Philou

It was another hot'un today, though the sky was slightly overcast. I decided I'd get on and before lunch I made this: A leg! We have a leg with the additional bit glued and screwed, drilled, nutted and a foot in place: Despite it being overcast, I think the sun got to me in the afternoon as this happened: Yes!!! The corner module (Module D) is in place and just to check that the landscaping fitted: There is space between the top of the module and the ceiling. The next one to the left is 20mm higher so plenty of space for that too. Some things have come to light though: 1) The legs ARE spindly, but support the module; 2) It's a tad wibbly-wobbly, but that will stop once the other units are bolted to it; 3) It's high! I might have a slight problem track laying on the module to the right (Module C) as the landscaping is fixed. This corner module comes apart as can be seen in the penultimate photo above. At best, I'll have to work off steps, at worst I'll have to consider making the landscaping removable. I could just remove the module and take the legs off temporarily to work off trestles, but that's a faff to me, OR I reduce the height all round, but then too much and I'll block off access to the wall plugs! Anyway, I'm really pleased with the outcome. Mark 1 legs worked straight off the work-bench and so I have something quite workable. I'm not sure at what rate I shall be working but I see no reason why I couldn't make 4 pairs of legs at a time and have 2 modules' worth ready. I'll take a photo tomorrow of the underside to show how the leg is attached to the module. Cheers everyone, Philip PS: @Chimer The modules are on their way!

Chaps and chapesses, To those who gave me thumbs up and the like, I hope it was for the comment that I attached to the picture by @Right Away . I just hope no-one thought it was my picture as the computer and I weren't getting on very well on the day and I just couldn't do the picture as a quote. I did think the smoke was just right - a coloured haze and no more. As Right Away said, it's a bit of a Marmite thing and I've no issues with it and I happen to like Marmite! Cheers, Philip

Despite my gloomy forecast of yesterday, the sun decided to stay behind some clouds this morning, so after I helped Mrs Philou trim back some climbing roses and some Virginia creeper that were both needing 'air cuts, I decided to take advantage of the dull weather (hah! - as soon as I set up the sun came out). Nevertheless, I decided to fabricate some pockets into which the legs can sit under the modules. I managed to cut some left over ply into 65mm strips and then re-cut them into 110mm lengths. I now have 40-odd to get me started. As midday was a little way off, I made some of these: These are the front faces to the pockets. I've only made the four as a trial and these will go under the very first corner unit. As seen, these are the 65 x 110mm pieces of ply in stages of manufacture (in reality I'm doing 5 at a time), the one piece marked out with a centre-point, then the 5 pre-drilled with a 6mm wood bit. Taking then a 10mm wood bit I drilled almost the full depth of the one piece, tapped in the T-nut with my hammer and then nipped it up in the vice. I can't then over hammer the nut and damage either it or the wood piece. The threaded knob will go right through and tighten against the leg permitting some rough adjustment (that's about right) and then fine adjustment using the foot at the other end of the leg. The pieces are yet to be finished by having a glue block screwed and glued at one end. The other end will be fixed to the glue block that is already on the module (what a bit of luck, eh?). At the club, they have this piece turned around so that the T-nut is on the inside face (leg side) and I had to think that through. Simples really - if the knob is screwed in on the side that's showing in the photo, any over-tightening into the leg may cause the T-nut to pull out. Hah! Turning it the other way, over-tightening will just pull the nut into the piece - so it won't be going anywhere! Might pull the fabricated piece off the module but it would have to be a heck of an overtightening to do that! I suspect the k,nob would fail first in any case. Too much heat now, so more tomorrow. Cheers, Philip

I'm sorry chums and chumesses, I don't think there's going to be any updating for a few days as we're going through a heat wave and it's just too hot for me. 32° today, 34° tomorrow and Monday and then a balmy 36° on Tuesday before dropping to 28° on Wednesday with rain. I shall be outside asap and would have been there this afternoon as there was a breeze - except the breeze was warm air coming from the south! I can't do the morning as the frontage faces east and is in full sun that makes it no better. Oh well, I've done a couple of sketches and taken measurements for my legs so I'm ready for the off. Cheers, Philip

Like the smoke - rather better than some - the steam less so. I know it's very difficult to reproduce smoke or steam ..................

