ThestationRabbit

Thank you. I never thought of that way I'll study and follow how it's done. Brilliant. Thanks again. Wonderful method and if I do get W.W.D (Welsh Weather Damage) then it's easy and cheap enough to fix. Fiona X

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't been around much busy, busy, busy preparing the ground. What with the horrid/lovely Welsh weather we are having the weeds have destroyed all my good work recently, so have to do some cleaning up before we can do anything else Anyway do any members have a good ideas of the best as in resilient, Scots pines for my Horsell Common/Woking diorama? I'm trying to accumulate Merit plastic trees for the gardens of the houses etc, give them a re-paint and varnish and they will be okay the Scots pines are really a different matter and have to look at least an acceptable tree, they don't have to stand up all year round as a lot of the dioramas will be put away for the winter. I know you can get kits to make excellent trees though I expect they wouldn't last outside I have some Gaugemaster pine trees but they don't look really the thing, too Christmas tree like. Hope you can help. Many thanks, Fiona X

Hi Mick. All the heavy excavation is complete and the guesstimate is about 120+ft round, though eventually with the other "circuit " and sidings etc maybe a little more. Maybe 4 packs of track, though my local shop will buy back any I don't use as long as I haven't touched it, so that is a bonus. we will eventually divert a track past the Cornish area and have a "FallerKibriVollmer" world. The old pond will be moved for my harbour I am very influenced by the look of PZ and "St. Looe" as used in Poirot: Peril At End House". The later area will be used for "Edbrook" from Haunted Starring Aidan Quinn and Kate Beckinsale, luckily Bachmann are doing the Bluebell stuff now just got to wait for the right station, Horsted Keynes. Thanks for the recommendation for the Roofing felt we are taking a look tomorrow, Aber is a little expensive for things like that so we might have to go shopping in Northampton when we go there. Regards, Fiona X

Hi everyone. I thought it was time to post a couple of pictures to show the progress of our enterprise. We have had to do a fair bit of digging just to get the ground level. This weekend we are putting in the final metposts and finishing of the banks ready for cementing and all the other bits...Obviously it might look a little different when complete, what a malarkey! After joining this forum the idea of using roofing felt seems a good one so I shall read up on that and decided if that is the way for us to go. Regards, Fiona X

OOh! That made me laugh

Hi Mick I thought about an Airport though I have a shed reserved for those! They are only 1/144 so I can have a good diorama in a massive case, though that is yet another project on the back burner. It is tempting to do a little airfield in the garden, the aircraft canopies might have to be painted black, although looking at some aircraft in museums yellowed canopy perspex is the in thing! We have resisted the urge to have an airfield as we have moved on to 1/48th aircraft and 1/144 from 1/72 in the 1980's, so going back would be a little naughty, though never say never and watch this space. So far I have 10 buildings or so and currently getting more both HO and OO judicially spacing them etc, though this part again is all planning until we are ready to place them in the garden. I had my first trial of the Cylinder for Woking last summer with a partially finished cylinder a few trees and bods and painted the soldiers for Woking Junction, so once the track is laid there really won't be much trouble in finishing it, besides keeps the momentum up when it is raining. My current builds are the Hornby Modern House and the Bungalow, I love those Town and Country kits. I am thinking of getting the Art Deco station by Bachmann for the seaside and replace the old Triang one that didn't wear too well outside, not enough protection on the metal. Here is a pic of the Cylinder, notice the size of it compared to the OO gauge trees on the left (That is based on the yardage the Wells gave) Regards, Fiona X

We have used cellulose paint for yonks now on our other models and don't have any problems with melting. We also have a good cellulose primer for them too. As for outdoor models we have been experimenting a bit and found that cellulose primer mixed with a little Rustin's Red Oxide primer makes a good U.V barrier then we spray the relevant colours of the buildings and use a cellulose varnish on top. It seems funny that we have been building houses etc before we even started a railway in the garden but we had a couple of years trials as the U.V is quite powerful in Aberystwyth (Though you wouldn't know today ). The buildings weather quite naturally and one of the Airfix cottages has a nice toned down effect. Hope this helps, Fiona X

Thanks for the warm welcome. In answer to your questions Mick, I have always been interested in all modelling subjects from cars to planes to figures etc as I remember watching my dad build kits when I was samll, then he got me to build with him and there was always the great project of him building a layout in the bedroom, again at that point we only lived in a small cottage and with a few building issues with the property we never got to build it, again space would have been a problem. My dad got me my first train set when I was 1! A nice LMS Princess Elizabeth one, I still have the box and things though I never use it as I have retired it! Naturally living in Northampton at the time it was LMS, my nan worked on the railway for a very long time. Moving on to the present, the outdoor is going to be a bit of a what I fancy with an Art Deco seaside, complete with Scillonian II model, "Oakham" and "Braintree & Bocking" as per the box art for Braintree & Bocking and "Oakham" as in the Airfix book. Other places will include Hornby Town and Country buildings and the big area will be my take on Woking Junction and parts of woking that are mentioned in The War Of The Worlds, including the pit and Cylinder, I have pics of these as an experiment on my facebook page Woking Expedition, since those pics were taken I have had to alter the relationship of the Cylinder Woking due to the level of the garden but you will get the idea. As for our Chickens they are not going! Silkies have black meat anyhow and I'm rather attached to them, I have one, Bonnet who follows me everywhere so the thought of...EEK If anyone else needs ground preparing I recommend this way of prep I have taken a lot of pictures on my phone and camera and have a video of what we have done so far, I can't believe after two years of thinking and getting motivated for it we are finally moving in the right direction. I have to have the track finished by December as it is part of the Exercise Referral scheme we have here. Thanks again for the warm welcome guys and I will put up progress reports as I go. Fiona X

Hi everyone! I am currently in the middle of building the foundations of our Garden railway here in West Wales. I first decided to do a garden railway after seeing my friends layout in his garden and what is possible, not only that having decent rakes of carriages really does improve the look of model railways, we only have a small cottage and no room for a decent layout inside but we have plenty of room in the garden and with the chickens scraping the ground for us first it really will be a better thing to have. I guess that is it for now. Thanks, Fiona X