Chris Nevard

nevard_120529_Bristol-LS_DSC_5233, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr. At RAILEX over the weekend an hour or so before the show ended I finally got around to having my tour of inspection and came across this rather nice diecast EFE Bristol L.S in Southern National green livery on the hosting club's secondhand stall. The clincher being the Devenish Draught advert which sadly now promotes that long gone well loved Weymouth brewery. All starry eyed, I donned that dirty gabardine raincoat, greasy hair with comb-over, NHS specs, National Express holdall from 1970, an old bus timetable entwined in with my snotty hanky and broke into the £4 pocket money that mother had some kindly given to me along with corned beef and salad cream sandwiches - job done, and here it is posed on the nearest I have to a street scene on my various trainsets. In the latter half of the 1970's I lived in Dorset and recall the school bus was occasionally one of these, it was very clapped out and would often stall going up a 1 in 6 hill which was part of its windy route through the hills. The stalling would usually happen during an uphill gear change, and on one occasional we all had to disembark to make the coach lighter in an attempt to help the driving get it going into second gear. With the bus finally going at walking pace we all then got back on. Of course in today's world such would almost certainly involve death of nearly all involved, sacking of the driver and a very expensive televised inquest. The two surviving school children would then go in Britain's Got Talent or the X-factor and win with a sympathy vote. The school bus route would then be disbanded because it would be deemed far to dangerous and road deaths in the area would rocket due to 4 x 4 accidents from drivers on the school run. It's a very pretty bus though I'm sure you'll agree, and perfect for my Somerset based layouts. In due course it might become a superdetail/Workbench project, but not today because again the weather is far too nice, so a day in the garden beckons.

It's a pretty good looking piece of engineering, and having seen it for real I think it will still be around several 1000 years from now, definitely a proper job!

A length of Peco on a 5mm foamboard base with 2mm ply sides. Alignment with fishplates soldered to the incoming track. One of CK's pix in the RAILEX thread show them.

120527_railex12_DSC_5164, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr. The annual Railex in Aylesbury on the weekend of 26th and 27th of May cued the beginning of summer like it so often does. I’m sat here in the garden with laptop taking advantage of the weather, our rather limp-wristed wi-fi just about giving me a signal strong enough to allow me to reflect on a fabulous weekend away from the more usual camera, sofa or modelling bench. Railex as always is in a very well lit supersized tin shed built for some Olympic thing a couple of decades ago, and excluding my poor effort hosted some of the best talent around in the toy chuffer world without disappointment. The Princes Risborough club have this knack of packing out the floor space with all sorts of gems from both modellers displaying what if added up must be hundreds of years of workmanship along with those sought after retailers (those all important men in sheds mostly) selling wonderful goodies no longer found in high street model shops – even if you have one that is! As an exhibitor, this was to be my 5th Railex, for some reason they wanted me to bring Brewhouse Quay http://nevardmedia.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Brewhouse%20Quay along, I’m not sure why, but I’m guessing it’s a good example of a quick ready to plop bodge in model making and how not to do it which isn’t really what the show is all about – it’s a show for better than that. For 4 years out of 5 I have been in the corner furthest from the door, which frequently is a quadrant of 1/76 scale layouts which this year consisted of the forever growing Bron Hebrog (OO) http://bronhebog.blogspot.co.uk/ , Albion Yard (OO) http://albionyard.wordpress.com/ , Canada Road (EM) http://www.emgauge70s.co.uk/layout_canada.html , Diesels in the Duchy http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/12234-diesels-in-the-duchy-aka-st-blazey-dcc-em/ - all great company I’m sure you’ll agree! Of course there were many other equally fantastic layouts which can be found listed here http://www.railex.org.uk/railex2012l.html with reviews popping up on the various toy chuffer forums. Best Layout deservedly went to the lovely pre-grouping Penlan http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/1432-penlan-lnwr-in-south-wales-1910-em-gauge/ - a very worthy winner all the way from Cornwall depicting a lush part of the LNWR in Wales a little north of Swansea. Within 30 minutes of the doors opening curiously beer started to arrive, totally out of the blue some lovely Loose Canon Brewery http://www.lcbeers.co.uk/ draft ale from 7mm scale modeller and altogether top chap John Atkinson was passed over the fiddle yard. Before the smiles had faded Samuel Bennett – another altogether top chap and eager snapper I hasten to add, handed over 2 bottles of ale, one from Ascot Ales and another from the Windsor and Eton Brewery. Because I know that you chaps read my twaddle here, you be delighted to know that the *beer has now all gone* (jobsworths, please read the disclaimer at the bottom of this page) – the hot weather making it even more tasty – so CHEERS to you! The hoppy malty aroma of the ales helped the atmosphere of the brewery themed layout all too well. I might have to install handpumps next time the layout goes out! Despite felling a little squiffy from all the ale (more likely the heat), Brewhouse Quay worked well, with only one point switch-blade parting company from the copper clad tiebar – easily fixed with a dab of the soldering iron luckily. The Caboose Hobbies manual ground throws caused interest or irritation depending on whether you’re a ‘hand of god’ type of person or not. BQ uses 3 link coupling because they look good in photos mainly, so ‘hand of god’ to operate the points is only a little more intrusion. Thanks must go to the Railex team who as always do their best to make the show go well behind the scenes as well as ‘front of house’ ensuring a good experience for all. Finally my BIGGEST thank you must go to Graham Muspratt who gave up his whole weekend when he could have been enjoying BBQs and such, but instead helped operate Brewhouse Quay in a far more professional manner than I ever can. I’ve been asked about next year’s Railex but I do have a few overdue layout-operational debts to pay to other layout owners, I am also planning a modern themed 12 footer with DCC sound and actual mineral loading, but that’s another story…. * Note for jobworths: The beer was drunk at home later, being drunk in charge of a model railway in a public place would be very irresponsible of course, driving over a layout spider would not be good.We did sample two bottles in our respective meal breaks for research purposes, and placed the empty bottle on the side of the layout to help with the atmosphere.

