Mark Forrest

Thanks 'Chard. The first phase of the model will use Sun Street bridge as the scenic break and will cover as far as the north side of the booking hall in the middle of the station buildings. Intention is however to be able to extend it as far as the Wednesfield Road bridge; hadn't considered extending the other way towards the tunnel though. The extension would be for exhibitions only. In two minds about including the Great Western. I really, really want to; but it will be right on the edge of the board, hiding the view of the station. Time will tell....

I introduced this project some time ago in blog format (here), but as I make a bit more progress, I think it's time to switch to a layout topic. A history of the station along with several photos can be found on the Disused Stations site, so I won't repeat it here, other than to say that in 1970 the station began to be used as a parcels depot, with a DMU shuttle between there and Birmingham Snow Hill running at peak times. The station closed to passengers in 1972 and my model is set the last year of the passenger service. Planning for the layout started way back in 2009, but it's only in the past 12 months that I've really started to make any real progress. Until recently I had intended to build the layout in EM gauge, but I've now decided to give P4 a try. An early sketch of the area I'm modelling is shown below: Fortunately I have been given a copy of a 1:500 plan for the station, which I scanned and imported into Templot, the result is as follows (seen here in the dining room table - components for the baseboards are awaiting assembly): Main focus at the moment is on construction of the station buildings, although I've recently been distracted by the first turnout for the layout and a few experiments with rolling stock suspension. This is my third attempt at the small building on the right; I hope it's just the angle of the photo because I'm still not convinced I've the slope of the roof right?

Somehow I've managed to completly miss this fine layout until now! Very nice indeed. Look forward to seeing it at Showcase.

Shame you're not taking DitD to this one - I'm there with Foundry Lane, could have done some interesting stock swaps

As I'm at the EM Expos in Bracknell and Manchester next year with Foundry Lane, I'll be sure to check out the pie situation and report back in plenty of time to allow you to stock up on any provisions; although I'm sure that won't be necessary!

"01-05-89 - Name Loch Lomond removed" from the fleet history page on the http://www.c37lg.co.uk/ site

Nicely done, very neat. I've used a similar arrangement to operate the turnouts on Foundry Lane. Can't tell if you have done the same, but I bushed the hole through the slide switch with a short length of brass tube.

As usual, some top notch plasticard bashing Chris. Glad you managed to find your MEK (and a little time for some modelling too)

This Stanley one was more than adequate to staple through the 4mm ply of my WLL baseboards:

I'd just double the ends over then staple through - have seen the webbing straps under the seat cushions of sofas fixed in this way (stapled directly to a soft wood frame) seems to work.

Hmm, Red for Railfreight or Yellow for engineer's Dutch liveried trestles

Of course we'd never take a certain colliery layout to Holmfirth and leave the pit head gear in a box in Stafford would we Geoff? Far better prepared than that

That would be useful, thanks. Was wondering whether it lost it's "D" - had it been painted over by '72 then? Didn't know whether it had gone straight from being D5038 to 24038. Cheers

Thanks for the tip, yes I'll try a coat of white primer first. Must say your Deltic looks fantastic - I don't think my humble efforts will be anything near that standard! Cheers

In my last layout blog entry I mentioned having some concerns about the future of my Low Level project. To address this I’ve decided to put the baseboards and track work to one side while I focus on the buildings. As I’ve said before, the position of the buildings makes them critical to the success of the finished layout – so I want to make sure I can get these looking right before getting too carried away. I’ve been preparing drawings for the buildings and have been experimenting making the stone window surrounds from styrene strip, potentially to be used as a master to cast these in resin. Here is an example: Which will provide the ground floor windows for this building (and it’s twin at the opposite end of the station frontage): Starting at the south end of the station buildings, this is the first of the characteristic blue brick buildings: I’m not sure what purpose the building served, (guessing it may have been a toilet!) but here is my attempt at modelling it: I think I'm reasonably happy with how it has turned out, although not sure if the window openings might be little too narrow. It's made from plastikard and SE Finecast embossed brick sheet (flemish bond). There are a few more details to be added, then on to bigger things, this one is next