Aaaah @lmsforever. Lucky you - moi? Envious? I'm now anxious to get this next phase done and dusted as quickly as possible as once the modules have been legged, levelled and bolted together and the missing ones constructed, it means that the trackbed can be set up and perhaps the tiniest bit track laid - ok a few metres - just to test my stock! I haven't run anything on what I consider to be my own track since April 1976! @JeffP No, I haven't a table saw nor rectifier. I know a man who does in the village but unfortunately due to a big load of work done to his house and now health issues, his machines are inaccessible. It's a bit of a shame as the one machine is a hundred year old double sided planer (his rectifier) that can cope with timber up to 300mm x 600mm in section and another is a Swiss made all-in-one machine that is a table saw, but capable of dealing with full-sized sheet materials and can do fancy milling/planing amongst another uses. Cost an absolute fortune a few years ago. There you have it, I just have my cheapy jigsaw, not so cheap circular saw and quite expensive planer plus other non-expensive small power tools. More tomorrow, Philip

AWWWWWW NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! (Dramatic stage effects.) That was my reaction as I was putting my tools away and musing upon the next step in leg making. I had a good afternoon stripping the wood down into more useful dimensions. Some weren't as big in cross-section as I thought but nonetheless I cut them all to the same depth but the width will vary a little - keeping the same depth throughout means that I can make all the sockets the same. Are you with me? All good so far. The depth is 22mm. Well? Why 'Oh no' Philou? Stupid boy - who forgot until the moment he was putting everything away that he now has to drill with a 12mm wood bit vertically into the end of the legs to put in some T-nuts ready for the adjustable feet? 22mm is going to be a bit - err - not a lot on either side. Having thought it through, the solution is simple - a bit more work will be involved - but hey! I never find the easy way of doing things! As I now have 8 lengths 4m long and my legs are going to vary between 840mm and 1160mm in length, I am going to end up with left-over bits. I shall simply recycle the off-cuts by trimming them to a suitable length (say 100mm) and glueing and screwing them to the bottom of the legs. This will double the depth of the wood and I shall then be able to drill into the legs vertically without worrying about any perceived weakness. I'm not going out today as it's going to be over 32° this afternoon, I have sore knees from being perched on a ladder yesterday gaining brownie points helping Mrs Philou doing some 'aerial' housecleaning and my bum has blown up like a cauliflower and I'm not at all comfortable - not quite soft cushion time but almost ;) . My fault as I didn't drink enough water over the last day or so :( . There we have it - a day off today and hopefully a start on the legs tomorrow. Cheers everybody - the weekend is here! Philip

Despite no update today, here's a little one: I now have 6 more sheets of 10mm ply that should be enough to do the missing modules plus some trackbed. Where bridges/viaducts are concerned, I may do the trackbed in 5mm or 3mm ply. I have a ton of the latter in A3/A4 format. Additionally I pulled out one of my 40mm chevrons (rafters). Hah! Not 40 x 40mm as I thought but 42 x 46mm which is rather too big. I shall probably cut it half (lengthways - natch) and reduce the cross-section to a more comfortable 42 x 22mm (about 7/8" x 1 3/4"). The bonus is that I double the current stock in hand by so doing. Proper update tomorrow. Cheers, Philip

Ah ..... the trams! They went the year after I was born and the trolleybuses twenty years later. They were my favourite form of traction and I still have my last day ticket on the last trip. I'm really sorry they got rid of the trollies - and now what with going back towards electric traction ...................... The two stills from the YouTube videos show the trollies having departed the terminus outside what the South Wales Echo/Western Mail HQ and having entered Westgate Street and passing what was the main Post Office building. Routes 10A/B to Ely used that route almost exclusively, except if other routes were on divert. Cheers, Philip

