PaternosterRow

There's some seriously good carpentry skills being applied here chaps. Any joiner worth his salt would be proud of that baseboard construction. Bostin!

Now that really is attention to detail. Superb work - like the idea of the template to help measure and solder in place. Mike

I'd go with the superglue and tint of green for a moss effect Pete. You'll always get these niggles with infill areas and smooth running - besides all concrete hard standings have rough areas in reality. Always thought it was brave to incorporate a point into an infill section anyhow. Don't forget, we can also start to be with the model too much sometimes - if you get my meaning - seeing fault where others can't. This is a fabulous little scheme so keep plugging away - there's so much eye catching detail to it and I certainly can't detect any fault from your pics. By the way, thanks for the tip about the Humbrol concrete colour.

Blimey Frank, you've been busy! Very neat bit of work on those fiddle yards - given me something to think about.

Really love that fiddle yard idea - haven't seen anything like that before - very original. I'm assuming that the scenic area is 8 ft and that its 00 not N?

The back scene has now been finished (nearly). This was made from a simple frame covered in 3mm MDF. I've found in the past that if you don't prime the MDF with a coat of oil based undercoat first then the emulsion/acrylic used after will only crack and peel. Ordinary white emulsion was used for the sky. Some tester pots were obtained from Homebase (cheap) - sky blue and slate grey - these were dabbed on in several places and the white worked in. It creates a good effect without too much hassle and messing about - I call it my '5 minute sky'. The hills and trees are all hand painted, but before you start assuming I'm a good artist (I'm definitely not), it is just a bit of trickery. I used a free downloadable back scene and manipulated it in a program called Poster.It (also free). It was then printed out on a black and white printer - these sheets were then pasted on in sequence and painted over with ordinary acrylics (a cheap set from Aldi). I just used a stiff brush for the trees and stabbed away until happy with the effect. The Edwardian figures are from Preiser (very expensive) and are HO - they do look a little small, but are very nicely finished. This puts the layout in 1912 for the moment. The station and its environs are quite tired looking and I'm not sure that the GWR management would approve - but that's the effect I'm after. Next Job - fiddle yard. Not too sure how complex this should be, but I might just go for a simple fixed track affair.

The shot of the Crooked House takes me back. Do they still have the marbles on the sills to demonstrate how out of level it all was - think one marble appeared to go uphill!

Gosh Pete, you think I work fast! Lovely pic looking through the viaduct. Can't wait for the greenery to go in - just don't make a ball's up of it!!! (sorry for yet another 'balls' pun). Mike

A bit like the above! Although it ain't strictly BC (!), this pic of Bordesley Viaduct, Digbeth captures the feel of what an Industrial location is like at night. I took it from the 3rd flr of an old converted Ice House in Digbeth way back in 1994. The red glow being supplied by modern sodium lights instead of furnaces.

Another free Google Book found today - Osborne's Guide to the Grand Junction Railway - written in 1838. Much more detailed description of the surrounding area - pay particular attention to the one of Dudley. The places surrounding Dudley are fire and smoke as far as the eye can see, even the ground was on fire in certain places - spontaneous combustion! Osborne even describes the local dialect and gives some amusing examples (pages 137 and 138). I noticed from both Osborne and Roscoe's books that the area is not defined as the 'Black Country', but just described as a vast sprawl of surface coal and iron ore that's alight with many furnaces and places of heavy industry. Really interesting stuff.

Don't know if you're aware of the book 'The Grand Junction Railway' written by Thomas Roscoe Esq in 1839. He was one of the resident engineers of the line. The GJR skirts the northern edge of the Black Country and has some fantastic descriptions of what you'd have seen from the train as it travels North from Brum. He describes the BC as a vast open coalfield full of forges and fires - the 'dirty acres' he called it. Perry Barr is the first station out of Birmingham followed by Newton Road Bridge Station - the line crosses the Tame time and time again and the river was rerouted at certain locations to accommodate it. It provides a fascinating insight simply because it is an eyewitness account of the area of 1839. The book is free from Google Books and can be downloaded in PDF format - worth a read as it has a great little map and some brilliant engravings.

