A small country halt somewhere west of Middlesex

[michael mott]

Here we are now at the end of May, I have been working slowly picking away at the spikes for the track, and only have about ten feet left to do. It has been slow mostly because I have been sitting in the garden enjoying the sunshine, rearranging some of the small shrubs that were killed off in the winter on the garden railway.
On Friday I had a fit of purchasing madness and after years of wanting to buy some of the woodland scenics components settled for enough stuff to make some rocks and some soft


View from my seated spot having coffee this morning,

 

[chigley]

Are they the woodland scenic rocks

Ken

 

[Osgood]

There's even a monorail with four white wagons loaded with flowers

 

[michael mott]

Ken yes I also picked up thre molds for rocks for the indoor layout, Tony laughed at the monorail reference. The garden planter with the dogbone gauge 1 track has a mix of perennial and annual flowers and miniature shrubs. It is a tough environment because of our long cold winters. The front wall is 60 feet long and are concrete “stone” as my budget was not high enough for real stone.

 

[chigley]

looking good

 

[michael mott]

Started putting up the sheets for the back scenery they are 48x24 inches white .040”styrene. They were chopped up from two 8x4foot sheets $30 per sheet

Once they are done I will paint the soft sky and long view before adding the foreground.
Michael

 

[michael mott]

All up now for the difficult task
Had to add a 4 inch filler piece next to the window.
Michael

 

[michael mott]

A trip back to the plastic company yielded a pile of very nice clean corrugated card for working on the landscape structure


This stuff will be great for the bridge and road areas

The shipping clerk was really helpful and said that if I needed any help getting stuff out of the bin to just ask.
Great customer service!
Michael

 

[simond]

It cuts up to make very good terrain formers too.

Hot glue, and slices of thin grey card like cereal packets and you can create the foundations of rolling hills or gentle slopes in minutes.

Once the shape is there, it’s trivially simple to cover in strips of newspaper and watered down PVA.

brown paint, PVA, static grass. Shazam!

 

[michael mott]

I’m currently working on the drawing for the halt building it is based on the Wiveliscombe shelter on page 356 Railway Bylines 100th issue Vol 10 issue 6 June 2005 trying to make up my mind about it
Photo by Peter Barnfield photo for illustration purposes only

I’m trying to decide whether to add the canopy and some form of toilet facilities, any suggestions would be appreciated.
Michael

 

[daifly]

I’m trying to decide whether to add the canopy and some form of toilet facilities, any suggestions would be appreciated.

I would say no and no. Open-fronted shelters such as this would simply be a shelter from the weather whilst waiting for a train. It might be found on the opposite platform to a more substantial station building or as the only structure (probably without windows) at a halt. A canopy and toilet would be out of character in my view.

As a boy, my local station (Stratton Park - the first stop east of Swindon) was typical.

Dave

 

[Osgood]

Another no to the canopy.
Not often toilet facilities on light railways - you were told by your mum to 'Go before you go'.

What if you were to increase the pitch of the roof (ref. your drawing), just slightly - ever-so slightly......?
I think it would increase the elegance of the structure by a factor of 3, more in keeping with its appearance in the photo

 

[simond]

you were told by your mum to 'Go before you go'.

I don’t know who originally said

”a wise man pisses when he can, a fool when he must”

in this case, my children were told by their dad…

 

[michael mott]

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. Tony the building in the photo is in fact just a shelter on the opposite side of the station at Wiveliscoombe. It appears to have some sort of bench seating inside, if it were to be the only building at the halt how would the travelers gain their tickets?
Michael

 

[Rob R]

......if it were to be the only building at the halt how would the travelers gain their tickets?
Michael

Conductor Guard?
Quite common even before the First War.

 

[michael mott]

Revised version of shelter roof pitch increased from 12/6 to 12/9

Michael

 

[michael mott]

A quick print build


Michael

 

[John57sharp]

Looks good to me

 

[michael mott]

I have changed the road at the south end to follow the curve of the backboard, I think this will help blend into the back scenery a little better.

Also working on some of the tree structures,
Michael

 

[Osgood]

Don’t forget to check clearances as you progress for the narrow gauge stock (just in case ).

I actually just became confused as to what scale / gauge you are (currently) modelling in here, so I went to the start and worked right through.
By post 89 I had settled, following close observation of the baseboard photos, on 7mm standard gauge as being the most likely combo - until a brief outbreak of posts alluding to 1/32 starting at post 90 had me going again!

Other than that group of posts which could easily be missed by the casual observer there is precious little to inform of the scale in particular.

So - 1/32, standard gauge it (currently) is.
At least I think so