pwr

And the Irwell book of the Warships has a class 42/43 at Copper Mill Junction on a van train - what it was doing there I don't know but that provides a further excuse. Paul R

Right - file upload seems to be working - thanks Andy. Progress has been made with platforms and lights. These are what I am using - Heljan - designed for 4mm but Cressing had low height lamps. I will be fitting them with Peco signal ladders and BR totems. I think these lamps are probably too large for 4mm but are slightly small for 7mm. We will have to see once the platform is finished. The lights are in two parts and have a base which carries a small circuit board which sits in the platform and the lamp which is push fit into the platform socket. A hole has to be drilled into the platform and in my case then through the baseboard as the wires will come through. I am not planning to wire them up at this time but this may happen later. There are no instruction in the box but I am told that they work of 12 volts DC and 20 volts AC so I might wire them into teh points bus. This photo shows the bottom of the lamp. These will not be glued in as the hole has been drilled to accept it as an interferance fit. This next photo shows the lamp in place. The plastic drawing pin at the bottom of the photo is designed to be fitted if the lamp is removed for any reason. Next we move to the platform tops. I am using emery cloth. I have used wet and dry before but this was as bit thin and it lifted from the platform face on a previous layout. Emery cloth has a cloth background so will accept PVA better. I am using medium grade available in packs of three sheets from my local DIY store. Other brands are available! The advantage of this stuff is that it provides a much better representation of tarmac than anything else and still has the ability to reflect light - much as the real thing - but having said that it looks a bit clean. The following photos will show what I mean. The MDF I used for the tops needs to be scored as per this photo. Then emery cloth is cut to shape and glued on. You will need a stanley knife and plenty of blades as one cut will blunt the knife - its only doing what its supposed to! Keep the blade low down and it will last longer. The photos I am afraid are not that good but they show the general idea Be careful when you cut the cloth that it does not fray. If it does you may need a new blade. You also need to go round the edge with a black permanent marker or else the edges will show up.If you have curved platforms - make a paper template first and cut round that. You may need to weight it down! I may go over this with a mist of grey weathering once I have seen it down fully. It just looks too clean. Other progress consists of a post box and trees on the station approach. The postbox is a Langley models post mounted version. I sourced a copy of the box data panel on the web and reduced it to fit. Its illegible I am afraid but at least I know its accurate! Now on to some signs. These are made from ther Scalescenes downloads. I have had to cheat a bit and alter them in photoshop since the supplied sheet does not have everything I need. I have also used the Gill Sans typeface which is not as heavy as that recomended. The running in boards are made from some platicard to which I have stuck the card and some Evergreen square tube to which I have added some fashioned tops. This photo shows the improvided stand used to hold them to dry. There are some old time bus stops here as well that will be planted on the layout soon. I now have to make the station building and the bus shelter. The plan is to use foamboard covered in air drying clay as per Gordon Gravett. Then scribe the brick courses on! Never down that before so it may be trial and error! All for now Paul R

Glad to assist Daz. I beleive the old road signs font is actually Gill Sans whcih has other uses! all the best and Happy New Year. I have a load of new photos of Black Notley that I will post as soon as the problems are resolved. Work has been going on apace - which is unusual for me! Having nearly 2 weeks off over Christmas has certanly helped. Santa brought me a Heljan Deltic which I have yet to try out. As far as I know Deltics never ventured much on to the GE section but my modellers licence has it that the Dunmow section is still open as a through route and some of the class had unclassified repairs at Stratford and were given a run round the Braintree line as a test. Well thats my story anyhow! Paul R

Free Road Sign Fonts I don't know if anyone has ever come across this website (Chris's British Roadsign Directory)but it contains details of road signs and more usefully a set of free fonts that will enable you to make your own signs whether historical or modern. http://www.cbrd.co.uk/fonts/ Good source of information too Paul R

Any update on this layout since the last post or have I missed something somwhere? Paul R

Day off today with family gone to swimming gala! So some small progress. I have now painted the phone boxes but these need finishing off with the white letter pane and black letters. The insides still need to be finished and then glazed. I don't normally use gloss paint but felt this is what the boxes needed. I might give them a tone down with an airbrush when I am doing something else. I have just applied some static grass to the area around the path and it the excess still has to be hoovered off. I think a second coat is going to be needed to get some length into it. Why is it that you can only get 7mm fibres as the longest available. If anyone knows any different please post. I have also given a second coat of grey paint to the platform coping stones - not visible in photos and these will be weathered with powders before doing the platform surfaces. I have also got some Peco (Ratio) ladders which I am going to use on the gas lamps - Heljan 4mm but ideal for this location which had some short ones. Scalescenes platform totems will finish these off. Other than that progress is somewhat slow but I hope to get more time at Christmas Paul R

