Goose95

Fortunately the weather cleared up for about half an hour, just long enough to get outside and spray on the main coat following masking. Not sure if anyone else has had any luck using Humbrol's masking fluid or has any tips for future use, this time definitely went better than previous attempts but still needed a lot of touching up to look vaguely presentable. In all honesty it will probably go through another touch up once this coat is fully dry as the lining is still a bit rough. Still, I'm happy with how the colour scheme is going for the line.

Thanks Dave, it was meant to be the West Sussex Railway but on reading that you had used HMRS transfers it seemed silly not to rearrange them! Also wanted to say thank you as Bridport Town was the layout that got me into 7mm narrow gauge.

The weather this week hasn't been great up here in the Valleys but once it brightens up I can get on with spraying the outside shell of the L&B coach, how I envy those with a workshop or shed. In the meantime the interior and chassis have been painted and are ready for the outer shell, glazing, transfers, weathering...... so much still to do. One job I've come to realise I will need to do is scratch-building motive power, as much as I like my Smallbrook 'Iris' I think the West Sussex probably would've had its own unique motive power for when it opened with the little Hudswell joining them at a later date. Challenge there is to try an pick a design to work from let alone what comes next. It'll probably end up mostly plastikard since I wouldn't even describe myself as a novice with a soldering iron...

The Slater's coach has gone together very well so far, enough that I could put the two shells together loosely with the bogies attached to see how freely it runs (very!). The body seems rather keen to rock from side to side but hopefully with some added weight along the centre I'm hoping this might be lessened. Still need to add the running boards and fix the roof to the outer shell prior to painting to make it more stable. Finished off by assembling a mixed train with some of the other stock under construction at the moment.

Now received a much anticipated package from Slater's containing some of their embossed plastikard sheets among other things. I haven't been able to find a kit of a building suitable for converting to a narrow gauge engine or carriage shed so they will both need to be scratch-built from the corrugated iron and shipboard sheets. Inspiration is mainly coming from those structures on the Southwold and L&B railways with the Middleton Press book for the latter being particularly good having scale drawings of some of the buildings included. Also in the package was one of their kits for L&B Coaches 15/16, I've not yet built one of Slater's kits yet but my first impressions from trimming and dry fitting some of the parts are very good. The details are really good and the construction should make painting the thing far easier (hope I haven't now jinxed it).

Getting on with testing the plan a little more before committing to getting baseboards just yet by drawing out the plan full size to see how it feels with some rolling stock to give a better idea. One of the things I really want to achieve is a sense of space so that front siding may need to be brought further out. On another note I think the station buildings are coming along alright so far, just need some more weathering and a few notice boards to go on.

After a few years away from the hobby whilst at uni and following completion of renovation work on the house it seemed like a good time to get back into it and have a go at building my first 'proper' layout (the obligatory train set in my parents spare room was dismantled some time back now). Straight away I was coming up with plans for a terminus to fiddle yard layout based on the North Cornwall lines in 4mm scale that would fit nicely in the designated study/railway room of the new house which at 10' 10" x 9' 10" and no awkward doors or built-in cupboards was too good not to use! Then lock-down happened keeping me either stuck in the office or sat at home and the prospect of launching into a large(ish) project for a first layout quickly started to show some flaws, so back to the drawing board. Instead I have gone back to one of my old plans I came up with a few years back when reading up on the Selsey Tramway which in its later history re-named itself to the West Sussex Railway (Tramway Section) despite there being no other sections to distinguish itself from......or was there? And so the West Sussex Light Railway has come into being. I propose that with the opening of the Portsmouth Direct Line and the South Coast Line the residents of the small valleys on the edge of the South Downs felt bypassed and so in the late 19th century formed together to build a 2'6" line from the mainline at Bosham north to Compton with a branch later built up to East Marden along with shorter branches to serve the various mills that were present around the southern section of the route. The plan (bottom) is inspired by a plan I'd seen in a book on micro layouts which after some re-drawing I think I'm happy with in terms of being relatively simple but should be interesting to operate. The idea is that Compton represents the site of the WSLR's locomotive and carriage sheds as the target town of the original route but now (late 1920s) the line has quietly settled into its role as a common carrier still busy with the agricultural traffic of the area although the lines finances are starting to dip. The line off to the right of the layout beyond the platform/milk dock leads to a supposed mill of some agricultural product which should make shunting a little more challenging although I do wonder if an additional short spur in the goods yard leading to an end loading dock might work. The scenic area is 6' x 3' split between 3 boards of 3' x 2'.

Hi Dave, Really lovely work here especially with breaking up the scene, makes it seem like the railway is running through the town rather than past it. Out of interest, what kits are the IoM coaches made from?