Modelling Inspiration - October 2011 - RMweb

A new free-t0-read format for 

RMweb’s best bits and more. 

• Bradfield Bradfield (Gloucester (Gloucester Square) 

Square) 

• Kylesku Kylesku and and The The The Mound 

Mound 

• How How-to How 

to to articles 

articles 

Modelling Modelling Inspiration October 2011 Page 1 

RMweb showcase 

October 2011 

• Prototype Prototype inspiration 

inspiration 

• Model Model railway railway photography 

photography 

• Win Win Win a a Dapol Dapol Dapol 121 121 

121

Modelling Inspiration 

These two words which have been a strap line to the 

site for several years form the basis of this new pdfbased 

e-mag format which is an extension of RMweb 

featuring some of its best content and developing 

key features beyond what has been written in the 

more piecemeal fashion of the forums. 

The first edition of this e-mag collects together a 

series of articles to set out the stall for the type of 

content that the reader is likely to see in the future 

with an emphasis on modelling rather than products 

or news. The content will centre around projects 

featured on RMweb with occasional features to bring 

in new material. It is not intended to compete with 

or detract from existing media be that magazines or 

RMweb itself but to be complementary to it. 

Modelling Inspiration will be free-to-read and redistribution 

is welcomed, it’s easily printed off in its 

entirety or any individual articles you’d like to save 

for future reference in a printed format. 

Although it is a more distilled format the door is very 

much open to anyone who wants to showcase 

focussed and cohesive material with an aim to 

feature inspirational and interesting content. 

Hopefully MI’s readers will find this format easily 

digestible and worth supporting in the future. 

Please do get in touch if there’s any 

of your content you’d like to see 

featured in future editions or 

indeed recommendations 

of others’ work that 

would suit this 

new format. 

Andy 

Why pdf? 

Using a pdf format for Modelling Inspiration allows 

readers to access the format across multiple platforms 

irrespective of display sizes and allows the reader to 

zoom in to make reading easier and to see the detail in 

the images. It also means an interactive index page 

and advertising where you can jump straight to 

advertisers’ content for further information. 

Featured Featured layouts 

layouts 

How How-to How 

to articles 

Bradfield Bradfield Bradfield (Gloucester (Gloucester Square) 

Square) 

The West Riding of Yorkshire in 

transition. John Elliot’s run down 

terminus oozes atmosphere and packs 

operational interest in. 

Kylesku Kylesku and and The The Mound Mound 

Ben Alder’s West Highland layout 

based on the Kyle of Lochalsh route in 

the BR-steam era. 

Improving Peco Code 75 

Weathering with Oils 

Improving Hornby 50s 

DCC Sound in a pannier 

Mermaid modifications 

Twin-silo Presflo 


Bits Box 

Thank you! 

Show preview 

Post-war nationalisation 

Story behind the picture 

RMweb people 

Prototype inspiration 

Models telling stories 

Model railway photography 

Photo of the month 

Thanks to all the contributors and people involved for 

their material, support and pulling this first issue 

together, especially to the pr0of-reader who did so 

much behind the scenes! 

Front Front Front Cover: Cover: Bradfield Bradfield Gloucester Gloucester Gloucester Square 

Square 

Massive earthworks were required to bring the railway to 

Bradfield, the arches that protect the station throat stand 

testimony to the ingenuity and confidence of the early 

railway builders. They are based on the ones still standing 

alongside the new Forster Sq. Station. This scene 

illustrates what the creator, John Elliott worked to 

recreate.

Bradfield, Bradfield, Gloucester Gloucester Square Square (c1962) 

John John Elliot Elliot Elliot (The (The (The Laird) 

Laird) 

The town of Bradfield nestles in the foothills of the 

Pennines about 10 miles due west of Leeds in the West 

Riding of Yorkshire. It straddles the River Brad that flows 

in a northerly direction to join the River Aire near Shipley. 

Bradfield prospered with the growth of the woollen 

industry, thanks to the plentiful supply of water and 

rugged grazing land in the surrounding area. With this 

prosperity came the need for better and more efficient 

transport systems. Railways were in their infancy at this 

time but the wool barons of Bradfield were keen to 

exploit this modern, innovative technology and tried to 

promote a route to the town. 

The railway builders of the time were preoccupied with 

their own schemes, so eventually the Leeds and Bradfield 

Railway Company was formed under the leadership of 

none other than George Hudson, the “Railway King”, 

who was not one to miss an opportunity. The L&B line 

left Bradfield in a northerly direction following the valley 

to Shipley, then turned east along the Aire valley to 

Leeds. A new terminus station, Leeds Wellington, was 

constructed which the L&B shared with the recently 

formed Midland Railway company. Soon after completion 

the line was bought out by the MR who had operated it 

since its opening. It was not long before the MR sought 

powers and built a line from a triangular junction at 

Shipley, west along the Aire valley to Skipton and 

beyond, reaching Morecambe and Heysham on the west 

coast and leading to the construction of the Settle and 

Carlisle main line to the north and Scotland. Another 

route left Shipley north eastwards to Ilkley. The line 

through Shipley northwards became the mainline leaving 

Bradfield at the end of a short double track branch. 

Railway politics of the time resulted in the Manchester 

and Leeds Railway building a line to Bradfield from the 

south to their own Exchange Station. 

In Bradfield the original L&B Market Street station soon 

proved inadequate and towards the end of the 19th 

century the MR built a new Station alongside Gloucester 

Square to replace it . As part of the redevelopment and to 

improve the alignment a tunnel was built immediately 

outside the new station. Goods facilities were moved 

further down the line beyond the short tunnel. The old 

goods yard and cattle dock were relaid to provide 

carriage stabling and servicing facilities. The old 

alignment lingered on as a freight only branch for a 

number of years, finally being closed by the LMS after the 

Grouping. The loco shed is situated along the line beyond 

the new goods yard. Gloucester Square station boasts 

three platforms and a centre siding under an overall roof. 

A further road on the east side of the station provides 

access to a small dock and also acts as headshunt for the 

carriage sidings. During World War II, the glazing was 

removed from the overall station roof as a safety 

precaution. In keeping with the railway’s policy of 

capturing revenue from the long distance traveller, the 

Midland Hotel is incorporated within the west side of the 

station building, its Victorian grandeur facing out onto 

Bradfield’s busy Gloucester Square. 


Train Train Services 

Services 

Train services have changed little over the years and the 

timetable is basically the same as that developed by the 

MR. Local services are provided to Leeds, Ilkley and to 

Skipton. There is a daily return service from Carlisle. The 

principal trains run to London St Pancras and the West 

country and trains to and from the south reverse at Leeds 

Wellington. 

Recent years have seen a decline in the woollen industry 

and a dramatic growth of the catalogue shopping 

business that has resulted in a rapid rise in the parcels 

traffic at Bradfield since the late 1950s. As part of the 

British Railways Modernisation Plan, all local services 

have recently changed over to Diesel Multiple Unit 

operation. 1961 saw the first allocation of mainline diesels 

to Leeds Holbeck for crew training, the Sulzer Type 4s or 

“Peaks”. This year, 1962, has seen the full allocation 

along the ex-Midland lines with the intention of replacing 

steam, but there have been major problems with 

reliability and availability due to teething problems and a 

lack of trained fitters. Steam still has an important role for 

some years yet!! 

The The Confessional 

Confessional 

So: having misled you, the reader, with my story of 

Bradfield with just a slight nod in the direction of real 

railway history, it is time to leave the world of virtual 

reality and enter the more hazardous realm, a topic 

avoided at all cost by senior managers, actual reality! My 

00 gauge, 4mm scale representation of what has been 

described. 

How How and and and why why did did I I do do it? 

it? 

It would be nice to explain the detailed research and 

planning that went into this creation but I stand here 

before you to confess that it was an accident that should 

never have happened! I suppose that if I could single 

anyone out to blame, it would have to be Jim Smith- 

Wright, he of P4 New Street fame. Not that Jim would be 

aware of this of course but all will be revealed.

The morning rush is in full swing at Bradfield and not without its problems. A 

platform change sees the 8.05 Skipton departing Platform 3A this morning, 

looks like there are too many parcels in Platform 2 behind the Fairburn. D95 

backs in to Platform 1 with stock for the 8.50 St Pancras. 

Modelling Modelling Inspiration October 2011 Page 4

A lazy sun tries to break through the grey skies 

above Bradfield’s overall roof. The dusty vans in 

Platform 2B have all been loaded, waiting to be 

shunted onto this evening’s York parcels. A Met- 

Camm for Leeds adds to the murk as it ticks over 

at the end of Platform 3. Shady characters hang 

around the ticket barriers. 

Now where to begin, at the end of course! The end of my 

previous layout that is. My last layout was a 7mm scale 

terminus built in some old stables. A house move meant 

this had to go, so all was dismantled and sold. A move to 

temporary accommodation left little room to swing a cat 

let alone a railway, so what to do? First decision was to 

change to 4mm scale. I wanted to try out some new ideas 

with baseboard construction, track laying and DCC but 

no room. I started collecting 4mm locos and stock and 

wanted somewhere to test them. Along came a magazine 

article about “a plank”, by Jim S-W, a test bed for his P4 

overhead electrics. 

A plank it would be then. This plank turned out to be 4ft x 

2ft of 1/8th ply, cross braced with an integral back scene 

to trial my lightweight baseboard construction. So far so 

good; now for some trackwork. Templot is a marvellous 

tool for creating flowing track diagrams but took me an 

age to get to grips with. Once mastered and the creative 

juices start flowing it is easy to get carried away, resulting 

in a plan incorporating some challenging track building. 

So it was with my plank, the station throat as you see it 

today. The pointwork was constructed from copper clad 

sleeper and soldered construction with SMP flexitrack. 

Having read Ian Rice’s track construction book, I liked the 

idea of sprung or floating trackwork so decided to try the 

thin polyfoam used to insulate laminate flooring as an 

underlay. I used a rubber type adhesive to stick it down 

as I thought the PVA would not adhere, also I did not 

want it to solidify. The track was also stuck down with 

this rubber solution. It seems to work OK and gives the 

degree of sound insulation necessary when running on 

top of a thin ply box which would otherwise amplify any 

sound. 


At last! We find a suitable house that is to be the final 

resting place! After the inevitable redecorating etc 

thoughts return to the important things in life and the 

plank has been wired up and tested, so what now. There 

is some space in the garage so maybe the plank could be 

developed. Out with the tape measure and from wall to 

up-and-over door I can just squeeze in the plank with 

1.7m (about 5ft in old money) each side. Fire up Templot 

and let’s see what we can squeeze in. The result as they 

say is history; well not quite as I now had three bare 

baseboards with track and electrics that needed some 

legs and having got this far with the experiment I might as 

well finish it off and maybe even take it to an exhibition. 

What I needed was a suitable prototype location to 

inspire the topography, structures and type of trains I 

wanted to run. 

Whilst all this was going on, I had been quietly 

researching my ultimate, layout of a lifetime, project, 

London St Pancras. I came across a book called 

Operation Midland, this was my “Eureka!” moment; 

suddenly I began to understand the way the passenger 

railway really operated. I also became aware of the 

importance of a place called “Bradford Forster Square” 

to the passenger operations of the Midland Region of 

British Railways. This was the end of the line for a number 

of the long distance passenger services that originated 

and terminated here, where stock was stabled and 

serviced overnight to begin again the next day. This was 

exactly what interested me and would suit my “layout 

with no name”. Additionally, the old station at Forster 

Square had an overall roof and looked quite imposing. I 

only had three platform lines but length-wise it would fit. 

So as they say on Star Trek, “It’s Bradford, Jim; but not as 

we know it”. A site visit was called for, so armed with 

digital camera I headed north. What a shock and 

disappointment, only the Midland Hotel is left and all the 

stonework of the buildings gleaming like new, ho hum. 

Plenty of photos were taken of what was left and a good 

feel for the vernacular style of building gained. Oh, and a 

visit to EM North en route, so a good day out…..Enough 

planning and waffle, let’s get building.

Baseboard Baseboard and and legs 

legs 

The plank had proved successful so the two outer boards 

were constructed the same way. Alignment and 

connection between the boards is by removable pin 

hinges. Previous experience had shown that four-legged 

trestles tend to walk and are difficult to level so a threelegged 

stool principle was employed. Again, a fairly light 

structure was used, I often think that we over-engineer 

things. Adjustable screw feet are fitted on the two outer 

legs for fine adjustment. 

Lighting Lighting rig rig and and and fascia 

fascia 

As the layout was to be exhibited, I wanted to provide a 

lighting rig and fascia. This was constructed using 4mm 

MDF in a box configuration for strength. The whole is 

supported either end on 18mm square posts and centrally 

on a cantilevered box structure from ply. Six mains 

downlights are set in to the fascia, originally 50watt 

halogens were used but proved to be too focussed 

creating pools of light and dark, so I changed the bulbs 

for the low energy fluorescent type that produce a more 

diffuse and even light. 

The The PW PW Gang Gang and and the the CM&EE 

CM&EE 

Track on the two outer boards is mainly plain track with 

the loco release crossovers at the platform ends. 

Construction and laying of the track was as per the plank, 

with strengthening at the baseboard joints. 

I use the Digitrax DCC system to control the locos and 

accessories. Wiring for DCC is straightforward but 

different. The layout is split into wiring districts so that a 

short does not close down the whole layout. I have used 

components from various sources to control the layout 

by way of experiment and all have worked faultlessly so 

far. Point motors are Tortoise. 

