Crying in the chapel.

 Working to a brief can sometimes be constricting so I try to find ways of pushing it beyond the obvious and squeeze something unusual in. The Scottish needed a 'something' in the lower left corner so a lengthy peruse of google images of the general area suggested that a non-conformist chapel. The Wills kit being the logical start point. Photos of tin chapels are plentiful, in either converted or derelict states. The later was chosen and an example at Skerray was found. This led to an idea to cut and shut two kits and go for the full last -legs look.  Here just before the windows were boarded up with plasticard plywood sheets.

prototype here

The boy on the bridge

This has became a signature cameo now and harks back to the layout that titles the web page. The 009 layout in question, built some 26 years ago,  featured the Airfix/Dapol schoolboy figure looking through the bridge railings. Since then, if there was a bridge, he stands watching the action, though there has been some inventive ways to do this as there is not always bridge railing to peer through. This is a case in point with the parapet walls and he has been shunted southwards.
 

Box bodgery

The box just about done. This has been a bit of a battle in more ways than one, but I have roughly what I was after. To recap: The top half is a Ratio GWR M&H style small box, picked up part built for a fiver, The lower section is Wills sheet and a mix of strip. The steps have been moved forward to suit the site with some jiggery pokery undertaken with the railings to compensate for this. The internals (top) are the usual bodge of scrap and some off cuts of Ratio spear-point fencing with a touch of colour to fool the eye. Behind the glass it disappears into the gloom, but fools the viewer into thinking that there is a lot more detail than there really is.

Now to deal with Mr. Hill's fencing...

 

A Kentish box.

 No section of the above is either finished or fixed, but at that point where you need to get it perched together so get an idea of how it will look. Having a kit without the setting part of a lower section to work to is not a good starting point, however, that as a) what I had, and b) where it needed to go. The lower section is the Wills clapboard sheet (one of) with a small Wills window and the curved top door from the kit, which took longer that I would have liked to get a reasonable fit.

Regardless, this is still top value for a fiver and some scraps. Moreover, it's modelling, as opposed to just assembly. Although there is a kit at the heart of all this, there is a remarkable amount of calculating and trial and error involved to get something close to what I want. 

PS. Anyone got a lump or two of house coal that I can have? After years of an open fire I never kept more that a little in the scenic box, now used up. Gas central heating produces less modelling material.

Signal box bash

 Working on multiple fronts at the moment. The above is the signal box for Drovers Brook and is the obvious M&H Ratio kit. This was picked up for a fiver off a club stand and came with the bottom half missing, but the important top half unstarted. Ideal for this project, as with its SECR Kent/Sussex border vibe I can add a timber interlocking room from scratch to drag it away from the hackneyed GWR root. 

I love signal boxes, but hate building the things as there is much to go wrong and too many bits to lose. That said, I have made an attempt to give a summery air with a couple of windows slid back. For those old enough, this may even have the Lower Hemlock inspired signalman leaning out cameo. There is still a huge amount to do here with only a few weeks to get this done.

A most boring building.

 

This came about purely to get a spade in the soil ahead of the recently arrived package. The new project (as yet to be officially named) draws it's inspiration from Arisiag on the WHR. Those in the know will quickly ascertain why this is. As usual a simple scratch-build is needed and the platform store at said station fits the bill; possibly more than I would like. The base material is Peco N gauge render sheet. Used over the Wills product simply because some came into my possession a while back and was in the drawer.

Boring because this is the finished item, and if you care to search images for the station you we note that that the maintenance team followed the instructions to the letter and painted it pale grey... all of it, everything. It makes a pill box look like St. Pancras station. Anyway 'tis done.

Southampton exhibition

 

Not so much a visit as an annual pilgrimage. Through wind and rain the M27 was travelled in search of the perfect exhibition. This one is always pretty good so expectations were high. Set in several rooms and using the college cafeteria staff for refreshments, the format changes little from year to year. Highlights were the trio of Ian Rice layouts displayed side by side and the rather nice NER O gauge in the main hall. The runner up (but not in the usual sense) was the 4mm scale Shap layout; large, and some would say boring visually. It did though do two major important things: it perfectly represented the high featureless windswept vista, and moreover operated in a totally realistic manner. It's hard to replicate the long periods between trains at such a site, but this got it just right, even down to the banker returning light after its duty. The modelling could be described as slightly dated, but I totally got what they were trying to achieve, If I were to be totally honest. Everything else here was a model railway, this was a model of a railway. Subtle but important difference.

