarkably like a LNWR standard wooden station building with a WC ventilator on the roof.

Narrow gauge is probably the most awkward in Templot as there are no presets for gauges etc. I think this is due to the tremendous variety etc. that is possible. To set it up properly you would need to set up a custom gauge in 7mm scale and set your sleeper length/spacing, rail size, flange gap etc. to match your prototype. If you post on the Templot Forum, there are probably others who can help a lot with that kind of thing. It is a bigger step than doing stuff in standard gauge, but once its set up, the rest should be relatively straightforward - especially as narrow gauge does not usually involve really complex trackwork. For the standard Templot 21mm gauge settings, you would have to use P4 wheels. At the very least, your template ought to have wider flangeways as I suspect P4 flanges would be underscale for 7mm scale.

You can't change the gauge without consequences. Here is a comparison to scale of an EM and 21mm gauge turnout Using exactly the same components for 21mm gauge you won't get a very good looking point. "Only" a few millimetres makes a big difference.

When you widen the gauge, everything should be longer. Its a bit like comparing an HO 1:7 point and a 4mm 1:7 point. You would expect the 4mm one to be longer, as well as wider because it is to a larger scale.

The Branchlines kit is 7mm scale

Some Royal Scots ended their days at Annesley shed hauling coal trains. They were probably still green under the dirt

seems a terrible shame to use it as an industrial boiler. What does the rest of the kit look like? That might give us more clues.

Regulations for skirts existed (or not) on a line by line basis. Some lines had them, some didn't and some ignored them anyway. I think the W&U was opened under tramway legislation, not as a railway, which probably made a difference.

Would buy several in N gauge, but 4mm scale is just too big - sorry!

Rufford parish was effectively the Rufford Estate and would more or less all have been owned by one person, so an Inclosure Act would never have been needed. The Lord of the Manor could pretty well do as he liked.

In broad gauge days Gloucester (GW) had a single through platform too. It shows on old OS maps.