Buckjumper

In lieu of an airbrush, the haze can be produced by several very patient dry-brushing sessions, but it's a bit of a mental battle to persevere.

That's a lovely collection of photos, from some of the comments it looks like I found the album a few years ago but had forgotten about it. Further divergence may be had by perusing this Flickr album, and the clarity of some of these shots is astonishing:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hisgett/sets/72157626617067470/

I mean...what's there not to like about the pre-Grouping period?

Catching up...

Agree with all the thumbs up above! Although an overline bridge from the fiddle yard is often considered a modeller's clich

Just catching up...

The LSW van is lovely, and I like the pre-shading effect of the darker base coat; detail can get lost in deep browns and this has brought them out nicely. Dave's technique of long bristles in the fibreglass pen to fade lettering works well, and then of course (if you have one) there's always the option of an airbrush and well-thinned mist coats of the base colour and/or traffic grime.

As others have said, the outdoor photos with the summer sun casting the network of shadows is incredibly atmospheric.

Shelob looks like a nasty beastie.  Are you sure Farthing isn't located in Mordor?

Very ad hoc, as are thingamajigs and wotchamacallits.

Of course now you have volume 1, volumes 2 and 3 will shortly call across the wind. Volume 4 is about the futuristic designs of an entity called the SR which exists in an a kind loose federation of polities called The Grouping. Very H.G. Wells if you ask me, and best ignored unless you like that sort of fiction...

Brilliant Al, it looks so simple, and the speed of the gates looks about right to me. My significant Achilles heel has always been in the electrickery department (to quote my old Physics Master after having lobbed a stick of chalk at my head with uncanny accuracy; "You're a cabbage, boy!"). This sort of thing usually goes in one ear and out the other without encountering resistance (sorry!), but it does seem fairly easy to apply. You might have actually done the impossible and motivated me to explore the application of servos.

Excellent, I do like this, and such a simple conversion from the MR wagon too; plans brewing for one in 7mm delivering crates of original Cirencester roundtuits to East London...

I'm in broad agreement with webbcompound:

Nice work! I always find your posts interesting Job because you use completely different materials to the ones I do, and the results always look  fabulous.

Despite continuing to play down your engineering skills, your inventiveness and application is definitely superior to your every-day oligochaeta. However, I'm desperately disappointed that we didn't see the traverser built in time-lapse video to the strains of Rimsky-Korsakov 

I toyed with the idea of using one of the place names from Trollope's Barsetshire for a while and was quite taken by the name Uffley until Mikkel pointed out that in Danish it sounds like an expression of disgust!

 

 I suppose a nearby GNR station, Cuffley, is downright censorable in Danish

Wow, nice! Totally agree with Al - the feeling of spaciousness already gives it a very special ambience. The 517 shunting in the last 2 photos is nigh on perfect.

If your scenery is to the standard you've applied to everything else so far I think this could be one of the defining layouts of its time, certainly as much as Petherick, Faringdon or Hursley were benchmarks in the 80s and 90s, and perhaps more so.

Between you and Mikkel I have to exercise self-control or I could end up thinking a little too much about the attraction ad feasibility of Edwardian GW BLTs.

This is right up my cobbled street. My favoured is the girl next door - the Great Eastern - and my project, Basilica Fields is set in a similar timeframe, c1890-1907. I had initially intended to run up to 1914, but was already dealing with too many anachronisms without having to contend with the blatantly visual changes to the permanent way and signalling in the middle of the Edwardian period on the GER so dialled it back a bit. My project allows several other companies to make an appearance, and the NLR is one which could have a cameo at some point.

As you've probably found out , there is a dearth of kits available; a nice set of etching for the 51 class but no castings from Kemilway, and three kits for the Park 0-6-0T. The Andrews kit has recently gone out of production, but he was also behind the Gladiator (nee Javelin) kit which has recently been upgraded. I'd greatly favour that over the Ace kit which can be very hit & miss in quality.

However, the NLR was the White Van Man of the 1890s and 1900s; having accrued running rights over various other companies lines, it shuttled goods on their behalf in their wagons all across London, so NLR locos could be seen rubbing shoulders with the GER, GNR, GWR, LNWR, and Midland - especially in the Docks. A bit of modeller's licence and you could have an NLR Park 0-6-0T shunting alongside a GER 0-6-0T, a GNR 0-6-0ST, a GWR 0-6-0ST, an LNWR 0-6-0T and a Midland 0-4-4T. The only bit of scratchbuilding you'd need to do initially is an NLR brake van.

