Progress Report 25 - Detailing

With the bulk of the track now laid and the platforms in place, time is now being taken to focus on adding more detail.

Rolling Stock
Gradually I am creating a set of rolling stock more suited to this three foot gauge UK-based railway, using the Southwold and Welshpool & Llanfair railways as my inspiration.

The ex-W&L Pickering coaches will be the mainstay of the passenger stock though I am intending to supplement these with another rake of passenger coaches.

I'm just wondering whether I dare to repaint them in the Peckforton Railways livery or, as I haven't yet decided what will be the PR livery, whether chocolate and cream will become the livery for coaching stock.

The open wagons and guards' van have now been supplemented with a tank wagon (see How I Anglicised a tank wagon),

two further guards' vans (see Progress Report 22 for more detail),


a closed van (see Progress Report 22 for more info)

and a couple of semi-scratch-built cattle wagons (see How I made two cattle wagons).

I've now plenty of guards' vans (maybe too many), probably sufficient closed vans but need plenty more open wagons, some flat wagons, some anglicised timber wagons and a gunpowder van. I'm considering also making some sheep wagons and maybe adding another tank wagon to the fleet.

Station buildings
Over the past three years I have slowly been accumulating kits for the station buildings from TM Models, which is locally based. I chose these resin kits as I imagined the railway would have invested in a series of basic wooden buildings of similar design. These kits provided a reasonably priced set of buildings which seemed quite appropriate.

The station building at Beeston Market

Signal cabin at Beeston Market

Ticket office at Beeston Castle

Station building at Peckforton

Station building at Bickerton

Now, all but Bulkeley have a station building of a size to suit the relative importance of the the station. The colour scheme of green and cream harks back to my East Anglian roots. See 'How I assembled the station buildings' for more information on putting the kits together.

Further detail will be added to the stations, including nameboards, fencing, figures and general paraphernalia such as packing cases, porters' trolleys and seats. In addition, I will need to add more sidings, cattle docks/ramps, coal staithes (or coal sheds as per the Southwold) and engine sheds at Beeston Market, Bickerton and the Copper Mine. I shall also have to consider making some semblence of mine related buildings at the Copper Mine, including ore hoppers and a conveyor. Plenty to keep me off the streets here!

Swing bridge
There's no real need for a swing bridge in the imagined prototype. Although two significant rivers (the Gowy and the Weaver) originate in the vicinity of the hypothetical line, they are little more than small streams (even that's being very generous!). However, the design to the garden railway necessitates a swing bridge between Peckforton and Bulkeley to provide access to the trailer tent shelter and the shed. Until now, this has been little more than a a plank. However, as this plank is around ten feet in length which more or less coincides with the scale length of the swing bridge on the Southwold Railway, it was decided to build a representation of this to bridge this gap. See 'How I made the swing bridge'.

Summer's more or less over and work beckons ................. So, apart from some tweaking and fiddling, the railway will have to take a back seat for a while. Who knows, though, we may get some sunshine before the first forsts - maybe!