From Llangunllo to Llanbister Rd.

What a difference a day makes, Friday was a scorcher for us and all thoughts of modelling were put on hold whilst the day was spent out in the garden. However in true Bank Holiday style it's since gone downhill and so I managed to complete my version of Portesham goods shed save for a few blemishes which the camera managed to find.......




Obviously the ground around the shed needs to be worked up and the building bedded into it.




It was a little difficult taking this shot hence the poor quality, the idea was to use my mini tripod set the timer and let the camera get on with it. The problem was finding the damn tripod which will no doubt turn up in a few days time. For the next stage of the build I will be returning to the far end of the layout to complete the cottages, signal box and feedstore. Then the mouse hole leading to the sector plate will be disguised with a few trees and bushes, some decent crossing gates made, leaving just the smaller detail to add

In the meantime not many trains have been seen running since yesterday morning when 1455 arrived with a single coach from Llanbister Rd.


The return working was in the hands of a 121 and shortly after it's departure a Hymek with milk tanks in tow arrived from the direction of Titley Junction to collect those tanks in the siding.



D7039 rolls into Llangunllo, I would have imagined by this time in the early to mid sixties that Llangullo creamery would have been little more than a collection point for any dairy produce.



With the extra tanks collected and coupled up the train departs for the Central Wales Line which it will join at Llanbister Rd.

Beautiful stuff Geoff
I could look at those photos all day.
Steve

Steve Cook said:

Beautiful stuff Geoff
I could look at those photos all day.
Steve

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Cheers Steve,

Just a final one in hope that you might be inspired to get off your backside, drop the big stuff and crack on with your 14XX

Terrific stuff as ever.

I especially like the almost passengers eye view that shows the curve of the line through the scene, I think your "hole in the back scene" works well already, with a bit more work I think the eye will have to work hard to detect it.

Digital cameras are brilliant, a whole new dimension to modelling I think, especially the ability to capture viewpoints that can't be seen by human eyes, if you see what I mean.

Same with the weather here, I'm just about to undercoat the woodwork in the downstairs bog - deep joy....

Simon

Geoff said:

Cheers Steve,
Just a final one in hope that you might be inspired to get off your backside, drop the big stuff and crack on with your 14XX

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Oh, like that is it Geoff As great an image as it is, I'm afraid its garden railway season, the little stuff comes into its own when the clocks go the other way.
Yours....Patiently
Steve

Simon said:

Terrific stuff as ever.

I especially like the almost passengers eye view that shows the curve of the line through the scene, I think your "hole in the back scene" works well already, with a bit more work I think the eye will have to work hard to detect it.

Digital cameras are brilliant, a whole new dimension to modelling I think, especially the ability to capture viewpoints that can't be seen by human eyes, if you see what I mean.

Same with the weather here, I'm just about to undercoat the woodwork in the downstairs bog - deep joy....

Simon

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Thanks Simon,

I rather like the passenger eye view myself as for the 'hole', well it doesn't look too bad in that particular shot but as you can see below a bit of work is needed to disguise it from certain angles. I have the rather mad idea of adding a carefully selected piece of leftover backscene against the wall beyond the hole, which with a couple of well placed overhanging trees should trick the eye nicely. One would be placed to the right of the feedstore blocking half of the hole outline with another doing the same job on the opposite side.

I agree with you as regards digital cameras, where would we be without them..





Can't believe that you were painting your bog on the Sabbath, have fun doing the topcoat today

Steve Cook said:

Oh, like that is it Geoff As great an image as it is, I'm afraid its garden railway season, the little stuff comes into its own when the clocks go the other way.
Yours....Patiently
Steve

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Thought it might have been a little chilly and damp for you hence the gentle nudge . I suppose you could always build a large scale 14XX for garden duties ?

Have you seen MRJ 230 and the article on Bachmann coupling rods, I was thinking of you and you know what when I was reading that piece, food for thought there perhaps ?

Have fun with your garden gnomes and other outdoor distractions

Geoff said:

Thought it might have been a little chilly and damp for you hence the gentle nudge . I suppose you could always build a large scale 14XX for garden duties ?

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There is one in the pile - the idea is I get my eye in with the little 'un and then crack on with the big'un

Have you seen MRJ 230 and the article on Bachmann coupling rods, I was thinking of you and you know what when I was reading that piece, food for thought there perhaps ?

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I haven't seen that issue yet Geoff, I'll hunt a copy down, ta for the heads up.

Have fun with your garden gnomes and other outdoor distractions

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Something for the weekend............

Hi Geoff I must say that the buildings on your layout are superb really very very nice
John

john lewsey said:

Hi Geoff I must say that the buildings on your layout are superb really very very nice
John

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Thank you John that's very kind of you, I was happy with them myself until I saw that signal box that you are building, now that is superb.

I meant to upload this view of the proposed goods yard arrangement earlier, the building has since been bedded in and the crane moved further towards the camera and in front of the goods shed steps.

Thank you

Geoff said:

Something for the weekend............

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All superb, Geoff, very evocative, but in that colour view showing the Hymek the grass colouring and texture is simply spot on, mate, it's really, really convincing. Lovely stuff!

Captain Kernow said:

All superb, Geoff, very evocative, but in that colour view showing the Hymek the grass colouring and texture is simply spot on, mate, it's really, really convincing. Lovely stuff!

