Mikkel

About the carriage prints: I found a couple of GWR examples on the web and reduced them. Don't have a good printer at the moment so they are not as sharp as I'd hoped. I don't know if they are right for the period but looking at saloon interiors from the time suggests they aren't far off. Photos tend to be of lavish First Class saloons which are richly decorated with lots of prints - in a few cases you'd think it was the Sistine Chapel! I assumed Third Class would be more down to earth, although in retrospect there should perhaps be a couple of prints on each end wall. Can't find any photos to confirm that though.

About the glazing: I experimented with various ways of frosting the glazing, including bizarre things like artists fixative, butanone and bike polish! But the hoped for miracle did not occur (although I felt a bit light headed afterwards!). So this is simply invisible "3M" tape on each side of the glazing. I did have problems with air bubbles. To minimize them I slowly rolled the tape on while gradually pressing it firm from one end. Some bubbles persisted but they were far enough apart that I could cut out good sections for the windows. I think the effect is about right. If there is no figure in the loo the impression is just of a blank frosted window. If there is a figure, you can normally only see the shadow. The effect of The Weasel is extreme as he is shiny bright.

Thanks everyone, just been laughing out loud at these comments. Nice with a bit of group therapy! If only it was always that easy to get "closure" (literally!). It seems many of us have have memories of teachers like that. Just as there have been inspired and great teachers. As in all trades.

Oh this is good stuff, Stu. The overview shot is great, and those "somethings" already look convincing.I look at your work and immediately feel an urge to go and paint graffitti somewhere on my Edwardian buildings :-) I think I'll go elsewhere when I need the loo :-)

When I was a boy I hated The Weasel with all my heart. The Weasel was our maths teacher and to me he was the prototype of the Evil Teacher. When he taught he got all worked up and saliva formed at the corners of his mouth, and he would walk down among the desks while talking and suddenly pounce on you and slap his hand into your desk and hiss “Am I RIGHT, or am I WRONG?!” It was a rhetorical question of course. We were expected to confirm that we was right, and we always did even if we understood little of what he said. Because quite simply we were scared to death of the man. One of The Weasel’s particularities was that – unlike any other teacher at school - he would not allow toilet visits during class. This became a big problem when one day I had the runs. I put up my hand and asked to be excused, but he would not allow it. A few minutes later I asked again and explained that I really needed to go, but he refused. By this time my mates were snickering and I stopped asking. So for the rest of the class I endured the stomach cramps and the urge to go, horrified at the thought of involuntarily soiling myself in front of my mates - and particularly in front of a certain girl. It was probably just half an hour but it seemed like a lifetime. When I finally got to the loo I sat there swearing revenge. One day Mr Weasel, one day! They say that time heals all wounds, and that the best revenge is to live well. But they are wrong. A few days ago, as I was finishing off the interior of my G20 Saloon, I spotted a figure in my parts box that reminded me of The Weasel. A devious plan formed in my mind. Following the ancient rituals of Voodoo, I glued The Weasel to the loo. I did not paint him, because ghosts from the past have no colour. I then fitted The Weasel in the lavatory of the G20. I did not model any doors to the lavatory. I did not model any water supply. And I did not model any toilet paper. I then glued a lid onto the lavatory. So there you have it. The Weasel is now forever entombed in the lavatory of a GWR saloon, with no means of flushing and with no means of wiping his royal a***. Revenge at last. You were wrong Mr Weasel, you were wrong. Go to part 5

Very nice. Appearances can be deceptive, but still: You look at packaging like that (and the simple but well thought out webpage), and you know you are dealing with someone who puts an effort into what they do. Good stuff, and good to hear you've got some modelling in :-)

We ought to have an annual RMweb day where everyone went to their nearest line or station and took a handful of snaps and uploaded them somewhere for posterity. It would be mundane now but in 50 years modellers and enthusiasts would thank us for the foresight...

Hi Simon, a nice way to end I think with your locos looking great on Hinton Parva. Good luck with the book, website and other new departures!

Lovely scene Al. The farm cameo at the back is also very effective, I think. It all blends together so nicely.

Great to see Granby alive on here again, John! The goods yard and new shed look very interesting indeed. Not often we see that sort of thing on GWR layouts. Any chance of some more photos?

