Garden Railway Saturday; building the Trenarren Models slab wagons

Something a little out of the ordinary for Garden Railway Saturday today- our esteemed Editor, Phil, passed us these kits to review. These two are slate slab wagons, prototypes from Penrhyn Quarry, and are made by Trenarren Models. 

The wheels are steel, the bodies are resin, the additional parts are mainly cast metal; again, out of the ordinary for us, as the majority of builds we do are laser-cut wood.

Fully assembled...

...and painted. Full details are in the review piece itself, but these are rather nice wagons once built.

The first shoot was on-location in Wales, where we built them, but the light was a bit poor.

So, we re-shot the pics on the actual garden railway when we got home.

And in print; we've a couple of other kits to build up and review, hopefully before too long.

 

This Month in British Railway Modelling; A Seaside Promenade Shelter

The summer of colourful kitsch continues!  Whilst at the Keighley Model Railway show, I spotted that Mumfy's Models had a rather nice concrete seaside pavilion shelter kit, in laser-cut MDF. Available in multiple scales, I thought for a change that I'd model in 0 scale.

The Spring saw us in Wales, so I took the opportunity to photograph some of the shelters on the coast. Tywyn above (the pic rather underselling the gale-force winds and manky weather)...

...though it was rather nicer a few days later in Aberystwyth.

It's quite a nice, simple kit, not too many pieces.

I chose to over-complicate things mindyou. Wanting a bit of texture on it, I used sandpaper, double-sided-taped onto it then the window apertures cut out.

Glazed with transparent plastic from packaging material. A bit of graffiti too, modelled on Aberystwyth.

Seagull poo on the roof. An interesting new modelling challenge...

Because the shelter was identical on each side, I decided to make the most of it for the final photographs, and model it double-sided. Sunny on the one, rainy (typical British day at the coast) on the other.

To which end, the folding base was designed to be too identical scenes. It was made to fit into a plastic storage box, the idea being that I'd be shooting on location.

It would be quite a simple base; only a few details, like the drain gratings from old Hornby 00 scale platform fences.

The ornate railings along the promenade were made from the leftover bits from last years Model Village project- the tops of the dolls-house front garden railings. 

Working streetlamps were installed, though on testing a few of the bulbs were blown (these are old, they've been in the scrap-box for maybe 20 years).

Bins from plasticard square-section and channel.

Here's another modelling challenge. Plastic fence of unknown vintage, chopped down into takeaway boxes.

I've always thought that figures for model railways are the weak link, tending to be blobby and misshapen. In recent years, photo-scanning and 3D-printing have revolutionised this field of modelling though. I've a project in mind using such figures in 1/32nd scale at some point but don't have a lot of experience with them. This project would give me a chance to have a go modelling, modifying, and painting them.

They're a mix, from 'Scale Scenery and Figures' and 'Smart Models'. Sprayed black, then dry-brushed with muted tones, then washed over with Citadel nuln oil to bring out the creases and shadows. 

Using watered-down PVA to do puddles on the rainy side.

Oh yeah, the plan to shoot on location... there were some delays in building which meant it would have been too much of a rush to shoot actually in Wales (and the Spring weather was a bit naff anyway). A couple of large prints of the seaside taken on that holiday though, a board, and a sunny day at home meant I could shoot in rather more comfort.

A lot of my other projects have been quite bright, colourful, and cheerful. There's (deliberately) a slightly scuzzy undercurrent with this one though, reflective a bit more of the British seaside. Graffiti, casually dropped litter, bored kids, junk food, and gulls. 

The lighting has also added a bit of a 'Martin Parr' feel to it, with the borderline over-exposed photographs and candid, slightly-exploitative angles to the shots (there I go, using that University Photography degree). I enjoyed creating cameo scenes on this one, particularly the bored kids stuck here whilst the parents chatted and ate their lunch. All the scenes were based on real things seen (this was something spotted a couple of years ago whilst we were in Wales, the kid using her ball as a footstool whilst her sister whined at her to stop in case the ball popped, their brother spitting on the floor. Charming).