A nice example of companies occupying the same lines is the layout Arnold Lane and Millwall Goods. Google is your friend, but here's a few links for starters:

https://www.model-railways-live.co.uk/Layouts/35/Millwall_Goods_And_Arnold_Lane/

http://wiganfrmexhibitionphotography.weebly.com/millwall-goods--arnold-lane.html (photos a bit washed out, but a Park tank is in there)

A bit of video:

In regards to the point rodding I'm fairly clueless and am going to need all the help I can get! 

Then I can recommend the comprehensive and fully illustrated (photos and diagrams) 13-page guide to point rodding in the most recent Great Western Railway Journal #89 and is worth the cover price alone (the 25 page article on West Ealing was right up my street too!).

I suppose one of the first decisions to make is whether or not this little branch line terminus would have warranted a signal box or not.  If not then I could either have a small platform mounted lever frame to control the slip point complex along with individual levers for the crossover at the end of the run round loop.  I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice on this aspect of the layout, this and the correct type of signalling are definitely on the "Need to find out more list!"

There are a number of members on here who have a comprehensive knowledge of GW practice in this area - you're much safer taking advice from them! Wouldn't want to make the layout look like a subshed of Stratford

 

 

p s  I hope things are beginning to dry out in your part of the world!

 

Thanks, but very slowly, unfortunately. Trying to get the loss adjuster, insurance company and surveyors to even talk to each other to progress the claim is...frustrating. Problem is that there are so many people in the same situation and manpower resources are not only finite but stretched to the limit. Latest estimate to completion, now nine weeks in, is at least another six months.

The sweeping curve looks fantastic Dave, and the short track panels between the switch & crossing work is full of character.

Looking ahead, and apols if this is teaching granny to suck eggs, but it's worth thinking about the point rodding before ballasting, particularly placing the stool sadles and where rods pass under the rail.

All Components do miniature plug and socket sets which are as cheap as chips:

http://www.allcomponents.co.uk/product/miniature-plug-and-socket-sets-11706.html

Interesting post Mike. When talking about the upper-middle and upper classes colours were another key; the dark heavy colours of the middle decades of the century giving way to pastels, especially shades of green, though the older generations continued to wear the darker shades. Top hats shrunk in height too, but again the older generation tended to continue wearing the taller hats. Of course at any given time there were always a percentage of ladies in mourning dress. Lower classes were obviously less flamboyant with dark colours prevailing.

Graham Beare (Western Star) wrote some useful entries on 1890s GW Permanent Way my blog three years ago when I thought the first segment for Basilica was going to be the Metropolitan & Widened Lines with a GW siding off the former. Plenty of pointers towards source material, drawings and modelling info. Worth a look? Links to individual posts below. I will be returning to Artillery Lane and Gun Street in the future.

GW PW for Gun Street depot part 1 PW and S&C practice for the GW in the 1890s - sources.

GW PW for Gun Street depot part 2 PW and S&C practice for sidings in the 1890s including drawings from Harvie (1898)

GW PW in the Victorian period

GW chairs

Modelling the PW for Basilica Fields includes GW 32ft rail & 13 sleepers

Tr

Hi-de-hi campers; perhaps in 'cool' terms more Paul Shane than the Fonze, that chap. Non UK residents may want to look that one up...

Nice work Job.

Nice looking loco and a fantastic looking model. I understand the swine factor isn't solely the lot of the shot-down 4mm version and that the 7mm one has it's own set of challenges in the motion and requires significant butchery of the cylinders in order to get it to go round curves.

There was a layout in the RM in the late 80s - Blaenycwm I think - which had colliery sidings on a gradient, and locos uncoupled and left the wagons seemingly parked up with their brakes on.

ISTR the trick was simply a length of wire concealed in a hole in the track which came up under the wagons at least to axle height,  preventing them from running back down the hill.

Small job but a massive improvement! I like your restrained weathering of the stone too.

Looks lovely and flows very nicely Dave! I agree with Ian, the incline is a great idea and will add interest (motorised gate to the siding?).

Now, you are going to treat us to a little video of the first loco aren't you [/necklock]

That was five years ago Mike! Wasn't too far out though was I?

Ugh! Late to the party again - still not getting the update notices.

Oh boy, this is looking very interesting now. 

I know the location of Farthing has always been left deliberately vague, but (personal preference, probably) I'd always imagined it somewhere between PDN and Oxford (despite the 0-4-4T!), so it's interesting to see ideas coming together from both within and without the GW system, and I'm looking forward to see how you make it all gel.

Of course I'm delighted that you've decided to stick with the Edwardian period. The 40s is a very interesting time of great change, but the pre-Group period is a tenacious beastie and once it's got its hooks in you...

I love this concept Job. Perhaps an mp3 player and speaker under the baseboard with some contemporary music coming from the record shop adding verisimilitude