Brettell Road - Shuffling and testing

Phil O
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Phil O » Sat Jul 13, 2019 7:46 am

Jim

That brake van looks great, you certainly managed to get the old and decrepit look.

Phil

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Noel
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Noel » Sun Jul 14, 2019 11:53 am

Phil O wrote:That brake van looks great, you certainly managed to get the old and decrepit look.


Agreed. I particularly like the state of the lettering. However, the Midland was already withdrawing 10T vans before the grouping, in favour of 20T vans, and the LMS continued this process. They also changed the livery from 1936, so 1935 is the very latest date for its last repaint; it would probably have been earlier, as the van is unlikely to have lasted that long in LMS service. Later photographs of wagons and containers suggest that after a minimum of thirty years unpainted there would have been no visible evidence of paint at all, just bare wood and metal. The steel work would also be showing significant rusting.
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Noel

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Sun Jul 14, 2019 3:28 pm

Recent attention had been on a couple of older RTR efforts. Starting with...
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...a Lima CCT. Yes I know there's a Bachmann one now but the Lima one isn't all that bad given its age. It suffers from the sometimes common Lima trait of getting most of it about right but then blowing it on something obvious for no apparent reason. In this case the W-irons are just too far from where they should be.
This can be addressed with replacements from ABS (or at least it used to be!). New roof vents and underframe bits and bobs plus filing off the, freelance, window frames and we're about there.

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Next the old Hornby hand crane. This one uses rollers and a counterweight from Jon Hall. I've widened the jib and added extra details.
Jim Smith-Wright

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Mon Jul 29, 2019 8:33 pm

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So to draw a line under the last post. The Lima CCT is finished off and ready for service.

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So is the crane. It rides very high as supplied so I ground the bearing slots down and removed a bit of material from under the axleboxes (its still a smidge to high). Seems strange that Hornby raised the ride height on all their models to accommodate their tension lock coupling. Why not just make that smaller instead?
The end shackles are from Roxey and the cables are the heavier e-z line. Transfers are from Cambridge Custom Transfers. The single plank wagon is just standing in at the moment.

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One of the issues with Brettell road is the height it sits at. The subject of layout height is a thorny one but I take the view that operator comfort trumps everything else. After all we will be working on the layout for a couple of days . Currently its a bit low which I've got round by asking show organisers to provide chairs. From a sitting position its just about the right height.
However I've been thinking of doing a more traditional style, separate roof and here it is mocked up. It's designed so that it all slots together and no screws or bolts will be required. It will still have a material roof to shield the ambient light but it should make the layout itself a little lighter too. The plan is for the original pelmet to be removed.
Last edited by jim s-w on Mon Jul 29, 2019 10:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jim Smith-Wright

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Philip Hall
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Philip Hall » Mon Jul 29, 2019 10:47 pm

Jim, a great job on the old Hornby crane. The buffer height thing: I always understood that the reason they did it was to accommodate the front bogie on an engine when it went from dead level to 1:20 up abruptly at a rail joint, as the track would do in their pier system leading up to viaducts or the suspension bridge. I guess they did it on everything else so they would all match!

It still happens, and not just with Hornby. The Hornby Grange front buffers are too high, also the 8F and Black 5; so too the Bachmann City (although the buffers are a trifle too high, they have cut the bottom off the buffer beam as well. Ditto the Dukedog, but here the buffer beam is too shallow and the buffers the right height.

A lot of this malarkey is more noticeable when people like us dare to change the wheels and put the right size in. Although sometimes we have to bite the bullet and make them smaller than scale to keep the buffers about right. And then find that some of the dimensions have been monkeyed around with as well. Read Bachmann LBSCR Atlantic for some of this, but that one is not one of the worst...

Philip

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Thu Aug 01, 2019 6:14 am

Thanks Phillip

I’ve been told similar elsewhere. Makes some sense when you think about it but kind of doesn’t at the same time! (Not the explanation but the original reasoning)

Cheers

Jim
Jim Smith-Wright

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Sun Aug 11, 2019 8:42 pm

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Way back towards the start of this project I posted the above image. The little black tank wagon at the far end was a Peco wonderful wagon kit and avid follows of this little adventure might notice nothing has really been said of it since.

