rovex

Love these layouts - this themed date thing is rather like that shopping programme currently being shown on British television - Don't know if you've seen it - each week the same High Street is themed as a different period, so we've had Victorian, then Edwardian, 1930's and then War time.

Could we see the same here, Edwardian Farthing, 1927 Farthing, 1930's Farthing, Wartime Farthing, Nationalisation Farthing, Beeching Farthing followed by Derelict Farthing and then Shopping Centre carpark, sorry couldn't resist that last bit.

Wonderful models as ever.

Looking forward to more.

Rovex

Whilst starting the scenery first is cetainly an usual way to build a model railway, its more protypical than most model railways, after all the scenery was there before the railway.

good luck with it

Rovex

Good to see I'm not the only one whose modelling goes in fits and starts - keep up the good work

rovex

I must say Pannier I am tempted to try building my own. I've having a go at some building some brick walls in the garden as well as a new formal pond and if my bricklaying is any good I might have a go at building the railway room myself.

We'll see.

Good luck with yours.

Rovex

Looking good BT. Very impressed with the paint job

Sorry to hear about the job, Wollaston. I got made redundant 18 months ago and it took me six months to find a new job, hopefully your search won't be so long.

Modelling kept me sane ( well watching daytime television wasn't going to do it) and I got quite a bit done on the layout. Only shame was that when I found a new job it was over a hundred miles away from my old home and so I had to dismantle it all. Hope you find something closer to home.

Rovex

once again absolutely superb.

Rovex

Thanks Tornado.

I'm obviously too trusting, I'm not so bothered about thefts because there's no rear access to the garden but better safe than sorry.

Rovex

Thanks Guys.

Means a lot Gerry that someone who knew the station appreciates it.

As for the signalling Horsetan. lets just say I'm trying not to think about it too much at the moment. Although I do like the idea of the North Signal box on its girder stilts - but I'm trying not to get distracted.

Thanks again guys.

Rovex

Thanks David.

Be good to see some photos of your layout sometime.

Rovex

Thanks Tim, make sure to post some photos of your engine when its done.

Rovex

Looks good - hope to see it out on the exhibition circuit sometime

rovex

Clever idea with the Airfix trussing. I bought a lot of these kits for the junction station on my old layout but never got around to building them. Had been wondering how to use them on my new project to produce something with a GW flavour. Again - well done.

Rovex

Thanks Mikkel, I don't think I've got any real tricks for cutting out the plastic sheet, the usual, very sharp blades (I generally use a stanley knife rather than a scalpel or excel blade) and don't cut too deeply to start with, mark sure you put plenty of pressure on the ruler and not too much on the knife otherwise the ruler slides away and takes the knife with it. With the large sheets of plasticard I tend to give it a sanding first, which may help prevent slipping but I do it more because it means the pencil actually leaves a mark on the card.

The arches are started using a compass like device I obtained from an art shop, has a knife blade on one end and is intended for cutting out circles in card. Great however for cutting perfect circles in thin plasticard and give a good start in thicker card by scribing the circle allowing you to use a craft knife with a fine blade (not the stanley knife this time) to slowly par away the material till you reach the scribed line.

When it comes to cutting out window frames (I'm going to be using a lot of the ones from the kit for this building but will have to make some), I try to make the frame as exact a match for the window opening as possible. Whilst I love the etch ones that can be bought, I tend to find that I can be a bit clumsy cutting windows openings which then means the etch is too small for the opening, leaving an unrealistic amount of frame exposed.

I'm very impressed with your modelling on your Farthing thread/blog and the painting is beyond anything I could hope to achieve - keep up the good work.

Regards

Rovex

Thanks Gerry

Sorry to hear about your injuries - i won't say accident as that would probably be to rub salt into the wound.

Thanks for the link to Steve Williams thread on RMWeb3 I hadn't seen those photos, and theres some useful shots there. Nor had I heard of the Kidderminster RM book so will have to try to find a copy.

I don't know if you've seen this site http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/109/268595791_1f6d0b8b4d.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/loose_grip_99/268595791/&usg=__yFO1_U-8j_Jp3HpSlA9OtRYGdIQ=&h=332&w=500&sz=140&hl=en&start=13&itbs=1&tbnid=bjwvvC1P036-sM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbirmingham%2Bsnow%2Bhill%2Bstation%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

One of the things that had been vexing me, was the taxi ramps either side of the station as these just seem to go nowhere. I had assumed that there must be some means of crossing the line, i.e going up one side and down the other, but my investiagtions at Birmingham Library shows that there did indeed go nowhere at all. Does make me wonder how on earth there was room to turn the cabs round and then pass each other on the way down.

