Chilton station only has one platform, and is the next stop after the Aberayon terminus. It has a pair of sidings for coal wagons, a small ground frame signal cabin and a level crossing with a connecting bus services. The attractive red brick station building shown here was beautifully made by Carl Legg.

This pair of single decker buses were scratch built for Chilton by Barrie Kelsall. The prototypes were built as 34 seaters in 1930 – 1932 and served the Midland Red until 1950.

L.M.S. bogie compartment stock at Aberayon.

The view looking away from Aberayon has been extended and adapted with a clouded sky to better match the moorland landscape between the terminus and Chilton.

A pair of L.M.S. locomotives rest at the station end of the small shed. The road behind is the single line towards Chilton, with a further set of points leading to the goods shed sidings at a hundred or so scale yards to the left.

The loco is built from a Slaters kit, with additional detailing from Hobbyhorse and CPL components in 1951 guise when still in use at Hereford shed, just prior to withdrawal. The loco never was repainted in BR livery, retaining the GW to the end, with only a smokebox number added for BR years and a load of dirt! Tender No 1560 coupled to Corsham Court here, actually ended up behind Foxcote Manor in July 1963 having outlived several locos… fortunately with the exception of Foxcote!

The usual suspects make up the tutor list, so it should be another good event. There’s plenty of room to spread out scenic work in the Abbey’s well lit studios and classrooms, and we can discuss any preparation beforehand to maximise the actual course time.

Diorama scenes at Missenden Abbey are only done to a ruling scale where the railway crosses the scene, it changes both in front and behind to help suggest the depth we don’t have room for. This view goes from foreground, to half the scale on the other side of the line.

This is part of the reference for an HO scale diorama quayside layout project by Geraint Hughes, representing a south west aspect as seen from the attractive riverside of the town of Ribe on the Danish coastline. It’s perfect for a forced perspective townscape, with the Cathedral standing against the sky as the very dominant focal landmark.

Some of the front row of HO scale quayside houses in the reference picture.

Here’s a ‘MetroLand’ sepia print of No 2 ‘Oliver Cromwell’ taken from a Barry Norman photograph. These locos were pretty heavy at well over 60 tons, and they would crash and bang over the pointwork as they swapped places with the steam at Rickmansworth. Luckily, Ken is modelling this very scene, and I’m looking forward to that. (I love the Met!)

Fowler 3F ‘jinty’ No 16564 was built at the Vulcan Foundry in 1928 as the latest development of the Midland Johnson six coupled type. Improvements to the 422 strong class included a Belpaire firebox and a larger cab, along with other detail changes. It’s a Jack Anziani build on a down coal empties at Ewyas Harold.

Kevin’s resident JLTRT austerity 2-8-0 No 90040 in the down loop, with a recent weathering job by Fred Lewis of Welsh Wizard loco works. These were all built in a hurry in the mid 40s for the war, and this one was known to be allocated to Woodford Halse on the GC London extension in ’48, and withdrawn in ’65 from Rose Grove Burnley.

Mike Morris is an expert on the welsh valleys engines, and he brought this nearly finished ex-Rhymney 0-6-2T. The white parts and fittings are finely 3D printed.

Un-named Brittania No 70047 passes Bucks Hill loops with a down parcels.

Looking down into the cab of Jack Anziani’s Deeley Compound 4-4-0, which took another spin.

Lee & Kevin kept this a bit of a secret until showtime, and even though this is the prototype, make no mistake, it is amazing to see. I’ll let the picture do the talking, and of course keep an eye out at Lee’s site for the variations, and the reservation arrangements.

Corridor clerestory in late victorian monogram livery at Temple Meads.

A sepiatone version of a Richard Chetland catalog photo, as Dean Achilles class ‘Dreadnought’ passes Bucks Hill forge with a full rake of 6 bogie clerestories and a six wheeled luggage van.

Large Prairie No 4177 is another Richard Chetland pic, in early British Railways lined black, and with a single ex Southern Railway ‘Queen Mary’ brake van.

The middle of nowhere! a single B.R. railbus pauses at Tollhouse halt. The scenics here are all done with Polak products. Alex O’Donnell.

Part of the 5ft radius return curve, on the single line between Aberayon and Chilton, where an open area of moorland appears behind a cultivated field to the right.

G.W.R. Castle class 4-6-0 No 5045 ‘Earl of Dudley’ rests on one of the turntable roads.  The model was built by Peter Silvester/Nigel Smith from a Malcolm Mitchell kit, and weathered by Martyn Welch in 2000.

The return curve features a light stone single track viaduct at it’s right hand side, and we have completely reworked this area of the layout. This view is of a small section of the new 2D backscene which has now been installed, showing an Exmoor farm with gentle moorland beyond, along with the addition of some modelled tree growth on the slopes of the Ayon valley. The L.M.S. Autotrain consists of a Johnson 0-4-4T No 1368, and a driving Trailer No 5214 to L.N.W.R. Diagram 52 of 1914. The locomotive was built by Peter Everton, and the trailer from a North Star Kit by Adrian Rowland painted by Larry Goddard. The signal in the bacgtound is actually the Aberayon down distant.

G.W.R. cabin & existing rural backscene.

The Aberayon end of the viaduct shows a road crossing the Ayon valley in the middle distance, carried by a low level single arch bridge in grey stone, with more Exmoor farm buildings to the right. The resin cast stone pattern viaduct is an original model by Enhance Ecosse ( Elizabeth and the late Richard Chown ) done in 2000. It’s actually based on the structure on the L.N.W.R. Charnwood Forest Line version at Grace Dieu, Leics.

