Progress on the creamery - 1

For the past month, most of the work on the layout has been scenic. The two exits to the fiddle yard  have received some effort, if only to hide the 'mousehole'.

 
The creamery area that provides some much needed traffic for the layout and helps to disguise the blue view blocker has been busy. 

 The white areas are pieces of shaped foam board that will be blended into the adjacent scenic shapes, they will provide much needed subtle contours rather than featureless flat boards. All will be painted in earth coloured flat latex paint before receiving layers of grass and other vegetation.

Q class - old skool kit nemesis

This is 30548, a old favourite from Bournemouth, it used to work on the S&DJR up to Salisbury and here it is drifting down the Parkstone bank.

Been here before, with another Q which started as horror story only to become a fairy-tale ending, therefore no surprises.

This time it starts here:-

and it should end here, below, albeit in BR livery as 30548

via here plus a shed load of bits

The good news:-

• All main bits are present
• Full set of Romford nickel-silver flanged driving wheels
• A spare Bachmann N tender body 

The bad news:-

• New SEF etched chassis and motordrive are needed
• Bachmann N tender chassis is needed
• Lots of better details and hard work are needed

And no doubt, Hornby will announce a Q class as soon as it is finished.

Rural 1950s outdoor living

Sorry to bang on about about rural life in the 50s, however, these images are a version of today's utility room. Our family had a separate outhouse with wood-fired 'copper' used for the washing, a Belfast sink with water pump and a wringer. 

It was lovely and warm in winter, spotlessly clean. In the 80s, all the gubbins was replaced with an automatic washing machine in the kitchen and the outhouse was turned into an office.

Rural laundry in the 50s

The scullery.

The other outdoor activity, associated with domestic chores and supposedly for washing dishes and preparing the vegetables. It was also where coats were hung up to dry,  wellingtons were left and dogs were washed.

The white device is the Ascot water heater, a luxury that ran on town gas, it started with a rather satisfying 'wumpf'.

Anyway, look at the images and think about using them on your steam era layout.

Finally, this is my rural outhouse. If you look really carefully, you will see the upper half of the door is open, unfortunately the detailed interior is not visible. The image is about three times the actual size.