Unfortunately as I'm outside the UK I can't watch this item - which is annoying especially as it concerns my home town. I also flew out of Pengam airport in a Dove in about 1953/54 to Paris - all alone too! I seem to recall being sat in wicker seats (Lloyd Loom type) - but perhaps not. My only real recollection of the flight was the return journey and flying low over the docks and looking down into the funnels of the ships moored at the quayside - where are those ships today? Cheers, Philip

Hello chaps and chapesses, Despite a thunderstorm that came and p*ssed on my parade, I got the module finished - huzzah! I had a few tense moments in squaring it up as the ply was stronger than my battens and was warping them 'it canna'e take it'. Oh yes it did. Nice and straight now and in place in the railway room. Here are some pictures. Our rail journey has gone back a step to the River Dore. The train has shut off steam (or diesel) and is coasting up the grade through the Orcop road tunnel and has just passed the station building and is coming to a stop at the platform. Module K is just a shade short of 1.8m (6') and is the length of the platform from the station building as far as the ramp and barrow/occupational crossing. This is the approach into the station - the building will be on the previous module. To the left is a graded area bridging the platform and the goods siding on the extreme left. To the centre is the mainline and to the right the Newport platform tucked into the hillside upon which is the Orcop road: This is the other end of the platform module. Here we have on the left an access leading into a field that lays behind and below the Newport platform. On the next module, nearer the camera to be constructed, this lower land forms the area upon which was the Pontrilas chemical works. The land rises away from the camera to meet the Orcop road. Immediately to the right is a piece of retained land that appears to have had a lamp and a platelayers' hut on it. It was set back from the catch siding (if that's the name) protecting the mainline. The raised flat area is the mainline, the two branch lines (platform and release) and the lead towards the goods shed and sidings. The lower flat area is the A465 that runs tight against the sidings and their retaining wall: This is the view from the operating well. The A465 runs off the board at about the mid-point with the sidings above. On the far side you can see how the land changes alongside the platform. The change from embankment to cutting occurs about midway along the platform: Here is just a shot showing the landform as it will be along the wall: Here is the module in place adjoining Module J. Looking at the angle I'm probably going to have to rework the platform position to get the curve correct - not unexpected and a quick cut with the jigsaw and smoothing with the sander will have it sorted: There won't be an update tomorrow as M. le Gendarme (ret'd) has kindly offered to take me into Big Town to get some more ply with his covered trailer. He can't do it after next week as he's to have a new prosthetic shoulder joint (ouch!) and will be out of action for quite a few weeks. I've also come to the end of this current module building session, as I now need to make the legs. Once they're done and the modules secured and levelled, I can then get the in-fillers constructed. I've also to create a pair of door stops to prevent the cellar doors on opening from hitting the module legs once they're in place. Medium term, the next stage will be to cut out and level the track bed and after that land-forming with styrene/chicken wire/whatever comes to hand and track laying (and electrics) thereafter (I may reverse landscaping and track-laying), whatever happens I propose to then do the landscaping and then the ballasting last so as to avoid getting the ballast covered in unwanted grass! More updating on Thursday. Cheers, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, More progress today until rain stopped play late this afternoon. I have assembled the two long sides with their battens and glue-blocks. This means I now have two sides and two ends ready. Tomorrow will be fettling the cross-members and then fixing in place. The module should be done by the end of the afternoon - hoorah! Could be a few pictures too! Cheers, Philip

@kevinlms Crikey - earlier than I remembered! It was when I was doing my City and Guilds Lab. Technician's Course in the Pontypridd Technical College then. (Spelt his name incorrectly, too :( ) I saw him building the turntable - it seemed to take forever. IIRC, he had to cut his own gears as none were commercially available - he did have the benefit of a full college metal workshop with all the latest kit, though ;). Cheers, Philip

My metalwork teacher, a Mr Gittings, did have an article in the RM spread of a few issues showing how to make a loco turntable in ..... er ..... metal. It definitely wasn't in the 'Show you how' leaflets. Unfortunately I don't recall the method used to make it rotate. It would have been around 1977-78. Cheers, Philip

