Progress on the village scene

Shortwaite Village

The edge-of-village scene at Shortwaite.

It was planned to fill the the top right-hand corner of the layout with a scene of village buildings, with a road leading down to the engine shed and goods yard area.  Four buildings were made, the Inn, a cottage next door (behind), an old garage and a chapel frontage.  All, apart from the garage, were made of Wills Dressed Stone, Pantiles and Slates with their cottage windows and buildings details packs.  The garage was made of all sorts to replicate an old road side garage in Arkendale, North Yorkshire that I saw on the internet.  The prototype is decrepit and over grown, made of a bit of everything: stone, brick, rubble, corrugated iron, wood and pan tiles.  Here is a photo of the building before painting:

The bare model of the tumbling down old garage in Arkendale.  A brick extension had been added at the left hand end at some point.

More walls were built from sanded Wills Coarse Stone or Peco Modelscene 5090 Stone Walls,  and rock faces were again made using the hydro-fibre compound, dry-brushed with brown-grey and green acrylics.  A war memorial was added next door to the chapel from a Wills SS72 Village scene.

  Cut up calendar pictures have been pasted on the back scene to give the village more depth.  In this picture the rocks have just been added after building walls at the side of the road way, around the garage yard, and behind the inn.  The rock compound has been dry-brushed with acrylics.

The village scene above the yet-to-be-built goods yard.

The mysteries of Test Running

TEST RUNNING

Test running Shortwaite Hill at a recent Group meeting.  New buildings are appearing for the edge-of-village scene (top, right) and a Tea Van is awaiting customers in the siding.

I can't emphasise enough the need for test running layouts before displaying them in public.  It is obvious I know, but it needs to be done several times.  It seems that each time Shortwaite Hill is tested a new problem strangely rears it's head - and this is after many years of building and running different layouts.

Different layouts, different stock - different problems.

After the application of ballast and surrounding scenery, and adding platforms etc. I use the widest free-running vehicle intended to be run, and constantly push it around the layout to check for clearances.  Curves are carefully thought about, especially if using bogie vehicles.

Track cleaning: I first use the end of a lolly pop stick rubbed on the track tops to clean off lumps of stray scenery (the soft wood seems to be quite absorbent and doesn't damage the track) then I wipe over it again with a damp cloth wrapped around the lolly pop stick to clear pva specks etc., I clean the track yet again with an electronic cleaning solvent.

With narrow gauge, different kits, with all the varying sizes and chassis heights need special attention.  I run all the locos and stock in both directions, shuffling vehicles around in different train formations.  There will always be at least one troublesome vehicle that needs modification or some attention to couplings.

Tea anyone?

For a forthcoming group challenge competition, I have made this refreshment van using a Matchbox Toys 1960's Commer van.  It is fitted out with shelves loaded with plates, cups and cans, a sink with taps, fridge, water boiler, cakes and tea cups on the serving counter.