I particularly liked this little cameo, though the angle of the bin shows a problem that came up; the sun was so bright on the day, it warped the plasticard flagstones.

Sunny day...

...and a rather more gloomy, grim day. Ah, how many holidays have I spent huddling out of the wind and rain like this? Rain effects with spray-painted gloss varnish with silver glitter sprinkled in to catch the light a bit.

More cameos. The grumpy oldies, the bored kids whilst the parents chat. The little kid looking sadly at her inflatable punctured and dumped by the bins by her mom (again, all these cameos on both sides based on real things seen at the seaside).

Lets end on something a bit jollier then, and kids innocently playing whilst their mom indulgently watches. There, that's a more cheerful middle-class tone to the project!

And in the mag.

An interesting one, this. Quite a small scene, but lots of detailing, and enjoyable to do. I don't often work in 0, but I might be doing a big project in the scale next year. It was nice then to be able to use this as a bit of a dry-run ready for that build...

 

Railway Research Trip; Rothley Station, Great Central Railway

After doing the visit to Mountsorrel (see the last issue of Railway Research Trip), we popped down the road to Rothley Station on the Great Central Railway.

It was a hot, quiet Saturday. A few trains were running on the GCR, but we hadn't really planned this. We read online there were refreshments, so we popped-by on spec. There was also the draw of a garden model railway at the station, though it wasn't working (and looked not to have for some time).

I'd actually been here before, about 15 or so years ago during one of the winter steam galas, but had only hazy memories of the station. We basically had a cold drink then wandered around with the cameras to see if there was anything to record for possible future projects.

Shame it was running tender-first; 2MT on a passenger service.

The memories came flooding back, as to the problems with this station. Very hard to find decent photographic angles.

Back onto the platform. Really like the island seating unit here.

The waiting room, and ladies loo.

Inside the waiting room- some very nice features here.

The possibility of doing a model of an indoor space for a mag was hanging around at the back of my mind, hence all the pics.

The Gents loo block was also of interest; we were thinking of modelling one for our little station on our garden railway, so given the semi-deserted nature of the station on this hot afternoon, it seemed perfect to get some pics of it.

Handily, the second train to pass by was a 101 DMU; given I'm presently modelling these for the Hornby Collectors Club, it was good to get one in a different colour scheme and headcode style to the others I've photographed.

So a handy bonus, if unplanned, visit and some useful pics gathered. We'll see if it translates to a project or not.

 

Railway Research Trip; Mountsorrel

Here's an unusual spot; we did a visit the other week. Partly because of a model railway show, partly because I needed somewhere to go for a Hornby article, and partly because we were fairly desperate for a day out away from things, and this was a good excuse.

So, this was Mountsorrel, village and heritage centre, pretty near Loughborough (or Loogieberoogie, if you will). It's a relatively-recent setup, on a branch line off the Great Central Railway.

Sadly, the railway wasn't operating. This was a minor annoyance, as we'd had to park at the far station as the car parking at the centre was full. Well, not really full, there'd just been some appallingly poor parking by other patrons.

Still, nice walk along a properly established (if not particularly well-signposted) path.

The other station.

The centre itself- eminently model-able.

The whole place was set into an old quarry, which had its good and bad points. The good (especially from a modelling point of view) was it kept it all contained. The bad; the crap coal being burned by the locomotives filled the whole place with a brown, throat-clagging haze.

Amongst the varios exhibits was this wonderful lift-bridge from the earliest days of the railways.

There was also a working 2ft gauge railway, on ridiculously tight curves.

See what I mean? Ridiculous.

Some nice details which would be fun to model.

Reckon a bit of Kato of Tomix track would do.

Vintage Dublo layout in a goods wagon outside. Speaking of model railways;

There was a small but rather good exhibition in the main hall.

Loved the tents.

Interesting tanker wagon; my Dad used to work at Midland Tar Distillers.

After a few hours and a picnic lunch, it was back to the car. Lots of photographs taken as reference for a build for the Hornby Collectors Club, and a nice morning out. Mindyou, we managed to fit-in another reference trip on the way home.