Starting The Layout

Cannibalising an earlier layout, Kyle of Sutherland, is a quick way to achieve the basic framework and supporting structure for St Donats 1963.

The main scenic element is a 3 foot long diorama, with 2 foot 6 inch cassette tables at either end. The cassette tables can be turned around to allow operation from either front or rear. Here’s the start of work on the scenic board with the foreground track sub-base being tested for fit and position.

As soon as there’s some track, here’s a GWR 16xx loco ready to go. That is apart from brakes, sanding gear and some minor corrective surgery. And a slight re-alignment of the handrail.

GWR 0-4-0ST 1151

I’ve opened the CSP/Agenoria box and made a start on 1151.

The real 1151 was well photographed and I now have prints showing the various details, which differentiate it from similar locos of the period in South Wales. I hope to progress the loco soon at the Missenden Abbey Summer School, where I will concentrate on the body before making firm decisions on the gearbox and compensation. This means putting the wheels to one side for the time being until I can be sure the chassis with gearbox and motor will fit easily inside the body.

Rolling Stock

Making a BR(ex-GWR) 16xx Class 0-6-0PT for my other layout, Kyle of Sutherland, brought the St Donats project back to mind, and got me thinking of rolling stock.

The 16xx pannier will need renumbering, perhaps to one of the many 87F Llanelly examples of the type that I saw in 1963. The Hawksworth tender at the back, or the alternative Collett tender in the Malcolm Mitchell box at the front, will eventually be paired with 5961 Toynbee Hall, another Llanelly engine. So far, the Hall consists of a footplate and cab modelled as described in Guy Williams’ scratchbuilding guide “The 4mm Engine” using measurements I made of 4920 Dumbleton Hall at Buckfastleigh. The box at the back contains a CSP/Agenoria kit for Peckett 0-4-0ST 1151, the last of its type in South Wales, which spent its final days shunting the Tremains yard near Bridgend. It’s just possible I saw the real loco when I went to Bridgend by train in September 1963. I would like to think so.

Then there’s a set of 247 Developments coach sides for a diagram G66 Special Saloon, which I’m looking forward to building. I measured, photographed and travelled in this coach on the South Devon Railway. I’ve also planned to make panniers 3753 of 88J Aberdare and 7413 of 84E Tyseley.

Water Colour Diversion

Water colour painting provided a welcome alternative to referendum thoughts on polling day.



Moorland Scene

This is the second day I’ve spent with local artist Celia Olsson experimenting with water colours. My hope is to develop a better colour sense and learn interesting painting techniques.

The palette is much the same as I’ve used with acrylics: ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, burnt umber, burnt sienna, raw sienna, gamboge (new for me) and lemon yellow. But no white and no black.

To The Lighthouse

I wasn’t really happy with the lighthouse: too large in relation to the other buildings and roughly constructed in thin card. So I got to thinking how I could improve it.

I filed up a lighthouse about two-thirds the previous size from a piece of 0.5mm nickel silver, slightly rounded the edges to soften the impression of a 2D cut-out. The buildings either side are also fretted from nickel silver, soldered to the lighthouse at the correct height, and with a leg on which to plant the structure on the model. About 9mm of the lighthouse is visible above the landscape.

By way of experiment, I've also raised the backscene by half an inch to give the impression of standing on higher ground to take the picture. 

Layout Mock-up

After three weeks of iterative improvement since the Missenden Weekend, I’ve more or less taken this one-third of scale mock-up as far as I can go. This is the view over the railway and the Bristol Channel.

       Looking across to Exmoor

I’ve learned a lot on this journey of discovery (that was the objective): the mock-up has been through a dozen or so rounds of “improve-photograph-critique”. Working at such a small scale, it’s been easy to make substantial structural changes along the way in order to reach this stage. However, at this scale, it’s also very difficult to make very accurate scenic elements: the castle and farm buildings are only a few millimetres high. And it’s difficult to photograph. At the scale distance I want the eventual layout to be viewed, this is as much of the layout as I can get into the frame.

All of which suggests the next model should be at full scale. Whether that’s another mock-up or the final layout I don’t yet know.



Pre-mock-up Mock-up

I’ve almost made a mock-up.

Under the guidance of Paul Bambrick at the Spring Railway Modellers Weekend at Missenden Abbey, I've taken my first steps towards making the St Donats layout. There’s lots to do, but I’ve now got something to look at, and here’s the first pic with “improvement notes” to guide the next steps.

The one-third scale mock-up is 9” deep and 12” wide. The “View Box” refers to the enclosing box with a cut-out to frame the view, which will eventually be seen in a theatre-type presentation with wings and a proscenium arch. The new frame height will be about 4.5” at mock-up scale.