Ex L.N.W.R. 0-8-0 No 9205 rumbles over the viaduct tender first, with a 6 wheeled brake van. The loco is another Peter Everton model, painted and weathered by Alan Brackenborough.

This March 1929 Derby built Fowler 4P-D 2-6-4T is one of a collection of L.M.S. & G.W.R. locomotives that appear at Aberayon. Buffered up to a tender locomotive, it waits to cross the main line, and couple up to its rake of private owner wagons in the goods sidings.

No 2872 will be turned and sent to wait for it’s coal train turn. It’s another model built for Aberayon’s G.W.R. collection by Silvester/Smith in 1998

I’ll bring a selection of stuff with me, Dioramas as well as backscenes.

W159W rests briefly at Bucks Hill.

Stuart has moved from 4mm scale modelling to produce this G.W.R. thoroughbred. No 4092 Dunraven Castle was built in the summer of 1925, and it appears here in the 1950s lined Brunswick green British Railways livery.

One of the larger trees that will go in the foreground.

No 3779, an ex Midland Johnson 3F is an Aberayon locomotive, seen here recently trying a heavy coal train at Bucks Hill.

Andrew’s M.S.W.J.R. diorama makes the perfect setting for his interesting Pre-grouping collection.

One of Andrew’s scratchbuilt locomotives, M.S.W.J.R. No 5, a Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T made at the famous Gorton works. It does bear quite a family resemblance to the Metropolitan Railway A class 4-4-0Ts of the 1870s, but obviously without the inclined outside cylinder front end and short wheelbase Bissell truck.

Sydney Gardens diorama.

The ‘Chequers Inn’ has recently arrived at Pendon, and will be placed in the Vale scene. It is the work of Jane Britton, from a survey and photos of the actual building in Charney Bassett.

Locomotive building classes at Missenden Abbey are quite sought after in all scales, and the places do fill up quickly. Chassis and soldering, Kit building and DCC are all covered by knowledgeable tutors. One of Kevin Wilson’s 7mm scale G.W.R. locomotives is seen here as an example, built from from a Martin Finney kit. Running bunker first, the 2-8-0T rounds a curve at Kenderchurch near Bucks Hill with a train of flat wagons. Original by Barry Norman.

Coming along nicely, Pat’s 7mm building from the platform side.

The Maunsell ‘Lord Nelson’ class, along with many other Southern locomotives had large capacity tenders because of the lack of water troughs. This is one eye level view of the 3D file (as the basis for the component parts), or in other words, a tender render!  Lee Marsh Model Co.

Clean P4 Pickersgill 4-4-0 in late British Railways livery. Culrain station’s waiting hut appears to the left, and the train stands beneath the lattice footbridge to the right.

Jack Anziani has finished this lovely ex Midland Railway Deeley compound 4-4-0. This is his thirteenth locomotive in as little as three years, so I’m quite looking forward to the next three!

This Wisbech & Upwell L.N.E.R. Worsdell J70 class tramway locomotive looked good on the single line. A long way from Ipswich and the fens!

Kevin Robertson’s G.W.R. Dean Goods No 2516 in monogram livery on a down coal train at Ewyas Harold.

Kevin Robertson also brought along this scratchbuilt Bullied ‘Leader’ No 36001, seen here with an M.O.K. Q1 class 0-6-0 No 33029 in the down loop.

Resident G.W.R. Mogul No 4318 with brown stock.

This open moorland needs a little more work, and a scale hedgerow in the foreground, as it appears behind the curving single line. By this point, the trains heading away from the station have crossed over the wooded Ayon valley on a graceful light stone arched viaduct. Since this picture was taken, the sky base colour to the left has had it’s windy clouds added in. 

This view appears in the middle distance, looking south above the viaduct parapet. It’s not extreme open moorland, there are areas of woodland and some areas of unfenced natural gorse and heather to the south east.

The Ayon valley section naturally appears behind the viaduct’s central arches, and it shows a single arch narrow road bridge in the middle distance, with farm buildings along the lane to the south west.

Dean 0-6-0 ready to leave.

Grounded coach body with 57xx Pannier shunting a van.

Auto train and dozens of milk churns taking up the platform.

Lovely rear three quarter view of the tender goods engine in panelled monogram livery.

A 7mm scale Gresley P2 No 2007 lends scale to the beautiful bridge, with it’s gentle iron arch and balanced proportions.

The detail can be seen in this view under the deck of the Albert Edward version.

The name, date and makers plates are framed here in this ‘mid stream’ view of the underside.

The article looks at the differences between scale height viewpoints (like this scene) that buildings are usually seen from, and the much higher typical overview over the rooftops of modelled townscapes. It does make a big difference when you need to work out your backscene because you can see much further away from higher up.

A G.W.R diorama using 3D CAD design components, scanned from original bow pen on linen drawings. Many different areas of modelling are now being covered by the Missenden Abbey courses, as technologies previously used in commercial manufacturing are adapted to all scales of railway modelling.

A Yorkshire Engine Co ‘G’ class 0-6-4T passes the other way with private owner open wagons and a Met brake van.

Lee Marsh Stanier Jubilee No 5593 ‘Kolhapur emerges from a modified Skytrex resin cast tunnel mouth on a diorama.

