Confession Time

I inherited the Gerald Rd/Gerralt Rd project off James Hilton around nine months ago. Since when I have barely touched it.


On the surface, that is rather silly. James had laid the track, added the uncouplers and done all the electrics. "All" I needed to do was to add the scenics...

...Which is where it gets complicated.

James built the barebones with a specific project in mind. I saw an opportunity to move the location to my beloved Tanat Valley Railway whilst keeping some features of his own concept, particularly some of the decrepit office buildings.

As my Irish side would say "If you want to go there, I wouldn't be starting from here"

Or in one case, in Belfast, in the middle of The Troubles, when I was on an IRA death list, I handed a security guard a route map of where I wanted to go and got the response "I'm sorry, I can't help you, I can only tell you how to get there from where you are now."

Reader, I walked away from the checkpoint in the pouring rain before processing what he'd actually said. 

It is important to ask the right questions, and to understand the answers.

And that is why I think I've been struggling.

I think I'm beginning to answer the right questions; whether my answers are right is another issue.

First of all, some important background "noise"

We moved here in February, which was total chaos, and then on top of that, we had the crisis with my mother. Add to that a recurrence of Covid that put me out of action for the last quarter of 2024.

It has only been this week that I've cleared some modelling space. That alone has been a massive task. Unfortunately, one consequence is that as things stand, there is no way I can use the loft space for a layout. And yes, my last great project remains an O16.5 GVT layout. I THINK I could still fit that into my office space. Eventually.

Finally, I'm still trying to work on various 7/8ths and 16mm projects, as well as disinvesting, for now, from 7 1/4" gauge.


My main questions of the layout start at the back, literally, with the backscene.

Key for me to the whole concept are two elements. The limekilns, and the level crossing. What I can't yet figure out is how to segue from one to the other. I have some local examples, like Oakamoor, where, though you can't see it, the kilns are close to the road. But you can see that the height of the kilns doesn't reflect the height of the surrounding land. It is prototypical, but will it look believable?

The other issue, which I'll cover next is "scale." I don't know how to articulate this. It is about the perceived scale of objects. Railway and road items I have a feel for. Buildings sort of, Where I feel wrong footed is scenery. It is stupid but I struggle with sizing trees and hedges.  A bit of me wonders if this is about colour. I'm used to using a quite saturated palette in 4mm, but in 2mm I might need to dial the colours back a bit

They are basic issues around the composition. I think, and I don't know if James picked this up intuitively, the whole scene feels 6" too long. On top of which, as Gerald Road, it had a clear start, middle and end.. But as Gerralt road it has a lot of middle that needs sub-dividing. I think what it needs is one slightly off-centre structure to provide a visual bridge, something like a crossing cottage.


If all that sounds negative, I've been doing many things in the background. I've got a lot of structures lined up to be built. They might not be the ones I use, but they should help me with the composition before being used elsewhere.Most of my scenic elements are lined up as well. So perhaps one day I'll make a real step forward. One day....

Tegg's Nose

 It was an odd Xmas. I can't remember one that wasn't in recent years.

For Xmas day itself we had my ninety-two-year-old mother, our eldest daughter, and her homicidal Romanian rescue dog, Pip. Wanting to tire out Pip and our two standard poodles, we thought a Xmas morning walk would be a great idea.

So we headed up to Tegg's Nose. 

The first problem we encountered was that Mum's walking abilities have declined rapidly, so we had to leave her in the car. The second was that Gigi and Candy had forgotten all their training and soon proved they couldn't be let off the lead.

Oh, and we got there too late for the daughter to get a coffee at the brilliant cafe.


Other than that, well,I wouldn't say it was a success.

But it did give me a chance to explore the two quarries and the very basic tramways that served them.

I've never seen a photo that shows them; in fact, this map seems to be the main source of information about them. This YouTube video suggest that the tramways moved with the quarrying activity, which I suspect is true. I'm less certain about the suggestion that there was once a joined u system, not least because the two quarries produced different kinds of stone. In fact Tegg's Nose is an incredible;le place to learn about basic geology

Trying to take photos with two poodles on the lead was a challenge, but I did the best I could.

To begin with a few photos from the cafe car park

The main quarry

I wouldn't like to be up here at Halloween.

There isn't much information about the quarry equipment displayed; this is a stone breaker

A stone saw

It has been suggested the cutting on the left is the line of the tramway before the map was made.

Worth it just for the view

Mission accomplished: Gigi crashed.

Stafford at last - Part 2

The last of the usable photos from the Stafford show. As you can see from the cropping, I struggled to get the type of "in the scene" images I like,

To recap, it was a brilliant show, not too busy, operators who were keen to talk, some excellent layouts, and, best of all, a PMT shuttle bus taking me back to my childhood.

Next stop Doncaster...