It must have been M&B then as I only remember a head on Mild when the Seventh Trap opened and started serving Bank's - luxury beer! Castrol R was the stuff alright. I had a mate who swore that's what all he needed when mixing up the petrol for his 2 stroke Vespa. It smelled brilliant, blue smoke emanating from the exhaust until his engine seized on a trip to Burton on the A38 one Friday night. The violent jolt blew a hole in the crank case and his pillion, another good mate, used his ankle as a brake as they scrapped along the wet tarmac. I came up behind them on my trusty MZ and had to ferry both of them to the Sutton A&E. Those were the days!

Would that be 116 Teddington Grove?

Gosh, memories, memories. I remember Mad O' Roukes and the canal barge pub with part of a barge as the bar. The Speedway at Perry Barr dog track - I had a ring side view from my bedroom window as a lad - the smell of that oil they used to mix in the fuel (what was it called now?). Highgate Mild was my first pint - a frothless, dark substance that quenched the thirst on a Friday night in the Roundabout under the Rotunda all for 49p a pint!

Dead right 'r' kid, but it was our stream even though it was yellow and suspect. I nearly drowned one summer afternoon on it. We found an old dingy in a mate's garage and went on an expedition down the river past Lynton Square shopping centre, under the Walsall Road bridge and on to the old zig-zag bridge on the Aldridge Road. The Dingy suddenly sprang a leak and we found ourselves stranded on the gravel bank in the middle of the River! That was OK in the summer when the Tame was, as its name suggests, tame and we could walk through it to the opposite bank even though we were half drowned. In the Winter though, when it was swelled it would often burst its banks and flood the Walsall Road adjacent to Tucker Fasteners factory. I also remember the same said gang going down an old 3ft diameter storm water pipe that fed into the river from the Walsall Road itself. We went up it quite a way when the battery in our one and only torch gave out! In a panic we scrambled out and I remember the Spanish Inquisition when we arrived home - Sunday best all tattered and torn. Happy, carefree days! Mike

How about Perry Barr North and South Junction - spectacular views of the trains through Perry Hall Park railings on the way to school in the mornings or from the embankment just before Tame Bridge and the River Tame itself - that used to flood out our houses down by the Dog Track next to Perry Barr station before the flood prevention scheme went in. Happy days.

I grew up in Perry Barr and on the Saturday shopping trip by train, depending on Mom's whim, we'd either end up in Brum via New Street or Walsall market (Perry Barr is one of the oldest operational stations in the world by the way). We'd pick up certain words from black country kids and bring them home to Brum - 'Bostin 'a' it?' is still one of my favorite phrases. So our dialect was in the middle somehow - always a lick of the Black Country about our North Brummie accents. It still amazes me though how other people from around the UK equate our accent with stupidity. Nick names I personally hate are 'Rubber Dummie' and 'Yam-Yam' - do the people who use these terms actually realize that the Industrial Revolution was born in our neck of the woods? My wife and I now live in Southern Ireland and the people here don't even recognize our accent - in fact, some even think we are from Liverpool/posh!!! Mike

Hi Dave, Fell in love with your layout when I first saw it in Model Rail. What is most inspiring is that you managed to make it look so brilliant given the tight radius curves you had to use. You've got a great runaround that's as good as best of any of the fiddle to fiddle layouts I've seen. Very creative thinking regarding the design and space limitations - now I've got my loft converted I'm going to have a runaround too. Really enjoy stumbling on your updates from time to time and am so glad Waverley continues to live despite your move. It is great to see how the sections go together - I presume the station top is a separate piece all of its own? Regards, Mike

Hi, Thanks for the comments. Yep, Scalescenes is a great product and offers the likes of me an easy way to create good looking buildings - wouldn't know where to start with Plasticard! I'm glad you like the embankment - getting scenery right is real hard work. I've ploughed the internet, books etc looking for photographs to work from. Static grass is a great product and really does work even if applied from a humble puffer bottle. Regards, Mike

