Project 1F Part 1
So, I found a pretty cheap Bachmann 1f on Ebay and as usual, attracted to its somewhat out of proportion looks I snapped it up. First stage was to see just how easy the Brassmasters Easychas actually was. Ive used one of these before on my Kirtley but i didn’t use it as intended so this time I decided to do things properly.
For those that don’t know the easychas is designed to fit around the RTR chassis and provide springing. Its designed to be used in 2 distinct ways. The super easy way that uses the original Bachmann coupling rods and brake rigging and the not quite as easy etched version. Naturally I went for the latter. If you decide to go for the former however you can get a sprung P4 (or EM) loco without even having to fire up the soldering iron! As it was the full monty approach only took an enjoyable afternoon to put together anyway. To coin an advertising slogan it does indeed do exactly what it says on the tin!
Bubble part 2
I was kind of hoping to avoid a repaint on the bubble car even thought the lining was closer to a class 121 than a 122, but when tried to remove the number and the roundels (which were off register) the underlying paint came with it so a repaint it was.
I toyed with doing 55012 as it has a local significance. Being one of a few bubble cars that on the Stourbridge Town shuttle had a bit of a problem and ended up hanging over the road (see https://www.flickr.com/photos/69498057@N03/6353358089) but ironically I had already done it for New Street. I don’t recall selecting it specially so 55018 it was instead.
Return to Motorails
A long time ago now I started work on 3 motorail coaches for New Street. The motorail train at 15 coaches will be the longest on the layout. The first coach was relatively easy (the blue and grey one in the picture) but the blue ones stalled because I wanted to do the ones that had Mk1 style divided windows. I got as far as drawing up and etch but never got it actually produced. However Brian of Extreme etches has done a set of window frames for the BG coach and these are the same so i can finally tick these 2 off as well. Some standard GUVs had these windows too so ill be doing some of those as well.
Bubble part 1
I’ve always liked bubble cars (let’s be honest, who doesn’t?) and i recently stumbled across a cheap Lima class 121 so Brettell Road will get a class 122 to play with. Here it is ready for paint.
The roof has had the grooves filled (not sure why lima did this when the retooled the 117 as the roof was the only bit of that model they got right ) with new vents from MJT. The cab domes are spares from the DC Kits 304 kit with my own etched fronts. The exhausts are spares from Dapol (with thanks to Geoff of Western Thunder for pointing out they were available as spares.) and the headcode boxes are microstrip. Buffers are from 51L and the bogies are Hornby class 110 as per most of my DMU’s. Buffer steps are my own etch and the underframe had has some strategic holes drilled in it to open it up a bit.
Tweaks
Afraid there’s nothing new in this post, just tweaks of things already seen. 
Ok so you can’t see this one really but in testing the parcels stock shown last time, this point wasn’t as reliable as I liked. I have a view that all stock should go everywhere and while the parcels stuff probably wont run over this point at shows. it did show up the problem. To be honest its always been not quite right so having tracked down the problem to the nearest point blade the old one was removed and a new one filed up and put in its place. The old one and a few dead chairs can be seen in the ballast and I thought why not let the layout have a bit of its own history, so they are now firmly glued there.
Looking the other way nothing more than a bit of oily track. After the initial coats of track grime and gunmetal I treated it with AK interactive wet effect and engine oil. 
At the recent Derby Show (where we were showing Moor Street) my friend and fellow layout operator Paul pointed out that railcar 14 had lamp irons on the nose. I dunno how I missed this. So given that I hadn’t sorted the horns either (should be 4 not 2) I have set to work. I also found that there were cab end handrails and Dapol had missed the double door handrails as well. 
Another small tweak that I’ve been meaning to do is to sort out the cab side windows on the class 20. The original Bachmann ones slid open and like most RTR gimmicks were a bit naff. So using a spare pair of window frames from Extreme Etches that I had lying around I’ve fixed this little bug bear. 
My Derby lightweight was always a bit of a rush job for Scaleforum. The gap between the vehicles being much too big was the main eyesore! 
Closed up and a masokits gangway fitted. 
Another problem was that the on board lights lit up the cab. Some simple blinds from black paper resolved that. 
Moving on to the warehouse. I’ve finished the guttering and added a low handrail along the top of the wall. Although Brettell Road is set well before the health and safety culture we have now there was still a reasonable chance of a driver falling off the wall! 
A bit of the gutter has fallen off at some point. So some water stains and higher weeds below are the results.
A post post!