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Thank you very much Tim, that's very kind and generous of you...

Over the weekend I managed to do a little more work on the goods shed, the yard is still very much WIP as is most of the layout but this is how things look now...



Grass tufts and weeds are home made from static grass and Silflor..... The yard crane salvaged from Penhydd is scratch built from microstrip and and odds and ends from the scrapbox.






The sleeper built fence is from stained sleeper strip and will run all along the perimeter of the goods yard.

Love the juxtaposition of the goods shed and the crane Geoff, especially in relation to the station building. You have achieved a lovely balance of colour over the layout so far, it really does look the part.

At risk of making myself look like / being thought of as an arse, I'm going to be rude and suggest that I think is fence you've built is wrong on two counts. I've had a good leaf through my Bannisters and Ashworths and the fence style you have chosen looks more suburban yard to me than rural station. I know I have a limited selection of reference material but I struggled to find evidence of fences in that style throughout the books.

Secondly, it rather blocks the view as you have it above - a more open fence would leave a delicious set of layers to that photo, shed, crane and station visible through the fence, platform and wall visible through the crane etc etc. Getting that repeat of interest and relationships at different depths all the way through the photo would just be utterly magic in my view.

I still wish I could make models like you though

Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your thoughts and views, as you know I am always open to and indeed welcome constructive criticism.
As for making yourself look an arse don't worry about it, I have over sixty years experience of doing just that and it's done me no harm, as yet !

I tried a five bar fence a few weeks ago but didn't really care for the look of it, so cast my mind back to the local ex GC station up here in Cheshire pre Beeching. The local coal merchant rented one of the sidings and if I remember correctly it was fenced off with sleepers and scraps of corrugated iron. In short it was a right eyesore and the first thing you noticed from a passenger train arriving in the down platform.

The current arrangement does block the view from low angles and you are not the only one to raise that so perhaps it might pay to move the sleeper built fencing further down towards the coal merchants plot and take a look at a more open 5 bar style again

The past week has been spent recycling cardboard cereal boxes into a couple of rough buildings and this is the result of my efforts. The timbering is from surplus ply sleeper strip and the rest is courtesy of Kelloggs



Both buildings have been inspired by George Iliffe Stokes and the plans can be found in his classic book.......



http://www.swindonworks.co.uk/george-iliffe-stokes---scenic-artist.html

Still in their raw state this is how they might look on the layout should I decided to stick with them and develop them further.


The scene is supposed to represent a small hamlet on the outskirts of the village, the buildings mask the creamery siding where it passes through the backscene and onto the sector plate.

Well the proposed buildings have been in place on the layout for a while now and despite a little more experimentation with an alternative arrangement I have decided to stay with the scene below. The baseboard is 18" wide in old money at this point or 46cm if you have gone all metric.




I won't be modelling the half timbered building in chocolate box style and I expect to give the cottage a depressing, dull grey render finish. The level crossing will be protected by a pair of these gates as will the other crossing beside the signal box.



This is the GWR style kit and the gates will be cut down to suit the single track roads on the layout so I end up with something like this..... I was amazed that an original Derek Munday kit for these gates sold for £21.98 on ebay last month, the current price from Andrew at MSE being only a tenner!



The photo is by Tim (Capt. K) and was taken at St. Mary's crossing, hopefully he won't object to me posting it here......?



Finally 2217 which is currently undergoing some plastic surgery and extra detailing leaves Llangunllo with a evening passenger train.

Things have been rather quiet of late whilst I play around with the village scene which is slowly coming together bit by bit. At the moment it looks something like this with the various buildings in different stages of construction..........



I rather like the view of the buildings from this part of the layout.....



Fans of hydraulics have been neglected of late so here is one featuring a Class 22 complete with milk tanks passing through the station.



...........and a rare helicopter view of a Class 121 deputising for steam power.



Finally a low angle shot taken from down the embankment........

Two weeks ago I had a major re think as to how the layout was developing and decided that the small hamlet which was springing up around the station building would have to go. My initial plans called for a remote station out in the back of beyond, you know the type of place I mean where the village was some distance from the station. Going back to my childhood I always remember the two mile walk home from Mells Road station to Mells itself taking longer than the train journey from Frome or Radstock !

So with much faffing about I have come full circle to my less is more ideas and now have something like this........



The original plan called for a suggestion of the creamery seen here in the background as a temporary flat salvaged from Penhydd. The proper building will be modelled in 3/4 relief, I've also decided against having an agricultural engineers premises in the goods yard. Instead we have a model based on G.Small & Son's premises which stood at Hatch on the Chard branch, they were purveyors of coal, manure and brickyard goods. The white rectangle on the front wall will have the name of the last coal merchant to rent the old sidings at Presteign, well it will when I find his name in my notes



The building together with a couple of trees and a low cutting is proving to be an effective view blocker for where the track passes onto the sector plate. I've not got around to making the MSE crossing gates as yet but together with their wicket gates they will fit nicely in place of the current Peco mock up. The old Commer will need a touch of sign writing to match it's new owners name, the scene is still very much work in progress but I think I'm now back on track and heading in the right direction.

I think that looks more natural, much as I liked the hamlet scene the cottage right by the track reminded me somewhat of Mrs Miggins situation in Marshcastle!!

Lovely modelling as ever.

Simon