Sunday 18 June 2023

Minffordd Update: Mock Ups & Mod-Roc

A start is being made on the scenery proper, now most of the track laying is complete and some basic wiring for testing purposes has been installed.

Creating the buildings from scratch will be one of my main contributions to the project and I'm going to start with those on the standard gauge Cambrian platform.


As the project has developed we've become a little more flexible about the time period for the layout.

To begin with I was being quite strict that 1967 would be the bottom end of the scale, but in that year the very nice station building had recently been torn down and replaced with a bus shelter-type structure, which is rather dull, to say the least.

So I think we're going to bend out time frame a little and include a dilapidated station building along with the signal box.

My first challenge has been to guesstimate the dimensions of the station. 

I have been kindly provided with some drawings for the Dutton signal boxes on the Cambrian, 

The one at Minffordd appears to be an enlarged version of the Number 4 design, and I've got enough to go on to be confident enough with that, but the main building is a another matter.

I haven't come across any drawings yet, or even a so much as a picture taken from a straight-on position, so I'm having to extrapolate from shots taken at three-quarters.

After some experimenting with alternative size structures I've knocked up a couple from a cardboard taken from a redundant shoe box and I think it'll do the job.

Over on the other corner Himself has begun forming the cuttings in traditional style using chicken wire covered in mod-roc.

It feels like another of those great leaps forward to start seeing the outline of a landscape appearing on the wooden framework.


No comments:

Post a Comment