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It was pretty quickly joined with a companion and the pair have been lurking near my workbench ever since. Well now they are finally done and ready to go. Modifications to the original kit were to replace the w-irons with Bill Bedford ones. New ladders from Stenson models and new handbrakes from Ambis. I didn't really like the mounting rods as supplied so these were replaced with 0.6mm brass tube. The ends being flattened with pliers. The walkways came from my spares box.

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The crane has its runner from a Cambrian kit. Its a little freelance is based loosely on an image of a similar but steel wagon I found on Paul Bartletts site at Bescot. The steps are spares from a Bachmann class 25.

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Before i settled on the Cambrian route for the crane runner I found an image of a diagram 1/001 lowfit that caught my eye. Built by BR they had a LNER style body on an LMS style chassis. Bachmann do this RTR but the chassis is completely wrong so its been replaced with a Parkside one. The mineral is diagram 1/119 21 tonner from The Chivers kit. (Tim had some lying around when I last went over). This wagon would be very new in the Brettell road period. This is also the upper end of my build it rigid approach to wagon building. Any longer wheelbase than this and I tend to go for springing.

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Speaking of Tim we have been working on a curved version of his display shelves with a few design tweaks such as the more solid locking of the ends and little clear 'buffer stops' for the ends. The 4mm scale versions are ready to go, see Tims website https://www.timhorn.co.uk/new-products/

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Finally a co-bo on a parcels train for no other reason than why not?
Jim Smith-Wright

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Thu Aug 15, 2019 4:21 pm

Jim Smith-Wright

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Sun Sep 22, 2019 4:04 pm

This post can best be described as a taste of local flavour if not the full meal itself.

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Anyone familiar with railways in the Stourbridge area will be aware of the Parry People Movers that operate between Stourbridge Junction and Stourbridge Town. Little 4 wheeled railbuses that spend their days shuffling along the UK's shortest passenger branch line. The line itself is still jointed track meaning the ride is somewhat best described as lively! While famous now for these little vehicles Stourbridge didn't really embrace the railbus idea the first time around, The line begin operated by autotrains and GWR design railcars at the time railbuses were being tried elsewhere.

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However as Brettell Road is a loose interpretation I have gotten hold of a Heljan one as a nod to the little people movers. This was always going to be a nice to have rather than a need so having kept my eye on eBay for a cheap one, just on the off chance, this AC version popped up as a non runner with a dodgy motor for less than half the price the runners were going for.

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The motor was replaced with a small Mashima I already had. One of the drive shafts was bent out of shape too but as these little models are very heavy for their size I binned that and now its just powered on one axle. For what it needs to do that seems absolutely fine.

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I've fitted a Zimo MX634D decoder in the space in the roof linked to a TCS KA2 stay alive hidden behind the door and weathered it, The wheels are Branchlines 3ft using the original gears and bushes. You do need to grind a little bit of the chassis away to get them to fit. A couple of passengers and its good to go.

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Same idea - different generations!

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Another bit of local flavour. The yard crane at the real Brettell Lane was a bit of a chunky affair. In line with my upcoming demo at Scaleforum on making the most out of older models, I've come up with this representation using the Airfix dockside crane as a start point. The jib is scratchbuilt from plasticard. I've only seen a few distant pictures of the real thing so this is very much a loose interpretation.
Jim Smith-Wright

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Mon Feb 17, 2020 5:29 pm

With my ongoing Duchess build my thoughts turned to a little quick win project (also with Scalefour North coming up at the end of March). I said relatively speaking in the title because a few years ago I would have likely considered this quick win as a bit of an undertaking but there you go. When we were at the Wakefield show with Moor Street, my attention was drawn to a cheap Lima GWR small prairie tank loco. They were not common at all on the Stourbridge to Wolverhampton line but their larger sisters, the Large prairie were somewhat a mainstay of the line.

I know Hornby are doing a new model but a dirt cheap Airfix example was found (none runner) along with a comet chassis and I set to work.

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Stage one - body detailed and the chassis built. I modified the pony trucks a little and sprung them using a method outlined by Dave Holt (http://www.clag.org.uk/comet-pony.html). The original smokebox door was too small and a few extra details were added to the body. After this picture was taken I also reduced the height of the safety valve bonnet.

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A quick blast of grey primer and a liberal(ish) dose of archers rivet transfers and the body was read for the paint shop. A few images of the finished result follow.

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Jim Smith-Wright

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Over thinking often leads to under doing!

nberrington
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby nberrington » Mon Feb 17, 2020 10:45 pm

Jim - the weathering is perfectly subtle. Nice work!

