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simply back

Today, 21st June 2023 marks a small but significant date in the life of Brettell Road, in that it’s exactly 2 years since Tim and I first cut wood for the 2 new baseboards.  I think it fair to say that a reasonable amount of modelling water has flowed under that particular bridge since that day and I’m now drawing in to the layouts final destination somewhat.

Drawing being the word as the big thing thats always been missing from any pictures of the new boards is the backscene.  Long time readers may recall that this is an area of the layout that I have revisited on more than one occasion and, with every intention of this being the last time, I find myself deciding to get this particular subject closed off once and for all.

The method

The method I use is like modelling but in a 2 dimensional world rather than 3.  Starting with drawing up the basic structure in much the same way as I do the modelled buildings.

 

Above is the basic drawing of a typical industrial shed.  Think of it like a kit of parts.  This is done in Adobe Illustrator and the rather bright colours are simply so that they are easily selectable at the next stage.

 

Which is to transfer the basic drawing to Photoshop where Scalescenes textures are overlaid and the bits ‘assembled’ into something resembling a basic 3d building.  You will note theres no shading and no perspective yet. A different building showing some shading and some perspective.  The image is still made up of separate parts in a folder so that I can fine tune it once applied to the finished backscene.

 

Of which this is the end board for the left of the layout. Some consideration, such as the metal fence, needs to be made for elements of the layout that will cross from the 3d world to the 2d one. The line the railway takes, under the bridge on the left is hinted at by the arrangement of the trees.

 

This is the view of the bottom of the hill on the left.  Again the wall and the building on the right of the image are intended to match up with the 3d model.

And finally the middle bit of the 2 new boards. Based on images of the real Round Oak.  Of course the point of all this is that its there but not really all that noticeable at the same time.


Tired of tiles!

After working my way through a lot of laser cut strips of tiles I can call my building(s) project effectively done. There are several schools of thought when it comes to what to do with low relief buildings.  The easiest is to keep them parallel to the backscene however if you don’t (as I haven’t) then the roof can actually become a little bit of a problem area. Theres 2 main ways to address this,  Keep the pitch of the roof the same and cut the top at an angle.  Or keep the top parallel to the rest of the building and adjust the pitch.  My personal opinion is that the latter is the better option.  The pitch on my acorn building is significantly different from the left end to the right end. One advantage of using tile strips over embossed plasticard is you can adjust the rows to compensate for this and hopefully no one will notice what trickery you’ve been up to!

The same applies to this building although it’s not quite as dramatic.

The thing with lighting buildings is they look a bit weird if they are just empty boxes.  I don’t feel you need to model everything inside though, just enough clutter to give a hint of something inside.  The shelving and cardboard boxes are from scale model scenery. I have found its something people at shows to look for and I think is nice to have some little ‘treasures’ that people can discover for themselves. The Higgs and Co. building also has some ‘officey’ clutter.  In the late 50s offices seemed to be laid out more like a school classroom than the more ergonomic arrangement we see now.

The roof of the rear of the Higgs building has some weird shapes that were a bit of a faff to work out if I’m honest.

I do feel that the middle of the layout has a suitable black country-ish feel to it now.

One little building I bunged together is this little weighbridge that will sit behind the main station building.  Its based on the one at Wombourne (See here) and I was initially attracted to its over the top chimney and the way its just stuck in a corner. I did have to reel my enthusiasm in a little as the chimney at Wombourne matches the station so to model it exactly as it was when the ones on my station don’t look anything like, would have been a little weird.

Below a few pictures, I feel the last one really captures the feel I want for the layout.


A dash of autumnal weather.

After much experimentation on Brettell Road part 1 and coming up with a working formula. Adding rain to part 2 was a much simpler process (although still a bugger to photograph mind you!)

View from the middle looking towards Stourbridge.  The method I have settled on is to spray everything that needs to be wet with a fine coat of Tamiya smoke.  When dry a coat of AK interactive wet effect is added and thats really it. Simple enough now but it took an awful lot of faffing about to get here!

