Lochhead, a oo scale railway

A few weeks ago I got a couple of Dapol unpainted gunpowder vans. They aren't the best detailed models but for the price they will do me. I've now replaced the spoked wheels with 3 hole ones, added cast buffers, vacuum cylinders and tie bars from small brass angle. I still need to add instanter couplings and vacuum hoses, sometime over the next few days hopefully. They have also had a coat of paint but still need lettering Up to now I'm happy with how it's turned out, now to finish the second one

These are parkside kits of the southern cct parcel vans, one is the plywood version, the other 2 being the planked ones. I made the bodies up at work this week during the evenings, primed them yesterday and got the first coats of blue on 2 of them. Hopefully these will be finished next weekend other than the lettering.

I haven't had much time for modelling this weekend but something I've been thinking about since I started this is how to control the points. I eventually want to use a lever frame so need something to throw the switch blades. This is what I've come up with It needs a few tweeks but it seems strong enough. During the week at work Ive had a play around with some card and brick papers (Scalescenes) to try and make a small weighbridge hut for the coal yard. Its still needs a bit more doing to it but its almost there. I want some grain wagons and had a couple of old triang ones from years ago so thought I would see if anything can be made of them. Ive removed some moulding from the bodysides where the sign used to go and also removed the underframe clutter. I will add a bottom to the hopper later. Ive also removed the moulded buffers and will replace them with cast metal ones.

After a break of around 12 years I returned to railway modelling last year but the boards on my first attempt warped a bit during winter. As a result I decided to make a new layout using ply instead of mdf and also make it a little smaller. For the trackwork I have used copper sleeper strip and code 75 rail as I had a supply of this left over from a previous em gauge layout. The overall size is just 8' x 16" on 2 baseboards.