nevard_110921_leamington_DSC_3796_WEB, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr. Posted in my external BLOG, hence slightly generic non-rail-nutter angle. The real world is full of things that don't quite conform to preconception, with us model makers often being the worst offenders (I'm really bad at this and have to kick myself from time to time), for this reason it’s so important to look at the real world. Luckily railways have always been well explored by camera lenses, so often research is only a key board away, or failing that the book shelf, the local library or heaven forbid the real thing. This bedazzled buffer stop Leamington Spa Station is something you’d never expect, and if you modelled it like in this photo here people would be queuing up to ask you when you’re going to finish it. I imagine with this one here this is as far as finishing will ever get, the ravages of time will take care of that aspect in due course. Leamington is a nice station to spend an hour of two, with great little touches like the flowering train here. There is a good variety of trains to photograph and the station staff don’t treat railway nutters with suspicion – how refreshing!

Gordon this afternoon, tackling his fear of scenic tools! The dog's toothbrush was part of the therapy, but that bit is too scary for pre-watershed postings!

It's influenced by a photo in the Jan 2012 Steam Days magazine. Technically it should be a large prairie and the cars should be on 'Carfits', but it looks the part.

I'd love to have them all in one place, it would be a van jobby and for a no expenses show over £100 weekend van hire is alot of money to fork out before we even talk about fuel. But, this layout and Polbrock will be at the MODEL RAIL barrow Hill event as above.

120503_4-track_DSC_4363, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr. As an alternative to a long wait for the Aust Car Ferry or a long drive via Gloucester, the 4.40pm Severn Tunnel Junction to Pilning car train is captured speeding up the 1/100 grade towards its destination on a dull summer day in 1958. The opening of the Severn Bridge saw the end of this service aimed at the more affluent car owner. The new bridge also saw the end to the quirky Aust Car Ferry, however those that wish a trip down memory lane can visit the derelict terminal, but beware it is on private property. For the train, well you'll just have to gloat at the toy chuffer here sadly. BIGGER version HERE!

120502_arnewharf_DSC_4315, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr. You may have sen this photo in the photo-feed at the top of the index page, here's a little more about it...... To those not familiar with some of my layouts, over the next few postings I'm going to have a look at some of the layouts I've built, starting off with Arne Wharf. Back in 2003 I'd only been back in the hobby for a year or so, and wanted to build something small and compact which could be taken to shows. Since the mid 1980's when previously in the hobby, scenic products and techniques had moved on in leaps an bounds, so Arne Wharf would also be a chance to try out some new products and techniques as well as having a bit of fun chopping up a Walthers Glacier Gravel Co kit. When at a show it's 4ft off the ground unlike here! Arne Wharf is modelled in 009 (representing 2'3" gauge) and totally contained within 3' x 2'. My interpretation is based on a fictitious line running from Arne to Wareham via Ridge & Stoborough on the Purbeck Peninsular. The line was built to transport ball clay, lime stone, salt and oysters in addition to general merchandise. One of the delights of this scale/gauge combination is that almost anything goes - making for enjoyable escapism free from the hobby's more serious element. The whole layout fits in a scenic footprint of 3ft x 2ft with and extra foot for a fiddle yard. I'm hoping to take this little layout along with Polbrock to Model Rail Live at Barrow Hill on the weekend of 22 & 23 September 2012.