How an earth have I missed this one - great layout Paul R

Sorry about lack of updates - lack of time! However I have built 2 type K6 phone boxes that are now waiting to be painted. I need to put the information screens in the back of the boxes and getting information on how these looked in the 1950's and 1960's is not easy. There are some photos on the BT archive site but nothing in the book I read about the various types of phone boxes there have been overe the years. Can anyone help or point me in the right direction. Paul R

B I vaguely remember the location from when I was a boy but I had forgotten the name. Thanks for the tip I can get on and make the boards now - one for the Embassy in Braintree and one for Whitehall in Witham. Getting the film posters was easy. Just do a web search on Wikipedia. All the posters are there. The original movie for The Fly may be one of them. I will get on to them after I finish the phone box Paul R

Not much happening on the layout lately due to having to redecorate the daughters bedroom. A rash promise made by my wife that between them they would do it in four days of the bank holiday week whilst I was a work has resulted in this taking far longer than expected. I still have a door to paint from her wardrobe! Anyway here is a shot of the Langley Models phone box under construction. There is a postbox in there as well! The kit comes with two phones. One is the old push button A phone and the other is the next generation. I am using the push button A style! Once this is built and installed it will be time to fix the fence in place and then grass the borders of the path. Still can't find out if Braintree had a cinema in 1958. I did e-mail the local museum but no response. I want to include a poster board advertising one of the films of the day but have no idea if a cinema existed. I know what went on in Witham but Notley is supposed to be closer to Braintree. Any help appreciated Paul R

Well progress continues and as the computer upgrade went without major hitches I can now upload photos again!. I have been working around the crossing area agains; painted the fence and placed soime adverts around it. Also tidied up the ballast around the crossing and started to apply grass tufts to the posts. The white area behind the fnece should get painted later and then its out with the grasmaster to try it out and see what I can achieve. This was a birthday present some two years ago which shows how slow I seem to work! A phone box will be going at the fence corner and some more adverts will appear on the fence inlcuding one for the local cinema. I have decided to freeze the layout in 1958 which is the date of some photos I have of Cressing. That is not to say that stock will accurately reflect this (neither it would seem will the road vehicles!) but this was the time when the WMB railbuses were introduced and I have plans to scratch build one. And if I want to run rail blue then its my layout!!!!! I have looked on the web and determined that the original Fly movie was released in 1958 so that will feature on the poster. The only thing I need is to find out what if any cinemas were open in Braintree at this time. The Whitehall in Witham was certainly open as it closed in 1961 but so far I can't track any info down. It has been suggested that I approach the Braintree museum which I will do but if anyone out there knows anything please post a reply. Anyway on to the pictures! I think the pictures speak for themselves. The enamal adverts are not from this time, representing a much earlier era but these sort of things did seem to be retained in rural areas where nothing much changed from year to year until the 1960's. All for now - as usual any feedback welcome Paul R

Adnapress I know the building you mean - its at Cressing. You can find photos on Flickr - just search Cressing. I had thought of using this building at the other end of the layout to hide the entrance to the fiddle yard but it might be too big for the spae available. Thanks for the tip though Paul R

Bit of progress being made on the platforms today - wish I had been a bit more careful in laying the top slabs. Some of them do not project out far enough to cover the edge pieces so I am either having to rip them up and replace them or glue a small piece of plasticard rod in to fill the gap. Once filed down and painted all should be ok. I have also had to modify the fence that protects passengers walking from the road to the platform. I have now inset this and created a space for the placement of the up starter signal. The photos make this clear. The next photo shows the signals I have in stock. There are two Saxby and Farmers in the Scale Signal Supply kit and one LNER tubular post in the MSE kit. The up statrter will be the Saxby and Farmer and the down inner home - which is on the other side of the crossing next to where the signal box will be - will be the tubular. The layout is not long enough to have the outer home or the advanced starter. I have not given much throught to signals at the other end of the layout yet. Sorry about the poor exposure in the photos. I still have no access to Photoshop. My next job is to start the process of PC upgrade to Windows 7 so I can reload. This is not going to be a quick job as I have to have a clean install so there may be no more photos for a while All for now Paul R

