Model Railway Forum

Hi again Chops,
You're certainly right that my daughter will have some happy memories of her childhood, and - I can add - I will look back at these days as the happiest of my life.

Regarding the concentration of clever people here in the UK, our mutual friend Bill Bryson has mentioned the changeable weather as a factor in the British flexibility of outlook. When you can have three seasons of weather in one day, it does rather encourage an open mind. I might add that the weather has also been an economic factor. A wet temperate climate is good for agriculture and that used to be the fundamental basis of wealth. It was that surplus wealth that provided the capital for the industrial revolution, which led to intellectual, cultural and technological progress.

Reminding myself that this is a model railway forum, I'd better upload some photos.

Mud on the Tracks


Old Faithful Arriving Shankly Gerrard Street


Cottages, Fagan's Lane, Shankly


If you're wondering where I got the name Fagan's Lane, you might like to search Joe Fagan.

As I spent January working up the scenic features, I'd better upload a few more scenic photos. Apologises for the lack of trains, but you may find one lurking unfocused in the background if you look hard enough.

Up, Up and Away


Gone Fishing


Kings of the Road


Gone Fishing is the title of a novel by Walter Mosely that I read recently although in the story they used a gun to stun the fish rather than the more traditional fishing rod as in my photo.

These are the last two photos of the batch that I took several weeks ago. I'll have to take some more this week as I've changed a number of small things and added a few more details.

Trainspotters


Sun in My Eyes


If any of you are thinking that the trainspotters look familiar, you're correct. The photo Father and Son Trainspotting in Post 310 is a detail of this photo. The teenager in the photo is in an army cadet uniform, but I ought to repaint him in RAF blue in honour of my air cadet days back in the 70s. Actually, I never went trainspotting, but I did do aircraft recognition, so perhaps the figure should be looking skywards.

What I love about the Shankly and Gdynia is that it's so full of life. Nice one, Ian. Keep up the good work.

(Although might I with your permission question the wisdom of having animals standing between the tracks. We've seen on steam videos how they can panic. Or are they made of sterner stuff?)

Cheers,
Artur

Hi RSR Engineer,
Thanks for your kind words. One of the reasons why the SGR seems so full of life is that it's rather small and I've got a lot of model buildings, figures and animals that I want to put on it, so I've squeezed them all in. Hence the busy feel of the place, but also the livestock being too close to the tracks. I actually have a lot of old Airfix fencing that doesn't fit on, but would have been good to separate the trains and animals. I acknowledge that the animals look funny spread out in the narrow gaps between the track. Realism has lost out to artistic effect. That said, I think that the large number of people on he layout is one of the strong points of the SGR. Having all those trains and nobody to get on them would be like something out of Doctor Beeching's worst nightmare.

Changing the subject, one of my bits of modelling that I'm pleased with is the upgrade I've given to an old model house from the 1970s. My late father constructed the original using two model buildings (I think one was an animal house from a toy zoo). When I dug out my old railway stuff four years ago, it looked like this (photos taken in 2017).

The Little White House as My Dad Built it






In the summer of 2019, we were on holiday in Poland driving through the mountains in the south near Karpach when we drove by a house that was a dead ringer for the model. The real one was a dirty grey colour, but otherwise they were the same. As we went by I had time to take in the position and height of the chimney and the fact that this funny-shaped building really existed, so I resolved to make the model good, including a decent colour scheme. To that end I've added the chimney, guttering, drainpipes, door, window frames. window sills, glazing (plastic, of course) curtains (paper) and net curtains (tissue paper). I'm rather proud of myself. So here's the 2021 version.

The Little Yellow House Renovated 2021






Interestingly, the second two photos from 2017 show that the main features of the layout have been in place largely unchanged since the early days. I've just kept adding more and more scenic features.

My daughter, age 9, had a playing session and created this little scene.

Up a Tree


Help!


Rescue

Good job she didn't want to use it as a fire engine and play with fire!

Quite so IanS. Thinking about it, the layout is made of a lot of inflammable stuff - wood, card, plastic, paint and glue. That would go up pretty quick if there was a source of fire. And there's electricity. Gulp.

On a more cheerful note, ... More Scenes of Shankly Life

Rooftops of Shankly


Waiting for a Train


Looking across the River


School Party

Nice pictures Ian - I like the "roof-tops" scene. If only I had the space. Barry

Hi BB,
Thank you for your supportive comment. It's much appreciated. Regarding the size of the layout, it's188cm x 129cm, which is a reasonable size, but hardly big. It may appear bigger as a result of my backscene extending along the back wall and the fact that to the right of the board (as seen in the 'Rooftops' photo) there is a gap between the end of the baseboard and the wall on the right, which has a continuation of the backscene. I've tried to make use of this to give it a greater sense of space. You might call it trick photography.

When I was writing my previous post (Post 319), I had intended to add a few notes on the photos, but my wife needed the laptop, so I had to upload the post unfinished. I was going to mention some of the little details that I've finished this year.

1. The 'Rooftops' photo shows Saint Albrights Church complete with three crucifixes. When I made the model four years ago, I put the cross onto the spire, but I knocked it off the next day while reaching over for something, so for a long time I was discouraged from adding the other crosses. I wonder how long they will last before I knock one off again.

2. The photo Waiting for a Train shows my additional board added to the Shankly station sign (An Airfix product from the 1970s). Passengers entering Shankly from either side of the island platform can now see the word Shankly, rather than from only one side as was before. Today's photos (below) show another Shankly station sign, which now also has a board facing in each direction, i.e., towards the track and towards the road (Fagan's Lane).

3. The photo School Party shows the new addition of a station clock and TV monitor (as does today's photo titled Shankly). The children queuing are another product of my daughter's games on the layout. I wish that the school parties that I've taken to various places were always as well behaved as these people (group leaders sometimes included).

Margate


Shankly


Diesel Passing Shankly