Lacathedrale

Thank you all! @Mikkel I will investigate medium flesh, but I think as it stands all of the buildings in GWR colours are now painted! I have not yet recieved my static grass applicator, so the following scene looks like something out of an American logging layout - but do rest assured that greenery is shortly to appear. The trees above are merely placed on the layout to get an idea of the colours and sizes, and do not represent their final positions. My broad thoughts are to affix some Woodland Scenics foliage clusters to foamboard to line the very rear of the layout, and fill forward from that point.

Thank you all, I guess one of those tipplers as linked by @Ian Morgan is on the cards! Progress trundles on with the cattle dock - it seems I've found a use for some etched bar fencing I've had for donkey's years: I also recieved a rather large box via DHL from germany, fingers crossed that's all my heki bits and pieces! (ps. what colour should the railings on the cattle dock be? I guessed GWR dark stone but thinking about it I guess it's probably white?

Thanks @bécasse and @Nick Holliday - I'm quite happy with not having them, I hadn't originally planned any, not sure from whence that mindworm arose. BLT-itis? As an aside, it seems Bromley North had a huge selection of coal bins way before speedlink coal was a thing and AFAIK had no heavy industry either: Question though - how would a loaded P.O. coal wagon (i.e. loose) be unloaded into sacks at a siding where there was no staithe to shovel into? Surely it wouldn't be bagged in-situ?

The cattle dock is built and laid roughly in-place - obviously it needs a good deal of fettling, not least scribing the corners and the paving in the pens - but seems to fit well enough: Coal staithes will go a little further inward, on the foreground track most likely...

Thanks @bécasse - I just happened to see the oxford diecast model and wondered if it would fit - given that it's cheaper than the horse and dray from Langley, I thought it might be worth a punt. @richbrummitt the layout's track plan is lifted from Hepton Wharf. I find it (as an armchair modeller most of the time) effective to have view blocks both sides of the railway line to chop up the view of the trains. I think the easiest option is to add a track to the goods shed from the front of the layout - there's already a smooth area there and it will just need some appropriate gravel colouring. Or alternatively, take inspiration from Culmstock (whose cattle dock I'm going to pinch) here, and have the gravel straight over the track: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/c/culmstock/index3.shtml Here's a shot with the mocked-up cattle dock in-situ: Both tracks extend off the right of the layout, with a pair of road crossings a-la Hemyock - which is my justification for the bifurcation of the yard. Planks of wood by the crane, coal staithes adjacent, the cattle dock and then some gates and a fence. I feel like front-right is a good spot for a crossing keeper's house...

Goods shed, save for some final fit and finish is more or less in-place: Unfortunately, as you can see there is a slight dilemma - the short siding off the loop is for a cattle dock (whose ramp has a direct gate onto the road), and so in its current position, the goods shed isn't actually road accessible. Options: Add some gravel texture to the foreground infront of the shed and have it represent another access from the road on the right. Have a crossing over the rails from the existing road to the rear of the shed. Swap the location of the cattle dock and the goods shed Any thoughts or suggestions gladly taken! ps. would a GWR Mechanical Horse be the lorry used for customer delivery in the late 30's, or would it be horse and cart?

So tempted after seeing some lovely YT videos, I have satisfied myself with the Dublo bible as a way of living vicariously - I'm far too young to have seen any of this in the flesh the first time around, but it is lovely.

Hi Rich - That's very kind of you to say - hopefully some of your Siphons will grace the layout soon - but in the meantime, what can I do? I have a Dapol B-set and this Autocoach. Right now, it seems Heki Autumn Grass 2-3mm is completely sold out everywhere so groundcover is going to have to wait a little longer, I think.

Thanks Tim, it's obviously not complicated or flashy - but I'd like to think I did all the things one could hope - finding photos, counting rows of planks, hypothesising dimensions of standard lumber and so on. Here's the inspiration, such as it is: Disused Stations (http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/c/coldharbour_halt/) I'm mostly just pleased that it came out the size I'd planned and looked how I envisaged it to look! I've attempted some weathering on the building and fence, with a dun wash followed by a light drybrush of Vallejo Sunny Skin + White. I'm not altogether convinced - but ever onward!

A wooden platform shelter modelled after those on the Culm Valley Light Railway and some standard GWR fencing represent the platform complete structurally. It does need a little weathering, though! This is my first ever scratch-built building, measured out from photographs to be as accurate as possible - you can even see the bench seat inside which I'm quite chuffed with.

My first layout was like another posted, built in secret for me by my Dad - one birthday I awoke to an 8'x 4' sheet of chipboard supported on some cut down wardrobe bottoms, in the corner of my bedroom. It was a double track loop of Hornby track. In the middle was a siding with a plastic double-track diesel engine shed (but with only one track in it!) and one siding on the outside which looped all the way around the layout and up onto a hill, which providied raison d'etre for tunnels for the loops in that corner. Motive power: Hornby Smokey Joe and a Lima Class 33 Burma Star - no coaches or wagons!

