In Praise of the Pringles Tube.

What is one of the most versatile things in the model railway hobby that has nothing to do with the hobby?

How overlooked is this humble item?

That’s right. The Pringles tube. The cylinder that holds those processed potato snacks has many varied uses in the hobby. Who amongst us uses them to store styrene rod and strip? I do. I have one for rod, one for strip, one for angle and one for misplaced offcuts.

Styrene storage

The cylindrical section has many uses for structures on layouts. Grain elevators in H0 scale for example. Slice them down in height and they’ll make big oil storage tanks in N. I’m sure many will have used them as the base for other things for a layout.

Now I have discovered something new for them to be the basis for. A cupola blast furnace in 7/8ths inch to the foot scale. 

That’s right. This container is a good size for the central feature for this new micro layout.

How on earth did I discover this?

I had spent a lot of time studying the photo that I took of the foundry at Llanberis looking at the detail in the furnace trying to work out the size of it. I wished I’d taken more photos. My best guess for the size was three feet in diameter, maybe a bit more. I didn’t even know anything about blast furnaces to have an idea.

Luckily, I was saved by James Waterfield and Volume 1 of his study of the railways of Sir Arthur Heywood. To start with, that’s where I learnt the name. Cupola Furnace. The furnace was discussed and the iron making process too. Sir Arthur’s furnace was described as being small. The capacity was barely enough to cast two locomotive cylinders at once. A dimension of 2’ 3” outside diameter was mentioned, and along with an annotated drawing of a furnace that was enough to get me thinking. 

A quick measure of my photo showed that this furnace was larger than that. Is it three feet? Maybe, but likely more than that. Perhaps four feet. I don’t know. Three feet six inches diameter seems a pretty reasonable compromise. That would put the charging floor (another term I learned from James’ Book) seven to eight feet off the ground. Which looked that it was about right. A three foot six diameter furnace it was then.

All this thinking made me peckish. I reached for, (you guessed it,) the Pringles. 

Hang on a moment… this is a cylinder… what size is it?

I found a ruler. 74mm. In 7/8ths inch scale, a foot is 22.225mm that makes the Pringle tube approximately three feet four inches in diameter (about one metre in new money). That’s seems pretty close to what I was thinking, and good enough to start to size things up. 

I think that’s a pretty good comparison don’t you?

This simple discovery really helped the design process to come together. The ideas as you can expect, came quickly, and a mock up was quickly put together.

The first mock up

I sat in front of this scene and stared at it for an absolute age. I got quite lost in it, getting a feel for atmosphere. Already I feel better about the size of things and the possibility of a true micro in 7/8ths inch scale. The old baseboard I used is 36” x 14” (915 x 355mm) and the short train fits in there quite well with the furnace, and I was prompted to do a quick sketch.

I think this all shows some promise. I have no track plan right now, and that’s pretty important, but the mock up definitely shows that things should fit in pretty well.

To think that this morning I had I little to no idea at all what to do. I had no feel for the size and bulk of things, until I came across a Pringles tube. 

It’s amazing how things can come together, isn’t it?

Scribblings and scratchings on the paper…

Planning a true micro layout in such a large scale really is the proverbial “quart into a pint pot” challenge. It would be easy to go over the four square feet limit and and produce something micro in spirit. But it is the four square feet micro layout limit that is the true challenge. Let’s see how things work out. The first thing is put together a couple of “inspiration sheets” something to draw on for ideas.

Inspiration sheet 1.

Sheet 1 has a couple of my holiday snaps from the foundry at Llanberis, which are the real inspiration for the layout. The others are Google Earth screen shots of the DeWinton Works in Caernarfon. The foundry was in the square building. There is even a plaque on the wall outside that marks its historic status. As a brick building, to me it doesn’t have the character of the stone built foundry at Llanberis.

