7mm Layouts and Dioramas by Stephen Fay, including Pontycwm, Newton Mills and St Stephens Bank

Compton castle

Western Thunderer
Change of plans on the marches Road reincarnation, instead of the usual side on view I’m going to take inspiration from my Canton project and do a face on layout. Very much inspired by Shrewsbury loco shed this will be a joint affair with the midland shed to the left and a low relief 4 road western shed to the right with the coaling stage in the centre, this will give a fantastic face on view of locos and whom ever purchases it will be able to add a fiddle yard / cassette storage along the rear to drive locos out of the shed if they so wish. This will then feel like it’s part of a huge shed complex and the viewer is stood right in the middle of it. LNWR fixtures on the left GWR on the right. This will provide the opportunity to have big or small LMS power stabled along side big or small GWR power just like onShrewsbury shed. The dimensions will be 6’ X 3’. Lots of inspection pits plus a dirty ash strewn disposal road.
This should be a nice alternative to the usual layout style and a fabulous theatre stage for displaying locomotives.
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Compton castle

Western Thunderer
Not much going on modelling wise today, The new Ragstone Midland buffer stop has arrived for Creechly, they are great castings and show how good white metal can be. The Peco stop has been binned. Tomorrow I should get the goods shed planted and continue with the sand.
I also took the opportunity to dig out that last 5” of track on the main line and relay it a few days ago, I still have to blend the weathering in a little more, originally the gap between the sleepers was huge! Looks a lot better now.DDFD3E08-2128-45A9-A69C-080088526BAE.jpeg
 

Compton castle

Western Thunderer
and


With everything glued down on the model it should be possible to adjust the angle of the baseboard and so change the length of the shadows. I want to try this but at the moment, well, almost everything 7mm I have made has wheels under it.
I’m hoping to get it out in the country side next week to get some better shots with a nice surrounding.
The to do list is fast decreasing now, top tip when adding pots to your chimney stacks smooth a little blue tac around the base and paint to look like mortar. E0E6AD20-926D-4863-96BE-A343755E27C4.png0494CF47-5292-4E66-AE9A-FE3D88540F55.png92AA3E6F-377F-4258-95C8-4FA190CD7D28.png800102A7-19F8-4F6E-8317-5844FBEC6DD2.pngF15D0E4D-9D7A-4E4E-ABE4-5CD63ED7C565.png
 

Compton castle

Western Thunderer
A little more planning on Marches Road, taking inspiration from Pontypool Road shed with a set of steps and an up and over which will provide a nice scenic break plus a means for staff to get from the Midland to Western side. Plenty of space for locos plus 16 ton minerals and may be even a break down crane.DD7444DF-0904-48D9-A8B3-6CEA5E45D985.pngF76EA5DE-410C-4D8E-ACAB-2F9B0958CC73.png
 

Compton castle

Western Thunderer
Rob and I got the rails laid on Box yesterday, it’s so much easier to lay sleepers and ballast before the rails are laid! A fairly light weathering has been applied using masking tape a blast of Howes weathered black down the centre, once dry masking tape then laid down the centre of the track and Howes sleeper grime sprayed from a low angle, the tape is then removed and a brush soaked in thinners gently dabbed along the edges just to break up any harsh paint lines. E8CA31F5-510E-41AD-8724-551FE07429F2.png
 

LarryG

Western Thunderer
Interesting that all the wood and metal work on the building in post #950 is GWR dark Stone. When faced with GWR light stone, dark stone, maroon, black, cream dark brown and light brown, I always look to see which colours were used in the area of the GWR I am modelling. The Severn Valley, Cambrian Mainline and the Dee Valley lines all seemed to have different ideas, which different again from the lines around Devon and Cornwall where cream and light stone were generally more prevalent.
 

Compton castle

Western Thunderer
Interesting that all the wood and metal work on the building in post #950 is GWR dark Stone. When faced with GWR light stone, dark stone, maroon, black, cream dark brown and light brown, I always look to see which colours were used in the area of the GWR I am modelling. The Severn Valley, Cambrian Mainline and the Dee Valley lines all seemed to have different ideas, which different again from the lines around Devon and Cornwall where cream and light stone were generally more prevalent.
Yes I noticed that as well, something I’ll look to emulate on this project, this building was the carriage and wagon shop and was bisected by a road viaduct, part of which is still there today.
 

J_F_S

Western Thunderer
Yes I noticed that as well, something I’ll look to emulate on this project, this building was the carriage and wagon shop and was bisected by a road viaduct, part of which is still there today.

When I visited Watlington in 1973 the station building was in GW stone. Tetbury however - no doubt being a much more important station(!) - was in brown and cream:-
29 Watlington small.jpg1 Tetbury small.jpg


Hope that helps.

Best Wishes,
Howard
 

LarryG

Western Thunderer
Tetbury looks to be standard GWR with white window frames and maroon-brown door. Stations appear to have taken priority when BR got around to sending along its painters. This meant that many good yard building carried their GWR colours right up to the 1960's line closures. Janes/IA colour albums and Capital Transport colour albums are your friend. :)
 

Compton castle

Western Thunderer
ModelU Guttering on St Stephen’s Box, plus some nice interior bits. I need to paint up the Bobby next and we can look at getting this installed on the layout. I added some thin micro strip under the tiles which has straightened them up, not quite as much as I would have liked so I may have another go as the roof is still removable.
Still I’m very happy with it, the Railmatch chocolate and cream is spot on. D3F57FD4-0273-44DD-92C4-1A5D9BE822DA.jpeg7EBFEA93-9478-4DC8-8799-B18B1B80AC28.jpeg39D9A933-37DB-4D0C-8816-655698F4BAF1.pngB6B2D1EB-C369-4503-AA52-DAB2AF5027C9.jpeg
 

Compton castle

Western Thunderer
More progress on the coaling stage for marches road, the painters have gone a little overboard on the chocolate and cream! I think that’s down to regional rivalries, it’ll get a liberal coating of dirt and hopefully I’ve got some nice 3D printed bits coming for it as well. We have to assume that there’s a much larger mechanical coal hoist around the back of the shed and this one was built to serve the GW top link locos as they liked to trim their own coal and not have it smashed to bits when dropped from the mechanical hoist.AFBD054A-B97E-4BE7-A5C5-BA21542E2C80.jpegC44D99F8-506B-4885-8B38-C49D69B3CFE1.jpeg
 
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