Nick Gough

I'll look forward to hearing from you.

Yes, planning to Brian.

Milton Keynes?

If he leaves it much longer it will have to be replaced by a Nimrod.

I thought you might like that! The station looked more inviting then than it does now:

This is part of another photo from the same volume: Behind the bricks of the platform edging the surface of the platform ramp is clearly not a solid material. It's difficult to tell but the platform surface adjacent to the building may be a different material. Incidentally the same photo is also in 'A Pictorial Record of Great Western Absorbed Engines', where it states that the locomotive, (which I have omitted) No. 7 Llanerchydol (Sharp-Stewart 0-4-2), was withdrawn in 1894, just after the photo.

Another culvert under construction: This time to go under the branch line:

Just use a beer mat - plenty did!

Did you mean to put this post in the Hornby TV show thread? 🙂

With the two culvert entrances in place, some 'Blue Peter' fun with bits of cereal packet: Newspaper & glue: This area is the fork between the main lines and the branch. With the baseboard for the branch curve in position: The trackbed for the branch is absent, but follows the line of the arrows. A first coat of brown:

I try to avoid it though not always successfully. I'm not too concerned if I just get a little in since it fits in with a weathered effect. The 'drier'the brush the easier to avoid any 'bleed' though.

I painted the mortar first, slapping on plenty of Humbrol cream acrylic, before carefully wiping the brick faces with a paper serviette (good old McDonald's takeaway). After drying time, I dry brushed the brick colour, Humbrol 67 - Tank grey - acrylic, two coats. I now prefer to do the mortar first since my earlier attempts, mortar second, tended to leave the bricks looking anaemic. Finally, I used this to tone the colour down:

I painted the culvert exit: Of course the mortar is too clean and bright so it was toned down with a black wash: Before glueing in to place on the layout. I wanted to create a proper culvert effect behind the opening so took another piece of plastic plumbing pipe. Since I needed the pipe to have a larger radius, I cut a small longitudinal section out of it and forced it over a piece of wood to open it out further: Having dropped it into a mug of boiling water for a few seconds the pipe retained its new size and shape, ready to be stuck behind the opening: To give the effect I was after: The other culvert/pedestrian tunnel also painted and toned down:

The photos were fairly close but also cropped. Perhaps this gives a better indication of the size:

A few weeks ago I was going through my collection of Great Western Journals when it occurred to me that I have never read them all properly - just dipping in for various articles over the last thirty years. So I decided to make a determined effort to read the whole series thoroughly as soon as I could. Somewhat perversely I decided to start with number 84 (since I haven't looked through the more recent issues as much) and work to the final one (103) before returning to the start of the series with the preview edition. I have just finished these two: So, in the last month, I have read 26 issues - about a quarter of the whole run. It's been a good reminder of what a useful, interesting and informative resource this magazine was, and I've picked up so many items of use for future modelling efforts.

Also, the Wills sheets, being much smaller than Slaters, would probably require some obvious 'joins' on most of the structures I have been making for Cholsey. Having said that, I guess that the Wills version is probably easier to paint with its deeper mortar courses.

Thanks Chris. They are Slater's brick sheets. I have some Wills sheets as well, but the bricks on them look a bit too big, to me, for 4mm scale.

A bit further on:

Making a start with the entrance and exit for the culvert:

Nice one Chris. Now you can play all the right notes - but not necessarily in the right order.

Brickwork added to the culvert: Looking in the opposite direction, the tunnel parapet has been thickened and brickwork added behind, and to the sides, though it won't normally be visible: The embankment needs to be created sloping down from the trackbed, in the foreground, to the bottom of the parapet. I am now looking at the other culvert under the main line: Which, on the original side, again shews evidence of later alterations: Where it emerges, on the other side, it is again difficult to view due to the undergrowth:

On the other side of the main line the tunnel entrance looks different being, at least partly, the original, Brunel construction: The blockwork at the top must be fairly modern though, I guess, the blue brickwork on the parapet may date from the quadrupling work of 1892, or early 20th century. The culvert entrance for the stream is a lot clearer on this side: Though looks like it might have been renewed in the BR era.

I glued all the pieces of the shelf together and fixed it into position on the baseboard. I then cut a piece of ply and glued it vertically at the front face of the pedestrian tunnel: Next I drew up a number of brick arches for my 'Silhouette' to cut out: One of these arches was for the top of the tunnel, surrounded by brick embossed plastikard, another for the culvert below: A couple of plastikard wingwalls mounted on ply: Coping stones to be added later. Hopefully provides a reasonable representation of the real bridge: This area is very overgrown now, but I think it is just possible to see the culvert in the right bottom corner of this photo I found:

Are you sure that yours isn't the wrong way round, Neal? 😉

Don't tell him, Pike!