View towards Dudley

This is the view from the old layout to the new one . While its not something I intended to capture when I took the picture it does show the elevation changes quite well.

Below a few evening pictures


Revisions and clutter

Remember the diagram 1973 mineral wagon I posted a few entries ago?  Turns out I missed some of the reinforcing bits that were added after they were built. Im not sure how as they were in the prototype pictures I was looking at!  Anyway thats been corrected now

Ive finished off  a few Bachmann RTR wagons too.

The steel high-fit was actually already done.  Ive just added a container to it. The other 2 are actually 2 of the 3 vans I first brought for the layout. Discounted in Modellers Mecca bargain bin!  The tarpaulin is black latex cut from a surgical glove.

When I built the retaining wall for this side of the bridge I did intend to do something a little more substantial but decided that It would look weird if the wall was 2 different designs. However a friend mentioned that the buttresses looked a little too puny so I reverted to what i should have done originally and modified the existing wall to match.  I admit I did want something more grandiose than this but for where it is it wouldn’t have made a lot of sense to have something to elaborate. I definitely don’t subscribe to that inane ‘rule 1’ idea of its your layout do what you want.  There has to be some degree of plausibility in there somewhere.

Clutter – What is a yard if it doesn’t have some clutter in it?  Much like the retaining walls though you don’t want to go too mad.  At the end of the day this is someones product and they aren’t all that likely to leave it lying around on the floor.

So I opted for 3 small groups of stuff as can be seen above.

I always wanted some coal facility and I had this in mind when I built my tractor.  Again nothing too posh, no coal staithes or anything like that – just a few piles and some more clutter.  The steps, scales and the conveyor (behind the tractor) are 3D prints kindly donated by my friend John.

Finally a couple more evening shots.


Signs of life

With the Stourbridge end of the layout looking half decent attention has turned to the Dudley end of the new boards or the middle of the layout. Theres a few things that jarred about this scene now that it’s more open.  Before you couldn’t really see them.  The pavement doesn’t flow properly and there are big gaps at the end of the bridge girder. Also the lower part wasn’t finished.  When I designed the bridge I did have the foresight to include a half etch to allow the rivets on this side to be punched through.  However when I built it i didn’t bother! Ive already pulled up the road.

So the road and pavements have been redone. I made an overlay for the bridge from paper.  The pub sign is from Model scenics and features our much missed cat Moo.   The figures are from Modelu.

The bridge from track level.  Ive added the retaining walls with some nifty top capping that Tim kindly cut for me.

Turning around we see an overview of the somewhat neglected platforms.

An overview of progress so far.

Ive added a scattering of people from Modelu and Airfix.  I thought the lady with the umbrella was particularly suitable.  I still need to do more work to bed this end of the building in.  Considering this is the rush hour theres not many people about.

The station has 2 cats. The sensible one is Shadow while the mischievous one who wants to play is comet  They are more interested in chasing each other than the local rat population!

On the other platform a couple of elder ladies discuss the immanent closure of the station with the station master.

Agent A gent waits for the bus.  It’s late as usual!

Now that the some of the lighting is in place a few dark shots.


Greenery and decoration.

I’ve reached the stage where all the significant greenery is pretty much done and I can move on to some titivating of parts of the layout.

I’ve made a basic wooden fence to block off the line that crossed the road originally.  The rudimentary gate (which looks like it hasn’t been actually used for years) is simply a few bits of 1x1mm brass soldered together.

Proverbially walking up the road a little we come to the station signs.  These are based on a photo I found somewhere.  The fading on the signs themselves was actually an accident. The result of me handling the printout a little too early.

Continuing our walk we come to this.  What can be more of a model railway cliché than the good old bus on a bridge?  Well since I am not going to be doing any buses for this layout I have gone for a midlands style bus stop instead. The main column was something I had in my spares box.   The rain on the layout is always going to be going left to right as you look at it, so it makes sense that the autumn leaves and litter do the same.  The top of the bridge is particularity known by the locals as being a bit blustery. (Theres actually a real location nearby known locally as ‘windy corner’)

Peering over the bridge we see the lower end of the station footpath. The Midland style fencing and wire fencing posts both come from Scale Model Scenery as does the little beware of trains sign.