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steve howe
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby steve howe » Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:28 pm

I had never heard of Archer rivet transfers... had to Google it!

Who is your supplier Jim and which sheet did you use? :thumb

Steve

martin goodall
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby martin goodall » Tue Feb 18, 2020 4:08 pm

For the use of Archer's rivet decals, see "The Burford Branch" thread [https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1846&start=225#p66080 ] Page 10, in the post dated 16 February 2019.
IMG_5010.JPG
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Andrew Ullyott
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Andrew Ullyott » Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:38 pm

Very nice Jim.
The small prairie would have needed a lot more work. I have that particular tea towel.

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Horsetan
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Horsetan » Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:33 pm

jim s-w wrote:.....The original smokebox door was too small ....


The replacement door, although noticeably larger, is a little cautious and flat; you could have got away with going a bit larger still. The old Airfix body is quite tough to carve away in places, so well done on making something of the smokebox saddle and steam pipes!

As Springside seem very reluctant to produce any more of their exquisite safety valves and bonnets (they don't seem to have made any for a very long time, yet they are still listed at over £10 each in their current price list), possibly Brassmasters might step into the gap and release some separately from the Finney kits.

If someone had told me all those years ago that Archers rivet transfers existed, I wouldn't have bothered solvent-welding tiny dots of styrene in monotonous rows....

Will be interesting to see what Hornby (and Dapol?) make of theirs.
That would be an ecumenical matter.

MPR
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby MPR » Wed Feb 19, 2020 10:25 am

The correct smokebox door can be had from Brassmasters, along with other useful parts for a large prairie.
http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/gwr_castings.htm

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Wed Feb 26, 2020 11:37 pm

As the song goes, regrets, I've had a few but unlike the song I am going to mention them. With Brettell road pretty much finished off thoughts have turned to what to do next. Before anyone asks, New Street isn't calling me back at the moment.

Brettell road was only supposed to be a play thing for home, but much in the way of New Street which started with the idea that you could model the western end station throat in 8ft, Brettell Road went a little bit wrong.

It was designed like an exhibition layout but not as an exhibition layout if that makes sense. In the urge to get something done and 1950's midland railway practice being alien to me at the time there was one major aspect of the track plan that I have always regretted. You see, for those like me who didn't know, the Midland had a thing about facing points, especially coming from passenger lines onto goods loops and yards. What they preferred was a single slip and the train would pass the slip. Back up through the slip onto the wrong line before proceeding into the yard. Had I known this at the time (or more accurately been bothered to find out!) I would have done the Brettell Road main line as double track and used this arrangement. For the operational interest as well as its not really something you see done on models.

The other regret is about proportion. You see for an exhibition layout that's 16ft overall but only 50% or 8ft scenic I feel the proportions are off. If it was 24ft with 16 ft scenic then a viewing ratio of 66% sits much better.

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And so, presenting Brettell Road part 2. An extension to the original incorporating a station and yard based very loosely on the real Brettell Lane. Doubling up the track on the existing 2 board is still a none starter but with minor adaptation to the track work at the left hand end of the original I can get the single slip in and get in the operational interest I missed the first time. The yard will rise slightly to be level with the platforms which is something I've borrowed from the features of the yard that was at Kings Heath. I plan to do the station in the very last week of service to keep with the run down feel (hey no one really expected this to be pretty did they?)
Jim Smith-Wright

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Over thinking often leads to under doing!

DougN
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby DougN » Thu Feb 27, 2020 1:27 am

Sounds great Jim.

Is it going to continue to grow like topsy? Or have you found a nice seam of modelling to get into, something new?, refreshing?, interesting?

I seem to have found myself in a down period as the kits are not enticing me (Ok I am at a hard bit with the Finney V2's) and my OO is working happily so I can watch the trains circulating but doing more on it is also not exciting. Then again as the other half is determined to watch "survivor" I have to go and find other things to do... as that is even less enticing.
Doug
Still not doing enough modelling

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Noel
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Noel » Thu Feb 27, 2020 11:42 am

jim s-w wrote:You see, for those like me who didn't know, the Midland had a thing about facing points, especially coming from passenger lines onto goods loops and yards. What they preferred was a single slip and the train would pass the slip. Back up through the slip onto the wrong line before proceeding into the yard.