Seems to be a local authority service. I need to get hold of an old Eastern National timetable. I seem to recall there was a service to Great Bardfield that may have come this way in days gone by. Paul R

Thanks JB What was the route number and operator? I wonder if this service was operating in 1960 regards PWR

Just a short update with little progress on the layout proper. After having a dealy whilst I couldn't find my weathering powders and having to buy some more, the bogie bolster A is now finished apart from the coat of Matt Varnish which will have to wait until tomorrow since I have run out of that too. Anyway here are some pictures - sorry about the quality, I have had a major problem with the PC which is not fully resolved and means that my copy of Photoshop won't open because all the registration and serial numbers were lost on the restore and I need to reload the programme. As I am about to update to Windows 7 I can't be bothered to go through all that only to have to do it again as the upgrade will only work as a clean istall because its an upgrade from XP. Hopefully I can now get on with finishing the platforms and then making a start on the station building! All for now Paul R

Guess What - I got an Easy Build Class 105 Cravens kit for my birthday - very topical for this line. Other than that progress continues slowly on platform edging. Nearly there though. I am having to take up some coping stones that are not quite placed correctly and relay to get a proper overhang but I will get there and progress then on platforms will be a bit quicker. I seem to have had a hectic couple of months with little time for modelling. Paul R

Les How much do these rapid prototype masters cost. I was considering having a set of 7mm APT bogies made this way and would be interested in who did this and the cost. My problem is producing the CAD drawings! thanks Paul

A couple of shots of the altered platform edges. No longer does it have the prounounced sudden change in direction(see earlier photo). I also took the opportunity of having a further cylinder check on the B2 which is the largest steam loco I have presently. There seems to be no problems. Good job I don't model the GWR! Ah well on with the work! Paul R

Alterations now made and clearance much improved without any effect on the visual effect of the platform. The 50 is still a bit tight though but as its on the operator side of the layout I am not too bothered. I will now get back on to the platform edging whilst at the same time trying to finish the bogie bolster. Another update soon Paul R

Looks great - good cluttered feel to a London terminus. Very atmospheric Paul R

Just measured the platform clearance against a partly built Class 122 DMU and its about the same as the Class 47 and 50 so a trim of 2mm ought to sort this. A class 122 is about the same as a Mk1 but I somehow doubt a Mk3 would go round it! As an aside the platform tops are lower than I think would be prototypical today so some of the overhang actually clears the surface. Braintree branch platforms were traditionally low requiring footsteps to get on the train Paul R

Boeing The BRM annual was definately 2009 and I cam across a copy of BRM March 2009 that had some follow up pictures of the Roadrailer including a surviving box trailer. I wonder if it still exists? Paul R

Here are the promised pix. The first shows the short section of finished coping stones. I am quite please with this - just the rest of the platform to go. Now you can see the problem with the bend I don't think this is as bad as it could of been but I do wish I had a Mk1 I could try against. You can see teh platform shelter here. This is going to make a nice bus office in due course since it is inappropriate for the location as a station building. And now for a bit of light relief The signalmans khazi or to give it the proper title a single drop brick privvy. Its shown it the approximate final position - the signal box will sit between it and the crossing. All for now Paul R

Technical Hitches! Progress on platform coping stones is slow but the edges are really finishing the whole thing off. However you know when a nagging thought kicks in and you put it to the back of your mind until you can't ignore it any more! Well the issue of platform clearance kept coming up and despite the fact that I had run the B2 chassis down the track to check clearance over the cylinders, I kept having those thoughts about whether a full scale MK1 coach would clear the bend in the platform. As I don't have a full scale MK1 built yet and the Lima one is not the correct scale, out came the class 50 as being of a similar length and yes Houston we have a problem! The sides actually touch the loco edge - darn it! A second opinion with the Heljan 47 suggested the problem may not be as bad as I thought and this was confirme by the class 40. So I am going to have to remove about 6 coping stones and trim back by about 2/3mm and relay them. Shouldn't take too long. I took some pix last weekend but as I have been in Edinburgh on business for a few days I have not had time to post them. Hopefully this weekend. The Bogie Bolster is now mostly painted and I have found some transfers that were in stock. I have also dug out a model of the signal box privvy - a Peter Smith model from back in the 1980's - this layout really has had a long gestation. Paul R