Killybegs

That's a very good series, very enjoyable viewing.

5514, a rather grubby Small Prairie, crosses the canal at Worseter with a 'local stopper' from Gloucester.

Waiting for the off

Pannier tank 3643 approaching the shed at Worseter with 3 wagons of coal for the coaling stage.

The buildings are now all finished and 'John's Motors' has some second hand cars for sale and another one coming in for a service. Worseter Engineering have just completed an order for four large storage tanks. These are the largest tanks they have made to date and they have had to call in Wynns to transport them to the client.

Sunlight bursts through the clouds illuminating 5514 taking on coal on a very overcast morning at Worseter shed.

The industrial buildings at the Gloucester end of the layout are nearly all finished. One out of shot to be completed.

Cary Grant's mum used to live in the same road as my Gran. A few doors down from my Gran and a few doors up from where Robin W (Barrow Road of this parish) lived when he was a lad.

I might have to move back to the UK to do that!😄

So, here's the card mock-up. Brick embossed panels cut out Lintels and cills added The bars to the ground floor windows were recessed into the backing for the lintels and cills. The styrene backing strips to the sides of the windows increased the jamb width, the brick coursing to these being done with a triangular needle file. 80 windows were carefully cut out of 0.25mm styrene with a sharp scalpel (no sillouette cutter!) The windows were then cut out and built up with 0.75mm clear glazing, 0.75mm styrene packing and finally, a 0.25mm styrene rear framing. After a couple of days you end up with a big pile of windows to secure to the rear of the wall panels. The windows were airbrushed prior to the sheet being cut up. That involved a lot of 6mm masking tape! The doors and hoist cabins were made up as separate structures. All the brick panels were painted before fixing the windows. The embossed styrene was given a coat of grey paint before being sanded down which just left the mortar joints grey and the bricks better defined. The brickwork was then given a thin wash of paint to give the desired effect. Once all the panels were complete, they were secured to the card structure with 5 minute epoxy. The corner between the end and sides was mitred and secured with solvent. The gutters and downpipes were made from styrene. Finally, York self adhesive slates were applied to the roofs.

The mock ups were sturdily built with a double skin of mounting board suitably braced internally. They had survived for several years without any distortion so I merely clad them with panels made up from embossed styrene sheet. Sounds simple but there was almost as much work as if I had started from scratch. I did take some pics on my phone during the building process so at some point I will download and post some to show how it was done.

Having spent a lot of time building coaching stock, I have turned my attention to the warehouses at the Gloucester end of the layout. The mock ups have now had detail added!

They are also threatening to drain Cannop Ponds.

Was Bassaleg a sub shed? Back in 1962 I did a tour of all the sheds in South Wales but not Bassaleg. As I was staying with a work colleague of my fathers in Bassaleg as a base for day trips, that was a bit strange. Anything reasonably close I did on my bike, the friend drove me round the others in an old VW campervan.

We were walking along the trackbed the other day on our way from the Fountains Inn (too busy) to the Woodmans Inn for a spot of lunch before a trip on the FDR. Our train crew are seen relaxing at Norchard.

We took Clinkerford to the final Easter show. It was hard work with just two of us especially as we seemed to be nursing hangovers most mornings.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the train, the guard is enjoying the view and wondering if the fisherman is there more in hope than expectation of catching anything!

You obviously need a bigger house Phil!! The layout is looking good so far. Can we assume that the roundy roundy with lots of Pirton churches on it will be appearing in the next series of the Hornby show. Hee hee!!!

Now, now Phil, as you well know, its only based on the Shrub Hill Road crossing. On Worseter (not Worcester) the crossing is on the line that serves Worseter MPD. I am lead to believe that there is photographic evidence that a 9F appeared on shed on one occasion. There must have been a lot of wheel squealing on the tight curves! By the way, how's your layout coming along?

The road crossing on the shed approach is a little safer with signals controlling the road traffic but we still need a man with a red flag!

2822 heads for South Wales with a long rake of empties.