Looking back at the bridge we just walked over. The girder is 2 of my previously designed etches combined together.  I still need to add the top capping to the sloping walls yet.

Overview looking towards Stourbridge.  The 2 buildings are still just loosely placed at this stage.

… and towards Dudley.  You’ll have to use your imagination for the moment for fill in the bridge and the wall on the left.

Old warning sign from Ambis Engineering

A train!  Remember those?


The march of progress

Ive been a bit busy. All the track is not ballasted and the first stage of weathering in complete. I have also put the platforms in.The sides and tops were cut when I was over at Tims.  The brick platform edges are something Tim developed and they do look really smart.

Overview from the Stourbridge end.

And from the Dudley end

Co-Bo lurks in the weeds.

Up until now i have resisted the urge to plonk the building in place but my resistance has now caved.

View from under the bridge. This gives a good idea of the elevation changes in the yard.  And before anyone says anything, doing the point rodding was probably a bit of a pointless exercise if I’m honest!

 


Bitsa post

This post kind of jumps around a little but lets start with a simple wagon as we’ve not had one of those for a while. LMS diagram 1973 mineral wagon. These were a little odd as they had no end doors just side ones. The model was created by splicing 2 sections of the Dapol (ex Airfix) mineral wagon body together and mating the result with a Parkside 12 ft wheelbase chassis. The W-irons are Bill Bedford, door springs Rumney models and buffers from Accurascale.

Both the real Brettell Lane and Round Oak stations had central supports under the bridges.  As this will be right at the end of the layout, under a bridge and in the dark I didn’t feel I had to go mad as a silhouette is pretty much all thats needed. The main pillars are actually nothing more than a couple of Hornby gradient supports spliced together.

I mentioned in a recent post that i needed to reverse my signal box so the steps are at the opposite end.  Thats ticked off now and the results can be seen above.  To see the original build click here.

Moving back to the layout itself the much modified Airfix crane has now been planted and the yard track has been ballasted and suitably ‘neglected’.

Overall view of the yard so far.


Landscaping and a couple of firsts.

Don’t worry, I’ve not ditched model trains and took up gardening.  As far as I am concerned a garden is just somewhere where a model railway shed should live!

With the track and wiring done on Brettell Road part 2 thoughts have turned to the landscaping of the yard. Before I could start on the yard I needed to get the road in as this will need to be blended into the yard. The parts for this were cut out at Tim’s but I did add a layer of 1mm balsa to the road and sanded a camber into it.   The thing with laser cutters is they are so neat.  By using 2mm mdf for the pavements i could carve away some of the slabs to make it all look a bit more scruffy.  I also cut a few of the slabs out completely on the laser so that I could add plasticard instead and do a couple of raised slabs. Brettell Road is set well before the ‘where theres blame theres a claim’ culture.  I guess people back then just looked where they were going or called themselves an idiot if they ended up on their backsides!

This is my nod to Brierley Hill’s level street. Which if you’ve ever been there, is anything but level!  At the bottom is a now abandoned level crossing (the real Level street had 2 that were part of the Round Oak system). The line it was on now forms the back siding.  The road will need more work yet and weathering but this was far enough to let me move to the yard.

I’ve never done inlaid track before and, added to the bright idea to have different levels, I figured the easiest way would be to infill the gaps with layers of balsa The top layer is 1mm thick and is glued to various different shapes underneath as I didn’t want it to be all that flat. The infill in the track is 1.5mm balsa as I figured a half mill difference between the surface and the rail would aid track cleaning and wouldn’t be noticeable.  I used track pins to hold it all together as well as PVA. Incidentally, I think this was the first time I’ve ever brought track pins!

Despite my half mil’ gap idea i was still a little concerned that track cleaning would result in patches of nice fresh wood showing through. So rather than paint I decided to stain the wood black.