Hi Marc, no need to apologise - the web is voluntary after all :-) Many thanks for these tips. I'll have a look at yours and BarryTen's layouts, I didn't realize they had removeable parts. I'm gathering various materials for a trial module to see how joins could be hidden with a cobbled surface, including some flexible foam. Will post on how it works out in due course. As for your doodling: Go on, you know you want to! :-)

Good idea Doug. I'll give it a try when I get to the detailing stage. It seems to be hard material this stuff, I might need to get my proper hacksaw out!

I agree: Eating cake, causing trouble and playing with stock like this sounds like my idea of paradise! I still cannot quite get used to sound effects though, and I don't just mean the blokes chatting in the background :-) But that's a very individual thing, I know.

Thanks very much, that image saved my day. What a sight, an extraordinary model as always. The roof looks good, I wouldn't have known it was actually wood. I must admit this kind of weathering is something I'd like to do more of. I didn't know 'rooves' was that much out of date in the UK! Shews my ignorance

Many thanks! The Didcot tour sounds fantastic. Doesn't look like funds will allow much travelling this summer, but I'll certainly keep it in mind if there's a windfall, or if work happens to take me to the UK.

Interesting. Especially the wooden roof, and the mixture. Sounds like a fun project. Are there any examples in your RMweb gallery? Thanks for the tip about thinning the edges. I use it for other tasks but had not thought of doing it with rooves. (it feels very GWR to say "rooves" rather than "roofs", not unlike "shewing"!).

A whole world of it's own. Luvly :-) Will there be more weathering to blend the colours and tone down the fire escape handrails and the mint-flavoured wall?

Now that is one of the most stylish work benches I've ever seen. With the marble it will be - as my son puts it - positively swag! So there will be no more ramblings from the balcony then! :-)

Well it just looks superb Richard. It's interesting to see how Thurso, Kylesku and The Mound have a clear family likeness in the modelling. I can't quite put my finger on it, but they all share that feel of real railway locations somehow. And maybe it also has to do with the surroundings of the railway that you somehow manage to portray in a limited space, eg the very effective scenic backgrounds, the trees on The Mound, the harbour on Kylesku etc. It simply works! Oh and great to see your work in the blogs again :-)

Thanks Tony! I'm off to see how things are going with Brafferton :-)

Thanks dogs :-) I think you've hit the nail on the head there. Farthing is exactly an attempt to make a model railway universe with fairly simple methods, and to keep moving ahead without me getting stunned by performance anxiety! I'm as much in awe of those with great technical skills as anyone else, and we should obviously strive to do better all the time, but for some of us it works best to take one small step at a time - certainly for me :-)

Hi Castle, Many thanks for this - exactly the confirmation I was hoping for. Sadly I have never been to Didcot (but one fine day in the not too distant future!) so this kind of information is very valuable for me. Good idea about the scenic photos, a job for tomorrow! I assume the lavatory windows were frosted in 1907? I'll look in my books for other examples from this period. As for the upholserty I think I'll give it a red/leathery tint since it was 3rd class.

What a treat, Mike. I really like the weathering on the 37, and the loco actually looks quite in place on Cheslyn. I laughed out loud at the "bit of fingertip hanging off the bodywork" - well sorry, but it sounded funny. And of course only the modeller would think of saving the model first and the finger later :-) I'm off to browse your gallery images now.

Eh? I assume we are talking about brake vans? (I googled "luxury toad" and got a recipe for toad in the hole!). Looking forward to seeing that, Will :-) Couldn't agree more PR. Some of it deserves getting binned of course, but some of it deserves a second chance. Plus, it's environmentally friendly. Oh, and quick ;-) Hi Mark. I hope so. I finished the first batch some time ago so they have been running on "The bay" for a while. I had to sell them recently to finance something else, but the new batch should look good on a special train of some kind. Jim with the work you are doing in plastics of various kind I can only imagine that both rooves and coaches will look fantastic. The neatness of your carriage shed is amazing.

Paul I agree. And yes these coach bodies are still square and solid, and a good proof of what you are saying. I call my own approaches half-baked because there are no doubt more "correct" ways to do some of these things - such as using brass rooves, soldering everything in place etc.