Originally I wasn’t going to really have ‘through trains’ on Brettell Road – the through line was only going to be used by the industrial shunter but like most of the plans for this layout it all went a bit wrong. So now that the branch is used by BR as well it made sense to have a short parcels train. I had already done a LMS GUV from the Lima model but in another hark back to my childhood train set I always liked my Lima Siphon G as well. I’m not quite sure what happened to the original one I had but I found a bashed up one on Ebay for a few quid and set to work. 
The Lima body has had the lower vents added from the cooper craft (ex blacksmiths) etch. Kindly picked up for me from Scalefour southwest last year by Steve Carter of the Scalefour Society. The bogies are MJT on the brassmasters frames, as are the buffers, with small steps from the Frogmore Confederacy Range (both available from here). The gangway is a Hornby DMU one which I cut into from the bottom and glued back together to give that characteristic drooped look. 
The other side with some of the vents left open. 
In terms of somewhere for the guard to sit, the good old Mainline LMS BG. just new handrails, glazing and underframe bits on this one.
A couple of RTR wagons from Bachmann. the Grain wagon has had its axleboxes replaces with Parkside spares and the brakes moved to line up with the wheels. Finally below just a few images of my Jinty pottering about. 
A little wander around.
The point of the above picture is nothing more than the drainpipe. Yeah so what? you are no doubt thinking, we’ve seen this stuff before! Well you would be right but modelling this sort of stuff is now a lot easier thanks to some useful bits from Alan at Modelu. See here. I still need to add the actual gutters yet.
Speaking of Modelu a couple of Alan’s figures discuss the latest delivery of real ale to the pub. The chaps umbrella is actually a parasol intended for Z gauge. The lights and indicator on the lorry do work as can be seen in this little video of a wander around the layout.
For those who like to see things, here’s a daylight version too!
Finally a couple of images starting with Brettell road trying to impersonate a small depot somewhere! 
Moor street bridge and its little known history.
This is the view of the real inspiration behind Brettell Road. This is taken from Moor Street bridge looking towards Brettell Lane/Stourbridge. The remains of the sidings can just be made out to the right of the running lines. There is nothing to show it now but this location was, in 1858. the site of what was, at the time, Britain’s worst rail disaster.
The story starts on the morning of the 23rd of August and the The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway Company (which was known as the worse and worse, a nickname it never lost) had organised a day trip for Sunday School children from Wolverhampton to Worcester. In the event the ticket offices mostly ignored the instruction that the trip was for school kids and many sold the tickets to anyone. The train set out from Wolverhampton made up of a tender loco, 24 4 wheel coaches and a guards van (info is sketchy it seems that the guards van was a good van although apparently some guards coaches were included in the train).
It picked up passengers and vehicles along the way as by the time it arrived at Worcester it was made up of 2 locomotives, 42 coaches and at least 2 brake vans. The outward journey hadn’t been without incident as they had coupling failures at Brettell Lane, Hagley, and Droitwich. It was estimated that there were between 1500 and 2000 passengers on board when it got to Worcester. The train was examined by the inspector of rolling stock at Worcester, the repaired or replaced side chains were replaced by four-link goods couplings before the return journey, but no attempt was made to repair or replace failed centre couplings as the inspector considered that a re-made screw coupling was weaker than the goods couplings.
For the return trip the train was divided into 2, the first being made up 2 tender engines, 28 carriages, and 2 brake Vans (one at each end). The other was made up one tender engine, 14 carriages and a brake van. The second train followed the first 15 minutes behind. The line was worked on the interval system, in which trains were allowed to follow the previous train without positive confirmation that it had reached the next station, relying instead on it having been an adequate time interval ahead at the last station. The guard on the first train was a man called Frederick Cook who it was alledged had allowed passengers into the brake van and even let them operate the brake while he played cards and drank with them. He was normally tasked with being the guard on freight trains and might not have been all that suited to passenger work.
The line from Brettell lane rises on a 1 in 75 gradient towards round oak so the second train had an additional engine added to cope with this at Stourbridge. It was after 8pm when the first train arrived at Round Oak, the second arriving at Brettell lane at about the same time. Reports say it was dark and there was a lot of smoke blowing across the tracks from the local factories. The train of the first crew hadn’t spotted that another coupling had broken and 17 coaches and the brake van, with about 450 people on board were now rolling back towards Brettell lane. A porter tried to chase the carriages but they soon became to fast for him. The last hope was that the guard would stop the train. Frederick Cook was not on the train though, he was on the platform.
