Although not quite finished, in May David S held an Open Day to show his superb new 7mm layout of Lyme Regis in its entirety.

Alongside his work on Lyme Regis, Allan has continued work on his new 7mm layout and built the platform shelter for Cole (S&D) Station. Allan didn’t want to model the sag in the roof. Those props may well have been added to combat the sag on the real thing. Below is some additional rolling stock for Cole.

Since the last blog, The Summit has been exhibited at the two and a half day Bristol Show at Thornbury and acquitted itself well. Glimpsed in the background the scenic boards are back in their stillages and all hands have been diverted to Evercreech New which is due to appear at the Rail-Ex Taunton in late October.

Pecking Mill Viaduct is a complex structure and a curve has had to be introduced to it so that it fits on our layout. Because of the curve the 3D printed girders for the skew bridges cannot be quite parallel or exactly the same length. All this has led to a potential lack of clearance if the girders are not precisely placed. There is a timber walkway outside the girder and the railings for those pretty much align with the outside of the piers leaving just enough clearance for model coach and loco overhangs. The girders may be very slightly outboard of where they should be as a result. The girders were printed in two halves, the farm bridge girders being similar but shorter, and it was vital (there was some confusion), that only the long half girders were used on the A371 bridge. (Ed. We kid you not!)

This wing wall was also replaced with an embankment – because there never was a wing wall there! The painting of the viaduct is complete, and looks good. Once the bridge girders are in place work on the groundwork, fencing etc. can start to make the place look real. There’s a good base layer of grass on some of it, it just needs a bit of variation, and longer grass on the embankment inside the railway fence. The road needs a camber on it and some attention to texture and colour, and there’s a small stone bridge over the stream needed too. Dave H was trying to explain Pecking Mill Viaduct to his father (he was a civil engineer). He thought it was something we’d made up as a modelling challenge, not a real place!

The scenery for The Summit was quite deliberately built ‘light’ as it only needs to hang off the rigid backbone boards that carry the track. This makes it vulnerable to damage as it’s ‘persuaded’ into and out of the stillages. Seen here, repair work is in progress with reinforcing of the tunnel boxes with paper mache joints. The scenery board has had the scenery detach from the frame for about 50%. Again paper mache, i.e. several layers, should be enough plus a couple of wood blocks glued in.

From Pete C, a 4mm Scale EM Gauge Ruston 88DS built from a Judith Edge kit, and perhaps more interestingly a weathered 7mm Scale Tickford bodied Land Rover intended for The Summit. These Tickford built Landies were marketed as a ‘Station Wagon’. They were better equipped than the standard Land Rovers and thus attracted Purchase Tax limiting sales. About 900 were produced, most were exported and few survive.

Leave a comment