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Thats very neat work John! You've even included the joints in the main gutters.

Ha ha! Not heard that one. I wonder who they could have been?!

There was a trailing siding up towards Clevedon East in the north bound direction for a joinery works but this was further up than the saw mills. When operating we sometimes run a waggon load of timber and a van from the station as a trip working. There was a goods yard of sorts comprising 3 grounded van bodies between there and the station too. The WCPR website has detail maps here: https://www.wcpr.org.uk/Clevedon_1932_OS_map.html https://www.wcpr.org.uk/Clevedon_East_Detail_Map.html https://www.wcpr.org.uk/Clevedon_area_map.html On another matter, I was amazed to find 15 previous unseen photos of the WCPR on Roger Carpenter's stand at Scaleforum yesterday. I've never seen any photos of the joinery siding though. I do have a couple of the gas works sidings and the Peter Strange book has a shot showing the siding and the shed where the Argentine bogie coaches were assembled. edited for accuracy!

Thanks Mikkel

That's really interesting thanks!

I'm happy to report that the layout's been put up ahead of the outing to Uckfield and all is well. I took the opportunity of giving the scenery a bit of a refresh, adding some ground cover and trees as I've been using all the stuff on Cheddar anyway. An additional hedge or two help break up the previously plain grass to the right hand end. One of my operators has very kindly provided a traction engine and trailer, hauling some timber for Clevedon Saw Mills and it'll make a nice cameo in the yard. Better than the post war Thornycroft for sure!! Engine No 5 and the Taff Vale Coach have been given a spin and all seem to work well. Some little jobs to finish things off but I'm really pleased. Some photos are attached. Excuse some of the bizarre angles, I'm trying to avoid showing the clutter in the rest of the railway room. Now, have I got time to repaint the ex LSWR set into the correct livery after 15 years in the wrong one...

The coach is finished, painted and ready for service. Or will be once I've put some AJ's on. The body was sprayed with plastic primer then dark green (Railmatch DMU). The chassis is bits of Bill Bedford W irons and other odds and ends. Handrails etc are folded up from 0.3mm brass. The steps are 1mm angle for the supports with the treads from waste etch. I got the ducket lamp tops from Branchlines and that's about it. The wagon had also been finished and once I've given them a light waft of weathering with the airbrush and dealt with a little patches of errant roof grey, both will be released to service at the Uckfield show next month. The show itself will have a bit of a Colonel Stephens theme about it so if you're into that sort of thing (and why wouldn't you be), please come along and say hello.

It'll just find its own level between the two nearest posts which are glued. A drop of glue and re-setting with tweezers would be required. I've used this method on Wheal Elizabeth and Clevedon and never needed to re-fix anything.

The two anchors at either end fix the height of each of the strands in the fence. When pulled taught, you then have straight lines between the two ends. You don't have any allowance for changes in ground levels along the way at the points inbetween. If the fence passes over a depression in the ground into which the posts are fixed, the wires will therefore be an unrealistic height above this as it passes in a straight line. The opposite is true if the ground rises over a crest. The traveller is positioned at each post, then the strands glued to it as you go. In this way, the strands are always at the correct height for each post, rather than the extremities. Does that make sense? I feel an article coming on!

I confess I didn't. There is just the smattering from above to indicate apples. If you turned the trees over, you'd see hundreds of course. Ahem...!

Thanks. It's not irrelevant at all. Please keep them coming! I'll add a tractor and a rotting hay cart to the shopping list. If you have any other nuggets, I'd be delighted to hear from you. I have no recollection of the line pre closure so it's all good stuff for me. I'm really interested in the cottage that lay on the north side between the stone loading shed and the goods shed. I've very few photos of that to go on.

