Wolseley’s Lockdown Competition Thread

I haven’t decided exactly what I’m going to do yet, but whatever it is, it will be centred on the main station building. And, as discussed earlier, here’s a couple of photos of the layout as is, showing that there’s nothing much fixed down other than tracks at the moment (all right, the signals are all in place and operating, but none of them will form part of the cameo). I have included a current newspaper (or reasonably current - I haven’t bought one since Monday) to prove that the photographs show the layout as it was when the competition was announced.







Jim

 

It is, as befits a three-rail mostly Dublo layout, somewhat retro in appearance and operation. An 8' x 4' version of the ones that used to grace the pages of Tri-ang catalogues if you like. It is going to have scenery though, unlike a lot of what people term "Classic Dublo Layouts".

In case you're wondering, the dismantled LNER Pacific is a Trix A H Peppercorn, which is in the process of conversion to three-rail (it's one of the later two-rail Trix models).

Work has begun. The area that will be the subject of the competition is more or less where the bottle of glue is:

 

First off the block maybe, but the scene was to be set in the station forecourt, and I had a setback when a product I had which I used to represent the paving gave a less than satisfactory result. As a result of the various Covid-19 induced restrictions, it wasn't realistically possible to get on a train or a bus for 30 or 40 minutes to get to a model shop, I have had to resort to ordering online and waiting for parcels to arrive. I now have something to hand to enable me to recommence work.

I took a ruler to a number of items I had handy, and here is a printed publication 12" x 8" (give or take a quarter of an inch) that shows the area that I will be using:

 

Not much progress to report so far (aside from a part of the scene that has to be refinished, referred to above) but here is one corner of scenic treatment, done partly to reacquaint myself with scenic modelling:



And, I'm planning on incorporating both Queen Victoria and Isambard Kingdom Brunel in my scene, together with one other well known individual:

 

The station forecourt is now a gravelled area. It still has to be tidied around the edges and have fences erected.

 

A photo of the same spot as it is today:

 

I've more or less got everything together and now I'm trying to work out the best position for all the bits and pieces. Hopefully it's going to work.

I was going to repaint the station buildings, partly because they're a bit playworn and partly because not all of the platform sections are quite the same colour, but that is going to be too big a job to tackle in the time that is left. I also want to get another colour on the walls to relieve that expanse of Dublo cream, which is not one of my favourite colours (maybe a complete repaint is called for).

 

All right then, here it is (please ignore the level crossing, fencing and train in the first photograph, as they're outside the 12" x 8" area of the cameo):



Michael walked towards the station building, thinking that there was something odd about this place. Yes, the tracks had three rails, but the third one was in the middle, not at the side where it should have been, and the ballast looked strangely smooth and shiny. As the camera crew set everything up, Michael noticed that, in the forecourt, there were two Holden cars and a bus showing its destination as Wynyard. Had he fallen asleep and wakened up in The Antipodes? He reached for his trusty Bradshaw’s only to find that this station had no sign to identify its location so, for once, Bradshaw was of no assistance.



Never mind, reassured by the towering presence of Queen Victoria, Michael walked towards the station building, where there was someone waiting to be interviewed. As he walked up to the building he saw a locomotive with the familiar letters LMS on it steam into the station, it was reassuring, yes, but unsettling as well, for it was nothing like any LMS locomotive - it had a distinct GNR look about it.



Enough of this, he thought, I have a television program to present, so he walked towards the interviewee, who was waiting by the station stairs. The man did look distinctly familiar - the coat, top hat and cigar - why, it’s the great man himself - but it can’t be Isambard Kingdom Brunel, surely - he’s been dead for 160 years……

 

Thanks. The grouping of figures worked out quite well and they will become a permanent feature on my layout. I think though that, after I restore/repaint the station platforms and buildings, that I will move them to the end of the main platform, rather than have them in the station forecourt.

I have mentioned the charity I have in mind in my post in the The Platform 1 Lock down competition thread.

Jim