Wills Signal Box

The Wills signal box. More accurately a ground frame hut. Although it's not anywhere near a copy, I've diddled with the windows to suggest the styling of the Corris examples and added a couple of internal details such as seating. Just a bit of weathering to do.

These little Wills packs are ideal for those who want a couple of evenings modelling and fancy a bit of kit bashing for under a fiver.  I don't know why I didn't play with them sooner.

Victorian Fire Engine

 Isn't this delightful? The road runs down from top left, and curves down to bottom left. The 'Fire station' sits under the road. The stones read; Fire Engine, 1869. Not much more than a cart with a tank and pump I expect and useless now for the same purpose, but a very model genic hole in the ground none the less. Caistor Lincs.

More of Holton Le Moor SB.

Great Central Signal Box

One of the benefits of driving beyond the upper reaches of the M25 is that you can trip over things that would have been knocked down in the poorer areas in the South East. This box is marked 'Holton Le Moor' and I'm assuming that the building below that stands 100 yards to the right of the top photo is the station... only it isn't.

My Pre-grouping map states that there are two stations a couple of miles apart Holton (here) and Moortown a little further up. Both ( I assume) were on crossings as I was diverted over the other on the way home. The signal box seems however to have an identity crisis.
There are a couple more shots of the box if anyone wants them, but once again google insists on flipping the photos on their side. Peter Denny never had to contend with this...

Sheds

What is interesting is that 18 months ago I wouldn't have touched Wills sheet with a barge pole. Regulars will be aware that this stance shifted slightly with the gift of a Wills cottage kit that in turn formed the basis for the scenics on Tal-Coed. Now with a new project underway I've carried on this direction: first with the station building from the chapel kit, and now with this scratch lock-up store influenced by the one at Llanfair.
Now the ground frame hut...

Brick legs

The platform store needed some brick legs a la the Welshpool shed. Chopping up Wills sheet and mitre-ing the corners looked like an awkward way to do it, and making up a former and covering with Slaters sheet wasn't a lot better. So in the end I went for the Pendon approach and stuck two bits of plastic strip together and carved the bricks on with the tip of a steak knife. Rough? Naturally...

Wills Store

This spring/summer is turning into another Wills-fest similar to last year: first the chapel-station building conversion, now this platform store on legs from scratch and yesterday the purchase of a Wills small signal box from the Engine Shed at Ford. In 30 years of doing this I've never used so much plastic kit material and the engine shed is still on the horizon , but I need photos for this. It's surprising how little notice I take of engine shed in general and the system of clearing loco exhaust. Picture hunting time...

Coal wagon trimming

An answer appeared in an email from Geoff Gauntlet.

'The women on the coal truck are trimming the load to ensure that nothing can fall off. A lump of coal slipping off the truck as it made its way along the line could do some nasty damage to anyone adjacent to the track e.g. a shunter, permanent way man or even a passenger stood on a station platform. The receiving coal merchant would also be a few lumps short of what was weighted into the wagon at the screens.'

Seems logical to me.

This from and email this morning:

Take a look at this. The bits before the grovelling are great especially the short clip at about 50sec. Never seen that mentioned let along modelled.

http://vimeo.com/67647513

So what is going on with the coal shovelling?