Time for another new (to me) product. I’ve used 2 colours of ‘mud’ from WWS Scenics. Peat and dark brown. These are like a very smooth liquidly filer.  I used the peat first with the dark brown over the top. Applied with a plastic spatular and then stippled with a large brush. Ive also added some tire marks and a light sprinkle of chinchilla dust while it was still wet.   More to do to it yet but I’m pleased with how it’s coming along so far.  Lets just say the yard at Brettell Road was somewhat agricultural! For WWS muds click here.


Bit of a mixed bag

Bit of a mixed bag this post, starting with;

A kind gift.

My friend Tom contacted me to say he had an old Millholme models kit for an LMS 30t bogie bolster and did I want it?  Of course it would be rude not too!

The kit represents, as best as I can tell, a diagram 1682 45 ft bogie bolster. These were a continuation of a Midland design with the only obvious difference being that the earlier ones had handbrake wheels rather than compound levers. The sides and solebars were, nicely, cast in one piece and being as old kit the bufferbeam and ends where missing. The trussing was also cast in whitemetal and was somewhat optimistic as its a long piece in a not very strong and somewhat bendy material.

So to work I replaced all the trussing with 1mm L section brass from Eileens.  The brake lever castings were OK and they are both mounted at one end. It appears that only the bogie at this end is braked at all.

The bogies are ratio ones and I ditched the swivelling plate idea as supplied preferring to pack them out and mount them with a screw.  The bufferbeams were from my scrap kit parts box and the extra rivet detail from Archers transfers. The buffers were the ones supplied in the kit.

Lampost conundrum

My plan to extend Brettell Road includes completing the road currently on the left of the layout as well as adding a new road.  Digging around looking at local pictures in the late 50s the lamposts seem to be mostly the concrete cast type.  Theres a couple of options for these. Hornby Scaledale none working ones and woodland scenics working type.  I immediately discounted the latter as they are far too chunky and just look awful.

Not that the Hornby ones look any better.  Im not sure why they bothered to produce these as they are basically crude lumps of resin and they don’t even provide a foot for modellers to mount them.  The idea of fitting a surface mount LED and hiding the wires on the none viewing side went out of the window!  I must be able to do something better than this surely? Especially as, at most I will only need 5 of them.So with some K&S metal section (1.5mm square for the top and 2.4mm Hex for the main trunk I made this. The base was blended into the main columns and sprayed with Plasticote suede. I also very lighty dusted some grey primer and blank over it to give a more concretey colouring. Below is how it looks in position.

Baby Grampus

Flicking through Simon Bendall’s bookazine ‘Modelling British Railways – Engineers wagons’ I was taken by a wagon I’d not come across before. The GWR designed ling.  A 14 ton open wagon that looks like a baby grampus. In the bookazine, Hywel Thomas built one by cutting down a Chivers Tunney but I decided another route would be to stretch a Cambrian starfish instead. So 2 starfish kits were found and a lot of cutting ensued. The doors on a Ling are shorter than a Starfish so each door had a section cut from the middle with new strapping from microstrip. Buffers are from Lanarkshire models, W irons from Bill Bedford, door bangers and steps from Rumney Models and the test of the underframe from plastic section and the spares box.Above is the reason i referred to this wagon as a baby grampus.  Along side one it’s considerably smaller.  Comparisons between the shortened doors and the starfish originals can also be seen.


Back to the canal.

Back in the early days of Brettell Road I represented rain falling on the canal as seen above.

Over the years however the effect of this became lost so I have revisited this area of the layout to get the effect back. Also to make the canal look a little more downtrodden. I have used a thin layer of clear resin and the same baking soda in wet varnish trick as I used originally. Results are below.


Just a few pictures.

Just decided to do a few images, including a view of the canal which I’ve never gotten round to and a few experiments.


Back to Back scenes

Although no one has said anything I’ve never been that happy with the back scenes on Brettell Road. Back scenes are a bit of a quandary as you dont want them to be naff but then you dont really want the viewers of a layout to notice them either. They kind of need to be there but not there at the same time. Initially I used a combination of brush painting and car aerosols to do them but with hindsight and a sprinkling of self reflection I probably didn’t put in the time and effort I should have. Below is the first incarnation.

