GDR

Friend of mine was a short-trousered train spotter in 40s/50s (&still with us!!). Travelled about as a kid cos of his dad's job & saw much. Ask him about liveries & he'll say "Everything was black. Some were reddish black, some greenish black, but black".

I've always gone for figures being static ie leaning on post, sitting on bench, dog asleep not running, otherwise it all looks like the Pompeii museum. Figures: the old Airfix range is useful, and made of soft plastic. Example: US Civil War Union infantry gave me multiple footplate crew. Scalpel down the hat into a railman's cap, chop off rucksack/gun etc et voila. For poses it's a hot nail to bend limbs & torsoes. I once turned a Subbuteo goalkeeper into Jose Mourinho, suit n tie, tearing his hair out doing that^.

Thankyou Johnster et al for mentioning seasonal blossoms Going to have to read Countryside Diary in the paper now. Last time I did trees I was ok with pulling apart domestic 3core wire as mentioned above. Limbs & roots ready made. Ok, every 2nd one was so **** it was discarded, but hey, never throw out a little piece of wire. Foliage was from dried out scraped moss which comes ready multi coloured. And don't forget the green mould on the north(?) side of the trunk.

Not tried it on Peco sleepers but works on other plastic: pin/nail in pliers, hold over lighter/candle. Insulated thumb needed to push in (or use end of the lighter). Smelly, you need a few pins, but precision drilling.

And DO NOT be tempted to use the vacated cat litter for ballast/wagon loads/anything other than feline latrine. Once bitten....

Bible's full of hermits to flick through. Is there a handy St.Simons? Think he was the one who lived on top of a pillar.

An education this thread is. Yeah Marc, glad I asked! Mind now racing with ideas. While we're here, a quick off-piste question (thread-starter's privilege): How do you get rid of the grey arrows on a completed SCARM diagram?

PS - excellent point..I remember from my Council-worker days that every shed or store had stuff thrown behind it (hidden by the weeds) that we were supposed to have disposed of sensibly!

Great stuff both! Thanks! But TJ - what does C&W stand for? Do I have a very young Kenny Rogers standing about somewhere?

Hi all ! If there's another thread hiding somewhere about this please advise. If not I could do with some suggestions..... I'm modelling Dinsdale, a BLT on the Great Dales Rlwy, an independent enclave in LMS-land. It's the summer of '39. The place is busy enough to justify 2 stopping goods daily. Other traffic: sheep (weekly market day at Barnstoneworth, other end of branch, is a biggie), a coal siding, as well as ins'n'outs for a small brewery conveniently just offf-stage . My question: What buildings, huts & sheds would sit in such a yard? Starting with the obvious I've come up with the following so far: Goods shed & office/cattle dock/weighbridge & office/lock-up store for thieveables (or would they lock stuff in the goods shed overnight?)/lamp store/WC? (it's a long walk to the signalbox karzy)/mess-hut?/store for shunting poles, shovels etc.... and would there be a night watchman employed? So what have I missed? Also how many of the above would be purpose built vs old wagon bodies? And what other general crap would be lying about? Dave

Just getting back into this after a long layoff, but when I was doing it before I used fishing line (sea angling size) with plastic tubing from the pub. When the pubs re-open they've ALL got a pile of offcuts in the cellar. Under baseboard we go. A right angle = cut off tube, go round a nail, proceed with more tube. Operated at base-camp by Meccano-type bits made into a signal box frame, which friends liked (they could be a signalman!). When your tube & line emerge mole-like up to the real world of the railway your camouflage techniques come to the fore. I've seen a lot of layouts that ignore the fact that the average station or yard had piles of crap EVERYWHERE. Piles of ballast, those broken barrels no-one ever shifted, tall weeds, the wagon body used as a whatever.... Back to you all when the rest goes wrong!