The The Civil Civil Engineers Engineers 

Engineers 

To convey the feel for the location and to justify the 

rather contrived exit to the fiddle yard, some substantial 

earthworks were required. Tall stone-built retaining walls 

are the order of the day with a couple of plate girder 

over-bridges to convey that gritty northern work-a-day 

atmosphere. All are constructed from plasticard over 

4mm MDF formers and embossed plasticard stonework 

surfaces and the whole painted and weathered with 

artists acrylics with a final coat of matt varnish to take 

away any sheen. The small areas of greenery are 

plumbers’ hemp stuck down on corrugated cardboard 

formers and pulled off when dry, brambles are 


represented by lichen dipped in PVA and then into foam 

scatter material, all painted with acrylics courtesy of my 

wife, the artist of the family. 

The The Builders 

Builders 

All the buildings on the layout are scratchbuilt, with the 

exception of the signal box, which is a Ratio kit. The same 

basic technique is employed where the shell is built from 

40-thou plasticard with suitable embossed surface 

laminated on. The station was the first building to be 

erected to plans that I drew up from old photos, 

dimensions being estimated from some plans 

accompanying a useful feature in the Midland Record. A 

core of 4mm MDF was used to strengthen the walls but 

with hindsight this was unnecessary. As with other 

buildings on the layout, I used 7mm brick to represent the 

stonework.

The overall roof design is known as a “Warren Truss” 

roof after the engineer who designed and patented the 

trusses. It was a common design especially on the MR in 

the late 1800s, other examples being at Ilkley and 

Leicester. It differs from the later “Pratt Truss” which has 

additional vertical bracing. I have constructed the trusses 

from strips of 20-thou plasticard on a paper template. 

The roof needed to be removable for track cleaning, 

repairs etc so the trusses couldn’t be fixed in position. I 

built the roof in situ to maintain the correct spacing of 

trusses so that they will slot back into the cut-outs in the 

wall. It is surprisingly strong now that everything is 

bonded together. 

Bradfield’s roof was originally an overall glass roof but 

because of wartime hostilities a lot of stations had all 

their glass removed and not all of it was replaced 

afterwards. This roof will only be glazed where it affords 

protection to the passengers i.e. over the platforms, a 

common practice on the real thing. 

Bickerdyke’s Bickerdyke’s Mill 

Mill 

I just had to have a large woollen mill so typical of the 

area. I sought out a prototype and finally based it on a 

mill in Keighley. As with all of the layout’s buildings the 

mill is constructed from plasticard. There are 120 

windows in total. I applied the glazing bars straight onto 

clear plastic using masking tape sliced thinly. 

A porter surveys the next stack of parcels to be loaded as 

soft morning sunlight casts shadows around the grimy 

interior of the station. The Met-Camm has thankfully shut 

down between turns giving a brief respite from the choking 

diesel fumes. In the distance, consignment notes are 

checked before allowing the delivery driver to depart. 


The glazing panels are cut out and stuck behind the 

structure’s apertures. This was done individually to 

ensure the bars line up. I used a carpet adhesive that 

takes 24hrs to set but remains tacky allowing time to 

adjust the position. 

The mill features faded lettering on the stonework typical 

of so many old, large structures. Having first worked out 

the height of the letters required, 15mm in this case, I 

used Microsoft Word to print out the words in a suitable 

font (sans serif) at a font size of 60 which looked about 

right. I then cut out the letters to leave a template which 

is cut to a convenient size and stuck to the wall with 

masking tape. I cut out the centres of the letters B and D 

as well and hold them in position with the blunt end of a 

pencil or other similar implement which may be at hand. 

It sometimes helps to dampen the paper template slightly

As this was a light background, stone work, the lettering 

was done with a black permanent marker pen, just dabbing 

it through the template. If you want to do light letters 

on a dark surface you will need to use paint, dabbing 

it on sparingly with a small fine sponge or cloth. You do 

not need to get it perfect especially if you are weathering 

it as the letters do fade with time and parts wear away 

with the elements. Once the wording was complete, the 

whole building was weathered with a sooty black wash. 

The The Mill Mill Housing 

Housing 

Alongside the woollen mill is a cluster of housing on one 

of Bradfield’s many steeply sloped streets. The houses 

were constructed from 40 thou plasticard faced with 20 

thou embossed sheet as a single block. The roof slates 

are strips of paper as is the lead flashing. Windows are 

again masking tape on clear glazing. 

Bickerdyke’s Woollen Mill broods over the empty carriage sidings, another monument to past glory. With trade declining fast, what 

gloomy future lies in store for this once impressive building and source of the town’s prosperity? The sidings share in the 

desolation as only a night shift is required these days. 

Modelling Modelling Inspiration October 2011 Page 8

Constructed alongside the Mill for the more privileged employees 

these tenements are based on a row still overlooking Shipley Station. 

RMweb 

It was during this phase of building that I first became 

aware of RMweb and soon decided to share my efforts at 

layout construction by starting a thread. I had also quite 

recklessly committed the layout to its first exhibition at 

the beginning of May 2011, some 6 months away, my 

rationale being that this would probably be the only way I 

would get it finished in a short space of time. I cannot 

emphasise enough how much the comments and 

encouragement from RMwebbers helped me in achieving 

this target. Through RMweb, I have benefited from the 

knowledge of others in developing my prototypically 

correct operational techniques, learnt a lot about 

signalling and begun to develop some new friendships. 

Exhibiting at Members’ Day was a small way of repaying 

my debt of gratitude to the members. Wow! That was 

emotional, let’s play trains. 

Playing Playing Playing trains 

trains 

OK, so for me this is what it is all about. The model 

making is fine but in the immortal words of the late David 

Jenkinson,”I enjoy having modelled”. Recreating a 

realistic environment in which to run trains in a “railwaylike” 

manner is what I want to do; passenger trains in 

particular. Again, always looking for someone to blame, 

this time it has to be Father Christmas and his choices 

over my modelling direction. He may well have 

understood my need for trains but he never grasped the 

fact that I wanted big engines with coaches. Without 

wishing to sound ungrateful, shunters and pickup goods 

sets did not hit the spot. Birthdays were no better either, 

it’s no wonder then that when I could afford to start 

buying my own train sets, I just couldn’t resist buying 

coaches. So with this in mind let’s get back to 1962 and 

deepest, darkest, Yorkshire. 


Locomotives Locomotives and and rolling rolling stock 

stock 

The Sulzer Type 4s (Class45) or “Peaks” were the 

mainstay of the Midland main line during my formative 

years and I could hear them from home powering 

expresses south out of Leicester Midland, I could see 

them from my school windows and from my place of 

work adjacent to the line. In earlier years it would have 

been Jubilees but alas I was too late. It is no surprise then 

that the main source of traction on Bradfield is the 

Bachmann model of my favourite diesel. I also have 

available Classes 20, 25 and 40 and a couple of 08 

shunters. The steam fleet is growing but currently 

comprises two Black Fives and a Fairburn tank. Two Class 

108 DMUs and a Class 101 provide the local services. I 

believe that this is a fair representation of what would 

have appeared at Bradfield at this period in time. 

I am quite obsessive about the reliability of the locos and 

so have fitted extra pickups to all wheels on the diesels 

and DMUs. They all have onboard digital sound systems, 

mostly Southwest Digital. The sound not only adds to the 

realism but I find that it encourages operation at a more 

realistic speed. I find the steam fleet more problematic in 

achieving smooth, reliable running and the sound 

systems are slightly more difficult to fit. The steam 

sounds are not yet as believable as the diesel sounds in 

my opinion, in the way that they work, but the latest 

chips are an improvement. Only the Fairburn is soundequipped 

at present. Rolling stock is mainly RTR with 

some kit-built and scratchbuilt parcel vans. All the stock 

is formed into fixed rakes, the corridor stock having some 

form of close coupling. At the end of the rakes and on 

most parcels stock I have fitted Spratt & Winkle 3mm 

couplings. I find these unobtrusive and reliable once set 

up correctly. All stock is of course suitably weathered.


10 

By late morning the platform is clear of parcels and the last delivery van departs whilst 

the Met-Camm DMU awaits its passengers for Leeds. The platform will again become a 

hive of activity during the afternoon as the vans return with collected parcels.


11 

44781 deposits stock into the carriage sidings in the gathering 

evening gloom. The fireman casts a jealous eye upwards towards 

the Ring O Bells on the bridge as they have yet to work a parcels 

back to Leeds. The carriage cleaners are already busy on the 

Paignton stock and earlier restaurant car service from London.

Operation 

Saved the best for last!! In order to operate in a railwaylike 

manner I think it is essential to have a sequence or 

timetable. On Bradfield it is also essential due to the 

limited storage space both on scene and in the fiddle 

yard. The fiddle yard consists of just two roads running 

the full length of the layout with a storage shelf above at 

the station end. Behind the carriage sidings board the two 

tracks are on a train-length sector plate, forming the 

reception and departure roads. Trains are stacked two or 

three deep in the sidings and therefore need to be in the 

right order. 

The timetable for Bradfield is a cut-down version of the 

1962 summer timetable for Bradford FS. I have developed 

a “working timetable” or sequence of moves to operate 

this on the layout. In so doing I have made some 

assumptions about the real life workings that may well be 

false but the general feeling is that they are believable 

and railway-like. I use a computer screen mounted on the 

backscene to show the sequence to public and operators. 

I think that this makes the moves so much more 

believable when a train has a time and destination. 

Shunting and fiddle yard moves are also displayed so that 

the viewer knows that something is happening even when 

nothing moves on the front. 

The basic traffic flow is this: 

• Through the night arrival and unloading of parcels, 

news and mail. 

• Early morning preparation and departure of principal 

trains to London and West Country. 

• Throughout the daytime DMU services to local 

destinations and loading of parcels. 

• Early evening arrival and berthing of principal trains 

and departure of parcels. 

There are just over 50 arrivals/departures and there are 

103 moves to achieve this. A pictorial sequence that 

summarises all the moves is displayed here. 


12

What What next? 

next? 

The most pressing requirement at present on Bradfield is 

the signalling. I have finalised the design in my head and 

started construction. The signals will be semaphore LMS 

style and hopefully operational. That’s about it really, 

apart from a few tweaks here and there because I want to 

start the next project. 

Acknowledgements 



Quite frankly there are so many that I would bore the 

reader and inevitably leave someone out. For inspiration 

though, thanks must go to all those modellers throughout 

the years who have been brave and kind enough to share 

their experience and skills with us through exhibitions, 

published media and of course now the internet and 

hopefully those yet to come. 

Me? I’m off to the Ring O Bells for a refresher now. Oh! 

Next project? – Leeds Wellington. Watch this space! 

The Ring O Bells pub stands on top of the tunnel and is no 

doubt host to many an elaborated tale of footplate hardship 

and heroism from well lubricated throats. Originally built 

from stone, the brewery has had a go at tarting it up a bit 

with a coat of render. This half relief model is based on the 

actual pub located in the back streets of Bradford. The 

photographic wizardry really brings this building to life. 


13 

Some weak evening sunshine illuminates Black Five 

44781 standing in for a failed diesel on the 7.18 

arrival from St Pancras. An unidentified Derby Type 

2 sets back onto the York parcels in the centre road.

Bradfield on show 

Exhibition bookings confirmed at present are: 

Tonbridge 18 February 2012 

Nottingham 17 & 18 March 2012 

Lutterworth 19 May 2012 

Manchester 6 & 7 October 2012 

Rochdale 3 & 4 November 2012 

As soon as I saw Bradfield on RMweb I could see there was a winning formula here; a layout of achievable scope that 

really captured the feel of the locality with an absorbing consideration of operations. Seeing Bradfield in the flesh I was 

impressed with how the hand-built pointwork flows so beautifully and the smoothness of running that this gives. I’d like 

to thank John for pulling together a really engaging article in record time. I’m truly proud to feature this layout in our 

first edition. 

John’s progress on Bradfield can be followed by clicking here. here. 

Andy 


14 

EE Type 4, D325, eases the last mainline departure of 

the day out of Platform 1, the 10.38 Paignton. The DMU 

from Ilkley, running late, slips in to Platform 3.


15


16

Show Show preview preview - Wigan Model Model Railway Exhibition - 10/11 10/11 December 

December 

Before moving to its new June slot in 2012 the last large exhibition before Christmas takes place on 10th/11th 

December with a line up which includes 38 layouts and 

over 50 specialist traders and RTR retailers. The £10 

admission charge includes a 40-page exhibition guide to 

ensure that visitors can get to know more about the 

layouts whilst they’re visiting the show. Aiming to 

reduce admission queues there is a discount available 

for advance booking via the website at http:// 

www.wiganfrm.org.uk/2011_tickets.html and an offer of 

four tickets for the price of three as part of the 

organisers’ initiative to encourage car-sharing. 

East Lynn & Nunstanton 

Accompanied children are admitted free of charge and 

Gifford Street receive a free gift to help make a family or ‘lads and 

dads’ day out before Christmas. 

