C126

I have spent some time correcting the colour error - forgetting to photograph the trestle before gluing the loads on, so you will have to take my word for it - and wrestling with strapping (ironed flat embroidery cotton).  I think this is as far as I will go with this one, and I am pleased with the overall look.  However, I know what to do for a second attempt.

The XVA arrives behind 73 005 on 6O73, the 09.00 from Willesden Yard, tucked behind the loco as it is passing through to Tilling Docks.  The shunter emerges grudgingly from his new Bachmann hut.  He has an hour to get the train ready to depart at 12.00 for the docks.

And here is the back/non-public view.  Note my indolence in securing the strapping ends just with a large blob of Copydex.

Thanks for all your kind words of advice and encouragement, and giving this your attention.

1 hour ago, Mark Saunders said:

Here is the Blue Peter lobster!

 

...

Thanks, Mark.  Appears to have fewer cross-braces than the XVA, but these could be added.  Certainly better than black planking...

Well, first glaringly obvious mistake is the trestle frame is Railfreight red, not steel.  Idiot!

https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brtrestlexva/efdb382e

However, this picture does show two sheets loaded without padding, etc., between them.

https://www.Bachmann.co.uk/product/mxa-'lobster'-bogie-open-wagon-db-cargo/37-830a

Thanks, @Ramblin Rich , this is most useful.  I knew nothing about this prototype, let alone the model.  Has anyone prised the body off to have a closer look?  Scope for future plans...

Good thinking!   To be honest, I did not think of looking for a kit.  This would give greater 'flexibility', for want of a better word, in fitting a superstructure and subsequent fettling, I would think.  Second attempt now starting to be planned...  😀

Wonderful work as always @Mikkel .  Yellow was seen as 'decadent' from the 1870's onwards, I think stemming from the 'yellow-back' books.

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/colour-in-the-victorian-era-a-new-chromatic-age

Thanks to the suggestions to be found on RMWeb and a couple of colleagues, I knocked out three Brighton Pavilion-style 'onion domes' in Milliput last week :

They need proper masonry bases modelling underneath, but I was pleasantly surprised at the result.  Next task is the pitched roof, hidden behind the parapet.  Off to B. & Q. next weekend, to use 4mm. sq. wood with 'lead' covering to space out two Wills sheets of slate tiling to match the width.

Having discovered the joys of Milliput, I am now churning out sack loads of different sizes for pallets.  Such simple pleasures...

Thanks @Mikkel , always good to read your thoughts.  I am a big fan of watching layouts at exhibitions at eye-level if possible, and shooting photos the same (panoramic, if possible).  I like @Andrew P 's movie-photography of his Speedlink layout where he uses shots at buffer-beam level.  His camera has a good depth of field as well, which helps.

Found some Wills corrugated asbestos/ plastic yester-day at Stafford to finish off the canopy, so I have been rushing to add more detail.  Made a lift tower and flat roof - but did not think to buy any tiles to make a wood-framed apex - and added the corner and side buttress on the plain end.  Anyway, the Faarsii/Persian frieze looks adequate, I hope.  Sorry my nasta'liiq was not up to the challenge.

No prizes for translating the Faarsii...

Thanks for giving this your interest.

12 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

Not quite - there was the Tri-ang Hornby ferry van and, more recently, a couple of more detailed versions of the same subject from newer producers.

 

CJI.

While the VIX is much appreciated, it would be good to have some 'foreign outline' wagons in OO that came across on the Train Ferry.  I still live in hope.

Incidentally, can @cctransuk do decals/ water-slide transfers for this 'Inter-frigo' wagon?  I have a Shocvan kit awaiting construction, and was going to ask when ordering transfers for it.  Do hope so.  Thanks.

I forgot to mention in the original post I changed the windows to Indo-Saracenic 'cusped arches', with which I admit I am pleased.  Look closely at the elevation, and you can see the changes I hope.

Dear @simon b and @russ p , Again, thank you for taking the time to help with my query and giving such useful advice.  I did a quick plot of the 3'x7.5" space available last night and decided upon (from left to right) the imposing 'Concrete Grain Elevator' but rotated so the silos are on the left of the elevation - thanks for @russ p 's photos confirming there is a loading 'porch' on both sides - and the 'Flour Mill' 'doubled' using its back wall.

But now I am not so sure!  Stretching out the 'Greatland Sugar Refiners' building would retain my preferred brick aesthetic and a Victorian look - excellent idea of converting the central openings on the gable-ended elevations to loading doors with a beam and pulley above, as seen on such buildings everywhere.  Or there is the 1930's(?) option of the 'Champion Meat Packing Plant' which retains my preferred brick.  I do like the sight of watching wagons shunting under a cantilevered building, so will try and model a more 'open' porch for the grain silos by taking the side off.