Thanks

This week I have been mostly planting apple trees and making GWR line side fencing. The fencing is made from Evergreen 1.5mm square strip, cut into 20mm lengths to represent the 5ft posts. I worked out some time ago that if you cut this with a pair of Xuron track shears, you are left with one flush and one pointed end either side of the cut. Perfect for forming the top of the post with a few strokes of a file. Some of the post bases are then drilled 0.5mm and brass wire inserted to act as a pin. These were inserted at 6ft centres, secured with cyano and painted with Vallejo acrylics. The wire is EZ line, an elasticated thread I bought from Exactoscale years ago. Installation requires a jig, which consists of two ends and a traveller, all drilled to the required wire spacing which increased the nearer the top of the post. Each of the two ends is drilled and a pair of wires inserted in each, since these will act as anchors during installation and two wires prevent rotation of the anchors. The traveller is not drilled. Next, comes the really irritating bit where you thread lengths of EZ line through the anchors and travellers, securing each ends with small squares of tape. Once you've done all the wires (I cheated and left the very bottom one off), the whole things is ready for installation. The two anchors are secured either ends beyond the limit of the posts and then the traveller used to set the wires at each post. A smear of cyano is applied with a brush and then the whole thing held in place for a few seconds allowing the glue to take before moving on to the next post. Once dry, the anchors are cut free ready for re-use. The gap I'd left for the posts was then treated with static grass. Photos explain the sequence. jig on the bench. Either end is secured into polystyrene to allow line to be threaded. Anchors at either end of the layout Installation all complete There was an apple orchard on the north side of the line here and I wanted to try and capture this quintessential aspect of Somerset. The branches are Woodlands scenics plastic armatures, sprayed with a mixture of grey primer and beige. The foliage is postiche, sprayed with lacquer and sprinkled with a selection of Green Scene scatter and finished with a sprinkling of red to represent the apples. I'm waiting for someone to tell me that you wouldn't be able to see the apples during the strawberry season but rule no 1 applies here. All I need now are a couple of Gloucester Old Spots and I'll have my very own orchard pigs! Next up is the stone loading shed, and somehow I've got to fill the empty allotment patch with strawberry bushes. Oh, and the bridge still needs the up advance starter. Hmm... These couple of boards are getting there slowly but I'm really pleased with how they're turning out. view from the bridge couldn't resist!

looks good. I've a few to build myself.

Had a very enjoyable day yesterday. Drove up from Somerset on a whim, ended up helping on members sales for most of the day! Great selection of layouts and nice to have a catch up with people. Always a very good show.

Like it! You need the Mended Drum though!

Thanks Mike The basic ground cover is a blend of Heki 3367 (wild grass meadow green) and 3368 (wild grass forest floor). I then tend to waft Green Scenes straw from a puffer bottle over the top of that to lighten that. Green Scenes foam is sprinkled onto that for the basic layer. The next layer is postiche, teased out to about 4cm by 4cm squares and sprayed with adhesive before being sprinkled with a selection of Green Scenes foams (sorry don't have the references). Key is never to use the same bag on adjacent pieces. Hedges and larger bushes are rubberised horsehair, teased out sprayed with grey primer before adhesive and darker Green Scenes foams again. Hope that helps. Andrew

So I've sanded back the road to represent a metalled surface. I do have a bag of mendip roadstone which should be suitable! The retaining wall's been painted in a selection of acrylics and pounced with talc and quarry scenic dust. A bit more weathering and dry brushing is required yet. More hedging has been laid and I've been adding a selection of ground cover, mainly using postiche covered with foam. The second board has had its initial covering of static grass and I'll be working my way down through the boards. Takes a long time to do anything, though I'm quite liking the view down the line towards the bridge. I'd left a strip of masking tape under the static grass which I can remove so as to add the line side fence later (i.e. when I can't put it off any longer). Next step is an orchard, maybe the up advance starter signal by the bridge and then the Callow Rock stone loading point shelter. A load of brass angle has duly arrived.

Thanks gents The body's now been primed and I've more or less finished the chassis.