Above is my revised version.  I downloaded some textures from scalescenes and set to work on photoshop.  I could have rendered my own textures but given what scalescenes charge it really not worth anyones time to do this in my opinion.   Below are some more images before and after.  Below are a few images of hw it all looks in the intended light. 


Whats the opposite of green fingered?

After Scaleforum i became aware that the vegetation on Brettell Road probably was a bit to green and lush for a late October setting. To remind you roughly what it looked like back then here are a few images from earlier in the layout build.

Ok so it wasn’t exactly late spring or anything but armed with some scenic sheets from Martin Welberg and some more muted static grass from WWS supplies I set to work making it all look a bit more, well, dead! As you can see I’ve made he disused line look a lot more overgrown. The eagle eyed will spot a bit of extra iron work supporting the wall. I always intended to add this from the early days of the layout.  I’m happier with it now.


Back to the bridges

As mentioned in the last post, I did get the bridges in place for Scaleforum but they weren’t as bedded in as I would have liked. Well now, they are! Going right to left for a change, these are the bridges over the canal.Closer view of the main branchline bridge. one of the 2 bridges for the sidings (both are the same design)The overbridges at the left hand (or Stourbridge) end. another view of the same bridges. The final view along the alleyway.And a night-time view, after all that is the point of the layout!


the end of the green stuff

Well I’ve reached the end of adding green stuff to the layout with the slim strip of it at the front. There’s only really the bridges, some more road vehicles and some industrial clutter still to do on the scenic side now.This is the view of the Stourbridge end. there are 2 metal over bridges still to build for this end. a view from inside the yard showing the new retaining wall on the left. The Dudley end. there are 3 under bridges to build for this end. I decided to revisit an older picture i quite liked, well why not?


Light, dark and the bigger picture.

The last actual building for Brettell road is now finished which means I can now give you a reasonable overview of how the layout will look. There is still more to do and more clutter to add yet. I want to add a couple of cranes to this scene too.  Here’s how the area looks at night. The courtyard for the building shown last time and below at nightA couple of overviews from the left side …and from the right side.Probably should include a couple of trains really!

 


It’s all getting a bit grim!

pillarsI have added the pillars that support the disused warehouse as well as the lower floor. As its nigh on impossible to see I didnt go too mad on the detailing of the lower floor. The pillars are from Scale Link and because they were intended for a footbridge were too short for what I wanted. I looked a the 7mm scale ones but they were too big so in the end I just added bits of evergreen section to the tops and bottoms to get the height I needed. Below is a view along the canal taken with a mobile phone.dingy-canal

little-yardOn the other side of the canal I wanted a very basic goods yard. The sort of thing where a lorry could be backed up to a wagon and unloaded by hand, no need for cranes or coal staithes or any of the other stuff you usually see. I did settle for a weighbridge as the most minimum of facilities, the build of which was featured in an earlier post. The floor was more powered paint dusted on dry and a few minutes of ‘driving’ a Base toys lorry around soon added some interest to the floor before it was sealed with Klear. I then used Tamiya gloss varnish to create puddles and baking soda for the raindrops. The whole scene was sprayed with Halford’s gloss lacquer to make it all look wet and tie everything together. new-buildingIn front of this will be another largish building which is shown here in the early stages of construction.  I wanted to deliberately do things backwards as we human being aren’t actually very good at random things. We tend to see patterns easily and even if you have never studied art or illustration we have a natural bias towards well composed things. It would have made a better ‘picture’ if the building was behind the yard but in reality the railway is usually at the back of things not the front, It’s usually tucked away not the main feature.

dark-hut

 


One of those finished things posts.