More choices, more decisions!  Thanks so much to you both for these contributions and photos; I hope they will be of as great a help to others in the future as me, and I will keep you posted on my progress thanks to you.

@simon b  Thanks for these suggestions; I must have missed them because they are not called 'warehouse' or 'factory' in the model title.  Please can you tell me where you got the (six?) plain, 3-storey panels to the right of the gable-ended 'Plant No. 4'; do they come with this kit?  The windows look rather better than my Skytrex efforts, although I do not think the gable-ended elevation itself looks quite right for the U.K.

If the panels can not be obtained separately, I am tempted to buy a Walthers Concrete Grain Elevator and the Flour Mill to fill the adjacent three feet.  The conceit perhaps being the original, Victorian, warehouse/ factory was demolished in the 1950's, bar the small extension remaining, to permit a change of use to a modern rail-served terminal.  The declining 'international provender' ekes out a trade in the increasingly-derelict floors next-door with its eccentric goods-lift, soon to become a victim of the early 1980's recession.  There endeth the proud name of 'Chunnilal and Malcolm, East Indies Factors'!

Thank you again for taking the time to consider this post, and bringing the kits to my attention.  I am much obliged to you.

As a Southern Region chap, I am glad to see you have a 73.  As @crompton suggests, what will these be pulling?

Glad to read the layout is installed safely in its new home.  Hope it will be working fully soon, and you can continue modelling on it.

Thanks, @Ravenser , for the reassurance.  I was not planning on running Mk. IIIs into the platform, but made the foolish assumption the 1" from the track centre-line would allow for curves for all stock as well.  I have learned another lesson.  I did wonder if the platform height looked o.k.; I think Brighton, for example, had a high step up to the loco-hauled stock's floor on the old Kensington Olympia inter-regional trains.  Thanks again for your contribution and time, and best wishes.  Neil.

I forgot to mention I was quietly pleased to see the infiltration 'north of Watford' where the layout is set by the Southern Railway, with the concrete Tool Hut.

Good to see progress being made.  Hope you are enjoying yourself.

Thank you all for the kind comment, sympathy, and likes so promptly.  There is a contradiction between the results I want (and see at exhibitions) and what I am capable of achieving.  I realise now I bought enough ballast months ago only for the three goods sidings to relay, but then 'remembered' erroneously I had more to do the passenger station as well.

The 'header photo' is a 'Nice Thing' to cheer me up, and quite irrelevant to the topic in hand.  But who wants a boring picture of Peco points boxes, when one can remember the excellent cake at Durham Cathedral on holiday last year...?  Thanks again for giving this your attention, and all good wishes.

Thanks, @deepfat , for your kind words.  I realised a couple of weeks ago my albums are now incomplete as well - the very reason I joined RMWeb to 'preserve the information for eternity' - so was feeling rather down about it all.  Hope to start replacing these next weekend.  Thanks for intending to do yours.  I am sure it will not just be me appreciating your efforts.

11 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

... I hope the old method of retaining the original date will be restored.  I now check the original date before I start replacing lost images.

It only occurred to me last night that, as you describe, I have now lost all the original dates of postings.  Sometimes one can only despair of I.T.  A 'Railway Hermitage' looks ever more attractive...

Thnaks again for everyone's kind words and responses, and best wishes to you all.

Thanks, @hmrspaul .  The grey 'dollop' on the left is supposed to be a rolled-back tarp. ('sheet'), but it has not come out very well at that angle.  Best wishes.

Thanks @Dave John for your kind comments.  I had not noticed it in others; posts, so thought it was just me and my usual ineptitude.  Why my post no. 45 is way down the list I have no idea.  I will try and get them back-dated a.s.a.p.  Many thanks again.

Thanks, @sjp23480 , for your remark.  I agree I would not do it again!  I wanted a smooth finish, to mimic what I thought a goods yard's ballast would be like after 80 years of being 'stamped down' by wagons, feet, and passing detritus.  Having been out to more exhibitions now, I will be replacing part with N-scale granite chippings and part with cardboard as a paved area with an extra siding.

I hope others have learned from my mistake.

Delighted to be your first 'follower', and wishing you every success with such a model.  You know Walthers do an HO model of a Blast Furnace, which might be kit-bashed to save time.

https://www.walthers.com/blast-furnace-with-sairways-and-railings-kit

Looking forward to seeing progress.  What a back-scene you can have!