Here are some pics of both the 3F and the Cauliflower, as well as the latest state of progress on Coniston;
Johnson/Deeley 3F 3777 is arriving with the latest delivery of coal from Trumpton Colliery whilst Webb 18" Goods "Cauliflower" 8589 is in the loco headshunt awaiting its turn over the ashpit which is currently occupied by Fowler 3F "Jinty" 7309. When it's finished on the ashpit, the Jinty will leave the loco yard via the turntable because the headshunt, unlike that on the original Coniston, won't accommodate both locos.
The eagle-eyed may observe that I've been rather busy on civil engineering of late - bridge bulding, road laying and wall building. I've also been doing a bit of flocking (ooer missus) and foliage planting.
This is a view of the entrance to Coniston station site at the southern end. Level with the 3F is where the retaining wall above the track level ends and the one below starts. Here is where I've adopted modeller's license since the field of sheep and horses "should" be the first of a row of houses but I've decided not to bother with non-railway buildings (at least to start with) so all those below the station site are being replaced with fields. Similarly, the footpath between the retaining wall and an outer wall isn't really so enclosed until further along but I needed something to prevent Mr Satterthwaite's sheep from wandering.
They aren't native sheep so don't know where they can and can't go - although when I've applied some grey and chestnut brown to their bodies they will become Herdwicks, grey being the older ones and brown the yearlings.
Where the step between the two walls is will be the start of a fence running the full length of the site along the top of the retaining wall, I've put the step in at the join of the two retaining walls to give a convenient anchoring point for the end of the fence.
Next we have a closer look at the overbridge and retaining walls for the southern end cutting. For the bridge and all the walls I've photographed the actual things and edited the images to give me correctly scaled scenic paper. This I've stuck to card to give the thickness and topped the walls with a thin strip of stones which I found most appropriate from the various photos I took. I may revisit them to apply the typical Lakeland wall tops - namely pieces of slate fixed vertically crosswise on top - when I've worked out the best (and simplest, coz there'll be a lot of them) way of doing it.
The "tarmac" on the road and also the footpath is 800 grit wet and dry abrasive paper which seems to do the job quite well.
I couldn't be bothered trying to photoshop out all the foliage growing on the real bridge, so I've added flock over the larger bits to give it depth.
The white square behind the red "Pugh" wagon is where the inner home signals will be located - on that square will be a very tall 3-doll home, indicating arrival to platform 1, 2 or 3. On the other side of the running line, just behind the Cauliflower and the buffers, will be another tall post carrying a home signal facing south indicating entry to the goods yard and another facing north indicating that it is clear for a train to enter the single line section to Torver and beyond. Both signal posts were tall so that the signals could be seen from the other side of the bridge. The Langley lower quadrant kits give me the basics but need to be modified with lengths of brass rod to give the added height and also turn their triple junction signal into the 3-doll one with all the arms at the same level that I need. I may even try to get the things working, hopefully.
Finally, here is a general view of this end of the layout, showing the changes to the cliff face above the goods yard, which is no longer a uniform grey and now has the wall and some foliage planted on top.
To the left, the turntable is no longer white - at last. I lined the pit with a length of the same scenic paper I made to do the various walls but was a bit unsure as to how best to do the coping stones around the perimiter. Then I realised how generous the Furness Railway were to use a round arch for the overbridge, so I mirrored the bridge image and carefully resized it so that my turntable surround is actually the arch course of stones from the bridge - cheating, I know, but it serves the purpose.
All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the progress I've managed recently - just got about three times more of it to do to bring the rest of the layout up to the same state.
The only disappointment is the brown "stuff" to the left of the tracks. Natural Scenics describe it as "Slate Grey Scatter - Fine", but I've never seen any slate that colour. I'll either cover it with something more the
right colour or give it a wash or two of very weak blue and grey watercolour to get it closer to what it should be.
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