The advantages of working on more than one project at once is that, firstly, I don’t get bored and secondly every so often you seem to finish a lot of things together.  This is one of those instances with several things that have featured recently have reached the finish line sort of together.

loading-gaugeMy loading gauge has been painted for a while but now its been planted too. I love stuff like this as its one of those things that I hope disappears into the scene and becomes unremarkable. Perhaps once in a blue moon someone will notice it but, much like the real thing I like stuff like this just to be ‘there’. It’s not supposed to get people’s attention. (don’t worry about the big gap under the wall – that’s not been permanently attached yet)Thames-and-AustinMy Ford Thames and Austin A40.  The colours of the Austin have a somewhat obvious Birmingham influence. Cartwrights was a furniture store in Brierley Hill but I have no idea if they used Austin vans or even if they had any road vehicles at all. ex-coke-wagonThis was a quick win project – Started life as a Bachmann Coke wagon which I imagined was sold to Round Oak and had the coke rails removed. I just liked it because it had a local livery and i’ve never done a distressed private owner before. The lettering was attacked with one of those brass brush wheels in a mini-drill and then the wagon was weathered. The w-irons needed a but more work with the mini-drill and a burr to get the wheels in but this was really minimal effort modelling! DE2-paint-1And so to the big project of the last few weeks – the DE2 shunter.  I have to admit I didn’t relish the thought of painting its striped livery but by using some 4mm making tape from a company called Jammy Dog it wasn’t too bad at all. (click here for their website)      A few more pictures below.DE2-paint-3 DE2-paint-2coal-emptiesThis is the sort of train I had in mind for the loco – Pushed up the hill with the loco at the rear and no brake van. I will need to add a shunter to the front wagon at some point.

van-train-bwFinally another moody shot of the Jinty heading out of the yard on a train of vans.


More vehicles, greenery and a first for me.

more-commercialsThe above 2 vehicles represent a return for me in a small way in that both come from manufacturers I have used before and in both cases I was a little bit disappointed previously . On the left an Austin A40 from Road transport images who I used before for a dodge cab on New Street. In the case of the dodge cab I felt it was a bit too rounded and didn’t really capture the look of the real thing all that well but I must say I’m much happier with this little van which was an impulse buy at this years Scaleforum. This is one of their all in one kits which is unusual for them as they usually sell all their bits separately so you can build the vehicle you want. Road Transport Images

The Lorry is a Ford Thames from John Day models. In this case my previous experience was with a diesel-powered Transit bus and again I wasn’t all that impressed. This model couldn’t be further from the transit though as its much better cast with very little work to do. I swapped the supports in the bed for wire as they were a tad scruffy and the bed and cab both needed a little bit of evergreen 40thou section to make them fit a little better but I like it! John Day Models

unloved-trackI decided that the track in my little yard looked too neat so I have attacked it with some powder paint (rubbed in with a finger then sealed with Klear) and some weeds. I’m much happier with how it looks now.
loading-gaugeAlthough I don’t have a goods shed I do need a loading gauge. I’m reliably informed that these were used to ensure that wagons leaving the yard were within gauge and not as some sort of protection for goods sheds. The above example is a typical midlands one and started out from the Smiths kit, I filed off the moulded lifting gear and replaced it with some spare handwheels (from Brassmasters) and bits of wire and brass.
weighbridgeI mentioned in the title a first for me and this is it. Not that i’ve never built a weighbridge before (Although I haven’t) but i’ve never actually built a kit building before. When I was a kid my dad built some for me, usually Airfix kits and Linka, but all my buildings have been scratchbuilt up to now. So in the interests of breaking new ground this is a Wills kit. I turned the door over as hinges on the outside indicated it opened outwards which seemed a bit odd to me. I also filed off the panels on the end and rescribed the bricks and fancied a brick-built chimney but it is still a kit building. Oh and the guttering is bits of brass from Eileens!