The crinkly bits on the building didn't worry me so much as my low boredom fresh-hold, Whilst I like scratchbuilding I know what I'm like for starting things and not finishing them. So I thought bashing about a kit would give me something different and speed up construction before I had a chance to be distracted by something else.

Its going to be a long project in any event as I first have to build somewhere to store it - and thats dependent on my house purchase going through as referred to elsewhere on here. So the intention at the moment is to build bits at a time, whilst i hone my bricklaying skills.

I had given some thought to the overall roof, There's a Birmingham firm which does brass etching to order (http://www.graingeandhodder.com/) and this might be a useful firm to get some large girder sections, roof bracing and the glazed end panels made. I was thinking of using the ratio canopies for the platforms, these are really quite narrow, but a good representation of the style used.

The track plan will of course have to brutally cut down, i'd like to keep the crossover points on the main platforms but might have to see whether I can get these made. I've worked out that it is possible to keep the full number of platforms in a width of about 2 1/2 foot or so, but this doesn't allow for much scenery either side. And I quite fancy reinstating the traverser which I think was taken out of commission in about 1930 or so.

The main scenic elements would be at the station end - where the tracks will curve away under the tunnel straight into the fiddle yard and at the other end where current thinking is to treat the slow and fast lanes as two separate main lines diverging away from the station through the usual industrial landscape - unlike the real thing where I believe the tracks all stayed together- the tracks would reconverge before entering the fiddleyard, with a potential branch line running into the old Milchester station (from my previous layout) which would be located above the fiddleyard - Milchester and Brackhampton sharing the same City/town centre - just to confuse the locals.

Anyway thats the plan - lol (or should that be hysterical laughter)

Rovex

Looking good. I've got one of these stored away somewhere, will certainly be trying this when it eventually comes out of the box.

Rovex

The wheelbase thought occurred to me too. However the Hall chassis, should give you the correct connecting rods and valve gear (or be as near as makes no odds) and have the pistons in the right place, whereas the castle pistons are too close to the cab?

I don't trust my scrathbuilding on the cab - but its a thought.

Rovex

Good news. I've really enjoyed this site and thanks to you, Mikkel for starting it, and good luck to Russ for taking it on, I await developments with anticipations

Rovex

Ah well - I'm currently living in rented accomodation and so have no room for a layout, so until I've bought a new house i'm stuck with building things for a future layout and having pipe dreams about the layout I want to build.

Hopefully sometime soon I can start putting those dreams into reality (sigh)

Rovex

Thanks Taz, now I've had a closer look, I'm inclined to agree. I was scanning through a book I got on ebay about Snow Hill Station (bit of a pipedream I'm having at the moment) and in a throw away remark the author said that amongst others the Stars had been branded as mixed traffic and therefore painted black.

Looking more closely at the picture I'm inclined to agree with you though.

Rovex

Looks good - well done

Only books I've got are Russell's ones on GW coaches (though all but one is in store pending buying a new house in Redditch) and Harris's. However the notes that come with Comet's coach sides are very useful and give suggested coach formations and u can get them online from their site.

Rovex

More "W"s have arrived and so lining and numbering can continue. next glazing and grab handles.

Rovex

Now that is what you call a roundy roundy layout - good work on the scenics

Rovex

Thanks guys for the kind comments.

Yes, Bernard TPM, the restaurant car should have sliding vents by the time modelled. I did consider cutting the vents off and squaring up the windows and fitting sliding vents, but when i looked more closely at the coach sides I decided that this was going to involve a lot of work, especially since the vents extend beyond the windows below and so would require filling. Then there was the question of how to represent the sliding vents. Do you glue microstrip onto the glazing and if so how do you paint it to without getting paint all over the glazing. In the end I chickened out and just went with what I had, after all its not meant for Pendon.

I'm meant to be modelling very early 1950 BR, and so I can get away with a few choc'n'cream, but until I started making these coaches all my previous attempts at lining and numbering have been thoroughly dreadful and so I went for the simplest livery.

As and when I can start building a new layout I'm going to try and run a mixture of early BR and late GWR liveries to try to give that "just after nationalisation" feel.

I'm currently wondering whether it is possible to make a passable attempt at the Clifton Down set using the Triang clerestories - adding a compartment to both the composite and the brake to get the correct number, some cutting round the brake compartment and some windows in the end - Oh and of course lose the clerestory. Its only a thought, I know I've got some of these in a box in storage and will have to dig them out and do some measurements. If built these will be painted all over chocolate as they didn't last long enough to see blood and custard.

Got loads of flushglaze in and I'm going to try to thin the edges of the coaches with a bit of black, I was wondering whether to try black marker pen for this rather than black paint - I'll report back.

I just need to order some more HMRS lettering now since when I checked last night I'd used up all my "W"s. Suppose it gives me a chance to build a few other things and then do all the lining at once - won't that be fun.

Rovex