What really grabbed me though was the arrangement of the single storey buildings along the road. Fitted tightly between the road and the riverside. I was told that these buildings were also part of the DeWinton works. But that could just have been a story told to me by a local taking my money for parking there, as we took a trip on the Welsh Highland Railway. In my minds eye, I can see an interesting layout based around these buildings with cutaway walls around the outside so you see into the buildings and watch the train pass through various store rooms etc; much like a dolls house. At 7/8ths inch to the foot scale we are in dolls house modelling territory. It would be an interesting crossover between the modelling spheres.

Inspiration sheet 2

Sheet 2 shows some interesting scenes at Horwich and Crewe works. Having the railway run between buildings, inside and out appeals to me. This would be an avenue I’d like to explore. The tiny wagons in the images makes me wonder if the wagons I have aren’t too big. Smaller wagons would have a positive effect on my T.L.U. Making them shorter.  

Toying with the idea of Chris Mears overlap concept. Indoor foundry and outdoor scene.

Now I just start scribbling, putting bits together. It’s so very difficult with no idea of sizes of things. It’s almost like I need to build the loco and wagons and some structures to get a feel for things. Making little tools is fun. But it doesn’t contribute much to knowing the size of the layout. 

Do I run the track around a corner?

I think I have an idea of what I want to do. It’s just getting the elements into a coherent whole now.

Germination.

To refresh. I have seen these two things. Yet at the moment they are nothing more than unrelated holiday snaps.

Disparate scenes with no link

You are probably thinking to yourself. “I know what it is! I know his next project!” But I don’t. I am enjoying trips on the Ffestiniog Railway on holiday, and fighting the urge to buy a Kato/Peco “Prince” in 009 from the Harbour Station shop. Then when I get home, I’m preparing Bontoft’s for exhibition. I’m not thinking about the next project. 

Having got Bontoft’s ready in plenty of time, my idle hands needed something to do and so I tried making tools in 7/8ths inch scale. The work I’ve done with Bontoft’s made me ridiculously confident in my abilities. The tools were described earlier in the blog. You can refresh your memory here.

Tool time

Still, there’s no link forming between these tools and the other two images. 

Yet. 

Fast forward a week and I’ve now completed the Randolph show and I’m brimming with enthusiasm and confidence. I’ve got to do something. 

I have to create. I laid out some O gauge track on a board based on an old Neil Rushby boxfile layout from years back. I rued not buying Prince in 009 a few weeks earlier. I stared at a blank baseboard. I looked at nearly every piece of rolling stock I have hoping that something would leap out at me. I have to build something. That I can’t get a spark of inspiration to build something is so frustrating. It’s “writers block”. But for model railways.

Thanks Neil Rushby

Eventually my brain stopped working. I had to sit down and relax. I turned to YouTube and one of my favourite TV shows of all time. Time Team.

If you’re not familiar with the show. A group of Archaeologists have three days to conduct an exploratory dig on a site somewhere. The show ran for 20 years. For 20 years families would spend Sunday evenings watching a group of people digging in a field. Items of national importance have been found. History books have been rewritten, and some unforgettable television moments have been broadcast. It’s a show I can lose myself in.

On this particular day, I re-watched the episode from the Blaenafon in South Wales. Their task was to find the World’s first Railway Viaduct built in 1790. It carried a horse worked line that moved coal to the first Blast Furnaces. Twenty-five years later, the viaduct had disappeared. The show is a remarkable exploration of what the Industrial Revolution did to the landscape.

As a part of the show, they set up a small blast furnace inside one of the original buildings to recreate the iron making process. It was a small furnace, only a few feet high, not more than two feet in diameter yet they produced enough iron to make a railway wagon wheel.

The penny dropped.

This small portable furnace had produced enough iron to make a wagon wheel. I remembered the furnace at the museum. It was, what 12 feet tall? It too was only a few feet in diameter. How much iron would that produce? There were patterns of all sizes around the foundry walls. Window frames, gear wheels, even signs. 