Images copyright and courtesy of Tony Wright and British Railway Modelling 

Layout line line-up line 

up 

Abhainn an Scail/Annascaul - OOn3 

Barmouth Bridge - O 

Burntisland 1883 - P4 

Carreg Lwyd Wharf - OO9 

Cripps Bottom Yard - OO 

Crumley & Little Wickhill - OO9 

Eaton Gomery Cambrian Railway 1908 

East Lynn & Nunstanton - S 

East Rode - TT 

Engdorf [Engertalbahn] - O 

Foston Mills - O 

Gardiner Junction - N 

Gifford Street - O 

Grathwaite - OO 

Guisborough in Preservation - OO 

Hospital Gates - O 

Iron Street, Board Mills - EM 

Kepier Colliery - OO 

Kingsfield - OO 

Langholm - N 

LNWR Steam Shed 1901 - OO 

Loch Oran - N 

Marsh Chipping - N 

Millwall Goods & Arnold Lane - O 

New Mills - OO 

Murrayville Yard - HO 

With a show which is as large and quality driven as 

Wigan there will undoubtedly be people wishing to visit 

on both days; two-day entry tickets will be available on 

the door on the Saturday. The Robin Park Arena is 

adjacent to Wigan Athletic’s football ground but they 

are playing away that weekend and there is plenty of 

parking in close proximity on the retail park. Book it in 

your diary now and enjoy the show! 

North of England Line - N 

Oldham King Street Parcels - O 

Otterbridge - EM 

Pempoul - French Metre Gauge 

Poole-in-Wharfedale - OO 

Purbeck - OO9 

Purgatory Peak - On30 

Rea Bridge - OO9 

Striven - EM 

Tetfield-under-Bolt - N 

Torcy [Sud] - HO 

Untermutten - HOm 


17

A different era 

Graham Muspratt 

Drummond T14 sporting an early British Railways 

lettering and number in Southern 'sunshine' style 


18

Post-war pre-nationalisation, 

why do I model it? 

34011 "Tavistock" in the 

British Railways early experimental 

Apple Green livery 

When one looks at the majority of steam era model 

layouts of the big four railway companies, or the 

subsequent British Railways regions, the majority tend to 

be set in either the 1930s or the 1950/60s - this also 

tends to be reflected by the choice of models and liveries 

from the major ready-to-run manufacturers. Leaving aside 

the arguments of the least modelled and supported of the 

big four or BR regions the period that seems to get 

overlooked in model form is the immediate post-war to 

nationalisation period of 1946 to 1948. 

The politics of the railways in this immediate post-war 

period were fascinating; the railway companies were just 

coming out of the heavy workloads and lack of 

investment caused by the war and many were in a pretty 

poor, almost dire in some cases, financial shape. The 

Southern Railway however was not in quite such a bad 

shape financially as some of the others. In reality the 

Government through the Railway Executive still actually 

had a strong element of control over all the railway 

companies that it obtained during the war and of course 

formal nationalisation was looming. Despite all the gloom 

services were starting to get back to pre-war levels and 

following a particularly harsh winter in 1947 the summer 

season appeared on the outside to be returning to 

normal. 

The Southern Railway’s top link engines were now 

starting to appear back in the favoured lined malachite 

green livery rather than the austere wartime black 

scheme, although the use on the black of Bulleid’s yellow 

and green ‘Sunshine’ lettering helped to lift the livery 

slightly. However, many of the less glamorous classes 

were destined to remain in black livery for the rest of 

their service. 

By 1948 nationalisation had occurred and subtle changes 

to liveries were starting to take place. Interim 

renumbering appeared on some locos by simply putting 

an ‘S’ prefix in front of the Southern Railway number and 

there were instances of ‘British Railways’ appearing on 

the side of some locomotives in a variety of font styles, 

including the Southern ‘sunshine’ style or no ownership 

branding at all on the loco sides. Subsequently the new 

3xxxx series numbers started to appear and sometimes 

these have been applied to locomotives that still retain 

their Southern branding. From the middle of 1948 a 

number of the top link locomotive classes and a small 

amount of rolling stock appeared in new experimental 

colours, such as lined apple green on Light Pacific 34011 

‘Tavistock which can be seen on Fisherton Sarum at the 

head of the Devon Belle. 

One of the railway engineers I revere is O.V.S. Bulleid. As 

the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway, 

he had an uncanny way of working around the previous 

wartime pressures and restrictions, and by 1946 he was 

really getting into his stride and an ever-increasing 

number of Light Pacific’s and coaching stock were being 

introduced. Experiments to improve the smoke clearance 

and cab visibility of his Pacific locomotives were in full 

swing and most versions can be seen amongst my rolling 

stock. Further engineering innovation (although others 

may call it something else) was to come with the 

unconventional Leader Class. 

There is also a family connection with the Southern 

Railway at that time as my grandfather was a ganger for 

the Southern Railway, based at Salisbury for most of this 

period, before he gained promotion to Sub Inspector 


19 

(permanent way) at Andover Junction during 1948. My 

father in his short trouser days used to spend many hours 

either stood by the railings at the London end of Platform 

1 of Salisbury, watching the struggle to start the heavy 

London bound trains on the sharp curving and rising 

grade, or trying to sneak into the shed. 

With his Southern background my first engine given to 

me by Dad in my younger days was of course a Triang 

Hornby M7 (which in a re-wheeled, detailed and 

repainted form still appears on Fisherton Sarum, along 

with the classic smell of its original X04 motor!) 

Malachite Green livery appears on top link 

engines such as Merchant Navy 21C6 here 

My grandfather, a ganger at Salibury until 1948, 

leans on his ballast fork 

Follow Graham’s latest news 

@ www.grahammuz.com

The Locomotive exchange trials 

The locomotive exchange trials took place from April 

through to September 1948 with Waterloo to Plymouth 

being one of the chosen routes and utilised during May 

and June 1948. I was keen to introduce some of the locos 

that ran on the Southern during the trials into the 

locomotive fleet on my Fisherton Sarum layout as it is 

based on Salisbury and as such was a stopping off point 

for the trials. 

To provide a little background; in the immediate 

aftermath of the formation of British Railways the newly 

formed Regions were generally allowed to continue the 

locomotive build programmes that had already been 

approved and put in place by the previous railway 

company up until the end of 1950. In the meantime it 

was decided to compare a number of engines from the 

previous big four in order to ‘supposedly’ consolidate 

designs and good practice for the future locomotive 

development of the new organisation after 1950. My own 

views on the success or otherwise of the trials may well 

form the topic of another post in the future. 

The exchanges were to trial locomotives in three 

categories: Express Passenger, General Purpose and 

Freight Locomotives. Locomotives and their crews from 

each region had a small number of runs on each route, 

the week before, to gain limited route knowledge 

(although generally recognised as not enough) prior to 

the main test runs for which dynamometer cars were 

attached. 

34006 “Bude” with extended smoke deflectors and paired to a Stanier 

tender. Whilst this tender pairing was for when working off Southern 

metals, she did test runs out of Waterloo in this condition. 

Hornby have already produced a limited edition model of 

Bulleid West Country Class No. 34006 “Bude” with a 

Stanier tender and complete with the correct extra long 

smoke deflectors. The three Light Pacifics so fitted only 

did a couple of test runs on the Southern in this form 

which is a good enough reason to run “Bude”. 

34004 'Yeovil' as back 

on the Southern reunited 

with her original style tender. 

I have also matched a renumbered and named Hornby ex- 

“Bude” and paired her with a standard 4500 gallon 

Bulleid tender as 34004 “Yeovil “as she ran on return 

from the trials. 

Ex-LNER A4 class No. 60033 “Seagull” took part in the 

exchanges on the Southern Region and was created by 

renumbering and naming a suitable Bachmann model 

which also involved the fitting of a replacement white 

metal double chimney from 247 Developments. I also 

modified the tender as those tenders fitted to the A4s on 


20 

Duchess 46236 “City of Bradford” on the main line passing Fisherton Sarum. 

trial had the raves cut down at the rear to allow clearance 

for the water cranes at Euston Station. 

Once Hornby produced a version of their Duchess class 

in LMS lined black of the ‘Semi’ variant (i.e. a destreamlined 

version) I used this as the basis for “City of 

Bradford”. For this conversion I renamed and numbered 

Hornby “City of Manchester” and coupled it to a slightly 

modified Bachmann 2-8-0 WD tender. 

I have also created a model of the Rebuilt Royal Scot 

class locomotives No.46154 “The Hussar” that also took 

part in the Waterloo–Exeter trials utilising one of the 

recently introduced Hornby LMS lined black models 

suitably renamed and also fitted with a suitable WD style 

tender in the same way as above. 

Rebuilt Scot 46154 “The Hussar” fitted with WD style tender.

Some time ago, I read about water mixable oils on the 

ModelTrainsWeathered.com forum and have only just got 

round to giving them a go. I wish I’d tried them 

sooner! They’ve proved spectacularly useful for a 

number of subtle effects, which is good as subtle is by far 

the hardest thing to do convincingly. 

As part of the stock building for the next layout project, 

I’ve been working on some oil tanks that need to be quite 

subtle, as these Total tanks were kept in pretty good 

condition during the early 90s, with many of them being 

repainted in 1987/88. To this end, subtle variation in 

colour was going to be required to fool the eye into 

thinking that it’s seeing something larger than a 

model. I’m no scientist, but I’m going to try and explain 

some of the reasoning behind this now. 

Every surface you look at in the real world never appears 

as one straight colour, due to the various interactions 

between reflected light and surface imperfections. One of 

the problems with models is, because of their size, they 

don’t have this natural variation. In this first picture, there 

are sections of the tank barrel that look as if they’re 

pretty much one colour, if you ignore the faint rust 

streaking, at first glance, especially the areas either side 

Colour variation with oils Pugsley 

of the image, at the apex of the barrel. 

However, if you look at it at somewhere near 900% 

zoom, you see that it is, in fact, made up of lots of small 

patches of very similar colours. So, the best way to 

replicate it, that I could come up with, was to randomly 

dab on these oils and spread them around to provide the 

subtle variation in colour that I was after. 


21 

It’s not an entirely new technique, Mig Jimenez uses 

something similar for fading tanks in his FAQ book, but 

he uses lighter shades for this, with the precise colours 

dictated by the base colour of the tank. I also derived the 

colours to use on the wagons from the FAQ book, grey 

tanks respond best to blue and brown filters (which is a 

different technique again, and one I haven’t tried yet), so 

that’s the majority of what I’ve used in the examples 

below. I’ve used the following colours: Titanium White, 

Phthalo Green (blue shade), French Ultramarine, 

Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Raw 

Umber and Ivory Black. All are from the Winsor and 

Newton ‘Artisan’ range of water mixable oil paints. They 

work just like conventional oils, but clean up with 

water. They dry faster than conventional oils, but still 

take a very long time compared to the acrylics and 

enamels normally used for weathering; the finish when

dry also seems to be a lot more robust than gouache. 

Some of the colours cover better than others, for example 

the yellow is a very strong pigment, so can overpower 

the effect if used excessively. 

If I’ve managed to hold your attention so far, then before 

I run through how it’s done, the image below will hopefully 

demonstrate how effective the technique is. The 

treated area is that on the left-hand side, which is both 

slightly shinier, and bluer that that on the right. The area 

on the right is suffering from the normal model problem 

of looking like it is one colour, due to the smooth surface 

and lack of imperfections to change the refraction of the 

light. You can also see that the predominantly blue based 

variation has added a slightly cooler tone to the grey. The 

variation on the left is subtle, in fact you have to look 

quite closely to see it, but it does change the appearance 

of the model for the better. 

The first stage is to apply the colours as desired, randomly, 

over the area to be treated. I use cocktail sticks 

for this, but a brush can be used for larger patches if re- 

quired, but lots of small patches are more desirable than 

larger ones. I’ve gone for a blue/green bias but other 

colours could be used as the dominant colour. 

Stage two involves scrubbing the paint patches around 

with a clean, dry, stiff-ish flat brush. I’ve predominantly 

gone from top to bottom, but side to side and around are 

equally valid motions. 

The third stage involves softening the effect, and removing 

most of what you’ve just put on. For this, use a 

softer, clean, flat brush which is moistened with the appropriate 

thinners. I’ve been using water with a drop of 

screenwash, which seems to work pretty well with these 

paints. Additional areas of colour can be added at this 

stage – in the images in the right-hand column I’ve added 

spots of colour and then dragged these down the barrel 

with the moist brush. 

It’s a subtle effect, but I think it adds a lot to the 

model. The left hand end needs a little more to bring it 

up to the same as the right, this is what happens when 

you come back to something after a few days! 


22 

The final effect, in close-up is shown on the next page. 

1 

2 

3 

If you want to see more examples, there is some more of 

my playing with these paints on my blog on the main site 

www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/8pugsleys-workbench/


23

Model shop profile - Trains4U 

Trains4U is one of the largest Model Railway specialists in 

the east of England. Occupying an enormous 3600 

square foot showroom, we offer thousands of products 

from over 50 manufacturers. 

Trains4U was formed in July 2004 in response to the 

closure of the last Model Railway shop in Peterborough 

the previous year. 

Owned by Father and Son Steve and Gareth Helliwell, the 

business opened with a small stock of Hornby, 

Bachmann, Peco, Gaugemaster and Fleischmann 

products in a 900 sq ft unit in Peterborough's St' David's 

Square trading estate. 

Demand for products and services was unprecedented 

and we quickly diversified into N gauge, DCC and slot 

cars, whilst expanding our range of suppliers to provide 

more models, scenic materials, tools and paints. Our 

initial website solution soon became difficult to manage 

so we suspended our online service whilst our walk-in 

business rapidly grew and we soon filled our showroom 

to bursting point. 

Fortunately at this time the 4000 sq ft unit directly 

opposite became available, so in Summer 2008 we 

decided to take the plunge and move in. This allowed us 

scope to expand our ranges even further and display them 

in a way that was even more accessible and welcoming for 

our customers. The move allowed us to diversify further 

into plastic kits, much larger ranges of slot cars and 

scenics and provide previously unavailable services and 

facilities for our customers. All of our railway rolling stock 

and our slot cars are displayed in large glass cases for easy 

browsing. 

