Workington Show (Solrail) 2024

Again, it was a great experience, and congratulations are due to all the organisers and helpers for putting on such a warm and friendly show. There seemed to be a good turnout of the public, along with many Scalefour members. For me, three layouts that made the biggest impression where; Bruntisland, Alston and Tarring Neville.

Burntisland must be one of the standout modelling projects of our time. A near scale model of the location in a period that entailed all items to be either scratch built or built from kits designed by the crew involved in its construction. It is a phenomenal piece of historical modelling.

Alston is just a brilliant piece of observational modelling with a thoughtful composition of buildings from the actual town framing an accurate rendition of the station at the front in 2mm.

For me, Tarring Neville brought a couple of novel ideas to the show, firstly being able to view the layout from three sides, secondly using cable to hold up the proscenium, giving a clear view from one end. It also was a fine piece of composition with scratch built OO track giving an interesting track plan along with well-placed and built buildings with supporting scenery all in 5’ x 2’. I really admire people that can produce an evocative layout that is interesting to watch all in a small place.

The Workington show (Solrail) was a big event for Rospeath Lane. It was the first outing when I had all components to pack in the car. Two scenic baseboards, two trestles, the support beams along with a good proportion of rolling stock and it all fitted in the car with space available for a toolbox along with small overnight bags. All the planning has been worthwhile…

There are some minor modifications required to the support structure. The proscenium does dip in the middle and the support beams sag a little on the right. Apart from that, it was good to meet many Society members for the first time as well as others I'd met previously. It was especially interesting to talk to two members who have also taken the plunge and entered the Jubilee Challenge.

So now I know it will be a doable project transporting the layout structure in one car with two passengers. I can press ahead with building turnouts and the control panel.

Lighting

Again, I'm possibly getting ahead of myself thinking about lighting for Rospeath Lane. Though I've also been thinking I might need some sort of light for the SolRail exhibition in a week's time. 

The ultimate aim is to introduce a little atmosphere into the layout by having lighting with which I'll be able to replicate a day from dawn to dusk. So, as a start, I've purchased 5M of CCT LED strip lighting with a temperature range of 2700 to 6500 Kelvin. If I'm understanding the description correctly, I'll be able to control the lighting temperature while also controlling the brightness of these LEDs. My belief is the colour temperature at dawn is around 2000-3000 Kelvin, rising to midday at around 6000 Kelvin, then decreasing back to 2000 Kelvin for sunset. 

These LEDs are relatively cheap to some that are available and as such might not give the best result. Even so they should help to prove the concept and allow me to experiment while construction of the layout continues. Just hope they arrive in enough time to be installed for SolRail.

Trees - general thoughts

I’ve always found identifying trees very difficult, even though spending all of my youth growing up in a small rural village then as an adult enjoying many walks in the varied countryside. On my book shelf there are a couple of books on trees which have skeleton diagrams of the different types.  I find using these diagrams alone to identify a tree in winter is impossible as no tree is the same shape even in the same species.  Some suggest that you can identify a tree by observing the colour and structure of its bark. Again, I could not master this technique.  So tree identification is one area of knowledge in which I’m embarking to improve.

The reason which has prompted me to educate myself in identifying trees is the dissatisfaction I have with the trees on Tredethy Wharf.  All trees on Tredethy Wharf are just generic tree like shapes with no perceivable representation of a particular species. The location I have placed Rospeath Lane means I’ll have to try to represent an area of damp/marsh/scrub land at the front with the ground rising at the back towards farmland. To help portray these different areas, I feel there should be ground cover and trees which would thrive in these different habitats. To carry this off will mean any tree will need to look like a particular type with supporting ground cover.

To this end I started to research which trees which are common to Cornwall. So far discovering that Alder and Silver Birch are good candidates for the damp area at the front of the layout along with ferns and wetland grasses. Whereas Ash, Elm and Oak trees with Gorse, Holly for hedging along with grass and brambles for ground cover would be possible for the back of the scenic area.

This post and time spent on thinking about scenics would seem to be too early in the layouts development. My thought is if I know which species of trees I need for the layout I can select certain trees and photograph there structure during the autumn winter months. Then, as the seasons progress take further photos as reference. While out walking the dog I've been identifying and taking note of local trees and there would seem to be a number of Ash, Oak, Beech and Sycamore trees locally. I’ve already identified one Ash tree which I'd like to base an model on. Also our neighbours have a large area of woodland in which they have many Silver Birch and apparently one Alder. 

Possible Ash tree to base a model on