The same Jubilee at Bucks Hill, now weathered.

Bucks Hill resident G.W.R. 2-8-0T No 4208 takes a flat train west along the down main.

An unusual high view over Ewyas Harold curve to the west of Bucks Hill as G.W.R. 4-4-0 No 3405 ‘Mauritius passes beneath with a parcels working.

This view is from Chris Nevard’s forthcoming ‘Model Rail’ magazine set, showing part of Dave’s superb 7mm G.W.R. loco collection at rest.  The shots are taken  from a variety of different angles inside the shed, and one cleverly shows the backscene through the windows. Chris Nevard/Model Rail Magazine.

The crew of No 4937 ‘Laneley Hall’ check the duty roster. Photo by Dave Thomas

The collection of Neil Podbery weathered locomotives is growing, and this has a wonderful ‘grimy’ look to it ….touch anything in view and your hands will be black!  Photo by Dave Thomas

There has been some interest in the Dean Single Crews, but they do differ with the four and six coupled Dean/Armstrong era cabs because of the panelling inside to accommodate the larger wheel diameters. Always send a mock up cab with all details to ensure a good crew fit.

7mm scale figures at Sydney Gardens.

and 4mm scale at Semley. Photo by Philip Hall.

This scratchbuilt & pristine original ‘King Henry V1’ got quite a bit of interest, partly because it has a small makers plate soldered on perfectly straight under the cab floor which reads ‘Maker J.S.Beeson Ringwood Hants.

This Masterpiece Models G.W.R. ‘Saint’ class 4-6-0 bears Kevin’s family name, and it took a 1920s rake on a down train.

Resident Dean ‘3232’ class 2-4-0 waits to back onto a short van train in the yard headshunt.

Illuminated interior of one of the new resident rake of Lee Marsh Clerestoried G.W.R. carriages.

A double framed G.W.R. 4-4-0 heads east, past Ewyas Harold, with four and six wheeled stock

Phil Gomm’s recently built B.R. standard mogul No 76052 took a goods train on the up main.

Nigel Smith brought several locos along for testing, including this excellent and sure footed ex G.W.R. 73xx mogul no 7310. Here it manages one of the longest rakes of open wagons round the down line.

A few unrebuilt Bullied West country class pacifics tried out, including Graham Murton’s No 34011 ‘Tavistock in late B.R, Brunswick green livery.

This single chimney ‘King’ No 6015 ‘King Richard III’ was scratchbuilt over fifty years ago by Mike Brierley (Stirling Moss’ Mechanic for a time), and has been left original other than a modern DCC control chip.

Nigel Smith is sorting this Martin Finney Southern 4-4-0 for Jonathan Marcus with just a little more adhesion weight. The kit was made and painted by the talented Chris Wesson.

There’s a great feeling of space in these views of the Oxfordshire branch line terminus. A G.W.R. Auto train is seen here at the platform end. The layout is in storage at the moment, but will hopefully be assembled soon for another photography session.  Photo by Tony Wright.

The local service approaches the station, passing under the road bridge and alongside the buffer stops of the yard headshunt.  Photo by Tony Wright.

Goods yard with opens, ‘Toad’ brake van and a touring car on the platform.  Photo by Tony Wright.

A tender engine shunts a mixed goods in the Abingdon yard.  Photo by Tony Wright.

A birds eye view of a scene with long shadows on Paul Ash’s ‘Stanton’ rural diorama.

Another lovely scenic corner of Culrain station’s surroundings on Stuart Holt’s ‘Kyle of Sutherland’ 4mm scale layout, with a very understated hand painted summer sky.

Rail/Road L.M.S. Branch line bus on Jack Anziani’s Westcott. Original by Chris Nevard/Model Rail.

Fowler tender detail at Westcott. Photo by Richard Chetland.

A sepia view of the western end of the station in 1912, with the buildings of the Salisbury, Semley & Gillingham Dairy to the left. The railway crossed the northern part of the parish as it followed the River Sem past the village to turn south-west. It was opened at the point where it crossed the Warminster to Shaftesbury road, and the buildings were accessed by a new road (just behind the wooden fencing in the centre of the picture), which ran along the north side of the railway, linking the Warminster road with the minor lane leading west into Shaftesbury from Semley church, crossing over the railway just beyond the platforms at Bridge 267. The Railway Hotel, north of Station Road, was opened in 1865 (in the same year as the railway arrived), and the late 19th-century house visible to the east of it became part of the expanding dairy.

The last of the ten stylish Drummond T14 class ‘Paddlebox’ 4-6-0s No 462 heads a down train past Semley’s small coal yard, and is about to pass under the brick arch of Bridge 267 which carries the minor road in the background from the village towards the bottom of the steep hill up into Shaftesbury.

In 1911 there were still three Coal & Coke merchants in Semley, working presumably from the station. James Wescott & Sons office appears in the extreme right of this view, with a Midland Railway van and a car blocking Station Road just behind the gate.   Semley lies within the Wiltshire butter country, and its clay soils provide extensive pasture with only a small proportion of arable land.  Small dairy farms did remain characteristic of the parish in the late 19th century but by 1912, many of the smaller holdings had been merged into larger farms.  Whitebridge farm (to the left of this view), was sold in 1865, becoming part of the lands of Walter Shaw-Stewart, receiving a new farmstead and additional buildings designed for cheese-making.  Photo by Dave Thomas.