All of our products are on the ground floor with easy 

access for disabled customers or customers with mobility 

problems. 

Trains4U’s upper floor now forms the home of former 

exhibition layout Runswick Leamside. 

Macclesfield and District Railway Modellers retain 

ownership of the layout and they have generously agreed 

for the layout to be housed at Trains4U where it can be 

used and operated, rather than stored out of use, in 

a disassembled state. 

At present, the layout resides on our first floor mezzanine, 

and whilst this is not a public area of the showroom, it can 

be viewed on request (provided there is staff coverage to 

do so). 


24 

Unfortunately we do not have the quantities of rolling 

stock that would have been seen at shows in the past, but 

we are adding new trains all the time, and you are 

welcome to test your new purchases on the line, again, 

subject to staff availability. 

The layout can still be viewed in its full operational glory at 

our annual open day in September, when the Macclesfield 

and District Railway modellers have agreed to fully stock 

and operate the layout to exhibition standard. 

Trains4U is planning to hold running sessions for visitors to 

run their own stock and operate the layout – please keep 

checking the website for details of dates and spaces. 

(There will be a modest charge to cover staffing and 

associated costs). The layout is not DCC, though decoder 

fitted locomotives will run on the layout. 

28-29 St. David's Square, Fengate, 

Peterborough, PE1 5QA 

01733 895989 

Open Tues-Sat, 9-5 

32-925Z Class 150/1 Original Provincial Livery 

EXCLUSIVE TO Trains4U 

£95.00

Let’s Let’s start start with with a a quick quick history history lesson. 

lesson. 

In the beginning there was this! A brass and whitemetal 

body kit marketed by Jidenco and Brass Cast. I wonder if 

any actually got built? 

The first ready-to-run product was the Lima 50 which to 

be fair wasn't all that bad. Its biggest problem was its use 

of HO bogies but by changing them for something 4mm 

scale plus a fair bit of body work you could get something 

quite acceptable. 

Now we have the Hornby Class 50 – all wheel drive, 

centre motor, opening cab doors etc so really this is the 

one to currently go for. It doesn't come without a to do 

list though, it goes something like this: 

• body-side grills, yes they open but they look dire 

because of it 

• the wheels are too small 

• the gap between the bogie and the body is too big 

• the all wheel drive is too rigid and in P4 it’s a bit of a 

problem 

• the top of the nose is the wrong shape as are the cab 

windows 

• the roof fan is crude and too small 

• the exhaust posts are the wrong size and in the wrong 

place. 

What What to to do? 

do? 

The body-side grilles have to go. Someone was selling 

resin replacements at one point but you may wish to 

cannibalise an old Lima shell to obtain these. As the 

grilles are usually pretty dirty it doesn't really matter if 

the colour match for the new grilles isn’t spot on to the 

Hornby body as you won’t tell under the weathering. 

The Bogies 

If you remove the bogies you will find a small pad cast 


25 

Jim Smith-Wright 

Modelling Class 50s in 4mm 

into the bottom of the chassis block. You will need to file 

it off to reduce the ride height of the model. I was 

changing the wheels anyway and in P4 there are 3 

options – Ultrascale, Alan Gibson and Branchlines. The 

latter two require you to re-use the Hornby gears and I 

use the Branchlines ones as standard although I have 

used the Gibson wheels on a couple of the fleet. In 00 

gauge it might be worth seeing if someone has thrown 

out the Hornby class 31 wheelsets as the other wheels 

are the right size. However with the right sized wheels, 

deep flanges of the RTR 00 stuff and the lowered bogies 

there might be a chance the wheels will touch the chassis 

and cause a short. I haven't tried this so I don't know but

You might find that its performance in the finer scales is a 

bit poor. It’s because the axles are all held very rigidly in 

place meaning the bogies sometimes rock on the middle 

one. One crude but effective fix is to solder the centre 

bearing in place and then open it into a slot using a 

cutting disk in a minidrill. It does work! 

The face face 

Shawplan do an etch for the windscreens and the top of 

the nose ideally needs building up a bit. I couldn't 

actually decide if the top is too low or the edges too high 

and I am still undecided. However I decided to leave the 

nose as it comes and adapt the windscreens. Hornby 

have painted the black down to the top of the nose while 

looking at the real thing the yellow actually comes up to 

the bottom of the windscreen frames. Painting this little 

bit of yellow does go a long way to improving the 

model’s face 

The Roof 

The above picture shows the original fan furthest away, 

the old Shawplan fan in the centre and the new Extreme 

Etches fan at the front. You can see just how ‘too small’ 


26 

the original fan is. The nearest model also shows the 

Extreme Etches parts to correct the roof but in the end I 

decided to just use the fan and ring on the rest of the 

fleet. 

So there you have it! Simple steps on how to get your 

Hornby class 50 looking more like an English Electric 

class 50. 

Follow Jim’s latest work 

@ www.p4newstreet.com

Story Story behind behind the the picture picture picture - Eastfield Eastfield Eastfield depot depot by by Sandhills 

Sandhills 

In these times of upwardly spiralling costs within our hobby, finding first hand RTR models under £70 can be difficult, so when the opportunity to purchase not one but two Heljan Class 26s for around that price 

came along I couldn’t resist! Having detailed and weathered each example to the best of my ability it wasn’t long, as with nearly every loco I buy, that I decided a fitting diorama would be useful to present my 

growing fleet of Scottish traction. This thought was later to spawn probably the most successful photo diorama board I’ve produced to date, not for accurate representation or even precise execution of scratch 

building but simply because, when finished and through the lens it oozed atmosphere and evoked many memories for me of teenage days on ‘Freedom Of Scotland Rovers’ chasing elusive 37s and visiting their 

iconic home in a grotty suburb of Glasgow. 

My representation of Eastfield was basic; a 3ft by 2ft baseboard with two out of the four sides covered using a fascia of the main depot building made from balsa and plasticard. The inclusion of four of the well 

photographed yellow & black shutter doors set a perfect scene to photograph individual locos against. I’m not one for maths or pondering over measurements or proportional calculations, just a decent set of 

prototype images and a OO gauge 47 was all I needed to work out how tall, how long and how thick everything should be. Deciding on a level of weathering was easy; let’s face it, Eastfield was a grotty black hole 

even when the sun came out. Several coats of weathered black and sleeper grime spray paint over the freshly laid ballast were enough to portray years of contamination by diesel locomotives. Modelling clay pushed 

into the sleepers was painted with a thick coat of glossy black enamel and this helped to create those puddles of oily saturated ground that when visiting depots you would always try to avoid stepping in but never 

quite manage to dodge ! 

It’s hard to pick out a favourite image from this project. Many of the individual loco images turned out well and many had an air of realism about them, but for me, this collection of nose ends taken from the ballast 

on a dull, damp November morning puts me right back amongst the sounds and smells Modelling Modelling of this Inspiration once iconic depot. October 2011 Page 27 

27

DCC Sound Bachmann Pannier 

Paul Marshall-Potter 

This article was originally written for the Railway Modeller 

magazine to look at how easy it was to fit a DCC sound 

system to a small locomotive and in 2007, was one of the 

first such installations of its type. 

I’ve been following the DCC debate for a while on-line, in 

face to face discussions, and of course in the printed 

media. From many of the discussion points I could see 

that DCC did not have significant amounts to offer me, 

and I certainly wasn’t bothered if I should fall behind, or if 

I’d be accused of being a Luddite, as being espoused by 

some of the more evangelical style preaching which I’d 

read or heard from DCC enthusiasts. Having always had 

an interest in broadcasting and live music, when I started 

to read in American magazines of ‘sound’ being available, 

my interest was significantly raised. I guess in our 

modeler’s book of dreams we’d want steam, sound and 

weather too. Well here was the possibility of getting at 

least one of those, all I needed was living proof that it 

worked and wasn’t gimmicky. The last thing I wanted to 

do was spend money on something that didn’t match up 

to my expectations. I was very fortunate that living close 

to Lincoln there was a local dealer, Digitrains, who 

specialized in DCC and had significant experience of it, a 

working layout to see, and for me, critically, in this leap 

of faith, to hear. 

A visit to them left me in no doubt that sound was worth 

investigating further. To do this, one step that I had to 

consider, was going DCC and with what. I wanted a 

simple to use and set up system with high specification at 

reasonable cost. Primarily to fit and function test chips 

once they were installed. My brother coming over from 

Kansas on a business trip brought an NCE Power Cab 

DCC controller, as a surprise gift. So I now had my 

‘control’, but nothing to run with it! The last thing I 

wanted to do was convert my layout over to DCC and not 

be able to run the majority of my locomotives, due to the 

cost of putting chips in them. Whilst watching a 

demonstration of programming chips at the shop I was 

taken by a rolling road they used, and I realized that this 

would be very useful, for testing and running in 

locomotives, but would also allow me to play with DCC 

before committing one way or another to it. 

The Bachmann 97xx is an cracking example of current 

ready to run products, for most modellers the locomotive 

is excellent straight from the box, and I have to admit 

until recently, for me, that was the case too. Like many of 

us I’d do a little more to it to customize it, and then it’d 

join my stock on the layout whirring backwards and 

forwards as it went around its allotted shunting and 

branch passenger or local freight services, a real local 

hero. I’d seen in much of the DCC debate the scales here 


28 

in the UK were, and at the time of writing early 07, still 

are tipped firmly in the direction of diesel powered 

locomotives rather than steam. Because I have a wide 

range of interests, steam sound was important to me as 

my layout is operated in one of its phases in the BR 

steam or transition era, therefore I chose steam as the 

introduction to DCC sound. 

Having looked at DCC sound diesels it was clear that 

there are usually relatively easy ways of locating a 

speaker in the locomotive inside them without too much 

hassle, likewise with a tender loco the task is also 

relatively easy in terms of finding space. My specific 

interest was to get sound into a 97/57xx pannier, as I 

have a couple of them for a latent idea to do a Forest of 

Dean layout, having been inspired on many an occasion 

by the photographs of Ben Ashworth in particular. A little 

bit of research uncovered South West Digital (SWD), 

whose range included a 2-cylinder GWR steam sound 

chip, recorded on the West Somerset Railway from a 

Manor (SWD reference number 520GWR) so I had a chat 

with them to determine which chip and speaker 

combination would be the most appropriate for me to try. 

The chip which we determined to be the best to try was 

the ESU LokSound Micro, which was duly ordered and 

arrived very promptly. The loco selected is the ‘DCC 

ready’ version of the Bachmann pannier. This is subtly 

different inside to the regular model in that the boiler 

weight has been reduced in size to allow the easy 

installation of a DCC chip. 

The body is easily removed for access to the chassis, first 

take the couplings off and unscrew the body from the 

chassis at either end. On the top of the chassis you will 

see the DCC blanking plate for analogue operation, this 

needs to be removed, keep it safe if you need to convert 

it back at some time in the future. 

The chip comes with a comprehensive instruction leaflet, 

including the fitting instructions. This is a very simple 

installation as the loco does not have lights, externally or 

internally, and will be hard wired into the loco. This 

simply means I’ll attach it directly to the motor pickups

and the motor terminals rather than via a multi pin DCC 

connector to the DCC board on the chassis. To access 

the loco pickups there are two screws underneath the 

loco - unscrew these and the keeper plate drops away 

which has the pickups attached to it. There is a simple 

rhyming verse which will help here, in attaching the wires 

from the chip. ‘Red and Black to the track, orange and 

grey the other way’. 

So attach the red and black wires to the pickup strip, red 

to the right hand side and black to the left hand side. A 

very quick touch of a soldering iron is all it needs with 

one wire connected either side of the pickup strip as 

above. The orange and grey need attaching to the pick up 

terminal on the motor frame. Not a problem on this loco, 

but you must always make sure that the orange and grey 

wires only touch the motor connections. 

If they have electrical contact with the chassis or wheels 

then you will have big problems and potentially need to 

replace the chip, which in this instance costs more than 

the locomotive! There is a yellow capacitor which needs 

to be removed, this is easily done with a pair of 

sidecutters. You will now have your loco DCC sound 

chipped! At this point place it on your programming track 

and check the functions work. With a rolling road as I 

have used you can check the ‘moving’ sounds, like chuff 

rate for this loco or diesel throttle acceleration and 

deceleration, but I’d suggest leaving getting into that until 

a little later. Probably one of the next thoughts going 

through your mind is, ‘this’ll never fit in that’. Well it 

does, and we will now turn our attention to the body 

modifications required, which are very few. 

The loco is available as a low and high cab variant, the 

type illustrated is one of the late high cab variants but the 

process is the same for either. We will be fitting the 

speaker into the locomotives coal bunker, it can be fitted 

into the cab, but unfortunately is visible from many 

normal viewpoints. By undoing the two retaining screw 

underneath the bunker the back of the bunker and the 

weight simply lifts out. To make this installation as simple 

as possible, we won’t get into swapping speakers, I’ll just 

use the chip as it comes. The weight will have to be 

discarded which means losing 25g of weight. My loco still 

pulled six Bachmann Bullied coaches afterwards with no 

‘ill effects’, so don’t worry unduly about losing weight. 

