Chris Chewter

A promised, here’s the hut painted up. Still trying to get the finish around the chimney correct, but I think that’s more down to design and my knowledge (or lack of).

As we head our way towards the weekend, I thought I'd post the other two photos of the Dapol Railcar at Tetbury taken from the hill. Railcar getting ready to depart And making its way towards Kemble. Have a good weekend folks!

I've never seem a photo of a great western railcar working the branch, although the Dapol model does look at home on the layout.

Another view of the railcar

In one of the rarer photos I've found of Tetbury, there was the odd occasion where a modern railcar would be used to replace the simple single car units that were normally used on the branch. With the help of one of the model club members, his railcar was borrowed for a quick photoshoot. A little photoshoppery has been used with some digital clouds added, and the destination blind changed to Kemble.

The railmotor was on display at the Great Electric Train Show this weekend:

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few months. I was concerned that people were getting jaded to the constant streams of photos of panniers. Anyway, I thought I’d post to say that if you do enjoy Tetbury, it was filmed back in February as a feature layout for the Hornby: A model world programme. If I do find out which episode it’s in, I’ll post an update. I’ve now got a good selection of new photos, so will start putting the best ones up over the next few weeks.

I took delivery of an Ortur 20w cutter a few weeks back. So far things look promising. The charring to the chimney was caused by getting the power and speed settings wrong (I think). Slow and steady seems to win the race, and at the moment, and I've only had two weeks cutting experience. The one on the left is 4mm and the one on the right is 2mm which will be heading to one of the guys in the local model railway club. At the moment, the 4mm hut is sat on the workbench after receiving a spray of matt black. I'll post another photo of the hut once its been painted up.

Popped into the Hornby visitors centre in Margate and was slightly surprised to find a W1 sat behind the glass in one of the display cabinets.

You're right its not pretty, but there was a war on when it was built. Now a stable block, its quite poignant to think about the number of troops who disembarked at the station before traveling to Brize Norton or Broadwell. Many never returned.

Following my last post about iffy fencing, I decided to remove the dodgy flexible Peco stuff, and install some Ratio lineside fencing I had in a box. Its been sprayed with Halfords dark earth and fitted over the weekend. Not the tidiest job. I might take it off and refit it again when I can get to the board better than I can at the moment. Some Modelu people have also been fitted to give the layout a bit of life. The school boy spotters seem to be popular with Instagram. I also set up a few shots of the layout, like this passing of passenger trains. I don't think trains ever did pass at Carterton, but, if they did, it might have looked like this: And not forgetting the other board: At the moment the layout is a static diorama, but I need to get on with electrifying it now. Not a very photogenic part of the process, but its got to be done.

Things have been quiet with Tetbury. With the Carterton layout taking all the other available room, getting in and taking photos has been tricky. Over the weekend I decided the 16xx I purchased for Tetbury looked too clean, so I decided to give it some weathering powder treatment. Although I've now realised this morning that I haven't added the fire irons! Never mind, perhaps a job for tonight.

The fences are threaded with EZ line. https://www.modelscenerysupplies.co.uk/EZ-Line I tried black thread but that was asking for trouble. EZ line being elastic means that if it’s snagged, it stretches and pops back into place.

Station signs installed. Looking at the photos I thought there were four, but actually there are only two, one for each platform. One here: And one here: Not bad for coffee stirrers and match sticks. The lettering is laser cut from a scale model scenery kit. The surround is some 1mm square plastistruct.

Started work on the station nameboards. In the absence of the Cooper craft boards, I did try some laser cut signs, but they are too elaborate for Carterton. Coffee stirrers again to the rescue! Just waiting for the glue to cure before I trim the coffee stirrers back and make up some legs. I’ve also been thinking about the control panel. I love the laser cut kits you can buy, but they’re a bit pricey. So I’m going to make do with a plastic box. The two points can work in tandem, so only one switch is needed, and a push-to-make for operating the signal.

I've been a bit quiet on the modelling front. I've been saving up some cash to sort out some fiddle yards for Carterton. However I decided that I needed to add a few figures to give it a bit of life. I popped my usual ambling figure from Modelu and took a photo to see what it looked like, but I'm not quite happy with the fencing. The pack was a slightly elderly pack of Peco fencing. Its slightly odd in that the plastic is very flexible, and it seemed to bow once taken out of the packet. I thought it would look like broken fencing, but I'm not sure I'm happy with the finished effect. It s also showed that the steps to the left also need to be refitted. If anyone has an idea of an alternative product to replace the fencing with, then let me know!

A young lad admires 4672 whilst his family cut through on the station lane.

Took a few photo stacks to see how the layout looked, especially as the "mouse hole" for the train to run through hasn't been cut yet. To me, the corner behind the station seems a bit bland, and the photos of the real station show a bank of trees just beyond the end of the platform, so I think I'll exercise some modellers licence and move them into the scene slightly. I think it looks better with the trees, however reviewing the photo, it needs another by the telegraph pole. I'll save that for another day.

I thought this image came out well. A study of 9735 besides Tetbury's iconic and recognisable goods shed. Due to the low backscene, the clouds have been added.

Working on Carterton today. What a difference some black paint makes! Sea foam trees also stuck into place. These have been matched to similar positions in the photos. I need a bit of low vegetation by the bridge, but that can be added later. Onto the little details of signage and people. And I know there are ‘sky corners’ on the backscene. Perhaps I’ll curve the backscene for the next layout.

Todays photo shows 9735 gentle easing out of the station.

Another photo of the lighting before I put the boards away for the night. Ive ordered some clips to hide and tidy up the cables.

A view across the station site from the top of the hill at Tetbury.

Made a bit of progress tonight. Backscene and a sheet of 1.5mm aluminium sheet arrived. The neighbourhood echoed to the sound of aluminium being cut into shape. A single backscene was trialled, but it was too much of a faff to fit each time and keep lifting out. After it fell on the signal and squashed it out of shape, I decided to live with a central gap. Signal reassembled and I managed to get the gap a bit tighter than my first attempt using hardboard. However I’ve run out of double sided sticky tape, so the bit by the bridge will have to wait for a bit. So what to do? Why not fit some lighting? Below the pelmet are a pair of under counter kitchen lights. Its a bit yellow, but I don’t think it looks too bad. I’ll trial some photos another night and see how it looks. Its been a challenge, but ultimately its been a successful and satisfying evening.

The discussion in the car park continues, and it looks like the post vans have backed into those gates one time too many!