Within seconds an entire concept flowed out of my brain.

“AminimumgaugerailwayservingasmallfoundryMakingthingslikewindowframesgearwheelssignsandwagonwheelsTherailwaywoulddelivermaterialslikesandcoalandironoreCouldbetransportingfinisheditemsbetweenthefoundryandtheblacksmithsTrainswouldbeshortoneortwosmallwagonsHowaboutoneofthoseHeywoodfoundrywagonsliketheoneinthemuseumatTywynIalreadyhaveaflatwagonbuiltCurlyspokewheelsDammitifyouwantedtobecleveryoucouldputredLEDsinthemodelfurnacetorepresenttheglowfromtheironmaking.”

It’s a good starting point…

 

The planting of seeds

For me, after a successful show, there’s an incredible high. As sure as night follows day. After positive interactions with people at a show and a well running layout, I come away full of enthusiasm and positive ideas. I’m ready for the next great model railway adventure to begin.

Except I have no idea where that adventure will lead me. Bontoft’s is essentially complete. There’s no need for an extension. It was never designed for one. I have a hankering for a couple of other loco’s. There’s plans for a Hudson and a Simplex. But I’m in no hurry. But I’m so full of enthusiasm, I need to do something to channel the energy. 

While on vacation in the UK recently, I saw a couple of unrelated things that may lead to something.

The first was at the National Railway Museum in York. A place I’ve been many, many times. I first went within a week or two of its opening back in 1975, (I was I only 12 at the time). Many of the exhibits I’ve seen before. Some things I’d forgotten, some things never registered with me on previous visits.

This time I paid attention to “Pet”. The John Ramsbottom designed, 18” gauge 0-4-0T. This loco and its brothers shuttled around LNWR Crewe works, doing what modern fork lift trucks would do. Transporting tools, supplies, and items around the workshops. 

The delightful, diminutive, PET

“Pet” is one of those locomotives that never really registered with me back in my earlier visits. It was just a black blob. However, I do recall that when Springside Models brought out their 09 model of “Wren” from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway’s Horwich Works, I was intrigued enough by the space saving qualities of a layout using minuscule prototypes that I bought the kit. But I never developed the idea further. 

In the intervening 50 years, I learned all about minimum gauge railways. The work of Sir Arthur Heywood. The Sand Hutton Light Railway. The Vitacress railway in Dorset. Subjects that fascinated me and led to a very creative period of layout building in Gn15 with Whinny Lane and Purespring Watercress.

I posted the picture of Pet on my model railway Facebook page saying how I was reminded of Chris Rennie’s LocoRemote kit of Pet when he had released it earlier in the year. 

Wouldn’t you know it? The first person to comment on the post was Chris, saying that he still had a last one, and did I want it. I couldn’t back out after that. So I arranged to buy it and a driver “Alf” from David Clavey. 

At this point, I just want to say a huge thanks to Chris (and David) for working together to send things to me in the USA. There are many cottage industry model railway suppliers who won’t ship abroad, what with Brexit and the poor quality of shipping to the USA. (I’ve lost many packages in transit post Covid from different sources). Chris will send things to me tracked and signed for, so there is a trail to follow. David happily sends his items to Chris who then puts everything in one package. To them I am eternally grateful. There would not have been a Bontoft’s Sand Quarry layout without their help.

Anyway, in the middle of the night when I was jet-lag stricken. I’d surf the web looking at pictures of Horwich and Crewe Works internal rail systems, seeing if I could get inspired. I was inspired, but these huge railway workshops didn’t seem to offer much for a micro layout builder.

Look Ian, you’re supposed to be enjoying yourself on holiday. Get back to that.

So to North Wales, a place I have great fondness for. I have adored the Ffestiniog Railway since childhood, and the majestic Snowdonian vistas fill me with awe every time I see them. 