The bunker has a floor which needs to be removed to 


29 

allow the speaker to fit, I cut this out by scoring around 

the edge with a Stanley knife, and cutting slits with a 

razor saw until it would break free, the rough edges being 

dressed with a file. The bunker will still fit on the loco as 

an interference fit, but as we have removed the mounting 

holes, when we refit it, it will need to be fixed with PVA 

glue or similar which will hold it in place but allow 

removal if need be. At this point test fit the body. The 

chip will lie on top of the chassis in front of the motor. As 

you fit the body be careful to thread the speaker wires 

around the motor so they enter the cab at the bottom of 

the backhead by the floor. There is sufficient space to do 

this, even if a little bit fiddly.

Now you can press fit the bunker and get a good idea 

how the speaker fits and indeed run it to see what it 

sounds like. At this stage the sound will be quite a full 

sound as in reality the speaker in not enclosed. I wanted 

to get a better appearance so I made a replacement 

bunker front out of scraps of plasticard, and left the coal 

door open for the wires for the speaker. 

See the photo (left) showing the white bunker front and 

green bunker, a picture after all speaks a thousand 

words! 

Once I had done this and fitted it, again made as an 

interference fit the sound changed completely, being less 

in volume and a considerable amount of the bass sound 

had gone. Clearly the sound had to escape, and I had to 

think of a way to do this effectively whilst keeping the 

speaker hidden. The first thing I did was to drill hole in 

the coal load in a random pepper pot type of style of 1.5 

to 2mm drill size. This had an improvement releasing 

more bass tone to the noise, and it dawned on me that 

the original mounting holes for the bunker were not 

required and these could be opened out too. I did this in 

stages listening for the change in tone and volume as I 


30 

did so, using different size drills, increasing them 

gradually in size and eventually stopping at around 7mm 

diameter on each side. 

This prevents the hole appearing in the cab floor, and 

retains the original chassis mounting point too. At this 

point the sound had changed again to a nice ‘full’ 

sounding noise, with no significant bias to tone or pitch. 

The sound installation was now complete, a very quick 

and simple fit for my first DCC sound loco. I was very 

fortunate in that the ‘chuff’ synchronization was spot on 

for the loco, the loksound instructions provided with the 

chip give details on how to synchronize the wheel/chuff 

rate if you need to. 

I was very pleased with the relative simplicity of this 

installation, whilst not ‘plug and play’ it’s pretty close and 

anyone who takes a bit of care with a soldering iron will 

be able to manage this installation in a couple of hours at 

most. At this point it is just the final touches to complete. 

The loco and body can be reassembled and the bunker 

front attached with a dab of PVA as can the bunker. The 

speaker will be held in place by these two, and the PVA 

or similar can be broken easily if access is needed to the 

speaker or to remove the body from the chassis. The only 

thing that now ‘jars’ is the pepper pot coal in the bunker. 

It doesn’t take much effort to place coal around the holes 

making sure they are not blocked and the loco is ready is 

ready for traffic!

So now it was installed what is it actually like? Well the 

running has no noticeable improvement in terms of 

controllability from my existing DC system, a 20 year old 

Hammant and Morgan walkabout. The inertia works well, 

certainly with my NCE Power Cab and is easy to 

configure, and adjust settings. 

The sound is, in the main, very pleasing. The volume even 

at maximum power is not particularly loud, I don’t have a 

problem with that, it’s sort of scale sound if that makes 

sense! The recordings are very clear and there’s no 

noticeable distortion of them in this particular 

configuration. Having heard it myself I wanted others’ 

opinions of it, and to this end took it to a couple of shops 

and also to a few friends houses for them to hear it too. 

The reception of it has been very positive, particularly as 

sound in general has previously only been fitted in larger 

4mm locos. Those in the trade and at the small meeting I 

took it too, had not seen sound in a loco this small. Those 

that had seen sound in BR Class 08’s commented that it 

was nice to see that the speaker was hidden. I got the 

most reaction from my daughters, who were really taken 

with it, one of whom has insisted on showing Dad’s toy 

train to her friends. Again her friends too thought it was 

‘really cool’, which I’m led to believe, translates to, its 

good! 

This is my first step into DCC, but on my layout apart 

from the sound, the DCC has no advantage over 

traditional DC control. This is because my layout is 

designed for one engine in steam operation, so all tracks 

are live anyway, and the quality of control that’s available 

from the walkabout, some 20 years on, is still remarkable. 

I can see significant advantages with DCC if you have a 

layout with double heading, a large MPD, or simultaneous 

movements. Where the ability to move a loco 

independently is important or combined then DCC will be 

a useful tool indeed. It’s certainly been an interesting 

conversion and experience. The biggest disadvantage at 

the moment is the cost, which in time may come down if 

the market increases. This installation with just the 

locomotive and the sound chip had a cost in early 2007 

in the order of £140.00. 

On the following comments I’m bearing in mind that the 

recordings are from a Manor, and therefore not a true 

recording of a small pannier. Within the sound files there 

are three whistle sounds, a single toot, and two longer 

whistles. Both of the longer recordings are similar, I’d 

have preferred to have a longer single tone whistle, and 

perhaps a double toot. The hisses and gurgles of safety 

valves and cylinder drain cocks are well captured, as is 

brake squeal. The brake squeal is only available within the 

deceleration phase and again it would be nice to have 

that as a separate sound file to select. I don’t know how 

much of the capacity of the sound files within the 

decoder are used, but it’d be nice to see a wider variety 

of sounds. If the decoder is full, of those sounds currently 

included, I’d be happy to lose the shovelling sound or 

coupling ‘clank’ in exchange for a different whistle or 

separate brake or flange squeal sound. 

Having said that, the quality of the recordings and the 

decoder make this a very effective installation, and 

certainly something different. I wouldn’t change to DCC 

on the basis of this exercise, I’m fortunate in that my 

layout as configured works as both DCC and DC by 

changing the controller over. It has caught my 

imagination though and I have another steam loco at the 

moment on the ‘sound’ work bench. 

I like to weather my models, and this would be no 

exception. I had already got an idea from a good number 

of references as to how this loco should look, in 

particular ‘Steam in Dean’ from the Lightmoor Press, 

ISBN 0 899889 06, a stunning collection of photos from 

Ben Ashworth, with plenty of atmosphere of that area 

and era. All that was needed to complete the loco was for 

me to choose a replacement number, 3737, which was a 

loco that worked in the Forest of Dean area. Long since 

departed, but with sound, something of its soul had 

returned. 

Follow Paul’s latest work 

@ albionyard.wordpress.com 


31 

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32

RMweb people - Ian Morton 

Ian (or to give him his forum alias, ian) has been around 

RMweb since our early days both as a problem solver, 

general wit and originator of several recent layouts 

including Hatton Parkway and Shake the Box which have 

been documented in Hornby Magazine. 

Knowing that Ian was setting out on a new enterprise I 

went over to his rural workshop north of Shrewsbury to 

find out a bit more about the new layout building services 

as it promised to be somewhat different from retail 

propositions and have a chat over a cup of tea. 

Andy: Andy: Andy: Given Given Given that that the the news news is is full full of of ongoing ongoing economic economic 

economic 

doom doom and and gloom gloom it it seems seems a a strange strange time time to to become become become a 

a 

professional professional professional model model railway railway builder. 

builder. 

Ian: Earlier this year I was made redundant and there are 

a lot of people chasing what few vacancies there are. It 

was either sign on or go pro. 

Andy: Andy: Is Is there there a a lot lot of of of demand demand for for layout layout building, building, after 

after 

all all it’s it’s a a significant significant spend spend which which people people seem seem averse averse averse to to to at 

at 

the the moment? 

moment? 

Ian: That is a common misconception. You don’t have to 

be a millionaire to have a layout built for you. In fact it is 

far more common to have part of the layout built, for 

example the baseboards built with the track laid and 

wired. The client then does the ‘fun stuff’ with the 

scenery themselves. 

Andy: Andy: How How does does that that approach approach benefit benefit the the modeller? modeller? 

modeller? 

Ian: It depends on the individual. People who live in 

apartments often don’t have the facilities to build 

baseboards. Some people can’t manage the heavy work, 

others don’t have the time, skill, tools or inclination to do 

what they regard as the ‘boring’ bits. If you have ever 

struggled with wiring that you don’t understand, 

baseboards that you can’t get square or ballasting that 

you just don’t want to do then you will understand the 

appeal of someone else doing the work for you. 

Andy: Andy: Do Do customers customers go go for for having having a a a complete complete layout 

layout 

built, built, surely surely that’s that’s part part of of the the fun? 

fun? 

Ian: They can do, but most want to put their own 

individual stamp on the visible section. I do the bits that 

don’t really get noticed but need to be right. 

Andy: Andy: I I can can see see several several projects projects underway underway at at the the moment 

moment 

in in here, here, what what what are are you you working working working on on and and and what what sort sort of of 

of 

customers customers are are they? 

they? 

Ian: There are three layouts under construction at the 

moment. 

The first is an ‘N’ gauge layout that is designed for fun. It 

has a double track main line and goods yard on the 


33 

bottom level with a branch to a high level terminus. The 

high level also has a town with a Faller CarSystem layout 

built in. The railway is DCC controlled, including the 

points and uncouplers while the car system is controlled 

from an ordinary control panel. Whilst the client will 

provide the buildings I have installed lighting circuits 

ready for them along with street and platform lighting. 

The second which has just had the baseboards completed 

is an ‘HO’ scale Faller CarSystem layout for an academic 

institution. They wanted a townscape with moving 

vehicles that could be used to test and demonstrate 

systems that monitor road traffic. Unusually the 

baseboards are on a metal frame, rather than the usual 

wooden legs, to make it more robust. It measures about 

10’ by 4’ at the moment but there are plans to expand it 

by adding more facilities and a railway in the future.

The third is a small OO9 layout for a customer who is 

recovering from cancer. He is an accomplished modeller 

but is currently restricted as to what he can manage. My 

job is to provide him with a small working layout that he 

can then add scenery to. 

Andy: Andy: You You seem seem to to be be be doing doing a a a lot lot with with the the Faller 

Faller 

CarSystem CarSystem but but it’s it’s not not that that that common common on on on layouts. 

layouts. 

Ian: To most people it seems expensive, especially for 

something that isn’t actually part of the railway but it can 

add an extra dimension to a layout if it is properly 

planned and modelled. It certainly gets people’s attention 

as the vehicles seem to move around by magic. 

Andy: Andy: The The Faller Faller CarSystem CarSystem is is quite quite fascinating fascinating fascinating but but I’ve 

I’ve 

heard heard there’s there’s an an art art to to laying laying laying the the the guidance guidance system. 

system. 

Ian: Well, I happen to have this video demonstrating 

laying the Faller CarSystem guide wire for people DIY-ing. 

Andy: Andy: Do Do Do the the customers customers give give you you a a clear clear clear brief brief as as as to to what 

what 

they want? 

Ian: I don’t want to build something that the customer 

isn’t happy with so there will be a lot of discussion, 

guidance and advice before the first piece of wood is cut. 

That is all part of the service. 

Andy: Andy: What What other other services services do do you you offer offer people people apart 

apart 

from from the the the layout layout building? 

building? 

I will act as a consultant on DCC and electrical matters. 

Recently I provided details of how to install DCC on a 

large layout so that the owner could install the necessary 

feeds, breaks and buses with confidence. 

Andy: Andy: I I notice notice that that you you have have a a stock stock of of materials materials useful useful to 

to 

people people building building their their their own own layouts layouts too. 

too. 

Ian: Yes, they are things that I tend to use and it made 

sense to keep a stock on hand rather than hold a job up 

waiting for bits to arrive and to make them available for 

other people to buy as well. Currently I have stocks of 

Lenz and TCS DCC decoders, various electrical bits like 

wire, switches and those hard-to-find coloured covers for 

small toggle switches, scenic materials, a few tools and 

some baseboard bits like cabinet maker’s dowels and 

toggle catches. 

Andy: Andy: Are Are there there any any aspirations aspirations toward toward becoming becoming a a fully- 

fully 

fledged fledged model model shop? 

shop? 

Ian: No. I see my niche in making layouts. Model railway 

retail is a different matter. The various things that I do sell 

are listed on my web site and online selling sites. 

Andy: Andy: It’s It’s a a lovely lovely location location out out here here to to work work but but can 

can 

potential potential customers customers visit visit the the workshop? 

workshop? 

Ian: Of course and the kettle is usually on, but I do ask 

that they email or telephone first. As I work on my own I 

can’t guarantee to be here if you just drop in. I could be 

at the post office, timber yard or in the en-suite! Oh, and 

despite not wanting to become a retailer I do have a 

selection of secondhand items that aren’t on the website 

that visitors can rummage through. 

Useful Useful links 

RMweb RMweb MI MI MI special special offer offer 

offer 

5% off all goods (exc post- 

Ian’s website 

Ian’s eBay Shop 

age) during October. Use 

code RMW10 on website link 

Ian’s RMweb Marketplace store 

Unit 8bc, Rodenhurst Business Park, 

Rodington, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY4 4QU. 

0775 499 4095 


34


35

Kylesku and The Mound Ben Alder 

Kylesku is the terminus of a Scottish layout set around 

the latter days of steam but with a slightly different 

timeline than the real thing. As can be guessed from its 

title, it is based on Kyle of Lochalsh but modified to suit 

my needs. For example, the station building is loosely 

modelled on the one at Brora, and is some of the 

Townstreet stone castings which made for an easy 

method of construction. The original Kyle building is too 

large for my available space, and a mock-up of a reduced 

version just didn’t look right. This was the trigger to go 

Highland Railway freelance and do a what-if but making 

the buildings come from the relevant area - I think it does 

convey a Highland atmosphere. 