A version of one of the Chris Nevard Model Rail feature pics of Terminus. It’s a slightly higher viewpoint than the previous pic, showing a Jubilee at the buffers of Platform 1

James Aitken brought this ex London Chatham & Dover Railway ‘T’ class locomotive along. The 0-6-0T was built at Longhedge works in the 1880s, passing to the South Eastern and Chatham railway in 1899 before being taken into the Southern Railway stud at the grouping.  Richard Chetland.

Ex G.W.R. Churchward 2-6-0 No 5377 was built at Swindon in August 1919, and by the early British Railways period was a resident of 85C Hereford shed. Here it heads a train of coal empties past Ewyas Harold on the up main. Richard Chetland.

Collett 0-4-2T No 5818 ran branch line trains up and down the Golden Valley line until its eventual closure. The loco was built in August 1933, arriving for work at Pontypool Road few months later. The main lines are in the foreground in this view, and the trackbed of the branch diverts away a few yards to the north east of the signal box. It then rounded a curve at Kenderchurch to pass its own tiny corrugated sheet engine shed, with the next station being Abbeydore a little over two miles to the north west. Here, a typical hourly passenger service leaves for Hay-on Wye, with it’s junction onto the Hereford to Brecon line. Richard Chetland.

A Churchward 28xx class stays on the down main at Kenderchurch with a rake of coal empties. No 2862 is shown here as externally unchanged since its 1912 build date, retaining the inside steam pipe arrangement and the early cab without any side windows. Almost without exception, these were paired with 3500 gallon tenders. The locomotive has just crossed the facing point into the goods loop visible in the foreground, with the smokebox just obscuring the buffers of the yard headshunt alongside the retaining wall of the cutting. Richard Chetland.

Lee is doing a second run of the beautiful Diagram D20 Brake Third bogie carriages. These will have many  features, such as interior compartments with accurate buttoned seats, luggage racks, mirrors, over-seat illustrations, period no-smoking signs and internal lighting. Ball races in each wheel set, as well as fully detailed roofs and underframes.   No 2054 has the 1898 livery, but the later schemes are also available.   Richard Chetland.

A townscape at Westcott, done in multiple relief layers.

A village using a combination of painted work and collage at Whitchurch Road.  David Lane.

It could do with a higher horizon line really, but this was a restoration job rather than a new project.  A valuable 4mm scale study of the eastern side of Aylesbury as it appeared a century ago. Original by Chris Nevard.

A different view of Stuart Holt’s Culrain model appears in the MR article. This excellent prototypical P4 exhibition layout uses forced perspective elements, with overscale trees and other landscape elements as front scene view blockers in the scenic area between the viewpoint and the rails, with reduced scale modelling and painting apparent behind. The screen of trees and lovely hand rendered summer sky appear with other views of the layout in Stuart’s blog, and a monotone version of this pic forms part of a single page feature in a recent Model Railway Journal.

This is a sepia version of a previous Semley MRJ feature, and although some of the scenic work was still in progress at the time, it still looks stunning. This elegant L.S.W.R. Drummond C8 class 4-4-0 was built in the June of 1898 at Nine Elms works, and is seen here on an up train leaving Semley for Shaftesbury station in 1912. Original by Barry Norman.

Roof truss from original G.W.R. elevation drawing.

Snow Hill’s truss roof actually tapered because of the track layout, but you can see the middle section here, where the four centre roads were present between the support column rows. Richard Chetland.

Swindon J shop guide artwork

Platform elevation with canopy trusses

Plan view with interior detail.  The architectural detail can be overlaid directly from the surviving building.  No substitute for good reference!

Southern Railway 12T Box van No49536 has an uneven plank timber body plotted on a laser cutter, with 3D printed underframe and running gear components.

In early B.R. Green livery, Stanier Coronation class pacific No 46237 ‘City of Bristol’ heads a down train. (The locomotive was finished at Crewe in August 1939, with streamlined casing). Richard Chetland.

‘La France’ heads an up train through the platforms. Richard Chetland.

The crew of ex L.M.S. Fowler ‘Patriot’ No 45509 are caught by Richard Chetland’s camera as the 4-6-0 passes Ewyas Harold with a van train. The work stained loco bears the ‘Derbyshire Yeomanry’ nameplate, which it acquired as late as 1951. The makers plate reads Crewe Works 1932, and it would have been shedded at Newton Heath.

Nigel Smith’s Peckett 0-4-0ST takes a break from shunting the sidings, and waits to return back up the Golden Valley branch line as far as the next stop at Abbeydore.

Richard Abbey brought this lovely Cambrian Railways large Belpaire 4-4-0 No 98 built by Stephenson & Co in 1904. (The batch of 5 were actually the last new locos purchased by the Cambrian) The model was scratch built, then painted and lined by Bob Buckland. The first carriage is a Cambrian Railways 45′ non corridor Lug/Lav/Tri composite No 283. The model was built by Peter Dawson using Trevor Charlton sides and painted by Dave Studley.

The second carriage is a Cambrian Railways 6-wheel Family Saloon No 263.  This one also built by Peter Dawson using Trevor Charlton sides and painted by Dave Studley.  Richard Chetland.

G.W.R. Lee Marsh clerestory No 3134. Richard Chetland.

The final carriage of this train is a G.W.R. 4 wheel full brake built by Richard Abbey from a Slaters kit, but painted and lined by Ian Rathbone.

I have some reference supplied for this one, and it will be a gentle moorland panorama, probably looking inland.