Events curtailed the stay, and though possibly not quite up to previous years shows, a damn good day.

Show: 9

Catering: notwithstanding a recalcitrant coffee machine 7

Parking 7

Speed of fire brigade response 10.

Saturday Ramble. Delivery time

 And we're off again.

Delivery yesterday brought the first batch of stuff. This has not been without problems thus far and I doubted whether it would actually happen. This time the order will be split to attempt to cut down the over/under ordering. Though I immediately got caught out here with buffer stops being in packs of two. There is a lot of non-comfort zone stuff as well and the shift is definitely toward the laser-cut wood now which I have slight reservations about post the TyB station building construction.

Can you guess what it is yet?

On a completely different tack; I have been slightly rattled by the orange one being crowned (it would seem) only as the new vice president. More to a point, the apparent new cabinet, and it's sent me into even more of a depressive state that I normally get in January. Mr. Hill will laugh here, but I have decided to seriously curtail (but not leave) social media. I do find instagram entertaining, especially if I have to hang around somewhere with time to waste. Here is probably no different, and that even the humble word doc is being scraped for AI. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but it did feel as though there was a shift this week. One that I am determined to resit, if of only in a tiny personal way. On a professional level I've sort of been here here before with music technology and only a short while ago laughed at writer/designer friends... 'It's your turn now.' However while modern day Spinning Jennies are one thing, this feels like something different.

Drovers Brook ballast

 The push for the next week is to get Drovers Brook done. In the great scheme of things there isn't that much to do; once the ground is covered it's just detailing. The whole thing sits just on the right side of twee; in that it breaks no rules and if I were writing an RM catchline I think 'classic BLT' would cover it nicely. In fact it is essentially the AotC twisted around with exactly the same elements, though I have to say a more prototypical operating layout in safety terms. The AotC was in essence designed to be operable without a FY.

Anyway, almost there and aiming for the Steyning bash in March, which is the only reason for the push. This may well be it's only public wave as I'm determined that this is a home beast, though Mr. Hill is poop-pooping about how it has potential for other shows. We'll see.

Parkside grain wagon

 Wagon kits coming thick and fast through the post. This was an interesting build that caused quite a bit of research and more than the usual amount of checking and trial fitting. Extra handrails were a bonus and generated questions as to why (as this is a re-tooled kit) they weren't either included nor mentioned in the instructions being that they jump out of the prototype photos. Notwithstanding, it goes together very well and 10/10 for the rest of it.

Drovers Brook green

 A bit of a push yesterday afternoon on getting some ground cover on. The yard area with a mix of some of Mr. Hill's chinchilla dust (which is more like fine ballast) and some American earth dust that I have a bag of. The green stuff is three colours of static stuff mixed fairly randomly, but keeping on the lighter shade side.  There is still a lot to do, but as this is first out of the blocks this year it's quite high on the agenda.

Now back to the grain wagon. 

Buggering about

And 2025. After the fairly regular break in normal proceedings while I sit in a darkened room for 5 weeks, it's back to earth with a bump and a wall of modelling to get done. I'll spare you the list, but there are some interesting developments, some planned, some slightly unexpected and a very long drawn out decision which I'd long given up on. The later pair are not totally unconnected.

Almost as a way to kick start my head change, a visit to the Bognor show. Long from being the highlight of the exhibition year, I tend to go mostly for a rummage about under the tables. T'was busy, in bodily terms that is, though there was a unhealthy amount of s/h traders. I think that this is a bad thing. None were doing a roaring trade, which suggests that this not only pisses off the pro-shops, but ends up just diluting the whole thing so nobody wins. Tea was taken, almost to experience the 'vibrant' catering (if you know, you know). Nothing that I'd not seen before, but chats were had and hands were shaken. Job done.

Show 5

Parking 7

Catering 4