Some of the far side sidings were brought to the viewing 

side to make shunting easier and the station approach 

has elements of the original but operations took priority 

over copying the real thing. As prototype operations 

were fairly limited I have cast my sights wider and the 

day to day activities include aspects of traffic at Oban and 

Fort William, including sleepers and Post Office van 

trains, and a branch service on the style of the 

Ballachullish line uses the bay platform. Running is adhoc, 

a timetable is one of the future projects, but a broad 

sequence is usually followed. Black 5s and Class 26s are 

the normal motive power but a liberal approach to 

visiting strangers is taken. 


36 

Track work is C&L OO, with Peco Code 75 pointwork 

with all the plastic gubbins around the tiebars removed. 

This tidies up the appearance of the point no end, and is 

an acceptable combination to my mind, as making 

pointwork has been a bit of a hit and miss affair as far as I 

have managed so far. As most of the pointwork consists 

of curved turnouts I felt that reliability came ahead of 

creativity here. 

Follow Ben Alder’s latest work 

@RMweb

The typical Highland style wooden goods shed that 

graced so many stations on the line is planted on one of 

the sidings in the station approaches, and was built with 

Midwestern wood sheets of board and batten, and 

finished with wood stain, which does give a realistic 

finish. Although Kyle did not have one here- there was a 

small one at the far side of the platforms, and hardly ever 

photographed- I felt that this structure needed to be 

included to give that Highland feel. Until quite recently 

there were several of these still standing in various 

degrees of disrepair, but their numbers are few now. 

The coal shelter, as obligingly modelled by Ratio, might 

seem out of place in a station such as this, and I suppose 

it is to an extent, but there were several of these 

buildings throughout Scotland, with one of them being at 

Nairn, which I passed by many times in the seventies 

during my student days, and it always fascinated me with 

its run down appearance and general collection of debris 

around it. There is still work to be done in this vein here. 

The cattle dock, roughly in the prototypical location, can 

also be seen here- another source of traffic. 

The largest vessel in the harbour is a Langley model of 

the West Highland “Puffer” immortalised in the BBC Para 

Handy series, which drew on the novels by Neil Munro of 

life in the coasting trade around the turn of the twentieth 

century. These flat bottomed boats were the mainstay of 

island life for many years, often beaching themselves in 

order to unload at places with no harbours. It is a resin kit 

and can be bought as a full hull or waterline model, and 

needs very little work done beyond painting. 


37 

Then one of the skipper- Para Handy himself- A Preiser 

HO figure, but it doesn’t look too small.

The other fishing vessels are by Anchor Models of Skye, 

and are currently unavailable, but represent Scottish 

boats of the period. Again, resin and lost wax 

construction make for a robust model - I’m forever 

catching the masts with my sleeve and to date, no real 

damage has happened. First on view is the “Rival” a 

motor Fifie, based on the earlier sailing type and was a 

common sight for a long time all round the Scottish 

coasts. The other, larger, vessel is a model of a 

ringnetter, a type designed for longer, further voyages 

than the Fifies, and many of these bigger boats followed 

the herring shoals around the coasts of Britain. Built 

c1950 onwards they lasted till the inshore fish ran out 

and the new generation of much larger boats began their 

hoovering of the seas. These earlier types are far more 

attractive to the eye, although working on them was 

another matter. The last model is a half decked sailing 

Fifie and dates originally from the 1860s, although they 

were built for years after that. Original power was a 

mixture of sail and oars and latterly many were 

motorised, but I have this one as a sail boat- a bit out of 

time, but it looks in keeping with its harbour companions. 

Kylesku Kylesku Shed 

Shed 

Like other parts of this terminus, the shed area is based 

roughly on that at Kyle of Lochalsh, and is recognisable 

as such, but a bit extra has been added to incorporate 

available models and to give some extra storage capacity 

for the level of service I tend to operate. Firstly, a general 

view showing the layout. 


38 

The shed is accessed from the running line as per KoL 

and runs to a turntable where the roads radiate 

backwards to the shed, as the prototype, but an extra 

two were added to serve a Stranraer type coaling stage, 

as fitted by the LMS at Wick, so I felt justified in having 

one at my Highland shed. Let’s take a trip round the shed 

and see what is about. Firstly, two shots taken from the 

hill opposite the approach to the yard. The turntable can 

be seen, hewn from the solid rock, and can be a tight fit- 

some of my visitors find turning difficult. 

Two of the usual inhabitants are around- these Black 

Fives are the mainstay of the services, although other 

types do turn up. These are Hornby models, and had 

various tweaking to improve both looks and running, but 

have been a blessing to LMS modellers everywhere.

There are some crews about the shed, putting the world 

to rights, or perhaps discussing the state of their engines- 

some more varied motive power can be seen in some 

pictures. A Caley 0-4-4T is usually the station pilot, and is 

visible, as is an Ivatt light 2-6-0, which is used on the 

Dornoch branch and is serviced here. Geography is 

slightly different in this parallel world, by the way, as 

explaining this away in real terms is beyond me! Another 

tank engine used on the branch is also on shed, a GW 

16xx, and can also be seen sharing shunting duties at 

Kylesku when around. 

An old coach is used as a mess shed and dormitory for 

overnight turns, and an off-duty footplateman can just be 

spotted behind the coach. 


39 

This whole shed site was done as an afterthought when I 

shifted the layout, firstly because I thought I had no room 

to fit an engine shed (the previous set-up had a straight 

through arrangement, and wouldn’t fit at all), and I was 

contemplating a squashed model of Dornoch to go 

roughly where the shed is, but when I clicked that using a 

Kyle kickback layout for the track, and found a small 

diameter turn table, the whole thing fell into place, and I 

am pleased with how it worked out. It certainly has more 

operational and photographic potential than a branch 

terminus, and made Kylesku far more of an entity than it 

was before. 

The The Mound Mound Station 

Station 

The Mound is a station on the old Highland Railway Far 

North line to Wick and Thurso, and was the junction for 

the Dornoch Branch until it closed in 1960, and the last 

two Highland Railway engines worked their days out 

here- small 0-4-4-Ts. The actual station is in the middle of 

nowhere but fortunately a lot of it remains, the station 

building being a private home, and the waiting room and 

a tin shed still stand, while the platforms are kept clear of 

vegetation, giving an impression of Brigadoon type 

waiting to spring into life again one day.

The real Mound 

I’ll start by showing some I took in 1990 on a site visit, 

showing the station as it was then, and still is today. 

This view looks north, with the main line to the left 

and the branch curving to the right. 

And looking south, with the ramp from the main platform 

running down from the right. 

Now, two shots of the unique station building. A beautiful 

location, but no habitation for miles around- it 

was a junction station only, with minimal traffic. 

It is set in beautiful surroundings, with Loch Fleet on one 

side and mature trees providing a backdrop on the other. 

It could have been designed with modellers in mind- fairly 

compact and on a curve with a road bridge at one end 

and disappearing into trees at the other. It had only one 

platform handling main and branch traffic with a main 

loop that was to allow freight only to pass. For many 

years a restaurant car was attached and removed here 

and in the 1900s a Pullman service was briefly provided 

for Dornoch—scope for modellers licence here, I think. 

Latterly main line steam was the usual Black Fives but the 

branch had its share of visitors- a BR 78XXX, Caley 0-4- 

4T and of course the GW 16XXpanniers that ended their 

days far from home. The branch line also ran mixed 

trains, with goods vehicles attached to passenger trains, 

which adds to operational interest. All in all, a very good 

station to model. It is unusual for the Highland in that the 

station building is built of brick, and does not really tie in 

with any of the generic styles of the rest of the line, 

which was built in fits and starts by several local 

companies, but always operated by the HR. The model is 

compact, but it is a fairly faithful representation of the 

prototype, and although the loop sidings and signal cabin 

have been moved to fit in the available space, the 

buildings and signals are copies of the original. My 

timescale is around the end of the branch era-c1960- but 

in this world steam didn’t contract and die. I have 

modelled it in 4mm oo, with the track being C&L and 

pointwork Peco Code 75 with all the plastic protrusions 

around the switch blade removed, which tidies up the 

look of them no end. Onto the model - a Black Five 

entering the station with a passenger train from the 

north. 


40 

And looking the other way, showing the signal cabin and 

the exchange sidings for the Dornoch branch. 

The GW 16xx pannier brings its single coach train in. 

There is an inspection saloon resting in the siding where 

the restaurant car is usually stabled between trains and 

the branch service has just arrived, so a connecting train 

must be due in soon. This station is not the most heavily 

worked by any means, but there is plenty operational 

scope for shunting and it is something different from the 

average Highland one, and its compactness means that 

hopefully its character can be captured in a small area- 

something often difficult with other places. Many HR 

stations sprawled over quite large areas, land being 

plentiful and relatively cheap, and many were built with 

over-optimistic ideas of their traffic potential.

Prototype inspiration - Highley Station 

Highley Station is situated on the Severn Valley Railway 

roughly halfway between Bridgnorth and Bewdley. 

Pleasant Shropshire countryside is not an area 

immediately associated with mining and quarrying but 

that is the reason for the development of the village 

which sits some half a mile from the railway and some 

300 feet higher up above the valley. 

The railway came in 1862 and the Highley Mining 

Company in 1874 opened a new mine in the area shown 

at the top of the map on the opposite bank of the River 

Severn. This has since become the Severn Valley Country 

Park after the mine's closure in 1969. Traffic from the 

colliery and agricultural freight became the main reason 

for the existence of the railway. The need for passenger 

services was limited with normally four services in each 

direction daily. Closer to Highley Station is the site of 

Stanley Quarry which was rail-served from Highley's 

yard. The connecting spur still exists crossing over 

Station Road, the lane which leads down from the village. 

The site of Stanley Quarry now forms the facility for 

storage and display of out of traffic stock in 'The Engine 

House' which opened in 2007. 

Passenger traffic ceased in 1962, freight in 1969. The 

recently formed Severn Valley Railway Company then 

acquired ownership and prepared the line south of 

Hampton Loade with services resuming in 1974. The 

station is still very much as it has always been with the 

exception of the removal of a lattice work footbridge 

from the south end of the station in 1973 which was 

recognised as a costly renovation and ongoing cost that 

could be managed without. 

Highley lacks the bustle normally found at Bridgnorth, 

Bewdley and Kidderminster. The station always seems 

quieter than the normal passing loop stations of Hampton 

Loade and Arley but in my opinion is all the better for it. 


41 

Time your visit in when timetables C or D are in operation 

and the reward is still a quiet station with trains in 

alternating directions every 20 minutes or so. Gala events 

bring more visitors but with the possibility of seeing 

services turned around at Highley and frequently the 

scene of freight operations also. 

There is very limited parking at the station, the alternative 

is to walk from the country park about 400m up the hill 

from the station where there is normally ample parking. 

Access to the platform via the yard is over the barrow 

crossing so due caution is advised. Once a train has 

arrived you will find you are unable to access the barrow 

crossing due to the fact that Highley Station platform at 

four coach lengths is shorter than the regular trains. 

A track plan of the station is shown below as it is was 

before the replacement footbridge was installed in 2009 

but far from being to scale it purely shows the general 

arrangement of lines and how this could then be adapted 

to modelling practicalities. 

The platform length is roughly equivalent to four Mark1 

coach lengths. To the left of the plan is the line north to 

Hampton Loade and Bridgnorth, to the right the line 

south to Arley and Kidderminster. The line to Stanley 

Quarry is shown crossing Station Road to the right. 

Selective compression of the sidings should mean that 

the plan is achievable in around 8' in 4mm scale. 

Shortening the loops further but retaining the station 

length is possible obviously but substantial reduction 

would lose the flavour of this pleasant spot.

If you are wondering why the signal box looks so familiar 

it was also the basis of Ratio's GWR box and gives a good 

idea of the various shades to replicate in the lower level 

brickwork. The signal box was also produced in the 

Bachmann Scenecraft range for the SVR. A wider view of 

the box below shows the loading gauge on the siding to 

the rear of the box. 

A Western Region TPO formed the visitor centre for 

Highley Station before the building of the Engine House. 

A small crane on a brick built platform is used as a goods 

stage for the removal of goods from the wagons to 

adjacent storage or vehicles proving it is not essential to 

have a goods shed in a small station yard. 

A closer view of the stone built station is shown below 

with the majority of windows having an arched stone 

lintel above. The doorways are set quite deeply into the 

walls. The waiting room block below is a little more 

ornate on the platform frontage with its canopy and 

brackets. The brick built gable end and chimneys show 

that some architectural continuity was respected despite 

economies of materials in other areas. A small timber 

office is adjoined to the gable end. 


42 

The Severn Valley Railway can be relied upon to give the 

stations the right atmosphere with a wealth of 

paraphernalia including this finger board train indicator. A 

selection of boards lie vertically in the storage housing to 

the right of the picture with the appropriate board being 

pulled up into a horizontal position to indicate the stops 

for the next train. 

To the north of the waiting room building an ex-GWR 

horse box is pressed into use for storage. The lurid 

tarpaulin may not be to many tastes though.

To the south of the main station building an access gate 

to the properties lower down towards the river separates 

two small lamp huts from the unusual platform ending. 

Looking south towards Arley is the seemingly lightweight 

girder bridge over the lane. It can’t be that insubstantial 

however with the capacity to support weighty Pacifics 

throughout the railway’s 40+ years of preservation 

existence. There is quite a pronounced hump to the 

bridge as the hillside banks of the Severn on this stretch 

of line are prone to slippage which has resulted in some 

severe speed restrictions over the years. A roadside view 

of the bridge is shown at the head of next column. The 

water tower at the south of the station sees limited use 

but there is still a brazier at the base to reduce the 

chance of freezing and subsequent damage. The home 

signal shown has quite a pronounced lean when viewed 

from the platform as have many of the signals and 


43 

telegraph poles due to the subsidence mentioned above. 