The landscape will provide a background for the trains as they cross the viaduct, a little over a scale quarter of a mile from the terminus station.

American Pie’s 224″ moly steel tube chassis now has a stroked and bored Chrysler Hemi.  It burns methanol fuel, supplied by an old Hilborn 8 stack injector from the 1960s.

Ian Rathbone repainted this Peppercorn A1 pacific ‘North British’ in the fully lined Pre-grouping colours of the N.B.R. passenger livery. There were a few other variants, and maybe it will give the ‘Tornado’ project ideas!

Dean 2-4-0 No3242 passes a 517 class 0-4-2T shunting the small goods yard.  Original by Chris Nevard.

Double framed 4-4-0 No 3331 ‘Pegasus’ takes an up engineering train past Ewyas Harold on the up main. Original by Chris Nevard.

The Shed cabinet now has dimmable lighting for both interior and exterior.

Since I took these blurry old pictures, a few details have been added, including finely made TT gauge wagons on the Backscene, and 4mm scale locomotives in a queue for the red brick coaling stage outside.

Lee Marsh Jubilee No 5593 ‘Kolhapur’. The original was built by the North British Locomotive Company of Glasgow in 1934, and here it uses the decorative retaining wall at Sydney Gardens as a photo backdrop.

Webb 0-6-2T No 6919 waits for the single line at Westcott. The 2P-F locomotive was built at Crewe in 1901. Original by Chris Nevard.

There will eventually be a pair of these , and I’m looking forward to seeing them double heading at Bucks Hill. Original by Chris Nevard.

Patriot No 5501 ‘St Dunstans’ was one of the first examples to be rebuilt from ‘Claughton’ components in 1930.  The large diameter driving wheel bosses are clearly visible from the original locomotive, and the engine was originally No 5902 ‘Sir Frank Ree’. 

Ex L.N.W.R. Bowen-Cooke ‘George the Fifth” class 4-4-0 No 25348 ‘Coronation’ leaves Westcott’s bay platform.  Original by Chris Nevard

L.M.S. Fowler 3F 0-6-0T No16582 was built by Vulcan Foundry in 1928, and it’s seen here alongside Westcott’s single road shed. Notice the clarity of the distance detail in this study.  Original by Chris Nevard.

It looks as if this event will be the last exhibition outing for Gordon & Maggie Gravett’s Reseau Breton based ‘Pempoul’. In this portrait, E415 is seen resting alongside the water riser.

Every detail of G.W.R. De-Glehn compound No 102 ‘La France is present, and it wears the early lined black livery, rendered by Alan Brackenborough. The Kevin built M.O.K. kit is absolutely stunning, just needing coal and crew to finish, and it’s seen at Ewyas Harold, heading a set of five Lee Marsh clerestory coaches forming an up train. It’s rare to see a combination better than this, so I’m forwarding the other Richard Chetland pictures to Kevin just for the record.

This L.N.W.R. George Whale ‘Experiment’ class 4-6-0 was built at Crewe in 1905 as an extended version of the Precursor class 4-4-0s. This one is the second of 105 members of the class, No 306 ‘Autocrat’. It needs a bit of work, so Mike Morris is going to sort out a few running problems.  Richard Chetland.

Ian Rathbone tried out this late BR liveried ‘Schools’ class Maunsell 4-4-0 ‘Repton’  Richard Chetland

Kevin’s M.O.K. ‘King Arthur’ class N15 No 30740 ‘Merlin’ has lightly weathered early BR brunswick green livery. The locomotive was built at the L.S.W.R. works at Eastleigh in 1919 and it heads a train of G.W.R.brown stock on a down train.  Richard Chetland

The subtle painted sky has light, layered clouds, and a coppice stands against the distant skyline.  Paul Ash

This is one of my favourite views of Westcott because it’s uncluttered, and this particular feature portrays the branch line as it looked in the early days of the L.M.S.R.  The local passenger train has an ex L.N.W.R. Webb 0-6-2T, which was built at Crewe in 1901.  Chris Nevard.

Westcott’s weighbridge office. Richard Chetland

G.W.R. 517 class 0-4-2T No1430 running around the station loop. The engine was built by Malcolm Mitchell from his own kit and painted/lined in early livery with Indian red frames by Alan Brackenborough. The station building is based on St Alban’s LNWR branch but without the track covering canopy. It was made by Peter Smith of Kirtley Models, who also built Westcott’s engine shed.  Richard Chetland.

Ex L.N.W.R. ‘Jumbo’ as LMS no 5005 ‘Pitt’ built by Jack from a Mercian kit sitting outside Westcott engine shed for coaling and water. There is another Jumbo to be built so that they can double head as they often did in service during pre-grouping days. Richard Chetland.

A G.E.R. Horse drawn wagon at Hadleigh Station yard. The 7mm scale model was painted by Dave Studley.

A Lee Marsh Model Co, G.W.R. Dean ‘Achilles’ class 4-2-2 ‘Dreadnought’ and it’s passenger train at Andrew Cowie’s Sydney Gardens. The locomotive retains the elegant low pitched, parallel boiler and complimentary round topped firebox, and it appears in panel lined Brunswick green ‘Monogram’ livery with indian red frames and bogie.

This pristine ‘Evening Star’ has a very high detail level, not forgetting the ‘Swindon’ copper capped double chimney. Lee Marsh.

A view of Stuart’s 4mm scale Culrain Station with his hand painted clouded sky rear panel.