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It feels as though after literally a year of suspended animation, having a working loco and a little time has allowed me to progress this layout quite rapidly. I've finally put some water in the river bend at the front of the layout - I used two part epoxy resin for the water and sellotape for the 'dam', coating the inside contact edge of the sellotape and the outside with PVA to ensure no leakage. This is an awful close-up (and shows the wicking of the resin, which will be touched up with paint, then groundcover and reeds) - but hopefully catches the gentle ripples I've added with vallejo gloss gel medium: The pool itself is dark brown, the reflection of blue is from 'the sky' - exactly as I'd hoped! INow that's done, I've also finally been able to cut the front fascia and attach it:

May I ask how you get such perfectly square pieces cut? I have a fine piercing saw, but it does tend to wander a fair bit. Is it a case of giving lots of room and then filing down, or is there something more fundamental I'm missing?

Thank you all - I hadn't really intended to use these on the layout but maybe there is some mileage in them after all? Some detail parts laid in place and the platform wrapped up: An 8750 sets back past the 1-ton yard crane The 8750 continues its reversal further back onto the mainline, under the loading gauge In the background of both, you can see the platform, now finished other than some weathering.

Some 100' tall trees - Poplar? Elm? Just borrowed from a box of wargaming scenery I'd had squirreled away in the loft (more on that anon) - though 100' is well within the expected height of any number of UK trees, I'm not all that sure this is a good idea...

I was researching acrylic GWR paint, and it doesn't really seem like there's a 'known solution'. Here are my attempts: #1 - Raw paints: The centre panel is Vallejo Sunny Skin, which I'm using for GWR Light Stone. The right hand side is 50% Vallejo Light Brown and 50% Vallejo Red Leather - earmarked 'Dark' The left side with more Light Brown, earmarked 'Light' The bottom side is with more Red Leather, earmarked 'MIddle' #2 - With a light grey/white filter applied, same colours: I have left a slice of the unfiltered colour on the right of the panel. I think making the buildings more pale will help lend a 'scaled colour' effect, and so I'm erring towards 'Dark', but with the white/grey filter - but any suggestions are gladly taken.

Many of them are unmarked completely, loads under 1/4" dia - it's a bit of a pain, but I've put them back for now. I guess I could get a set of thread gauges? I did manage to identify a pair of 10BA and 12BA taps, and tested them out after a quick scrub with tinfoil and a vinegar bath : Not so bad!

I've yet to add the front lip of the platform, though the top surface of the edging is in-place. The whole platform is just placed alongside the track. The cutout in the foreground is for the base of a goods shed to slot.

I love the contrast of the body and the spindly wheels.

Thanks, both - the layout is set a little later than most of my efforts to date (immediately post-war, pre-nationalisation) so I guess it doesn't have to be as pristine as the edwardian period I'm normally researching is... For the platform, trying to work out if I should just cut the lot out of plywood, rather than worry about laminating board and foamcore together, and whether I should scratchbuild or just buy a cast GWR pagoda!

Having finally (?) got the hang (?) of the WLANmaus and give the track multiple passes of cleaning, generally electrical pickup is now reliable and I was able to program the 8750. Something has become knocked in the period between last running it and yesterday, because with the CV's set to a slow acceleration the loco 'sticks' in reverse. Either way as has been previously mentioned this is a bit of an anaemic little guy and my hopes weren't really set too high - the important thing is that the layout has continued to work from one session to another without some bizarre catastrophe occuring. Thoughts turn to structures and scenic treatment - so I have been perusing these books: Some passenger trains plonked on the station road, to get an idea of how it all looks. In the second photo you can see the notional platform taking shape. B-set (N-gauge) Autocoach (re-wheeled) Annoyingly, I accidentally puffed some black weathering powder between the rails on one of the tracks, and my genius idea of 'washing it away' just set it straight into the ballast. Am I stuck with carefully repainting by hand, or is there something I can do?

Interesting, I know that academically but I'd never thought of doing it that way. Thank you! Here's a pic of my quick-and-dirty sliding check gauge: I had the very devil trying to get it all square, time to try again with a longer set of runners, I think. The check rail is now appropriately spaced, too.

Wow, who'd have thought!? Lovely to see, for sure - and even in the sunshine livery too.

Admiring this effort from one of the Wild Swan layout books, I'm pleased to see it here too. I'd not realised it was one of those semi-mythical 'kickback branch off a branch'-type prototypes which seem to pop up a fair bit in the layout plans we see. Might I ask if there is an operating plan or method? The unorthodox (from the typical) track plan and presumably the operating pattern are very curious to me!