The small cattle dock seems to be in an awkward place 

but at least it was distant from the passengers. 

The uneven nature of the track due to subsidence can be 

seen above, also that the site is far from level with the 

right hand loop being some 12" higher most of the time 

than the platform road. The signal and point rodding 

crosses the loops and station yard underground and 

emerges in the cavity seen in the platform face beneath 

the waiting room. 

Modelling the Severn Valley Railway in its preservation 

form can give a model full of variety with many of the 

railway's key rolling stock items available in RTR formats 

from major manufacturers over the years. Taking the 

project onwards many accessories are available to 

recreate a classic small station in detail. Add in the diesel 

galas and you could probably justify a wider range of 

stock using this as a basis than many other scenarios.


44

Win a Dapol Class 121 ‘N’ gauge Bubble car! 

Dapol will soon be releasing an excellent model of the Pressed Steel Class 121. The real single car DMUs were 

predominantly found around Western Region branches from West London to Cornwall with limited usage on 

parts of the London Midland Region. 

The winner could be the first person to have one of these beauties in their hands as this is a review sample in BR 

blue numbered W55024 which was shipped ahead of main deliveries to retailers. 

To stand a chance of winning the prize you don’t even have to do any modelling but we do want to see some 

inspiration and creativity. On Page 48 we show you how to take pin-sharp images like the one above and we’re 

looking for the best image submitted using the ‘stacking’ technique. 

Get your camera out and have a play with your layout or an item of rolling stock and email your entry to 

info@rmweb.co.uk with ‘Dapol 121’ in the subject line by the 21st October, the winner will be decided by (I’d like 

to say a panel of experts but I’ll have to do) me and the winning entry will be illustrated in the next issue of 

Modelling Inspiration. Good luck! 


45 

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Improving the appearance of Peco 

Code 75 flexible track 

Questions periodically arise on sleeper spacing, rail and 

sleeper painting in addition to ballasting. At a couple of 

recent demos I was playing with a short plank and talking 

folk through some of the materials used. 

Peco track is the staple diet of modellers moving on from 

train set track. A basic limitation of the prototypical 

accuracy of the track is obviously the fact that it is OO 

gauge and any acceptance of it as it comes or to what it 

can be altered to is always a question of compromise. 

Improvements can be made that take the basic product 

beyond the common lay and ballast approach. 

The first step is to turn the track over and cut away the 

plastic webbing between all of the sleepers. A sharp craft 

knife will suffice but don't go too heavy handed as too 

much pressure will cause the sleeper to spring away 

where the narrow clasp of the chairs grip the base of the 

rail. The sleeper spacing is then widened to a more 

acceptable compromise of around 7.5mm, centre to 

centre; PH Designs produce a useful tool if you have a lot 

of track to do; the whole length of track to be used has 

the sleeper web cut away and spaced using the tool. 

I fix the track using latex based adhesive (e.g. Copydex) 

or a thin line of PVA glue beneath each sleeper. The track 

is then laid and positioned. It will be necessary to use the 

sleeper spacing tool to tidy up any movement in the 

individual sleepers which will inevitably happen during 

handling, gluing and laying. This makes a significant 

difference to the appearance making the track look lighter 

weight. 

Once the track is laid and tidied I use Tan Plastikote 

Suede Touch spray paint to give a base coat onto the 

plastic sleepers and nickel silver rails. 

After the base coat is dry each sleeper is painted with a 

mix of acrylic paints; in this case a mix of Tamiya Flat 


46 

Earth (XF-52), Buff (XF-57) and Light Grey (XF-66). 

Before steaming ahead in painting the sleepers take some 

photos showing the actual track you wish to model; you 

should ideally do this in different weathers and observe 

the difference in appearance in dry sunny, cloudy and 

wet weather conditions. The colour that you then choose 

will at least have some foundation in fact rather than just 

a guesstimate and it will then be appropriate to the area 

and conditions you are modelling. In this case the 

sleepers are intended to look dry and sun-bleached with 

some time having passed since any treatment was used. 

The same research criterion is relevant to the colour of 

the rail sides and chairs. The colour will vary with traffic 

types and volumes and the ambient light. A little-used 

track in sunny conditions will look rusty orange whereas 

a busy track seen in dreary light on a wet day may look a 

very dark grey. In this case I use a mix of Tamiya acrylics 

Nato Brown (XF-68) and Nato Black (XF-69) to taste and 

with tones varying slightly on different lengths of rail. 

Once the final colours have dried and all of the track is 

laid it's time to consider ballasting. Rewinding to the 

research really look at the type of ballast that's there. The 

chances are the actual chippings will be smaller than the 

size of most of the ballast sold. If the grains in your model 

ballast are over 1mm in length that means each stone

would be 3". Were they really that big? The easy solution 

is to then use finer ballast intended for the 2mm 

modeller. Rewind again and look at the colour of the real 

ballast. Is it uniform in colour? What colour is it? Take 

care to select something that looks right for your model. 

In this case I've used Green Scenes GS408 ballast which 

has fine grains (intended for 2mm) and a nice variation in 

colours (light grey in this case). 

There are tools that make the job of laying ballast quickly 

easier but I find something very therapeutic in laying the 

ballast. I like it to sit a little below the level of the sleeper 

and rail to preserve the lightness obtained earlier on with 

the removal of the sleeper webbing. 

Along the side of the laid track I'll lay some masking tape 

to achieve a tidy straight line at the edge or cess. The 

ballast is gently spread between the sleepers with a brush 

and tamped down with a fingertip. Ballast is laid along the 

edge of the track and gently brushed into the spaces 

between the sleeper ends. Running a fingertip over the 

sleeper ends moves loose ballast grains into position 

forming a gentle slope down to the edge of the masking 

tape. Run your finger along the masking tape to remove 

loose ballast and tidy the edge. 

The loose ballast is then fixed in place with a 2:1 mix of 

Johnson's Klear or Pledge floor wax and isopropyl alcohol 

(IPA) with a few drops of detergent. The picture is that of 

the new formulation which is readily available at 

supermarkets (I keep the old Klear for other, more 

important, varnishing!). 

The mixture is then sprayed on with a cheap plastic bottle 

spray or perfume atomizer, these are available from 

Boots for £1.65. Give the ballast a good soaking so the 

varnish can penetrate and adhere to the ballast granules 

through to the board. 

As this product is intended to form a shiny coat on hard 

floors there will be a sheen on the track which can be 

dulled down with a matt spray varnish. 

Once the ballast has set (normally overnight) I remove 

the paint on the top surface of the rail with a fine razor 

blade, the paint peels away leaving the clean rail head 

behind. It's worth checking that no ballast granules have 

moved and stuck to the sides of the rails; they wouldn't 

stick there in the real world so we'll try to make sure that 

is reflected. 

The cess at the side of the track in this case is treated 

with a painting of Tamiya Acrylic Flat Earth (XF-52) with a 

sprinkling of Treemendus Earth Powder on top. 

The end product looks better for the time and attention 

given to it. This article isn't intended to be prescriptive 

but to get modellers at a certain stage to think a little 

more about the track appearance. 


47

Improving RTR—Flangeway Mermaid 

Having bought a Flangeway Mermaid and being pleased 

overall that it has a lot of positives the big negative for 

me was the solid panel on top of the chassis which 

detracted from the fineness of the rest of the model. 

Given the price at £15.95 I'd have expected something a 

little more but having looked at it I felt comfortable that 

something could be done to improve it. 

Step 1 - Separate the wagon body from the supporting 

frame, maybe it should unclip but I could see glue residue 

down there so I slide a scalpel beneath the body. 

Step 2 2 - Separate the tipping frame from the weighted 

chassis, again there was evidence of clips beneath but it 

didn't want to budge and I reverted to the scalpel. 

The tipping frame is clipped to the chassis with two 

awkward clips on each side, placing pressure on these 

from inside moves them out sufficiently to remove the 

tipping frame from the chassis. 

Step 3 3 - Remove the weight from the chassis by drilling 

through the melted plastic peg in each corner of the 

weight. 

Step 4 - Replace the tipping frame onto the chassis. At 

this point I had intended to build up the chassis frame 

with plastic strip but given that it will be relatively 

obscured most of the time and looking at a skeleton 

chassis on Paul Bartlett's site I thought I'd leave it at that. 


48 

Once the wagon body is replaced I think the result is 

reasonable and certainly an improvement. The body, and 

chains, will be fixed back on after the wagon is 

weathered. The wagon will obviously need that weight 

that was removed, in this case it was cut down by 5mm 

off the length and placed inside the wagon and with 

additional weight hidden beneath the wagon's load. 

A dry mix of ballast was placed in the weighted load area 

of the Mermaid. Johnson’s Klear was given isopropyl 

alcohol and a blob of washing up liquid as additives and 

sprayed straight onto the dry mix. It soaked in like a 

dream with virtually no disturbance of the dry ballast. A 

few hours later it's rock hard. Any slight sheen is taken 

off with subsequent matt spray varnishing.

Butcher’s Shop - Twin-silo Presflo 

BR introduced a revised design of Presflo for ICI Salt. 

These had a pair of silos, instead of just one, and could 

be distinguished by duplication of the discharge pipes 

and valves, and a different bottom to the hopper. One 

batch of twenty was built within lot 3029 (a batch of 100 

wagons). No separate diagram was issued and at some 

time during the 1960s they transferred to other traffic 

powder. A conversion of Bachmann’s excellent Presflo 

wagon is thus explained. 

The starting point was the Crown Cement liveried Presflo 

with the correct buffer types shown left and the adapted 

wagon on the right in the above image. The principal 

difference to the twin silo version is just that, twin silos 

with separate feeds at top and bottom. After dismantling 

the wagon the hopper bottom was removed with a saw 

and a replacement with twin discharges was knocked up 

from 160gsm card.. 

Although the wagon runs fine I decided to add some 

cheap weights from the change tray whilst the top was 

off. 

The replacement piping was formed from 0.020inch 

round brass rod, the handrails from Alan Gibson .45mm 

wire, the small valve knobs from plastic rod cutoffs, one 

larger valve handle was temporarily removed from 

another Presflo until I find a handle that better matches 

that in the prototype images, and lastly brass offcuts for 

the notice panels. 


49 

When considering the job I thought I'd have to use two 

wagons to generate enough bits but other than the valve 

wheel it was achieved from what happened to be lying 

around. Cheap job, takes about an hour. 

The wagon was completed by formulating a greenish blue 

acrylic paint; Modelmasters produce a transfer sheet 

specifically for these comparatively rare wagons. 

With thanks to Paul Bartlett’s reference page - 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/presfloslate

Telling tales…. 

Occasionally we’re fortunate enough to see content on 

RMweb that weaves a story or sense of time and place 

around a model. Doing so expands the readers’ minds 

beyond what they simply see and read and helps place 

the reader within a developing tale. Too many models try 

and tell a short story within a cameo and fall into the trap 

of portraying a prototypically unusual cliché. Real life is 

about the mundane and everyday and seeing into the life 

of a model makes it far less ordinary as a result of 

portraying ordinariness. 

Our online medium makes it possible to do this in a way 

that really talks to those prepared to listen; it would take 

a rare brand of story-teller to do this over an exhibition 

barrier without unsettling or distracting the layout’s 

viewer. What’s refreshing about this absorption is that 

rulers, reality and rivets are totally unimportant; our 

minds fill in those details in the same way as we do in 

reading enthralling literature. Those who end up 

disappointed in the film of a book have frequently woven 

something around the story very different from the 

director’s vision. 

Take a look at this advert cut from a 1920s newspaper, it 

tells me of an age of aspiration, class division and a life of 

leisure far from the gritty reality of the working railway. It 

does however form part of a small story of growth in the 

railway network as told within Southernboy 

Southernboy’s Southernboy ‘Frankland’ 

and its portrayal of the expansion of railways with 

suburbia in Art Deco world. Me? I could even hear the 

music before I played this video! 

Frankland is certainly a railway I would travel a long way 

to see as and when it nears completion. 

Model railways don’t have to be big, clever or technical 

to be interesting. Maybe they have to be different to 

catch our eye in an age where it’s ever easier to be 

competent? The modellers featured on this page are 

potentially taking us in a direction where, through 

modern technology, we can be immersed into the context 

of a model in a way that pure scale diligence cannot. In 

this way I see a bright future in how modellers can 

potentially communicate far more than words and 

pictures can ever do. 

Mikkel’s ‘Farthing’ layouts are a collection of working 

dioramas that will build into a whole over time, but 

already they have the capacity to engage readers in a 

way that mile after mile of track or a detailed MPD will 

struggle to achieve in an information hungry mindset. 

Clever angles and viewpoints, the style of images and film 

from different ages and complementary music take us 

within a model and immerse us to the point that Mikkel 


50 

puts us, the viewer, precisely where (and when) he wants 

us to view the model from. This is clever stuff and if it is a 

future of modelling I am happy. 

Sixty years of history which stops just short of Neil 

Amstrong’s famous words “ That's one small step for a 

man, one giant leap for (modellers)”. I’ll throw down a 

challenge here and see who can take this concept and 

portray their existing layout in a way that immerses us in 

that time and place. Please do get in touch with links to 

any such content so I can make sure it gets featured in a 

future edition! 