The road climbs slightly as it curves away from the station and out of sight behind the view blocking trees to the left. A really atmospheric summer scene, with subtle scenic colours, excellent foliage study and another hand rendered sky with a perfectly matched rising contour to the right.

A Diorama book might be an idea, or possibly a further venture into applied landscape painting. Here’s a colourful L.N.E.R. duo staged in a window display interior.

Penpergwm..the gently curving rear panel has a good height allowance, and it has base colours to a low horizon line for seated operation. Some painting work will hopefully be undertaken by Ian Rathbone on the G.W.R. locomotive collection.

The backscene for Penpergwm is a real gift, with the distinctive profile of Blorenge to the left, and a set of interesting overlapping layers and contoured surfaces. The foreground details are also very lucky for such a remote location. Generate a Panorama.

I’m not sure of the location, but I suspect a holiday in the lakes made Harry want to capture this view. Get back to me if you recognise it. H.T. Bambrick.

The photo section owes a great deal to the input and courtesy of John Ellis-Cockell and John Stockton-Wood who collaborated on Llanberis. I couldn’t use any black & white images in the book, because of showing the importance of colour matching, but it’s fine here, so here’s a monotone view over the goods yard.

This is at Bucks Hill, but It’s a recent addition to Jack’s extensive L.M.S. collection. Richard Chetland.

This four wheeler is seen on the demonstration line.

Kevin’s M.O.K. B.R. Standard 2-6-4T No 80105 moves past the 82G running shed.

Several projects will be moving from mock up stages, and on to the next steps of layering and rendering in detail. Here’s a 3D section of Westcott’s backscene starting directly behind the level crossing, which features a road continuation.

We will be doing layered, multi scaled 3D backscenes at Missenden, and this example provides a prototypical landscape drawn from period mapping.  This reproduction portfolio view was recently featured in a Model Railway Journal edited by Gerry Beale.  Layout by Martin Finney.

Some of the work at Missenden Abbey will be with 2D backscene rear panels, and this one appears behind Semley’s small stone and timber L.S.W.R. signalbox and corrugated parcels office. The fabulous P4 layout now has it’s most recent detail work in position. and the telegraph pole, station staff, barrows and parcels complete the scene to the very highest standard of presentation. Photo courtesy of Martin Finney.

There has been a great deal of work done, particularly on the Vale scene, with fantastic new buildings waiting to be seated in, as well as disused narrow canal locks, and it would be perfectly possible to add a layered 3D backscene along the lower edge as well if it turns out to be an approved idea.

Len Bunn brought this fine Brassmasters ‘City of Truro’ along in monogram livery, and it took out a rake of L.N.W.R. Carriages on the up main.   Richard Chetland.

It’s hardly ever possible to catch a whole train in a Bucks Hill photo, but Richard moved the tripod back a bit for this new pair of G.W.R. Auto trailers and their 517 Class tank locomotive.

Stanier Pacific No 6200 ‘The Princess Royal’ in weathered L.M.S. lake. Richard Chetland.

G.W.R. Churchward 2-8-0 No 2862 heads a long train of coal empties. Richard Chetland

L.M.S. Coronation class Streamlined pacific No 6244 ‘King George VI’ had originally been ‘City of Leeds’ until 1941, when it was patriotically re-named.   The streamlined casings with their ‘speed whisker’ lining were removed in 1946/7 bringing the class back to conventional appearance, but fitted with smoke deflectors. Richard Chetland.

Heaton Lodge is near Huddersfield, in the Calder Valley, and the scenery for this mockup backscene has the trackbed of the overgrown and long disused Newtown goods line included as part of the landscape. The scene will be portrayed to match the colours and moods of the bleak season of winter in this part of the country, so the skies are grey, the ground is frosty and the trees are bare.

A detail from Hadleigh’s end panel, which is nearly done now. This view is what appeared looking North, with George Street’s cottages are to the left, the rear of the Methodist chapel at centre, and almshouses and malthouse roofs to right. There are still a few more details to add in the foreground.  It’s all built over with housing now, and the town is still expanding.

This is what Hadleigh’s station forecourt looked like in 1911, with quite a lot of horse drawn wagons, and small G.E.R. tank locomotives busily shunting the sidings.  Part of the old station still survives, but it is now surrounded by new private housing, instead of the Victorian malthouses.

Coventry was regarded as one of the most important intermediate stations on the L&B line. ‘The spires of St. Michael’s church, 300 feet high, of the Holy Trinity, and of the Grey Friars, are the great ornament of the neighbourhood, and are seen to great advantage from the road. There is a splendid station here, whole staircases of stone, and every accommodation for the landing and departure of travellers.  (The Standard, 18th September 1838).  Situated a short distance to the south of the City, it would make a good subject for a contained diorama model, with its staircases and spires in the background. Bury 2-2-0 locomotives passing one another with passenger trains, and 0-4-0 locomotives working and shunting goods wagons. Gerald Massey.org.uk 

A working pencil sketch for a painting of a Bury 2-2-0 of the same period

Un-named Brittania Pacific No 70047 rounds the down main, leaning slightly on the curve. The model is by Masterpiece Models, and it has been at Bucks Hill for a while now. A recent weathering by Fred Lewis of Welsh Wizard loco works has taken the shine off, and the reduced reflections and highlights allowed the shot to come out well. Richard Chetland.

