7mm National Railway Museum Workbench

James

Western Thunderer
Have followed this thread with great interest. I assumed these models were the ones that ran on the NRM's big layout. If so, what do you use the B4 for? Just intrigued.

Mike

A couple of short shuttles use smaller locos, to the casual visitors it resembles shunting.

Aside from the narrow gauge, the B4 is the smallest loco we have.
 

James

Western Thunderer
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A sneak preview of a new building for one of the stations.

Many visitors have probably noticed the station at the back of the original section has never actually been finished. Currently there are a couple of paper mock-ups or placeholders standing on the platform but now work has started to make the actual buildings themselves.

The key thing is they mustn't dominate so we've chosen to base them on buildings on the Kingsbridge branch - there is currently a Great Western signal box at the back so they should go with it quite nicely.

A good set of drawings appeared in Model Railways magazine some years ago so we've been using these as the basis for the buildings plus lots of photographs. The line was photographed quite a lot really and Avonwick station still survives and since it's right next to a road Google Street view helps no end with close-ups. The stone work does look as if it was done to a price, it's not the same standard as some other gwr buildings so I followed @Pencarrow lead as I saw he was adding stones and roof tiles individually on buildings so I thought I'd give it a go. Certainly no Plastikard sheet would match the sort of stone that I wanted.

The goods store is quite simple really and it's only taken a couple of days to get to this stage; station building or take a bit longer I suspect.

The loco and the 'platform' give an idea of the size.
 
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James

Western Thunderer
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Ellis Clarke has very kindly donated another Black 5 to the NRM's layout - he's been so generous over the years, please tell people you talk to!

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It'll be running with a set of Westdale coaches which have come out of store.

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James

Western Thunderer
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Today the new Black 5, donated by Ellis Clarke, entered service!

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It's hauling a rake of LMS Stanier coaches from Westdale kits which have been donated to the model railway. Weathering and passengers have transformed them.

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The loco and coaches have performed beautifully :)

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Herb Garden

Western Thunderer

James

Western Thunderer
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It's been a glorious day in East Yorkshire and I've been working outside in the sun :)

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I've been getting on with this - all the corner stones are in place, along with the beginnings of the canopy frame.

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Earlier this week I checked the buildings in situ - the canopy needed to be checked for size in case it needed to be cut back but it's staying as it is.

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The trees will nicely frame the views.

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