One day, we decided to check out the National Slate Museum in Llanberis. Somewhere I’d never been. I really wanted to see the wagon on a Blondin cable hanging above the flooded Vivian Quarry nearby. The museum is free, it’s a no brainer to visit.

That wagon perched over the Vivian Quarry

The Slate Museum is a fascinating place, full of inspiration for a slate quarry based model railway if you so desire. I was fighting the urge all the time while there, I can tell you. 

As we toured this fascinating place, we entered the foundry, with its furnace and display of patterns, workshop tools and equipment.

The foundry.

The seeds had been planted. I just hadn’t realized it yet.

Tool Time

You will see the new name and web address for the blog and wonder what’s going on. 

Those with long memories, may remember that my first steps in large scale modelling were in 7/8ths inch to the foot scale. But I was overwhelmed by the size and details, and stopped working in the scale long before this blog even started. 

Now that my 16mm scale layout is ready to go to shows, and I’ve absorbed what I can do in 16mm scale. I felt the need to try my hand at some 7/8ths details. I don’t know why, I just felt the need to do this. 

I found some dimensions, and made a large screwdriver, using a couple of thicknesses of styrene rod. The handle was shaped with a file from 1.6mm rod, and the shaft from .75mm rod with the flat tip sliced off with a sharp blade. The end of the handle was drilled out with a tiny drill bit, the shaft inserted, and fixed with styrene cement. All this was done under the view from an Optivisor.

A scale 18” long large screwdriver

I had made a screw driver. I had made a flipping screwdriver! A pretty good looking screwdriver at that. Bolstered by this success, I tried a spanner, (wrench to my American friends). With just as acceptable results. This was cut and shaped from a 2 x 6mm strip. The camera eye is unforgiving in the image. But to me it looks great.

A big old spanner. One for about 3” nuts and bolts.

I’m making tools! I’m starting to feel pretty good, so I carried on. Another smaller screwdriver. The screwdrivers were actually easier than I thought. I followed this with a smaller spanner. Then a couple of crowbars (pry bars) followed. These were actually quite challenging, as the styrene strip was being heat bent almost as far as it would go. Then to finish it off, a Sledgehammer, which was an absolute piece of cake considering what I’d already made. 

A 7/8ths inch scale tool wagon?

After a break for the weekend visiting friends and running in a 5K (1st in my age group, thanks for asking) I added a wood clamp and a tool box. The wood clamp was measured from one that the friends we were visiting had weathering away in their front garden. The tool box is rather more conjectural being made to a size I thought appropriate of about 18” long. Eighteen inches in 7/8th’s is about 33mm. Sizes of items are difficult to get used to.

It was a conscious decision to make the jaws of the clamp open and offset

The tool wagon, it contains full size tools I don’t even own,

There we go, a selection of 7/8ths inch to the foot tools. Made just to see if I could do it. It certainly gives me a sense of achievement. The wagon the tools rest on is the first wagons made for my abandoned 7/8ths inch layout.

Pause, reflect

I've reached that stage.  I'm the vast majority of the way through the layouts construction. It's just detailing work to do. I can add bits and pieces here and there to my hearts content to make the scene looked lived in. Like a place of work should. There's so many little things to be done, or could be done. But what? Time to pause and reflect. Here's some things to think about.

To do: Detail the workshop with tools and other rubbish. Perhaps a delightfully dated, (maybe some will say sexist), pinup poster on a wall. The workshop will need properly bedding in, like all the structures on the layout. In the future, I may also run a short section of panel track into the workshop to model a wagon under repair.

 

To do: Do I need to do more? I could add pipe, or girders, bag of cement, and even more wood to a pile of workplace junk. But would it achieve anything extra to what's already suggested here?

Quite a nice vista. Not a view that the regular layout viewer would see.
To do: Anything? Right now I can't think of anything much. A new viewpoint like this can make you think. How about a rack of steel sections in front of the sheeted over items maybe?