Detail of the motion and frames of Bucks Hill’s resident Ivatt Flying Pig mogul. This was built from an M.O.K. kit by Kevin, and just look at the quality. Well worth a close up study,  photo by Richard Chetland.

A Black & white portrait of a Lee Marsh Jubilee No 5600 with L.M.S livery and carriages. Richard Chetland.

Lee Marsh Patriot No 5538 ‘Giggleswick’. Richard Chetland.

Large Prairie 5159 heads west on a local service, with an old clerestory behind the locomotive. Richard Chetland.

No 4418 is turned at Westcott shed.  Richard Chetland

Streamlined tramcar No 245 alongside an L.M.S. Omnibus, both polished and ready to go. Richard Chetland.

This weathered Lee Marsh L.M.S. Patriot class 4-6-0 was posed for Model Rail magazine’s recently published ‘Terminus’ photo set.  Here No 5536 Private W. Wood V.C. backs onto its train, while a suburban service waits in Westcott’s bay platform.  The townscape spreads out into the distance up the valley slope behind.    Richard Chetland.

My favourite so far, G.W.R. 0-4-2T No 1430 runs out of the platform road. It actually appears in the early livery here, with Indian red frames and wheels.  Richard Chetland.

Copenhagen Fields originally surrounded Copenhagen House, the 17th-century residence of England’s Danish ambassador. The locality changed beyond all recognition as the main railway lines out to the east coast cut through here, with noise, animal markets and sidings full of wagons.  Tim Watson & The Model Railway Club.

This Fowler 4F-C was tried out by Jack Anziani. The loco was built at Derby in Sept 1927, and it appears in it’s original livery.

G.W.R 4-4-0 No 3267 ‘Cornishman’.  Original by Steve Flint.

C. B. Collett G.W.R. 0-6-0 No 2258. Original by Steve Flint.

Metropolitan Railway Sharp Stewart ‘D’ Class 2-4-0T No 76, with a mixed goods train. Original by David Lane.

Met ‘A’ Class No27 in a cutting with horse box No10.

Two Metropolitan Railway locomotives rest on shed, looking outdoors to another part of the depot. The building has been done as a survivor from the early Victorian period, with cast iron roof brackets, arched doors and round top windows. The roof has timber trusses and the whitewashed interior is peeling and dirty.

Old No 27 is a similar age to the shed itself and doesn’t see much use anymore. The big windows let the daylight flood in, and another shed can be seen in between the outer wall and the grass coaling stage incline beyond that. There are many layers of visible distance behind the ramp, with occupied carriage sidings and signalboxes, and a detailed town skyline can also be seen at the furthest distance.

Westcott has an ever increasing stud of L.M.S. locomotives made from kits by Jack Anziani. Bowen-Cooke 0-8-2T No 7885 is in weathered unlined black.

One of several Liverpool liner electric bogie trams.

90218 Riddles WD 2-8-0 with a characteristic layering of soot and dirt.

I can’t use sepia toned photographs in books and magazines dealing with backscenes because I need to show colour matching and so on, but it’s OK here and on the Bucks Hill site, so this is L.M.S. 0-6-0T No 11617 on shed at Westcott.

The station and it’s surrounding maltings appears at the bottom of this OS map, and the first backscene section (to the left) will need to look north, across a number of field boundaries, towards the north eastern part of this busy market town. The back of the Methodist Chapel can be seen from the station entrance, along with the other Almshouses, Malthouses, small dwellings, cottages and finally the Tower Mill.

The Priory & Godfreys.   Original by Ian Smith

Dartmoor, with No 2844 heading a coal train.   Original by Andy York.

Badminton crosses Acorn Bridge.  Original by Tony Wright.

Wharf Cottage and Carpenter’s Arms.   Original by Chris Nevard.

John Edwards fine Drummond M7 with Westinghouse auto train equipment.  Richard Chetland

D1011 Western Thunderer.  Richard Chetland

A V2 runs light, tender first, but pauses in the down loop. long enough for a quick snapshot.

Lee Marsh Patriot No 5527

A pair of ex Somerset and Dorset 2-8-0s on Ian’s Highbridgewater 7mm scale layout.

The re-scaled and straightened Edwardian drawings of a Snow Hill roof support column can be seen here, isolated and projected as end and side elevations. The stages of modelling the component are generated directly from this reference, firstly as a basic polygonal framework, becoming progressively more detailed as the 2D information is projected into 3D. The early stages of setting up are shown and rendered here to show a work in progress.

A corner of platform canopy valance for Snow Hill. A number of different profiles will eventually be required for this large 7mm scale mirrored diorama.

Reference as good as this takes virtually all that annoying guesswork out of the job, you even get the intermediate trusses and the profiled timber canopy outline. At the time of drawing of course, it would have been just another day to day working specification, but the passage of time now allows us to see it differently, as a valuable document of another era.

Here’s an artwork to reproduce the G.W.R. canopy ironwork from the drawing.  It does require assembly and folding, but it also represents a cheaper, alternative method to 3D when it comes to generating identical repeating components.

Collett 4575 class small prairie No 4584 in early B.R. unlined black heads west with a pick-up goods. The locomotive was built at Swindon in 1927 as a development of Churchward’s 4500 class and some of these were fitted with Auto train control gear for work in South Wales.

