Mikkel

Beautiful earthworks. It almost looks edible :-)

Just found this postcard on a site that BG John pointed out. It has previously been captioned as dated 1909 on a Wiltshire local studies website. The wagon colours may of course be fanciful - but I'm posting the link here for future reference. EDIT: A few notes from a discussion abouth this with Miss P and Nick: * The wagons appear to be 2-plankers, and the front one has dumb buffers. They don't seem to be GWR engineering wagons, as these appear dark/black in contemporary photos. * The wagons may not be GWR. They could well be contractor's wagons or - even more likely - Bath stone wagons (common in that area). The dumb buffers also suggest this. This website has photos of stone wagons from neaby Middlehill station that appear to be very similar/identical: http://www.choghole.co.uk/PHOTOGRAPHSOLD.htm (see "Wharfs"). * The colouring of the wagons in the postcard may be false. The colourist may have got it wrong, or the colour rendering from scanning/digitally enhancing the photo may have changed the original shade. However, the colours of the lineside structures appear plausible for the GWR. * If the wagons are GWR and the colour and 1909 date is correct, it suggests that GWR red on wagons could still be seen in 1909. If GWR red ended in 1904, it is not unlikely some would still exist in that colour. Or the colour might even still be painted at that date. See: http://www.gwr.org.uk/liverieswagonred.html The next step would be to examine whether there were red PO stone wagons in the area. But so far it does look more likely that they are stone wagons, not GWR. Thanks to Nick and Miss P for their insights!

The top part looks like my father's house's walls, the bottom part like my neighbours' :-) I'd love to be able to do the top part on some future buildings that are intended to be aged by time, thanks for the inspiration.

Welcome back. I was wondering where you'd gone to. I hope the eyes are better now, sounds like bad luck. Must have affected the cycling too. Very nice brake. I suppose the duckets may be on the low side now that you mention it, but I wonder how many people have ever noticed!

What a neat build. Rivet counters may not be popular, but it's amazing what rivets do for realism.

Any chance of a live webcam for the next exhibition? Just a suggestion, not entirely in jest.

It would also look good in G scale ;-) Only joking - I enjoyed this layout back then and it would be great to see an updated version. But easy enough for me to say :-)

Excellent, Captain. I agree that the new version looks better. I really like your eye for what makes a realistic and believable scene. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes "might-have-beens" creative (and challenging) to do.

Wow Mike, those are extremely evocative pictures. Many thanks for the mention, but as Jonte says this has a character all of its own. And you are definetely wrong that it is a clich

Personally I don't think you are too far off in the third photo. The mortar on the bricks is in my opinion not a problem but an advantage, because it tones down the red for convincing distance viewing. Captain, to post an image here it has to be already on the web. If it is, then right click the image, click copy, and then go here and paste directly into the comment box.

Hi Rich, agree with you about deadlines not necessarily leading to motivation. Human nature is much more complex than that. I look forward to seeing progress, especially the point rodding which I've been ignoring for too long myself. Sounds like your layout is a she :-)

More interesting stock, good stuff. The Chatham six-wheeler really oozes character, I think. Very interested to hear you have used Vallejo in a drawing pen, maybe something to experiment with. Thanks for the tip.

Nice to see updates on this again. Workers cottages are looking good. I do like the viaduct, it's a whole diorama in itself.

Thanks Al :-) I wouldn't have guessed it myself either! I don't mean false modesty, but it's a fairly simple object to model. The most tricky part was getting the curvature of the "frames" to look un- home made. The rest is just a matter of sticking things together.

Very much agree, CAD modelling etc produces some fantastic results but there's still a place for this kind of messing about :-) The poor old paintbrushes were actually subjected to a third assault, which provided the spacer rings between the gearwheels. Forgot to include the pic before.

Hi Southernboy, the beads are my daughter's. As far as I remember they are a mix from many different small bags that she collected throughout her childhood. They're all plastic. But she is 19 now, and so I dug them out of storage and plundered just two white ones! Those Victorian lamps sound very appealing!

Yeah, it's fun isn't it :-) And it doesn't have to be on a small scale either. Jim SW does the same on Birmingham New Street (no other comparison intended!).

I think you're right to maintain the idea of trains running in a cutting. It will look great. Especially if you are serious about a King and 14 bogies! Can't wait! Maybe the foamboard will be the simplest and most flexible approach? Only you know the condition of the wardrobe sides. What's this DMU business now?!

Hello Western Star, the photos are in "GWR Goods Services, Part 2A: Goods Depots and Their Operation" by Tony Atkins, publishers Wild Swan, page 88 and 93 respectively. The original photos are credited to the NRM. This series is highly recommended, perhaps especially this volume (part 2A), which has a number of photos from Paddington Goods and other London goods depots. If you like large goods depots, the photos on the Warwickshire Railways website from Birmingham Hockley are also a treat: http://warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/hockley_goods_part1.htm

Hello david, sounds like you have a very strong Southern enthusiasm, spreading it over two continents :-) Looking forward to the photos.

Thankyou everyone for your kind comments. The "can you guess what it is yet" mode of presentation can sometimes be a little irritating for the reader, but I couldn't resist it here :-) No, this is not the start of doing Paddington Goods, although it would be an immensely interesting project. As Buckjumper's research and project shows, there is so much potential for modelling the London area goods operations. Anyway I am just stealing the design of the Paddington cranes and using them in the Farthing goods depot as a way of hinting that this is a fairly large depot although we are only seeing a small part of it (which is also why I need at least one more crane). Sasquatch, I think the wagons in the 1926 (actually 1927) photo carry the 16" GW letters, which replaced the 25" letters around 1920. The 5" letters were introduced in 1936. So that is as would be expected? Doing something like this in plastikard and with ad hoc available items is fast and fairly simple. But it also involves compromises. For instance I would say I have stretched the plastikard to the limit here - now that everything is in place it is structurally sound, but there were some dodgy moments along the way when it looked like I would end up with a banana shaped crane! And there is the thickness of edges etc which only brass could get 100% right. So there is an awful lot of good to say for the more exacting and laborious approach that eg you are talking about, Nick and Buckjumper: That to me is still the gold standard way of doing things and in due course we'll all admire the results! To me it's just a matter of finding the approach that suits me best.

Kit-bashing and a 43xx again. What is there not to like? :-) Thanks for the tip about the stanchions, John, they could save a lot of fiddly work.

Superb. The texture of the stone looks very very good.

Thanks Andy and all (sorry the comments are jumbled up a bit, some of my responses don't seem to have registered). Yes, this was a real paintbrush massacre! Not only a sign of laziness, (reaching for whatever is close at hand!). The metal tip of a fine paint brush is actually a shape that can be hard to find anywhere else in the house. Job, your use of card and wood is in my view superb. It's funny how modellers prefer different kind of materials. Technically this crane would have been a more proper build in brass, but I feel much more comfortable with plastic.