Barchester

Was at the NEC for the Warley show at the beginning of the month. Treated myself to some goodies. A Bachmann Class 20 in BR Blue, a Bachmann Class 66 in EWS livery, a Metcalfe Church kit, and a Metcalfe footbridge. Also paid a visit to the Sony Centre in Birmingham and bought a Sony DSC H1 10 x zoom digital camera to use on the layout. I had seen it highly recommended on the internet and it seems ideal for model railway photographic purposes. If I have any problems with it I will detail them on Barchester Forum.

Back in Spain and the new Class 66 works  just as well as the other new ones. It has working lights that change colour with the direction of travel, neat. Father Christmas has snaffled the Class 20 so I won't see that till Christmas morning. The Metcalfe church kit makes up into a very nice model and it is going at the end of the road bridge where the road will go behind it and then reappear at the other side. It is quite a large model. So much so that I am going to build an extension over the rest of platform 1 for the church and it's surrounds.



This is the bare area where the church is going to go, the rock face is in position along the whole length of platform 1 and you can just see the end of the road bridge as a train passes under it.


Click on image for a larger picture.






So it's full speed ahead with an almost exact duplicate of the town extension. After a bit of fiddling with church extension girder work the job is finished and in place. It doesn't give me as much room as I thought it would but every little helps as I really do want to use the church.


 
Showing the church area extension in place. I suppose it has given me about another 4 inches of space. The bay platform for the auto-trailer can be seen quite clearly here.


Click on the image for a larger picture.





Church looking a bit lonely on it's fresh piece of ground. Once I have decided the permanent position for it then it's only a few minutes to get some grass down and I have some trees made up also.



Click on image for a larger picture.





The church in it's final position and the first tree planted at the rear where the roadway turns from the bridge and behind the church.



Click on image for a larger picture.




 

Church yard grassed, bushes in and another tree plus the entrance gate. More trees to follow at a later time plus the bits and pieces, people etc.




Click on image for a larger picture.





I am still left with about an 18" gap between church and town but I have a kit of the Metcalfe bus station that would go in there. I could fiddle about with it somewhat and it may not look too much out of place.

The bus station has made up into a nice model but having been put in place and moved every which way I am still not sure about it, even though I made it up as a warehouse. It can stay where it is for now to see if I get used to it.




As you will be able to tell from later pictures of the same area, I didn't get used to it. This building is confined to the 'built it and can't use it' box for the time being. 



Click on image for a larger picture.







The church extension has had a wall added round it the same as the town extension.
The end of the road bridge that adjoins the sand and gravel works has been 'rocked' and grassed so that looks better.
Have been using Metcalfe tarmac sheets for the roadway in the town centre and for the new road bridge, looks quite effective.

My brother in law is here on holiday and has boxed in the fiddle yard for me. This has the effect of making the entrance to the fiddle yard, under the far road bridge, really dark and completes the illusion of the trains going somewhere.



In the enlarged image the light showing from the rear of the fiddle yard is quite clear and completely spoils the illusion I am after.


 Click on picture for a larger image.








I was going to use a mirror, with only half of the fiddle yard covered, so that I could see where the train had to be stopped before it smacked into the wall. Unfortunately the image it produced wasn't definite enough for my eyes to judge correctly when I was standing at the far end of the layout. This method also let in too much light. The top of the cover is removable so I will have to leave it off until I devise some method of controlling the trains after they vanish from view. Another factor I hadn't taken into account is the distance it takes for these very heavy, smooth running diesels to stop after power has been switched off.
The church has been completed with grassed area and roadway plus a short length of walling and it looks very good.
Have made up the Metcalfe footbridge and it is looking ok, much better on the layout than as a stand alone model.



The footbridge as made up but this photograph doesn't really do it justice.



Click on image for a larger picture.








The footbridge is in place and all I need now for the large platform area to finish the job off is a decent run of canopy between the large station building and the footbridge. I will scratchbuild the canopy from card to match the one on the main station building. Santa Claus has brought me a new Bachmann Class 20 diesel for Christmas, how kind of him.
The Metcalfe signal box has been finished in time for Christmas so I can get cracking with the canopy I need as soon as we get the New Year celebrations out of the way. 



A very smart signal box from Metcalfe. Repays extra care in construction, not difficult to make up but just take care.



Click on image for larger picture.







Well, that's it for 2005, a good year for me and it also saw the birth of Barchester. 


Top Of Page.