The fireman of this work stained L.M.S. 0-6-0 stands behind as the driver looks out of the cab’s grimy spectacle plate, (nearly all the ‘mooky’ early L.M.S. locos that appear are from the steady, but prolific hands of Jack Anziani)

This stunning L.N.W.R. Claughton was brought along by Jonathan Marcus. It was originally built by Geoff Holt, and has since had a little updating work done, along with a conversion to DCC. Here, it heads an equally impressive rake of Wolverton bogie stock. 

This Adams Radial No 420 is from Jack’s collection, but was built by Chris Wesson. It pulls a short L.S.W.R. train including the six-wheeled Inspection saloon coach (visible behind the locomotive) which features a very finely detailed interior with passengers. The locomotive was built by Beyer Peacock in 1882 from a small batch of 12

I have used some of my old cardboard and sticky tape Metropolitan Railway engines to try out the effects, and it’s a real contrast that I want to see for this diorama, not an evenly lit commercial display. I’m happy with the glow of the warm sun in this picture, as it highlights the brick edge of the window aperture just in front of the engine’s smokebox. Although it”s blurry, the colours of a Great Western engine can be seen outdoors on the 3D backscene.

Both ends are mirrored, and one of the last few jobs before I hand the job over is to get some professional photography done using the clever multi focus step method. That will allow me to look along a row of engines from the opening end doors, while still keeping the whole picture in focus.

Newton, Algernon Cecil; Birmingham with the Hall of Memory 1929; Birmingham Museums Trust.

Newton, Algernon Cecil; The Backs of houses, Harley Street, London, 1925 (c) Museum of London.

This one is Ealhswith, but the slightly later and larger Eadweade was also an outside cylinder O-6-OT, built for the Lambourne Valley Railway by the Hunslet Engine Company in June 1903 (works number 811), with 3′ 7″ wheels over a 10′ 6″ wheel base. It weighed 24 tons and was painted dark blue lined out in black and white

This Bulleid air smoothed light pacific No 34098 ‘Templecombe’ was built from the original Martin Finney kit, and this class will become one of the first re-releases from Finney7.

John Stockton-Wood’s Llanberis is one of the featured layouts, showing that with the right team of people, it’s sometimes possible to generate a specific pre-grouping backscene using edited digital images. This was actually recorded from the opposite bank of Llyn Padarn. Barry Norman.

I used one of my old Metropolitan Railway engines to give a bit of scale to the shed. Eventually, the interior will be gloomy, with the daylight coming in through the windows.

Many steam hauled Pullman Coaches were equipped with the unequalised rivetted plate 10 ft wheelbase bogies, so if you are struggling to find them in 7mm, let me know. The fold up etch contains the bogie frame with crossmembers, bolster and brake gear as well as separate overlays for the curved lower channel. Even the axleboxes and individual spring leaves are included, so certainly not a beginner’s etch, but quite an impressive level of authenticity is achievable with enough time spent.

James Aitken’s photogenic Drummond M7 0-4-4T No 35 in Southern livery will soon become a regular runner on the Princes Risborough club’s Okehampton layout. These capable side tank locos were developments from the Adams T1 class.

Jim Gander brought this pristine Churchward ‘Star’ No 4018 ‘Knight of the Grand Cross’. The Knight series of ten locos comprised Lot 173 of 1908. Photo by Richard Chetland.

Lee Marsh L.M.S. ‘Jubilee’ 4-6-0 No 5600 ‘Bermuda’ rounds the curve.  It has now been weathered by Fred Lewis and it looks great with it’s hard working ‘in service’ look.  I am currently sorting out a few pictures for Lee’s upcoming catalogue, and it might be a good one to include. Photo by Richard Chetland.

Detail from a Jack Anziani built L.M.S. 2-6-4T complete with ‘mook’. Detail by Richard Chetland.

Temple Meads, in the mid Victorian period. The architectural detail for this was basically copied from the drawings, then generated in 3D.

This quality of reference really shines through when it’s properly applied to a railway model. Each brick course and it’s colour is drawn and coloured by hand. The actual station is sadly lost, but with enough dedication and the right information, at least it could be reproduced again as a high quality miniature.

Part of the diorama side view would probably be the lower elevation of the stairs leading to the down platform in this combination drawing. Above is an end elevation of the staircases up to the enclosed footbridge, topped with brick and stone arches all resting on the massive girders that spanned the four sets of rails below.

This render happens to show the assembly in green smoking compartment leather, but it can be presented in any colours just by spraying it satin for leather or matt for woven fabric

56xx weathered by Neil Podbery, this will soon hopefully take it’s place in an equally grubby running shed diorama.

2-6-2T No 4407 has received the same treatment

Tapered wooden post arrangement.

Etch with ironwork, bracing, rivet detail and pulleys.

The boundary fence at the top of the cutting has seen better days. I will soon be doing a mockup for the 3D backscene, and it might be good to do the whole thing in lightweight alloy.

A view over the Semley coal sidings looking north, with the panorama contours to the right.

Single images to front and rear, with a cool grey background.

Still piles of really fine etchings to be listed and scanned, like numbers and name plates for instance, just to mention one of the dozens of product lines. No 16 originally had it’s individual brass numbers on the beaded rear splasher. Original by Chris Nevard/Model Rail Magazine

The unpolished Dean cab number etch.

Like many western engines, No 16 was modified in it’s later years to try and give it a bit more grunt. It lost the old numbers and some of it’s purity of line in the process.

One of Lee’s production carriages

A sneak preview of the first class compt mockup, with new unpainted passengers.

I am working to complete a few more of the interior details, so bear with me while I make progress ASAP.