Sometime ago I bought myself a sound fitted two-tone green sound fitted class 24, with the intention of modelling D5038 in the condition seen here on the excellent Derby Sulzers site. D5038 was out-shopped from Derby works following overhaul in 1965 wearing the two-tone green livery applied to later class 25s. By 1971 (the start point of the era I model on Foundry Lane and the year in which I intend to set my new layout) she was in shabby external condition but retained many of her as built features, making it a reasonable match for the Bachmann model. A to do list was quickly identified as follows: • EM gauge conversion • Paint full yellow ends on cab fronts • Swap factory fitted speaker for a bass enhanced speaker • Change position of fuel tank gauge • Replace roof fan/grille with Extreme Etchings parts • Correct roof panel errors • Detail bufferbeams • Weather as in photos The EM conversion and replacement speaker were simple 5 minute jobs and the loco runs well and sounds better too. The speaker fitted neatly in place of the original and is currently held in place with a couple of strips of masking tape! A bit of filler took care of the existing fuel tank gauge – I have a Brassmasters resin casting to replace this with. In my haste to re-paint the yellow ends, I decided it would be good idea to brush paint the yellow paint directly on to the existing paint work. At the time I did not have any replacement glazing and thought I might break it if I tried to remove it, so carefully painted up to the glazing. Several coats of warning panel yellow later the green top half of the cab front was still showing through – I should have known better and undercoated first! Disappointed by my painting error the loco went back in its box and stayed there until last night. Having invested in a set of laserglaze from Shawplan; removing the glazing was no longer a concern and it popped out with no trouble at all. Last night I settled down with a glass of vodka and coke (remember please model responsibly) and began removing the yellow paint with some Precision Super Strip. A little further cleaning up this afternoon and the ends were ready for a coat of grey primer. The photos below show the current state of play – still plenty to do and Foundry Lane’s next exhibition outing less than 2 weeks away!

There is a photo of the 'box when nearly new in "Mainline to Metro" by John Boynton (photo is courtesy of Kidderminster Railway Museum - there may be others in their archive). As you might expect, the photo is black & white, but the girders appear to be a darker shade than any other painted parts of the structure - so chocolate could be a possibility.

Hi. Is there an advantage to fitting the common crossing first, then the stock rail or is it just a matter of personal preference? In the past I've always started with the straightest stock rail and used that as a datum, but I guess as the crossing is the most critical part it makes sense to start from there.

Looks like a very nice model of an interesting prototype, look forawrd to seeing it progress. I've been pulling together info for a model of Wolverhampton South 'box and settled on the Modelex etch brass window frames - hadn't thought about using the Hornby parts.

Thanks. The ply is WBP exterior stuff from B&Q - I know I could probably have got better quality stuff from a proper timber merchants, but it was convenient and reasonably priced. Did have to sort through the sheets on the pallet in store to find the 5 best; 90% of the sheets were either damaged or warped.

I finally got around to making a start on the boards for my Low Level project last weekend. The plan is to split the layout into four scenic boards giving a total scenic area of 2440mm x 1000mm. I’ve used 3.6mm ply strips spaced with 18mm softwood blocks glued and stapled together. Dimensions of these two are 1220mm x 500mm with a height of 80mm and I’m pleased with the ease of construction and the lightweight but rigid structure that it gives. Here is one completed board and the second board in its component parts, a further sheet of ply will form the top: However all is not well . Having reached this first milestone in construction I think I’m getting cold feet about the project! Concerns are that the layout just won’t be interesting enough to operate and that my modelling skills won’t be up to the task of constructing the station buildings (which will be position right at the front of the layout). I’m beginning to wander whether I should look for an alternative subject which gives more operational potential. Maybe I need to build two new layouts – Low Level to give me my “modelling a real location†fix and an improved version of Foundry Lane for maximum wagon shuffling!

My Foundry Lane layout is based firmly in the BR Blue period.

I thought it might be a nice idea to have a topic on here where group members can introduce themselves and their current "real location" project. I'll start the ball rolling.... I'm currently planning a model of Wolverhampton Low Level, circa 1970-72, in EM gauge. Having made very little progress in the past 12 months following a house move, I am now ready to make a start on baseboard construction (hopefully this weekend!) and have recently drawn up the track plan in Templot. The scenic boards of the layout will cover an area of 2.4 x 1.2m, which should allow the area being modelled to be represented without too many compromises. So over to you; what are you up to?

Here are a few of mine, usually found on either Foundry Lane or New Haden Colliery: Mainly Parkside with replacement cast buffers and brakes, more details in my blog here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/blog/24/entry-2786-16t-minerals/ Finally, I knew it's not a 16 tonner, but it's a bit of a favourite: Cheers

Paul Bartlett's collection of photos from Littleton Colliery include a few shots of the ex-LMS 'van there: http://paulbartlettsotherrailwayphotos.fotopic.net/c1943776.html There was an ex-SR van at Littleton; think Chasewater railway have one in NCB livery - not sure if it's the same one.