Hello chaps and chapesses, A bit of a thin update today. Nothing happened yesterday as we were out and today being Sunday, no noisy work permitted after midday and so once the dog had done her walkies, it left me with under an hour to 'get things done'. I got the mystery ply out and dusted down, cut into strips and marked out ready for profiling. The ply has taken on a bit of a curve due to being stocked on its side rather than flat, but will be sorted out using my battens and laying them such that the curves are opposite each other. The cross-members will pull them together (or push) resulting in two straight sides - says he, optimistically! I couldn't do the profiling as it was way past midday by the time I'd done the marking - so a job tomorrow together with the stripping of a couple of planks for those pesky battens and glue-blocks. I should be ready for the 'right-away' on Tuesday. Cheers, Philip

Indeed @Andy Hayter Andy, we are! There's only our barn wall between the two properties. Let me tell about a sneaky property deal that was done in the village and it concerns the mairie .................. When the village had a school, it was in a big single room behind the mairie, twice the size of the current mairie. When they sold off the school years ago, as there weren't enough children to keep it open, they sold it all, except the room within which is the mairie, to the person who had the adjoining house (not us, but the house the other side). The sale included the attic above both rooms and naturally the roof. So now, who is responsible for repairs to the roof of the mairie? Well, not the mairie! We're lucky that we still have our 'town hall' as over a number of years Grubbymint has encouraged rural villages to combine their services and become "Com Com"s (Communauté de Communes) therefore saving on mayors and all that follows. Very recently there's been a change of wind and a move to retaining local services on a local level - including schools, as I made mention earlier ^.

@lmsforever Well spotted! The footway is on the opposite side, but here in France you're allowed to park on the footway - hence the car in the photo (can't think whose car it might be!). The carriageway is rather narrow at about 4.5m in width which is barely wide enough for the combines to go through the village ( yes, I'm looking at you, Mr Claas). If I did park UK style on the carriageway then the agricultural vehicles wouldn't get past due to a rather large utility concrete pole plus luminaire on our side - I don't think the car would be in one piece for very long! On our side the highway limit is at an angle to our frontage so where the workspace is set up is in highway but I stand on our frontage. It's the only bit of flat area around the house and the land falls from the highway to the brook that runs at the end of our garden - even the beaten earth floor of the barn is on a fall. The garden is on fall too, the only flat area is our decking and Mrs Philou wouldn't be best pleased if I moved all the garden furniture, chairs and flower pots to make way for my modules. Insofar as footfall on our side is concerned, there isn't any. In a village of 31 inhabitants in the middle of nowhere, everyone goes by car! I'm safe at the moment and it won't be for very much longer as work on module 13 (Module L) started today. Another 4 plus a shorty to link my fiddle yard/sector plate* to the tunnel modules and that's it! It was threatening rain this afternoon but it cleared after lunch so I was able to start after taking the dog for her mid-day walk. I have cut the ends out of some waste pieces and I hoisted out the two half-sheets of ply. These have been measured up and I have measured the area for Pontrilas station. I need a length of 1.8m max between the station building and the end of the platforms - this should not be an issue other than the two side pieces will be in two parts each. A bit of string and chewing gum will hold them together until I splice them with a piece of battening. I don't think much will done tomorrow as it's forecast rain all day and we're off lunching (again!) so definitely no work in the afternoon. I can do some noisy work on Sunday morning IF it's dry. I shall probably cut out the side pieces then (less noise) and keep the ripping of my planks into battens for Monday. We had M. le Menusier around today as we have had a problem with one of our barn doors - basically one of the wooden hinges has collapsed due to weathering and old age. He had a look and said it was quite repairable by cutting a new section of timber into the edge of the door and then driving the 'flêche' (arrow)** into the new wood. Downside is the door has to come down to allow him to access the bottom - it's oak and probably weighs a ton! He thinks that he and I can do it! Mrs Philou also wants a pair of shutters to go on a window that has never had any and as it ought to have louvres to match the existing - I felt it was out of my skill-set to make them given my general woodworking! So he has another job in hand - but we await his estimate (over here it's a devis and is fixed price - no surprises afterwards). *Whilst he was here, quite opportune really, I asked if he was interested in tackling my sector plate and surprisingly he was. He liked my general thoughts and added his own regarding the end where it all meets the modules. He has an idea for a ratchet type affair so alignment of the tracks can be very precise. He going to do me a drawing. If this can be done, I'll give him the job! He also told me of someone, a Swiss, in a nearby village who is also a railway modeller - I may 'reach out' to him (out of curiosity, you understand). **The 'flêche' is an arrow-headed cast iron spike that is driven spike first into the timber jamb of the door and the arrowhead part rests on a cast iron plate within which is a slight depression so that the arrow can't drift. The weight of the door holds it all in place. I did think he was going say 'Nah mate, sorry. It's a whole new door.' I think he's come across this sort of set up before. We will see. That's it for today, the weekend is here so have a good one wherever you are and whatever you're doing. Cheers, Philip