Hi Pete. Thanks for the comments. I only appear to work fast - my wife loves to watch all the soaps and all that other inane singing/dancing competition rubbish so I disappear into the loft and do at least 2 hrs modeling per evening. Unless, of course, there actually is something worth watching like on BBC4 instead. This drip-drip approach really does bear fruit. There are times though when I get over frustrated with something and I'll throw it all in for about a week! I agree with your comment, but I want to avoid the cliche and decided to add the canopy shelter as a sort of after thought building - more of an add on rather than replacement. The model is currently set at around 1912-1935 - a time when traffic was slowly increasing. I guess the fictitious station planers had to provide a small outside shelter for passengers as they needed to move them out of the brick building in order to provide a ladies rest room and a secure space to accommodate more parcels, station masters office etc (it is actually part of the Scalescene kit also). It isn't intended to be a typical GWR station - more a sleepy, run down and unimportant backwater - so it is going to have a quirky element. I was also inspired by the following painting of Chedworth Station which has a surprisingly similar shelter. You can find the pic here - http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5320/5907915509_0058c343e2_z.jpg Regards, Mike

I'd very much like to see a blog or feature on the development of a kit. A kind of start to finish look into how John (and his team) actually designs it all - without giving away too many of his secrets of course. For example, I've always liked the idea of how the different elements of a kit sometimes line up to make cutting them out less onerous. Also, I tend to use standard mounting board and cereal packet card yet the models still somehow fit together perfectly despite the recommendations to use specific thickness for different elements - is this tolerance built in, or have I just been lucky etc? I also use standard PVA glue (not glue sticks) from a bottle and Artist's Matt varnish for everything - find that you don't get bubbles this way and it also makes the models incredibly robust once dry - is this something anyone else has found? One last question - when's the GWR station going to be done? Regards, Mike.

Time for an update. The station building has now been completed (few minor details to do). This is the Scalescenes Small Station Building kit which has been extended - the Scalescenes Gent's Kit has also been added to the gable end. I'm a bit of a Scalescenes nut and very much enjoy making and modifying the kits. I'm crap at painting plastic building kits so really love the crisp detail of the textures - there is a wide range of kits and papers allowing you to scratchbuild and modify to your hearts content. The station isn't typical GWR, but not every station was built from stone. The fencing panel with the enamel signs is designed to lift out so it can be replaced with different posters/signs as the intention is not to stick to a specific period. The buildings are also not fixed so they can be replaced with modern variants if required. Another shot of the building showing the Water Tower - this can also be removed if I want to move the model forward in time etc. The next shot is of the finished embankment - this is my first big country scene so I hope I've made the foliage/grass realistic enough. The last shot looking down toward the proposed coal siding and bridge. The signal is a Ratio kit and was really very fiddly to put together - any suggestions as how to power it from under the baseboard? I was thinking of using a point motor or a really long piece of stiff wire as a throw. I could also do with a bit of advice on the correct placement of the ground signals. Any comments/suggestions are most welcome.

Ah Frank, you've conjured up some fond memories of the SVR for me. I used to go and stay at a friends caravan down in Highley when in my early twenties - brilliant fun in the local pub (can't remember the name of the site though). We also took Mom and Dad for a meal on the train way back about 15 years ago before they retired and left to live in Ireland - a great, great day out. There was also a building site meeting I attended in 2004 and we all took a bit of time out to watch one of the trains steaming through the valley. Great memories and it's one those places I miss a lot - thanks very much for sharing. Regards, Mike

Hi Frank Thanks very much. It's 8 ft long and on a gentle curve - one of the things that struck me about Geoff's 'Penhydd', which has been the inspiration for Cheslyn, is just how much he managed to squeeze into a space a little over 7ft long and make it all look so realistic. As you are already aware as a 4mm modeler yourself, there is always a compromise when it comes to track, goods yard and platform length. But it seems that the introduction of a curve combined with raising the track above the baseboard really increases depth and perspective - especially through a camera lens. Once again, thanks for your encouragement - it give me loads of incentive when it comes from seasoned modelers like yourself.