For main lines which saw express trains the Midland, at least with later builds, either put in access to the yard from one direction only, trailing from the main line, or from both directions, both trailing from the main line, one with a superimposed trailing crossover, hence the single slip. They did not need to reverse across the slip onto the other running line before accessing the yard in the latter case as there would always be a direct trailing access to the yard in such formations [and yards accessible from one end only were probably only shunted by trains in one direction]. However, on older lines, and especially on single lines in industrial areas, these rules were often not applied. The Brynamman line, for example, is littered with points leading into public and private sidings from the single running line, which are inescapably facing in one direction. There are other examples elsewhere, including private sidings at Rubery on the Halesowen Joint https://maps.nls.uk/view/120223254.
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Noel

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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Armchair Modeller » Thu Feb 27, 2020 1:41 pm

What was the original role of the abandoned line disappearing into the backscene? Because it had a 'proper' signal, I had always assumed it was once a running line of some kind. Even if goods only, I would have expected this to have required direct access to/from the up and down main lines. I could be completely wrong of course ;)

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Thu Feb 27, 2020 1:53 pm

It was. I’ve worked out the original arrangement for this and there will be some clues as to what it was on the finished layout as there are now (locked and pined points, parts of facing point locks still there), the platform signal with have a removed arm and some newer realigned trackwork.

I think it’s important to work out a history then work out how it all changed over time.
Jim Smith-Wright

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Over thinking often leads to under doing!

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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Armchair Modeller » Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:37 pm

Looking forward to seeing your final result with interest. Should be good!

Just to reinforce Noel's point about the MR not being totally averse to facing points, here's a map of Castle Gresley where the Netherseal Colliery Branch joined the Burton-Leicester line.

Castle-Gresley.jpg


The layout had a facing turnout above the red arrow and a separate crossover to the right of it. Not too dissimilar to your layout, except for the main line being double throughout. I guess the main line was relatively low speed, so any speed restrictions over facing turnouts would not be a great impediment to progress.

Of course, it is your layout and you design it how you please. I just thought people might be interested, that's all.

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:16 pm

In the absence of Scalefour North I have finished off a few vehicles that have been lurking near my workbench for a while now.

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Starting with a couple for New Street. A Ford Fiesta and Range Rover from Oxford Diecast. These follow my now standard approach of blacking in the window frames and wheel arches before a coat of matt varnish and some subtle weathering. On the fiesta i turned the wheels down a little and binned the little plug in numberplate as it stuck out to far. For the Range Rover its worth chopping off the mounts for the screws that hold it into the box.

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Moving on to Brettell Road. On the left a BMC FG lorry. This is a combination of 2 FG lorries from different manufacturers. The body and chassis come from a Chinese company called Best Choose. Initially these look a lot more detailed than the base toys version but there's something not quite right about the proportion of the cab so I replaced it with a detailed Base toys one instead.Wheels are from RTI and i don't fancy doing the glazing again any time soon.
The van is a ford 300E from the Classix range.

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Finally a Fordson tractor (Oxford Diecast) modified with a front loader from the Dapol JCB kit. Quite a neat little project this one.
Jim Smith-Wright

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Over thinking often leads to under doing!

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PeteT
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby PeteT » Sat Mar 28, 2020 4:14 pm

I'm liking the concept of BR p2. I will admit it took me a moment for the penny to drop that the diagram shown is the extra 8 foot to work alongside the existing, but once I got that far it all made sense.

I think your comments show why so many exhibition layouts are BLTs, with half as much frontage taken up by fiddleyards. I think this is partly what draws me to the likes of Robin Gay's Rolvenden, and Dave Hawkins' Great Bardfield - both having a through line but with the 2nd fiddleyard significantly smaller than the 'main'.

I'm interested to see it develop!

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Mon Mar 30, 2020 2:37 pm

When it comes to building I admit i tend to just get on and scratchbuld them. Part of this is due to ignorance of whats actually out there but recently I picked up a couple of Wills kits and have had a go at these instead.

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First up is the kit for a lamp store. You actually get 2 in the kit and these are for the slightly different GWR design but can be adapted to something more 'midland' pretty easily by shortening the sides to form a 6ft square structure. U cut out the door and remounted it flush as well as replacing the roof with thinner plasticard. On the other end I added a few extra window bars (see below).

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The other kit was for the 'station garage' which i have chopped about to give an industrial looking wooden building. The roof again is plasticard (the wills stuff is quite thick) and the vents are from unit models.
Jim Smith-Wright

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Over thinking often leads to under doing!


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