Thank you @JeffP and @37Oban. I do try to be positive, Mrs Philou thinks I'm over-positive! More positiveness ....... joy! The Module Corner - 1 was completed this afternoon and is in the railway room next to the corner module. The fit is nice and square so all is good, though when everything is legged and bolted together gaps may begin to show - hence why I don't want to put the last pieces in on each side just yet. We have some pictures today, too! Our train journey this time is on approach from Newport (my Ledbury end). In this photo, trains have come down the bank from the corner module. The mainline track here is (on the left) in a 1 + 2 + 1 format with the Newport up and down lines being bounded by the up and down relief loops. The reliefs were created in the early 40s by extending the sidings/headshunts that already existed. I thought I had seen a secondary signal box around here on an OS plan, but it might have been a figment of my imagination. The loops start running out here with pointwork leading to/from the main. To the right is the branchline from Pontrilas leading into the Golden Valley. The cut is wide here as I intend to locate the tin engine shed that served the single loco on the branch - a 517 in the early days and then a 48XX and a 58XX. There were two other locos - a small 0-6-0T 'Owen Evans', that I quite like and I shall re-body an Electrotren faux TVR 0-6-0T for the job - the wheelbase looks 'about right'. The other, another 0-6-0T, was called 'Hilda'. I forget its provenance, a pre-grouping loco from the Swansea area IIRC - she does have a GWR number. This loco was used in the construction works of the Ordnance Depot that was off the Golden Valley branch. Now if someone will make a USTC S160 in OO, I'll have one as it visited the depot during the war. The mainline is on a rising grade towards the camera, whereas the branch is on a down grade. In reality, the engine shed was quite some distance both from the station and the mainline - compression I'm afraid! - the branch having first crossed the Dore. In my world the Dore is 'elsewhere': From the station end in this picture. To the left is the low lying ground between the rail lines and the river. Today the land has various metal clad factory units upon it - too late for my trackwork - but there was a Smithy around here that I shall recreate as there's not much else by way of buildings on the layout. Between the Smithy and the railway embankment was the A465, but there's a bypass now around part of Pontrilas. I shall show this as an important but minor road nonetheless. Above the road is the branchline climbing to meet the mainline on the next module. The mainline here is the full 1+2+1 formation. On the extreme right is a siding serving the Pontrilas chemical works. I don't know WHAT products they made but they had a HUGE stock of trees. I reckon they may have made creosote and coal-tar type products. A cracking excuse to have some GWR square tankers and perhaps some gas wagons. Here, the products made, could go and serve my yet-undecided works back at Dymented. There is a picture of Pontrilas yard with some GWR bolsters with tree trunks in the raw (cut to length but not sawn to width for example). Perhaps they were intended to go to the chemical works. The siding was originally served off a headshunt and was probably gone when the headshunt became a loop (but I'm keeping it!): This is a view from the operating well side. The land drops from left to right, both the main- and branch-lines go from cutting to embankment, with the A465 cutting across the lower right-hand corner - in reality the A465 follows the railway in parallel for some distance after first passing under the branchline. Width compression just didn't allow the overbridge to be done in a meaningful way: This photo shows the wall side with the land falling from the low hills down towards the river. The fall is three-dimensional as there is a stream that passed under the chemical works (perhaps a water driven wheel?) which was then culverted under the railway - not far from the signal box, which will feature on the adjoining module: This last shot shows the module in place against corner module No.3 (ignore the one to the left - just an intruder in the picture): I'm reasonably pleased (OK, very pleased), with today's outcome as I did think that I would only get things assembled tomorrow. What saved an awful lot of time, was using up battens and glue-blocks that I found already in stock. Tomorrow I WILL need to cut some more and look to see if I can make the Pontrilas module out of the two half-sheets that I found yesterday. I have one end piece already shaped and some cross-members cut to size. I may not need an awful lot of ply as the landform around the station is pretty flat. Cheers, Philip

