A Bowaters Layout

In my last post I mentioned I'd got a book on the Bowaters railway of Sittingbourne, inspired by my friend Rob who plans to model this line in 009. I've been looking through the pictures and soaking up the atmosphere of this characterful line, I knew little of it before but now I can see why Rob has been inspired to capture the system in model form.

Now Rob has started his own Blog to chronicle the planning and building of his model. Although he had ideas of a large layout of the whole system in his garage, he has now decided to start small and build a series of modules, and has a plan for the first one. Each can be a complete, operational, and exhibitable layout in it's own right, but together a picture of the whole system will be built up. I think this is a great idea as like me, Rob has work and family commitments for his time, but the modular approach means a completed layout will be achieved sooner. Also the models will not claim to be accurate renditions of exact spots - without a lot of space and time that would be impossible - but will aim to capture recognisable features and the character of the locations. I can't wait to see this layout progress!

If you have enjoyed seeing Rob's work with an airbrush and paintbrush, he has set up another Blog to showcase his talents in this area, and is open to commissions for both painting and kit-building.

Steam without Fire?

No, this isn't my work! Last Friday I made it to a Sussex Downs 009 Group club night, where my friend Rob Kaczmarczyk was showing off (and test-running) his latest work. It's a model of a fireless loco, if you are not familiar with them (they were pretty rare) they had a large tank of high-pressure steam which was charged from a fixed supply (e.g. a factory boiler), allowing it to run for several hours. The lack of fire meant no smoke or sparks, useful for working into buildings and not setting fire to things!

This model is of a loco that worked the Bowaters Paper Railway, now known as the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway and has a preservation society. Rob is keen to build a model based on this system when it was still industrial, and capture the run-down atmosphere. Like me he is limited by family and work commitments right now, but we were chatting about possible micro-layouts in the meantime!

As you can see from this model Rob has a gift for painting and weathering, which I can only admire! The model was not fully assembled after painting (so if the cab and hand-rails look wonky that's why), and these photo's were taken on my phone so are pretty poor (the green is not quite that lurid in reality!), but even so Rob's skill at capturing that dirty, workaday, wiped-with-an-oily-rag look can be seen. I should also point out that Rob has done a lot of work to the original kit to achieve the detailed model seen here.

Next time I need a model loco painting I think I'll be talking nicely to Rob!