Buildings & Railway Structures on Archie’s Yard

Engine Shed

This is an embossed plastic kit from Ratio, painted with acrylic paints. The crew of the tank engine have paused between tasks, before topping up with coal and water. The background buildings, water tank and arched wall are from Scalescenes kits. The coaling stand is scratch built and contains real coal.

Coal Office & Yard

The office is an embossed plastic kit from Ratio, with a good coating of grimy acrylic paint. The coal staithes are card and have real crushed coal in them.

Goods Shed

This was built from the Scalescenes card kit, with added goods and internal lights.

Archibald’s Storage Warehouse

This is using the Scalescenes low profile card kit. Archibald is worried about the cost of the repairs to the roof that the builder says are urgently needed; he would rather have a new car.

Background Buildings

These are all built from Scalescenes card kits. They are all low relief versions and will eventually be used on my main layout.

The sky and moor backdrop is printed from a series of panorama photographs - Yes I know it should really be of a town scene, but this is what I have to hand; Archie’s Yard was only meant to be a quick lash up !

This gallery show the buildings in more detail, and included are some night time photographs, as most of the buildings have small bulbs fitted and contain internal details.

The Engine Shed with tank loco waiting to carry out shunting operations.

The coal staiths are made from card, and are stocked with real crushed coal, fixed with PVA adhesive.

The terraced house backs are low relief and are fitted with internal lights, as are most of the buildings.

. . . more fragile than the usual wire formers, but I think they look more realistic, and don't need painting.

This night scene shows all the buildings on Archie's Yard.

. . . nobody lives in the whisky warehouse.

The Engine Shed is an embossed plastic kit by Ratio, painted with acrylics.

This is the Goods Shed, again a Scalescenes kit, with added goods made from scraps of card.

The factory is a modified low relief version of the Scalescenes kit; fitted with internal lights and indication of machinery.

Another view of the left hand end of the model.

The Engine Shed is well lit, and has the back doors open as it is summer.

The terrace is getting ready for bed . . . . . . .

Most of the buildings are card kits produced by Scalescenes; the surface finishes are photo quality prints.

Archibald is worried about the cost of the roof repairs; he rather had his eye on the latest Jaguar model, but that may have to wait.

The group of tall buildings are on top of the sector plate and have internal lights.

The grey four storey building is a Whisky Warehouse . . .

By comparison the coal office is a bit dim, but still casts a nice glow from its window.

. . . . so some are working a late shift.

The coaling stand is scratch built from card, and is stocked with real coal.

The Archibald & Co Storage Warehouse, is again a low relief Scalescenes kit. The ladder is white metal casting by P.D.Marsh.

The goods train is limited by the length of the hidden sector plate to loco, three wagons and guards van.

In front of the tall buildings is the water tank for the locos.

The Goods Shed is also brightly lit with "grain-of wheat" filament bulbs in the roof - 12v bulbs run at 9v.

. . . . . but the factory and goods shed are still lit . . .

The coal office is a Ratio plastic kit; heavily dirtied with acrylic washes, only this and the Engine Shed are plastic buildings.

The cattle truck is from a plastic kit, hand painted. The car is an excellent model of an SS Jaguar by Oxford Diecast.

The trees are made from Woodland Scenics foliage glued to twigs of heather . . . .

. . . Dewar's Whisky - of course ! - ( small blue sign just visible over the water tank )

The ware houses are mostly lit upstairs, in the accomodation floors . . .

The lighting is by small filament bulbs, either the grain of wheat or the even smaller grain of rice size. They are 12v bulbs run at 9v, for long life and subdued glow. I find that even the warm-white LEDs are rather harsh by comparison, also with bulbs you do not have to worry about polarity of the feed.

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