To do: Why is that ladder up against the gutter? Is he going to clear the gutters out? I once had a sunflower growing in one of the gutters of my garage. Weeds in the gutter to add to the scene then. The door does need a handle though.

Just messing around. To do: More tension needed in the weighted down ropes that hold the tarpaulin in place.

This is good. Seriously, I might not ever top this as a vignette where I set out to do something and achieved what I set out to do. Nothing else needed here.

Aerial view. There's a surprising amount of space to fill. If I wanted to, that is.

From this view you can see all three tracks, as set out on Carl Arendt's original Squarefoot estate railway layout.

I have a couple more Binnie skips to build, and as you know I plan to model those as fairly new and free of damage. There's a Motor Rail kit coming from LocoRemote too. Then there's an 'Issing Sid kit to build for fun. All those items will need painting, and it's too cold here in Minnesota to go down to the garage and spray paint things right now. Perhaps I will have to wait until March to do that job. The only truly major task to do is to devise the tipper to fill the wagons. I have a few ideas on that, it just needs fine tuning to fit the location. So perhaps there won't be much activity on here in the coming weeks. We'll see. 

What do you think I could add? Reply here or wherever you were referred from, either Facebook, NGRMOnline, or Voie Libre. I'd be interested in feedback. 

*It should be noted that the figures aren't painted for a reason. My wife wants to paint those. So I'm leaving them well alone.

When a picture is worth a thousand words

Things are coming together

 (Don’t worry, I won’t write 1,000 words).

 It can take a lot to please me when it comes to my model railway projects. I think that may be why I flit from project to project, scale to scale. I’m trying to find a way to create that indefinable "it" quality that I see in other peoples work that drives me on in this hobby. Like when I first saw pictures of the old Model Railway Journal O scale layout Inkerman Street. That layout had the "it" quality for me. So therefore, I reasoned, if I want to produce a model railway with the "it" quality, I must model in O scale. Or if we choose a more up to date layout. James Hilton's Canal Street Wharf also has that personal "it" quality. Therefore I should model in 006.5 if I want to produce a layout with those qualities. Of course we all know that’s not the case. It’s what YOU put into YOUR layout that gives it that quality.

 For me, this new picture of my layout has that quality, the atmosphere that I’m after. It feels like the corner of a yard on a small industrial or estate railway system somewhere. The elements are there. The workshop with tools and equipment on view. (I may yet lay a temporary section of track into the workshop, so I could display something in there). The wall on the left hand side looks the part. It was the correct decision to go with this rather than the hedge I originally considered. The track in the back corner is getting buried up to rail level. I wanted a short section of buried track. I didn’t want to bury it all as I’m quite proud of what I achieved with Plastruct sheet to make the sleepers. I may yet use this back corner for a working tipper feature, as was the original plan and also on Carl’s layout. The corrugated building will be used for loading the skips. Much like the original Squarefoot. I’m very pleased with the way the angled wooden building draws your eye towards the loading shed. 

 Just peeping into the picture is the Landrover view block. That works surprisingly well, The Amberley loco is a little too tall to be totally hidden by it though. Shorter locos are hidden very well.

 In my minds eye I can now see the weeds, litter, and other detritus on the ground all adding to the atmosphere. Buildings need to be bedded in, bargeboards, gutters and down pipes added. Some weathering needs to be done, but its getting there.

The layout is really coming together now.

Calling Arthur “two sheds” Jackson

 That’s a Monty Python reference for you young ‘uns.

Progress ground to a halt on this layout for a while as I couldn’t decide how to treat the left hand side of this micro. I knew that I wanted a shed cum workshop on there, but I couldn’t find a shed to inspire me. Yes, I really do have to be inspired by a shed to build it. I don’t quite know how I found it but a video appeared on YouTube of a German gentleman’s Feldbahn collection. I spent hours on the internet watching his videos and perusing his website in the name of research. Feldbahn in Obersulm is the site, and I heartily recommend it. I don’t understand a word of German, but I found the videos very interesting. His backyard railway would make a great micro layout. He has, on his railway, a workshop, and it spoke to me. It’s a home built thing. Using pressed siding for walls and roof, and though I didn’t have the siding type to match it. I had plenty of different corrugated siding.