Finally, you may have spotted earlier that Ive bedded in (most of) the abandoned warehouse, a few pictures follow:abandoned-line warehouse-bedded-in


Abandoned warehouse, nearly there!

painted-building-CSMy abandoned warehouse is nearly there now. A spot of paint, Brassmasters windows and roof tiles kindly supplied by Mr Horn. These images show it roughly positioned. You can see a glimpse of the canal which I have also decided to depict as derelict and ill come back to that in a future post.

painted-building-YSUnusually for me the more interesting side is actually the side that people will see! The yard has been suitably strewn with waste from plastic strip and Scalelink bits. The 2 tanks are from Unit models.

abandoned-yard-dark


Here comes the rain

Regular readers will be aware that I plan to model Brettell Road in the rain. While falling rain is not doable and if it was to scale wouldn’t be visible anyway I believe it’s worth trying to show the effects of rainfall. Of course it will be frozen in time but I don’t think there’s a lot I can do about that and I’d like to credit those who view the layout in the flesh with a degree of imagination.

Aside from things looking wet the other thing I wanted to try was raindrops in puddles and the canal.

The canal itself was done with multiple layers of varnish as per Gordon Gravetts book then the area where the bridges were masked and more varnish added (Humbrol clear) with baking soda sprinkled on while wet. I did try cold and warm varnish  to see if it made any difference but found it didn’t.

The above image shows the canal in position (again you will have to imagine the walls) and below in something approaching the light I plan the final project to have.


The image above shows progress on the embankment section. I can’t claim any expertise in modelling nature as it’s not something I’ve come across much before however a while spent looking at local plant life for the “what” and Gordon Gravetts book on the subject for the “how” has produced something I’m quite happy with although I am undecided if the nettles are a bit bright. I drew a quick fencemade from sleepers and Tim kindly laser cut it for me for the top of the bank. I guess it does mean that Brettell road will be set in early October mind you. If you haven’t got Gordon’s book yet then its well worth finding a copy.

I’ve made a start on some wagons. From the left are a Cambrian 5 plank open for which I found you need to remove a bit of material from the base of the w-irons for P4 wheels. Then there’s a Ratio Van and open (I’ve never built Ratio kits before) The open is really too old but I have a plan for an off scene steelworks (sort of Round Oaks ish ) so I will use this as an internal user. Followed next is a Parkside 7 plank open, simplicity itself and a Bachmann RTR van- this was supposed to be a quick win picked up from the bargain bin at Modellers Mecca but conversion to p4 was a bit more than just sticking wheels in with material needing to be removed and new brakes added from MJT. Right at the end is a Peco wonderful wagon tank. Quite advanced for their time with working buffers and springing. In reality the springing is a bit too hard to be of any real effect so I will fit some Bill Bedford sprung W-irons.

detailed GBL Jinty

Finally back to where it all started , the GBL Jinty. The body has been detailed with bits from the Brassmasters kit, some parts from Markits (and London Road Models as well as some home brew parts such as lamp irons from brass strip. I haven’t done any work under the footplate yet as I need to look at the High Level chassis next.


Tanks and Trucks

Not the sort with tracks and a large gun sticking out of the front but storage tanks
20140921-151315.jpg
These are resin kits from Unit models with a bit of extra detail added. If you are not familiar with Unit models they are a little company with an extremely useful range of bits and bobs for scratch-builders – well worth checking out their site.

A pet peeve I have is really nicely modelled layouts with ever so shiny road vehicles that are clearly tipped from the box. These are usually done by quite skilled modellers who wouldn’t accept such a thing if it was a rail vehicle but are happy too for cars, trucks and vans. Odd then that I’ve just done a lorry for Brettell Road that is deliberately shiny!
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You may have thought that the tanks look shiny too and you would be right. Part of the plan to model Brettell Road is to model it in the rain. I’ve seen layouts that depict snow but never rain which is a tad odd when you consider that in the UK on average it rains for 1 in every 3 days! This lorry is effectively a freebie, using left over bits from lorries done for New Street.

I realised that the picture of the double slip that isn’t in an earlier post is a bit confusing. However once a spot of paint is added it becomes much more obvious which bits are used and which bits are not.
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Finally a start has been made on the scenic side of things. Its early stages at the moment but the below picture gives a good idea of the effect I have in mind for the layout.
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