Oi! Have you been pinching my ideas? I'm only kidding. I knew of Bucks Hill only recently and I tip my hat to you. If I can make my effort look half as good as yours, I shall be very pleased indeed. I'm working in 4mm and therefore do have a slight advantage of space. Here's my proposal - it's all works in progress at the moment, but after 2 years of preparation of the room and starting to build the modules, I'm finally getting there. My model will be based on Pontrilas as it was in the early 1900s but with the track layout more akin to the 1940s where the two sidings were converting into loops on the Hereford side. Those who may want to just see my approach to module building will want to go to page 21 (or thereabouts). Dymented? It's a made-up name (What? Are you kidding?) of a supposed station on the Golden Valley Branch that also duplicates as a station on the Gloucester branch from Ledbury. I've noticed that there are photos missing from the thread since the great RAID mishap of last year. Feel free to ask for them to be replaced as I should still have copies: Well done Mr Bambrick - a superb layout! Kind regards, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, Now I'm on a roll! Today was a far better day for working and ideas were flowing. I griddled my loins again (it's a French thing y'know), and set to. I had decided that I would do a module working back from corner 3 towards Pontrilas - Module Corner 3 minus 1. (To be frank, I've confused myself with the lettering system of my modules and I STILL haven't got my head around it!). This module will be 1100mm long and will lead into the north-eastern throat of Pontrilas station. Once the module is assembled, I'll describe it more fully. This afternoon, I cut out the ends and the cross-members, plus extra ones, and marked out the two sides ready for cutting tomorrow. I will need some more ?????????????????????????????????? You've guessed it, glue-blocks and battens. All being well, I'll have a kit of parts ready for assembly by the evening. The good news is that I found lurking in my pile of assorted odds and ends TWO large pieces of good quality 10mm ply. Once I've done Module Corner 3 minus 1, I shall measure these two nearly-half sized sheets to see if I can at least make a module for the whole of the Pontrilas station platforms. This will allow me to build the station without lots of joints - a similar approach to my construction of Ledbury, where there's only one joint across the platforms. More tomorrow, Cheers, Philip

No update today unfortunately. I decided I'd be a good soldier and mow the lawn as wet weather is forecast for the next few days. It didn't really need a cut but if I hadn't done it, I'm sure it would have been too long afterwards! 25° and damp - grass loves that combination. End result was that I felt really pooped and very sluggish this afternoon. I have looked at options for the module as I now know what useable lengths of ply remain. I have moved some stock around in the railway room so that I can measure up the spaces left. One measurement that made me raise an eyebrow was comparing one space with the 3D drawing that it's showing there's only 3mm difference between theory and practice. I must be getting better at measuring once and cutting twice - err - I think. Hopefully something meaningful tomorrow. Cheers, Philip

Hello @Chimer, I'm working on the basis of 4 per module, so that's ...... err ..... umm ...... aaah ..... 17 x 4 = 68, although about 60, as some of the short ones could share a pair or even bridge. One module will be bridging the stairwell so there won't be any needed on that one. Admittedly the club modules are generally 1.2m x 600mm but they only use 4 legs on the very first module and once it's been set up, all the other modules only have 2 legs placed at the end furthest from module 1. Frankly, I don't much care for their method as the modules are supported by 25 x 25mm timber (1" x 1") that to my mind looks exceedingly spindly (and wobbly), but they've never yet had a problem. In the real world, columns are generally very slender affairs, so I suppose it should work. I shall probably go for 50 x 25mm (2" x 1") as a minimum. I have a stock of 40 x 40mm chevrons (rafters) in stock and will probably use those. Time is coming when I shall have to start mass producing the legs - they won't be a problem - it'll be the supporting piece in the corner of each module that will need to designed and anchored correctly. Cheers, Philip