A couple of stills showing the workshop/loco shed

That was all I needed. I set to and using the video stills as a guideline. I started. I also had plenty of strip wood in stock, so I could model the framing inside, it would be clearly visible. The most difficult part of the project was deciding how large the shed should be to fit some workshop equipment inside. Construction was quick, just cutting wood and sheet styrene to size, and before long I had a shell that I liked. In my mind, it has the correct homebuilt feel to it.

Workshop shell. Not a match. But the original gave me the push I needed.

The speed of the project quite fired me up and before some of the glue was fully dry, I had a quick test fitting of some workshop equipment, just to see how it all looked. I think it looks pretty good.

The workshop seems to sit well in the scene

The door opening might look tall. It’s a scale 8 feet, and as there is little room for swing doors to open. I may model an up and over door instead.

That quick project has certainly got the momentum going on the layout again. You can now look for more reports as things progress in the near future.

Land Rover as a view block? Why not!

I love a Land Rover

A week or so ago now, my 1:18 scale Landrover arrived. A grand little model. OK, little is something of a misnomer in 1:18 scale. It's close to six inches (150mm) in length. But the series 1 Landy was a small vehicle. By todays standards anyway. 

However, it does eat up a fair bit of real estate on my micro as I found out when I put it where I wanted to, while testing things out on another blocking in session. If I were to put it where planned, it would eat up the space I had in mind for the workshop scene. It would block the view of the layout too much.

Testing out a rock face and the Land Rover

I was a little disappointed. I really wanted the Landy in the layout, and the workshop too, for that matter...

Wait a minute...

Did I just say the Landy was blocking the view?

Then why don't I use it as an intentional view block?

I've been struggling with how to hide the exit to the sector plate for a long time, ever since I started the project. Walls, fences, and now rock faces, have been considered. So why not a Land Rover? I put it in place. Not quite knowing what to expect. 

This is about as natural a looking scene as you can get.

Huddy is small and is easily hidden by the Land Rover

Seriously? Now doesn't that look the part? It only protrudes into the scene by about three inches (75mm) so doesn't eat up a lot of room. Huddy really squeezes by. The fact that the Landy is parked uphill adds another dimension to my mind. 

I'm not entirely sure about the rock face, I think it obstructs the rear building and the forced perspective it creates too much. and may try a fence again. Perhaps it's the unpainted colour of the foam. a duller, dirty rock face might just do it. 

But what the heck, that's for another day.

Today it's Land Rover for the win!

A change of track?

The track is down, and after a few sprays of dull reds and browns. It looks like some rusty old track that's been laid in the country somewhere. 

But where? This really still isn't established yet. I've floated several ideas in the past few weeks. But we're really still no closer to getting the final subject really tied down. Peat. Shale oil. Sea Defences. No idea. Then I saw a post on Claus Neilsen’s Nystrup Gravel Blog about a Land Rover. Now I love Landy’s. The older the better. I have fond memories of riding in an old series 1 Landy with my dad as a child. A Landy on any layout of mine is a good idea. A Land Rover appears on my 00 scale “Nowhere Road Halt”. There are 1:18 scale Land Rovers out there. The temptation is strong. I even did a little quick sketch throwing a Landy in there.

I'm a little unsure of the size that a Landy would take up. A short wheelbase series 1 isn't very big, but in this scale is about 5" long. It would fit in the front corner area that I've drawn it in and it would certainly present an unusual view block. I doubt that the workshop would fit there to though. In that case it could be moved to the rear. 