Good man - high backscenes are the way. I'm moaning about this silly ultra low ones which serve no purpose and usually have grubby finger prints on them.

120429_4-track_DSC_4245, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr. During the long hazy summer of '69, D6313 is captured near Great Wishford on the Wylye Valley route with a Westbury bound goods. The highly regarded Dapol Class 22 certainly looks the part on a secondary mainline with just a few wagons in tow. The unkempt finish and hazy light I think capturing the feel of the era which is now getting on for half a century ago. This is of course the era of free love, outdoor concerts and drug induced popular culture. Well, for a few dozen rich kids in Chelsea and Bath who could afford not to work and do very much as they wanted. For most, the 1960's was simply a little more plentiful and colourful than the 1950's, your normal working man still wore suits or overalls and had a short back and sides. These people are now all pensioners, which is quite scary to think, not because they're pensioners of course, just that it's now an awful long time ago. Talking of a more colourful world, colour TV kicked off in 1967 on the BBC, with ITV following a couple of years later. Most people didn't have colour sets until 1972, this being due to the Olympics being broadcast in colour for the first time, and I gather the Yen was also rather weak which helped. I do remember a 'posh lady' down the road had a colour set to watch the few programmes broadcast in colour, the thing I most remember was that she had the colour saturation wound up so high that skin tones were bright red. I imagine she wanted to make the most of her telly which in today's money would be several thousand pounds, that and of course the more expensive TV license. Back to the photo; you probably already know that this is the new(ish) Dapol Class 22 after a bit of weathering. I had thought of renumbering it, but I've never really been a number fanatic unless the former SDJR is involved, so for this reason it has remained as D6313. There so many variations between different locos, and because I'm in to atmosphere rather than number-crunching accuracy, I'd be opening myself up for a tirade of hate mail if I got the number wrong for the way the loco is detailed. But I get wound up about model railway bits that probably don't worry others, so each to to our own I guess (low pointless backscenes are my pet hate if you're asking). More pics of the Dapol Class 22 here.

120428_4-track_DSC_4215_BW, a photo by nevardmedia on Flickr. Sunday morning's bit of silliness is the replication of a stretch of mainline in South Wales with an ex-GWR pannier tank in possession of a rake of empties just having left the mainline. The 9F flying along behind has a load of freshly filled wagons heading for somewhere distant or maybe just Cardiff Docks. Sunlight has just started to penetrate the fog and pollution – also known as smog it was a typical feature of industrial Britain in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In those days everyone used to smoke, mostly because the nicotine filled air of the cigarette or pipe was probably less life threatening than the atmosphere around! In the western world we no longer have smog because we exported it to China and other far east manufacturing nations, they now do the dirty work that we used to perform because we became too expensive to make toy chuffers at the price we want to pay. Back to the photo above, this little set piece is just a table bound mock-up using various rolling stock track photo thingies and a few of the coal industry buildings I have been building up over the last couple of years. The smog is of course Photoshop because I have no means generating smoke indoors unless I burn the toast, smoke a big cigar or hire one of those threatre fog making machines.

There's a good model in this, proving that not all modern industrial terminals need to be huge. The aerial elevator is similar to a Walthers Cornerstone kit.

The slightly wide 75mm Xenar lens on a Rolleicord always gave a little more d-o-f than an 80mm on a Mamiya or Planar lensed Rollieflex. I remember at the time being quite impressed with the central res, I'd only had the camera a month or two and this was the first time I'd used the lens wide open for a railway subject. The edges could be a little soft wider than f5.6, but subject matter did have a (apparent) bearing.

Why not make a portable layout just for the china clay buildings? as said, they need to be seen. Deadline SwagExpo '13 which gives you just over a year Pix look fab to me btw!

Thanks chaps - the lederly chap in the photo was/is quite a character I recall, though it must be a good 25 years since I last saw him. He was a retired British Transport Police officer and had many great tales to tell us lads of jellified bodies being pulled out of the mud in the docks and their arms pulling off! Does anyone know anything about Victoria South? It's the one info wise which is still eluding on that front. It's got that comforting Frank Dyer kind of feel with handlaid track and much brick paper: http://www.flickr.co...157629282520252 http://www.flickr.co...157629282520252 <edited for typos>