4mm Poppy Lane - Not so much a plank, more a lolly stick!

[Terry]

Appropriate for a Ford Pop to be on Poppy Road. Did you consider changing the wheels to something closer to the skinny cross ply tyres the real ones had? Fat balloon tyres are one of the not so good bits of the Oxford models, another is the ride height. The top of the tyres should be nearly into the guards, or even further with a load or sagged springs.

I must admit that I didn't. I see that I'm going to have to up my game!

Re the policeman and the driver. Nothing as drastic as the officer pulling over the driver. It's actually Farmer Brown who has just stopped for a chat with the village bobby, making arrangements to drop off that free sack of potatoes. Of course, the farmyard is ankle deep in muck, thus the state of the car.

Terry

 

[Terry]

The small area between the cottage and the road bend was crying out for some detail. I decided that a lovely red telephone box would look nice here. Enter stage right the K6 box from Shire Scenes by Dart Castings. This superb little etched brass kit was assembled using superglue and was painted before adding a base from styrene.

Terry

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

I lived in the country as a boy and that guy looks too well dressed to be a 'proper' farmer! Certainly the ones I knew.

 

[Terry]

Yes, he's dressed up for an appointment with the Bank Manager!

Terry

 

[Terry]

I live on a country lane and there is a K6 phonebox on a bend in the road. Nearby is a small postbox fixed to a pole. I thought that this would look nice on my layout, a sort of GPO enclave in a tiny corner. Out came the styrene and I produced this in an evening...


A trip to the paintshop resulted in this...


The telephone box and postbox were fixed in place beside the cottage...


Terry

 

[Terry]

A few more details were added...



Mustn't forget the TV aerial...


Terry

 

[Osgood]

"In the next episode, Terry will be constructing a small halt out of sleepers"

Well there is room between track and backscene!

 

[daifly]

Terry
All very well-remembered from my youth a considerable time ago - apart from the 'Welcome to our village...." That is a modern aberration and in any event the village would be named. In times past, there would have been a simple sign with the name of the village with, perhaps, the distance to the next settlement at the top and distance from the previous one at the bottom. These were rectangular, sometimes cast aluminium, sometimes enamelled steel.



Dave

 

[Terry]

That's very interesting Dave. All good knowledge for future layouts. Thanks for posting the pictures.

Terry

 

[D1666]

Terry I do love the little GPO box and the phone box. It's these little bits that bring a smile to one's face.

 

[Jordan]

My take on the "welcome..." sign was thus...

The smashed-up sign - "Portway welcomes Careful Drivers". It told an unseen story.....

 

[Terry]

I added a lighting pelmet to the layout. The layout name was simply printed at home and stuck to card. Here is a general view of the layout...


And that's about it really, apart from running a few trains...


Terry

 

[Terry]

Terry I do love the little GPO box and the phone box. It's these little bits that bring a smile to one's face.

Thank you Kevin.

Jordan - Nice bit of subtle humour.

Terry

 

[Terry]

I'll just take you back to my initial 'conceptual sketch'...

...and compare it with the finished model...


Poppy Lane appeared in the October 2017 issue of The Railway Modeller.

Postscript - The story hasn't really finished here. Recently, I decided to scrap the layout and retrieved all of the usable parts before reducing the layout to the bare board. I was about to retrieve any wood and bin the small piece of mdf when my wife entered the shed with a mug of tea for me. She looked at the bare board and said the fatal words, "Can't you do something with that?" I looked at the baseboard again and my mind kicked into action. Would it be possible to build another layout on this small baseboard? That, as they say, is a story for another day!

Terry

 

[chigley]

A backscene was added as well as a strip of varnished plywood to the front of the layout.
View attachment 199094


Two figures from the 'Monty's Models' range from Dart Castings were painted and fixed in position to create a little scene around the car.
View attachment 199095


And nearby, the policeman's bicycle rests lazily against a road sign.
View attachment 199096
Courtesy of 'Shire Scenes' etched brass bicycles, again from Dart Castings.

Terry

would be worried about the exhaust going straight on to the rear tyre

Ken

 

[chigley]

nice work though Terry

 

[Osgood]

Well I'm glad you took the trouble to show its development on here - I'd missed its appearance in print.
Quite amazing the feeling of space that you achieved in such a small area (mind you, that lollypop must have been huge ).

 

[DougT]

Well that explains something! I was marvelling at the speed at which it was all coming together, didn’t realise it was a Blue Peter job! Still, What a lovely little thing of beauty it is (or was).

 

[daifly]

My take on the "welcome..." sign was thus...

The smashed-up sign - "Portway welcomes Careful Drivers". It told an unseen story.....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

So the village couldn't make up it's mind whether it was in God's Own County or on t'other side ...