Hello chaps and chapesses, Our train has arrived at Pontrilas station. I finished Module J this afternoon and it's upstairs adjoining the corner module of last week. The fit is reasonably good, but not as good as when everything was loose-fitted :(. The difference is marginal and it was a small matter of manoeuvring the corner module slightly and it all joined up. In doing the jiggling around, it meant that the horizontal difference between the corner module and the tunnel modules of a few weeks ago is 2mm between the two longitudinal sides - which given the accuracy of my cutting ............... I have enough sheet left to do a small module with high sides or a longer module with low sides ...... what to do? It's a case of doing part of Pontrilas or in-filling a part of the Ledbury tunnel approach. I'm going to have to have a fiddle around in the 3D programme to come up with the answer. In the meantime, here are some pictures: This is the view of Pontrilas station south-west end. The River Dore has meandered from the corner piece (nearest the camera) and cuts across the left-hand corner of the module. To the right is the mainline that has curved over the Dore and the A465 and is just leaving the embankment and entering the cutting leading into Pontrilas tunnel and the station: This a view from the operation well. Following our journey into the station area, the train has entered a cutting approaching the tunnel under what I know as the Orcop road (it has no name on the maps that I have). Longitudinal compression hasn't allowed me to do the bridge/tunnel under the B4347 tho' as mentioned above, my earlier iteration of the plan did have both with the cutting between the two. Despite having a little extra length with which to play, I can't fit it in. In any case I'm now committed to what I have cut and assembled. The pimple on the side piece is the Orcop road above the railway. I wouldn't be surprised if this tunnel was one of the shortest in the UK. I wanted to keep this tunnel as the station footbridge is over the tunnel mouth AND there's an off-side home starter against the tunnel stonework with a white painted 'target (?)' behind it. Alongside to the left is the yard/station access to Pontrilas and towards the end on the left is the goods yard sidings that are above the access and road running alongside: Here we have arrived within the platforms of Pontrilas Station. I've also permitted myself to pre-cut the platform edges (but positions may change when the formation is laid out :( ). At the extreme left of the end piece you can see how the platform is tight against the cutting. On the next module (camera side) the cutting becomes an embankment (similar to Ledbury as it so happens). You can just make out that the Orcop road drops from left to right over the bridge/tunnel and is quite high up: This is a view from the wall side piece. Due to the foreshortening effect of the camera angle the Orcop road looks quite steep. I recall estimating that in reality it's about 1:10: Last photo. This just shows Module J against the corner one. After jiggling the corner one a tad, the fit is quite reasonable and more to the point, I'm very happy with it: Cheers everyone, Philip

No photos - sorry. It was just too darned hot today to do anything meaningful - 32° in the shade but cooler tomorrow. I did a little bit of glueing and screwing towards 5 pm, nothing that needed power tools (Sunday again!). I suspect I shall be helping M. le Maire cut a HUUUUUUUUUGE branch from his willow tree that fell off yesterday just as Mrs Philou and I were passing by on our way to feed his chickens as he was away. The branch limb, more like, is still attached to the top of the tree while the other end has fallen into the stream that flows at the bottom of our gardens. The stream is pretty empty but it has steep sides and cannot be easily accessed so it's going to be a tractor and chain job to get it landed and in a position to cut up. With the parts that I did work upon today, I dry-fitted them all together in-situ in the railway room and it all seemed to fit. If I can cut the last end in the afternoon, it should be all complete - then photos! Cheers, Philip

@Andy Hayter Aww, poor thing. I understand fully it wanting to be in contact. Just mind where you put that fork!