Stationmaster Stationmaster A.Woodcourt A.Woodcourt served 

served 

the the the GWR GWR for 27 years. Farthing was 

his last post. Throughout his career 

with the company he was known as a 

disciplined, meticulous but also 

somewhat cautious man. It therefore 

came as a surprise to many when, 

the day after his retirement, he withdrew 

his entire savings from the 

bank, boarded a ship for Brazil and 

disappeared into the Amazon jungle. 

Follow Southernboy’s latest here 

Follow Mikkel’s latest here

Model Railway Photography 

Basics and Beyond. 

One of the key foundations at the start of RMweb over 

six years ago was the integrated capability to upload 

images to the site for inclusion within discussions and 

narrative. This fact and the mix of contributors were the 

prime reasons for the rapid growth of the site. Imagery is 

immensely important in communicating to the reader 

about layouts and projects. Our hobby relies on 

producing tangible and visible output and the medium to 

display that to others is via images in addition to 

explanatory text. It would be a hard task to undertake to 

improve contributors’ narrative but I think it’s possible to 

improve the average standard of images used on the site. 

This article is aimed very much at modellers who want to 

learn to improve their pictures. 

Photography is a wonderful and wide subject for many 

but our use of the skills within the context of modelling 

and railways is a very narrow channel of interest. We are 

fortunate in having competent and professional 

photographers in our midst who create jaw-dropping 

images and it is that inspiration we can choose to learn 

from and improve our portrayal of our work. 

Unless there is anything unique or essential within an 

image it doesn’t do the contributor or reader any favours 

in displaying a poorly lit, out of focus or poorly 

composed illustration of their hard work. 

The digital revolution in cameras that has changed 

photography, largely over the last ten years, is a blessing 

and a curse. The blessing comes in post camera 

acquisition costs in that the number of pictures we take 

at any one time is largely irrelevant, we can just fire away 

without worrying how many shots are left on the roll to 

plan against how many more shots we’re likely to need 

that day. Our results are near instantaneous too with the 

ability to review the image taken giving the golden 

opportunity to potentially take a better shot to replace 

the duds. We no longer need a darkroom to have control 

of the images quality after shooting and nor do we need 

to wait for the chemist to lose our snaps. 

Our curse comes from the simplicity of taking point and 

shoot shots without considering the basics of 

photography. The manufacturers of mass market cameras 

extol the virtues of simplicity rather than complexity to 

appeal to the majority of buyers who seek effortless 

satisfaction. As it is so easy to fire off basic photos we 

generally think less about the factors that determine 

whether a picture is good, bad or mostly indifferent. After 

a decade of mass market digital cameras we now have a 

generation who haven’t had to think about the basics; 

and that is where we shall start. 

The basics basics 

Film and digital cameras on a basic level need the same 

ingredients to produce a good image; image quality, light 

and interest. Those three factors can be controlled, 

considered and composed so we’ll look at how to make 

the best of them in the context of model photography. 

The following works on the basis that your camera is one 

that isn’t just point and shoot with no control over 

anything at all. The good news is though you don’t need 

to splash out on a new, expensive camera to make some 

improvements. 


51 

Image Image quality 

quality 

Don’t move! Taking still pictures of moving models will 

almost certainly result in failure. Stop the model world 

and give yourself a chance of success. The only real 

exception to this is when taking dynamic or panning 

images to illustrate movement within a still frame. 

Put the camera down. Down on something solid I mean, 

be it a tripod, the layout or some other support. Handholding 

the camera for the sort of images we want to get 

to is pretty much a no-no. Don’t get sucked into anything 

expensive, simple mini tripods cost a few quid on eBay 

and the like, use some polystyrene beads in a polythene 

sandwich bag as a bean bag or an offcut of an anti-slip 

mat from the car boot. 

Hands off the camera! Using the shutter button will cause 

fractional movement at very least to the camera which 

will lead to blurring or even affect what’s in the shot. 

Many cameras have self-timers; learn how to use that 

feature on your camera and you’ll get an instant 

improvement. 

What is ISO? ISO isn’t really a photography term as it 

stands for International Organisation of Standards which 

apply standards for all manner of things. In this case it 

referred to how much films reacted to light and 

standardised film speeds. Many digital cameras will have 

the capability to change the ISO setting within the 

camera, although its technical definition is now largely 

defunct. The lower the ISO number the sharper the detail 

will be. High ISO settings are useful for low-light and fast 

moving situations, the latter as previously explained is not 

something we want to do before we can master the 

basics. 

It’s important to stay focussed. Virtually all compact 

cameras will autofocus on what it believes the main 

subject to be as part of their drive for ease of use. 

Sometimes they struggle to do this in poor light when 

they can’t define edges of objects particularly well. Some 

cameras will allow you to select different parts of the 

display as the focal point, find out what yours can do and 

think how that can be used.

Up close and personal. We’ll need to get in close to our 

miniature world to capture detail but lenses can often 

only focus down to certain distances. Compact cameras 

often have a macro setting which means that the camera 

and lens will focus on things which are much closer. See 

if your camera has this capability and practice using it. 

In summary don’t take pictures of moving trains, fix the 

position of your camera, select the lowest ISO setting 

possible and use the self-timer. 

Light Light 

Flashing is an offence. In model photography we need to 

work with the light that is available or which can be 

provided. Using a camera’s inbuilt flash is rarely 

compatible with taking close up shots as it will bleach out 

the foreground with too much light whilst leaving the 

furthest parts in darkness as the flash doesn’t light that 

far. Most digital cameras will allow you to turn off the 

flash; find out how to do it. You’ll also be more popular at 

exhibitions if you find out how to turn it off! 

Where do I find this ‘light’ stuff? The best quality light for 

making models look like the real thing is outdoors, it 

comes in all sorts of brightness and colours but I 

appreciate that not all of us can take the layout outside so 

we’ll have to make use of what’s around. 

Comes in different colours. Our eyes readily adjust to the 

intensity and tone of light and with our brains 

compensate for the variations; cameras struggle to do 

this as they see the intensity and tone as it is. Different 

forms of lighting will give different colour casts to 

pictures, the old domestic incandescent light bulb will 

give an orange bias to a picture, fluorescent lighting will 

give a blue-green tone. Some cameras will try to 

compensate for this with varying degrees of success. Find 

out if you can adjust the white balance or change the 

settings for differing light types on your camera. White 

balancing means you can ‘tell’ your camera what is white 

and it will compensate the other colours. Look at your 

model through the display and see how it changes the 

colours and find out which looks most natural. 

Where is the light coming from? The best way to look at 

the impact of the light is to look through the viewfinder 

or display to see what the camera sees. Can you move 

the model or the light source so it is better lit? You don’t 

need anything fancy, even a hand-held lamp can help you 

see the difference the position of light can make. If you 

have any form of lamp with a daylight bulb then try this. 

Eyes wide shut. A 

camera lens is like the 

pupil in your eyes, in 

dim light the pupil will 

dilate to capture as 

much light as it can and 

will contract when faced 

with bright light. In the 

context of your camera 

when the lens aperture 

is wide open it will struggle to keep much of your chosen 

subject matter in focus, when the aperture is a smaller 

opening more of your picture will be in focus. Traditional 

cameras relied upon the ability to change the size to 

which the lens is open (via shutters around the perimeter 

of the interior of the lens) to improve the amount of the 

picture that was in focus (depth-of-field). The 

quantification of this opening was referred to as f-stops; 

the lower the number the poorer the depth-of-field. 

Although our eyes only have an incredibly short depth of 

field we can re-focus them to objects far and near within 

hundredths of a second which makes us perceive that 

more of the world is in focus at any one time than our 

eyes can actually achieve. Therefore we look at a two 

dimensional image on a screen or page and perceive it to 

be more realistic if it’s virtually all in focus. 

Your compact camera may allow you to choose what’s 

known as ‘aperture priority’; this will mean you can get 

more of your picture in focus. If your camera allows you 

to set the aperture with f-stops aim for the highest 

number you can with your camera; f8 is better than f2.8! 

Think of it this way; your camera will pick one point to 

focus on, the narrower the aperture the more will be in 

focus in front of and behind that focal point. 


52 

A little later we will go massively beyond this but it’s 

important to understand and be comfortable with the 

above before moving on. 

Speed isn’t everything. Model photography is the 

complete opposite of taking photos of the real railway 

with moving trains where a fast shutter speed is 

necessary to freeze the world in sharp detail. If we’ve got 

all of the basics right in the preceding paragraphs the 

speed is irrelevant but to achieve the greatest depth of 

field the shutter speed needs to be as long as is needed 

which is the main reason for making sure your camera 

stays absolutely still. 

In summary ; turn the flash off, find out how to make best 

use of the light available, use the smallest aperture you 

can and a slow speed. 

Interest 

Although what may be considered interesting is 

subjective it’s worth taking time to think whether the 

image communicates anything that will interest the 

potential audience. In modelling terms a snap of a 

Bachmann 66 which has just been taken out of a box and 

placed on a piece of set-track without anything being 

done is not interesting to the majority of people. It just 

tells us that the photographer owns it, a fact which is 

pretty irrelevant to everyone else in the world. Now, if 

that same modeller carries out a modification or weathers 

the model and wants to show it they are then illustrating 

their skills for approval or further advice. For that to work 

the photo needs to be of sufficiently good quality to show 

what has been achieved. If it isn’t, there’s just no point. I 

suppose we could consider that to be the technical side 

of illustrating something; if we want to show our wider 

skills in whole layouts, for example, it is worth 

considering the composition of images. 

Look at the scene through your camera’s display, can you 

see everything you want to show and can you exclude 

what you don’t want to be seen?

Solely using shots from 3 foot away and 3 foot above 

layouts was a staple diet of most layout articles within the 

hobby for years (they were easy to take); they may be 

fine as a general illustration to show the overall layout but 

it doesn’t place the viewer in a position he can identify 

with if he were part of that world. Sadly few of us can 

afford to look at the real railway from a helicopter 

passing viewpoints at 250’. 

Thankfully the last decade has seen more imagination in 

imagery. Placing the camera into the viewpoints found 

within layouts can give more of a feel for the railway 

environment from a more familiar perspective. Compact 

cameras are a lot more practical in this context than a 

huge digital SLR camera! 

Obviously you can’t just go plonking your camera down 

at track level on someone else’s layout unless they agree, 

so it’s worth practicing how to use your camera on your 

own layout (or even workbench with objects) in that 

position, using all of the techniques previously mentioned 

so that you can get comfortable in doing so for when 

chances arise. 

I find model photography a fascinating off-shoot from the 

hobby which helps complement the attention to detail 

shown by skilled modellers and the thought they put into 

constructing that small world. You could be the best 

modeller in the world but unless you can get good 

photographs of your work no-one would ever know! 

Click here to enter the forum to ask 

any questions relating to this article 

or submit your own images for advice 

in correcting basic problems. 

Get greater depth of field in your photos - for free! 

Taking photos of the real thing will generally give a greater depth of field than a photo taken of a model. Greater depth 

of field in an image of a model makes us perceive it as being more realistic. The limitations of the camera have been 

discussed but this can be overcome through the use of ’stacking’ software which is used to blend several images with 

different focal points together. You’ll need to take a set of images to work with. 

• Keep the exposure constant, ideally through manually setting the shutter speed and aperture on the camera. 

• Keep the camera’s position fixed, the technique will not work if the camera is moved relative to the subject. 

• Focus on a range of points from the nearest point you want in focus through to the farthest. 

You will of course need some software to perform its magic. I have used a product called CombineZP for several years, 

which is available free of charge, which was primarily designed for macro and microscopic photography where the 

depth of field is even more limited than our field of interest. The same functionality is available in Adobe Photoshop 

and Helicon Focus (which has a free 30-day trial). CombineZP takes longer to perform the calculations but appears to 

balance and sharpen the images as part of its processing. 

Download CombineZP here 

http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZP/files.htm 


53 

When you have installed and launched the software there is a 

menu bar at the top of the screen. Click on ‘New’ and you will 

be prompted to select the images you wish to ‘stack’. The software will open a pop-up box which shows the images 

being loaded. When this is complete use the drop down menu to the right of the ‘New’ button to select ‘Align and 

Balance Used Frames (Through)’. The pop-up box will then show you that the software is slightly re-aligning the images 

as there will be a few pixels movement no matter how careful you were to keep the camera still. When this is complete 

the main window will re-open showing the first image in the stack. Head for the drop down menu and select ‘All 

Methods’ and go and make a cup of tea whilst CombineZP carries out its calculations. When complete the main 

window will open up again hopefully with an image where the main subject matter is pin-sharp. If it works first time 

you’re lucky as it may need a little practice and the following may help. 

• If there are blurred areas between in-focus areas you didn’t capture an image in your range that was in focus there. 

• If there are areas of aberration the camera may well have moved more than the software can compensate for. 

• Combine ZP creates a larger canvas and mirrors the edge of the image. This is used as spare ground in the 

alignment process and can be cropped out. 

If you are happy with your image you can click on the ‘Save’ button. 

The main images in the Bradfield (Gloucester Square) article, the Dapol 121 competition page and Jon Grant’s ‘Picture 

of the month’ on the last page of this edition of MI were created using this technique. Give it a go yourself; it’s very 

rewarding when it woks well and you also stand a chance of winning the Dapol 121 on Page 42.

Pic pick 

Modelling Inspiration 

Jon Grant - Sweethome Alabama 


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Modelling Inspiration - October 2011 - RMweb

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