Marly51

I've recently purchased a digital post-war aerial photograph of the area over and around Lairg Station for our local history society. I am not entitled to post it here as it is for research purposes only, but NCAP may add it to their online catalogue as I understand the licence fee pays for the digitising of the image. In which case, I shall post the link here later. Our archive has a number of old black and white photographs relating to the station but we are still checking out provenance on those which look like they are copies from specific collections such as George Washington Wilson Archive at Aberdeen University.

Loving it! My daughter is a Steampunk fan so might get her involved if she has time!

Definitely anything goes!!! Lots of options...

Drew Hastie has retained his company name Dundas Models supplying narrow gauge rolling stock kits.

Glorious day today after all the snow and popped down to Lairg Station to take some reference photos... Lairg Station looking south (Sadly the main station building has a mesh wire fence in front of the original low platform, the platform edge having been broken away. North of the main building the platform was raised, resulting in the lower step of the footbridge being embedded in tarmac) Waiting Room - Lairg Station (you can see here the original low platform which was typical of some of the Highland Railway Stations. A couple of platform footstools are still available for passengers) Some shots at the old oil depot at Lairg. The lower image is of the buffer stop on the siding used for loading and unloading livestock. Lairg Livestock Market is nearby to the east of the station. There were two old oil depots at Lairg Station, which were replaced by the third depot in 1969. All of the old sidings track has been lifted and stacked. I have photo prints from 15 years ago, which I shall scan and upload occasionally. At some point I am keen to build up a collection of my own drawings from surveying buildings, which I can also make available to anyone modelling the Far North Line.

I agree Geoff. Think I might hold on completeing the painting of the boiler of the 'Rocket' until I see how the buildings and overall scenery pans out. Treating this as a fun project!

Stephenson's Rocket kit half assembled and painting it as I go - got to decide if I should just weather the traditional yellow body or go for a completely different colour. Cobbled alleyway is also nearly finished, but a bit fiddly - will post pictures shortly.

Thanks for sharing your techniques, Shaun.

Great result - just found your layout thread. Very impressed with your layout. Marlyn

I’m experimenting with scratchbuilding/designing buildings as well - quite involved process, as you say, but very rewarding. Marlyn

Thanks Jim, I had, and meant to post the link, so thanks for doing this in your post. I agree the Edinburgh Photographs website is a great resource. When I find any old drawings which may be of interest to folk modelling the Edinburgh railway network, I’ll try and get permission to post them here as well. Marlyn

These two N scale Edinburgh trams may have to be part of a smaller diorama. The nearest tram route to the proposed model is Slateford Road...

Another good reference book arrived in the post today...

I used this same method, but used some fine ‘tarmac’ scatter - however I found the scatter a bit coarse and tried compressing it when still wet (This was for a rural Station). What do you use for the edging stones? I wondered if the masking tape lifted any of the detail? Marlyn

We still have snow drifts here, so decided not to dig my way to the workshop until there is a thaw. Been practising creating my own paper kit of a local station in Adobe Photoshop. After skewing the elevation photographs, then scaling them to size, there is the tedious job of editing out unwanted features and cloning stonework! Discovered I can arrange to visit the Edinburgh City Historic Archive to research the Merchiston buildings - I might produce paper kits of these as well, if I have enough reference material. http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20249/edinburgh_city_archives

I downloaded and adapted this kit as well, Job. Enjoying reading through your older posts and blog. Marlyn

I am new to RMWeb, Job. Enjoying reading your blog. Monday was washday and most kitchens had a ceiling mounted, ‘pulley’ (air drying rack). On wet Mondays the washing was brought indoors and newspaper had to be put on the floor to soak up any drips, while we sat and had our evening meal ‘tea’ around the kitchen table.

Hi Annie - enjoying learning more about the early model railways through your posts and others. I knew about litho printed paper details for dollshouses like Schoenhut and Bliss, but had not been aware of their use in wagons and coaches. My daughter had one of those pull-along nodding dogs in the early 1990s (new from the Early Learning Centre) and the wooden body still had a printed detail on the main body of the toy. Sorry to hear you are not well, but hope you feel able to do a little modelling soon? All the best, Marlyn

Hi Peter - I like using texture papers in some models, but like to have some relief as well. The slates do look really good on this model, but as you say it can be a lot of extra work when it comes to a larger building. Lovely modelmaking and hopefully you will post some pictures of the diorama as well?

Thanks to everyone who has contributed their techniques to this thread - it has all been very helpful - I’m slowly getting to grips with Model Railway electrics - much appreciated. Thanks Railway Scenics for your explanation as well - your online shop has also been handy for a number of other railway related items as well. Marlyn

The stonework detail is great! I have some Foamex board and would like to try this technique sometime. I took part in a workshop run by David Wright where we applied DAS modelling clay onto the wall surface area, then scribed the stonework with the back of a Stanley knife blade - there’s no getting away from this being a time consuming process, but well worth it for the results. I also agree with you about dormer windows, sometimes it takes me couple of goes before I get the right angle between the main roof and the dormer. I had forgotten how much I loved modelmaking and glad to be getting into it after many years.

That’s the way to do it - you have a nice pace to your modelling. I’ve agreed to help with two layouts for a project and trying to fit in some personal modelling in between! I like seeing the different approaches folk have to the hobby.

Enjoying reading about your layout - how is it progressing? Marlyn

Jim and Charlie Connor’s ‘Harford Street’ Layout reminds me of the grittiness of post war Edinburgh, especially the industrial areas around Dundee Street. I would like to attempt to create a similar atmosphere for the Merchiston model. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/9539-harford-street-original-layout-now-superseded/

I thought this was an old book, but my copy was published in 1951! Found it when I was researching card building techniques...