I was reminded at Railwells that I'm taking Clevedon out to an exhibition in October. As Adrian cheerfully asked 'are you ready for Uckfield yet?' I realised that I haven't done anything on Clevedon since the end of the Tolworth show last November, blog update included. Well there's nothing like a looming deadline to get the creative juices flowing so I've embarked on a little distraction from the Cheddar scenery. First up was wagon No 19. This was a 7ft wheelbase 3 plank dropside of supposedly Midland origin and was used to convey milk churns. I've only ever seen photos of it on the dump road at Clevedon but no matter. The basis of the wagon is a cut and shut Slaters 3 plank drop side. There was a moment of brief distress when I realised that I was working in 4mm not 3mm scale. 7ft equates to 28mm not 21mm wheelbase. Unfortunately I did not realise this until I'd finished it. Doh...! (Adam if you're reading this I doubt you ever have this sort of calamity). Some further cutting and shutting duly commenced, using the residual bits left over from the initial attempt. Still an intermediate strap to add back in along with some primitive door bangers, but we're heading in the right direction. I bet Geoff Kent doesn't have this trouble... Still, with a bit of corrective surgery... Next, I turned my attention to the Taff Vale Coach which ran as No 18 and which the WCPR bought from the GWR in 1926, who themselves acquired it from the Taff Vale Railway at grouping. Or did they? Supposed wisdom has it (Kidner) that the coach was a 26ft brake second number either 219 or 220. However I've been on a voyage of discovery with the Welsh Railway Circle and the Colonel Stephens Museum and it's looking like the coach was neither of these two. Indeed, there are a couple of other candidates (no's 0227 and 0228) which might be the donor. The main source of information for pregrouping carriage stock taken over by the GWR is Eric Mountford's 'GWR Absorbed Coaching Stock' of 1978. The trouble is the guards ducket. They were at the end on TVR coaches so it looks like the vehicle was altered in some way. Or may not even be TVR origin. Certainly very interesting. In the end I decided to make the body 26ft as it suits both 0227 and 0228. Anyway, once I had removed my anorak of inquisitiveness, I set about marking up some plasticard. copying the photos I have. Construction is pretty much as per the David Jenkinson Wild Swan book of a few years ago. Plasticard layers to represent panelling, droplight etc. In this case it's a 5 thou outer panel over a 10 thou layer with a further 10 thou for the droplight sash. Di-Lemonine is the solvent used for overlaying. The good thing is I'm only making the one. Otherwise I'd have gone down the etched route as the plasticard is not the neatest. If it's like the two ex LSWR saloons I built, a lot of the imperfections will be lost under the layers of paint. The layers sit over a box/frame of 20 thou for roof and sub floor. The under frame is Evergreen strip and I've fished out some Bill Bedford NPCS sprung units for the W irons. The guards duckets were cut out separately and added to the sides later. The roof is on and it's all presently hardening off ready for a coat of primer tomorrow. Just the footboards and some rivet detail to add. Initial cut out for outer panels panels stuck to inner frame details of frame including formed tumble home ends ducket sides added body hardening off Door hinges, under frame and bollections added. End steps too

Certainly do. I spent a year of my life on site taking it down in 1997-8. I could regale you with stories of what we saw going on in the Grosvenor Hotel, or the fiasco of a closure ceremony which some bright PR spark decided to do live on HTV but was sabotaged by an open top bus and a group of male strippers... Ironically, the roundabout we built in its place is now itself being removed in favour of a cross roads and set of traffic lights. That's progress I suppose, though I'm still a little upset they cut all the London Plane trees down that we planted too! Still, at least they are now finding all the things we left buried, har har.

Queen Square 1951: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/2055448740/in/album-72157615718335654/ Warning you can lose hours on Paul Townsend's Flikr site: https://www.flickr.com/people/brizzlebornandbred/

I am very much considering the drive up from Somerset...

Thanks Certainly in the 1940's the road surface was not metalled, but I don't know at what point the main road or the side roads would have been dressed. What did you do on Clutton?

After a break for a relaxing holiday away, I've turned this week to the first board at the Axbridge end. I'd mistakenly put the stone loading siding up adjacent to the wing walls of the over bridge so this was corrected and the groundwork adjusted to suit. Then I've tried playing about with the location of Fiveways Farm. Presently I'm looking at a forced perspective type arrangement to disguise the fact that it really isn't wide enough to fit properly. Still pondering that one. Then I've dug out my scenics box and started applying ground cover. I'm using a mixture of Heki and Greenscenes static grass fibres over a bed of hanging basket liner, woodlands scenics and plain painted ground. Coming on well I think, though more to do yet including trimming and adding ground cover. Rubberised horse hair hedges have been first fixed and I've planted a tree. The first of many I think. You can also see the first of what will be many, many strawberry patches. It was a feature of the line that these were cultivated on railway land right down to the trackside. Still after an age it's nice to see it taking shape. Not yet convinced about the road colour or texture, so have more to do on that.