But putting the Landy in there reminded me of home and my other great rail interest. The Potato Railways of Lincolnshire. I've been planning a Potato Railway scheme for the longest time. Yes. there's even a blog for it out there, untouched for two years. There were about 140 miles of railways serving potato farms in Lincolnshire. The majority of the miles were taken up by two systems. Nocton Estates, near Lincoln and Fleet Farms near Holbeach in the south of the county. But most of the lines were short, barely a couple of miles long, sometimes only a few hundred yards. Lines that ran from the middle of a field to a loading dock alongside a road. Hand worked or horse worked.  There's a fascinating book on the subject by Stewart Squires, that will tell you everything you need to know about even the shortest of lines.

The book contains many inspirational images that I have imagined schemes around. But nothing has stuck. Perhaps in this instance I’ve been trying too hard. I do sense a germ of inspiration here though. I think I need to take another look at Mr Squires book and see what I can find.

Back to the sketchbook

 I made a trip to my local hobby shop (Hub Hobby in Richfield, MN. A 40 mile trip) on Saturday to get some paints to finish off “Huddy”, more on that when it’s finished. While I was there I was rootling through the 1:18 automobile shelves. Let’s face it 1:18 scale is as near as dammit the same as 1:19.05 for 16mm scale. I was still rather keen on a suitably sized car on the layout. A Landy (Land Rover) would be nice, but not surprisingly there wasn’t one around. But what I did see was this:

Do these 1:18 scale tools hold the key to the layout?

Tools. 1:18 scale workshop tools no less. In my blockings in. I had mooted the idea of a workshop in the distance. I like the idea of a workshop scene. I had a very nice one on Purespring Watercress, 

Purespring Watercress workshop

It garnered a lot of attention. Perhaps another one would be in order. With almost scale sized tools, it would be a lot easier. Tool chests, Air compressor, Welding equipment. I looked further and I find that there’s a lot of 1:18 scale automotive workshop equipment out there. 

My mind went to the sketchbook. Now that I have blocked in photo’s that I was very happy with. I could use those as a basis for my iPad musings.

A front three-quarter vision of the layout with workshop

Only the layout operator will get to see this view of the layout

Looking at these I think a workshop scene is a really good idea, and right now I really like the idea of scratch building a 16mm scale pillar drill. It will probably be easier than making a Land Rover.

A workshop scene it is then.

More Blocking In

Wednesday nights blocking in session went really well. A lot of food for thought. This spurred me on for further explorations. 

(1) An overall view. Changes from yesterday might look minimal. But I brought in my 7/8ths inch scale garden shed (now that's a big, little, building) to stand in for the structure I've been calling the boiler house. I like the chimney up front. It helps to create that nook or cranny the viewer can look around to get drawn into the scene. That way I can keep the other structure at the back to reinforce the forced perspective effect.

(2) Down at eye level. The chimney is still nice here and I love the forced perspective in the model. There’s a “layering" of the different scales that I really like. 

(3) Moving the chimney towards the rear is what really accentuates the forced perspective. If I’m honest I think I prefer the chimney at the rear. The chute you can see was for when the building was planned for Cuddle. It tips perfectly into a Gn15 skip. Not so a 16mm scale one. Modification would be in order.

(4)  A Cardboard box stands in for some structure or other. I think a structure here with 16mm scale brickwork would really accentuate the layers of the forced perspective. 

(5) The first picture where I actually don’t like the location of the chimney. I'm feeling cramped. Perhaps something else could be used to create the nook and cranny here.  I did toy with the idea of a 1/18 scale vehicle here, like a Landrover, that was, until I saw the price of one. Don't ask...

(6) Ooh look! There’s a door. I wonder what could be in there? Little details like that ask questions of you and draw you into the layout. You might not be able to see the interior of the building, but you can still be drawn in.

(7) This is a nice view. Properly cluttered up, it could be a nice vignette.

All in all, I think I'm there. I think I have a real idea of how everything needs to come together now. I feel that I may have set myself too much work to get this layout finished for the December deadline of the Cartel challenge. But I think the end product is going to be worth it.