A telegraph message was sent the staff at Brettell Lane to warn them. Unfortunately the second train was actually departing the station at the time and the telegraph was missed. The second train was struggling with the incline and when the driver did spot the runaway, very late, he slammed on the brakes. Hit train slowing to 2mph at the point of impact. The free coaches were doing about 16 mph but construction at the time meant that the brake van and 2 coaches as good as disintegrated. 12 people died in the crash, 150 were injured of which 2 would pass away later. All of the victims were on the first train. The driver of the second was said to be ‘shaken’. His loco had its buffers ripped off but was otherwise not too badly damaged.
Amazingly several hours later the track was cleared and the 2 trains carried on their journeys to Wolverhampton. Some of the injured getting back onboard as they just wanted to go home.
Frederick Cook claimed at inquest that he never left the train, that the brake hadn’t held the train and he had jumped for his life at the last moment. He changed his testimony when it was established the brakes were off and he looked remarkably clean and uninjured for someone who had apparently jumped from a train doing 16 mph! Test showed the brake would have held the train and he was charged with manslaughter but acquitted. Some alledge the jury was bribed.
The view looking towards Round Oak/ Wolverhampton
Tweaking the lighting and yet more rain.
I wasn’t all that happy with the positioning of the yard lamps shown last time. The one on the right masked the tail lights on the lorry (as several people didn’t notice them) and it didn’t do enough to light up the entrance to the yard. Leading a couple of people to enquire how the lorries actually got in. So I’ve had a bit of a fiddle. 
I’ve moved the light further along so that the back of the lorry is in shade. This on its own didn’t do enough to illuminate the gate area so…
I’ve added headlights to the lorry. (this picture was taken on a phone). They are much to bright really but you can’t see them from the front of the layout anyway. 
Here is what I was aiming for. Again its too bright for a lorry of that era but I’m happy with a bit of artistic licence for effect. You can see the difference when the headlights are blocked (on the left).
I have also been busy with more AK interactive wet effects fluid. Below are a few overviews that give a better hint of the rain. 
Finally another video, time for another cuppa and a biscuit!
Return to the factory
Although the factory was essentially finished for Scaleforum it lacked the clutter that gives it an ‘in use’ look. Unless the workers were meticulously tidy I suppose. So I have gone back to make a bit of a mess. The image above is the before shot…
…and the after. 
I’ve added a wall and gate to the entrance. The old lorry was featured earlier. 
The wooden boxes are from 4Ground models. I knocked up a rudimentary travelling crane from bits of brass and plastic. The discarded machine tools were 3 d prints and originally intended to go inside the building but I thought they were a bit too nice to hide away so I weathered them up an dumped them outside. 
Another crane from bits of brass and some basic yard lights. Below are a few images of the factory at night. The yard lights do provide a bit more light to the centre of the layout. 
2nd April 2018
I’ve added a gallery of images taken or Brettell Road’s debut at Scaleforum last year. I would like to thank the photographers for kindly allowing me to use their images.
Hoppers finished off and a few other things.
I’ve finished off the hoppers I was working on. Here’s the coke hopper in the company of the previous one I had already done. As the older one is an LMS version I revisited the weathering to make it look a little more used. 
The 13ton hopper 
Mackerel with a gannet and herring. 
A few I haven’t mentioned before. The M. E. Evans one is a Bachmann collectors club model in memory of Merl Evans. I spent a very enjoyable day at Tysley with Merl surveying a couple of class 150’s so this little wagon seemed a no brainer to me. Straight wheel and coupling swap with a bit of weathering. The ED wagon is a Powsides kit for one of the Earl of Dudley’s fleet. Another no brainer. Whether either wagon would have lasted to the late 50’s I dont know.
Finally I was directed to this neat little book. 
OK it’s not Birmingham and it’s not even West midlands but if you are, like me, a fan of what I call ‘urban grim’ (I guess most people aren’t here because they like pretty layouts) then you might find this right up your street. No text, just a lot of super atmospheric pictures.
Whats the opposite of green fingered?
After Scaleforum i became aware that the vegetation on Brettell Road probably was a bit to green and lush for a late October setting. To remind you roughly what it looked like back then here are a few images from earlier in the layout build. 
Ok so it wasn’t exactly late spring or anything but armed with some scenic sheets from Martin Welberg and some more muted static grass from WWS supplies I set to work making it all look a bit more, well, dead! 
As you can see I’ve made he disused line look a lot more overgrown. The eagle eyed will spot a bit of extra iron work supporting the wall. I always intended to add this from the early days of the layout. 
I’m happier with it now.
A hopper hat-trick.
3 hoppers via 3 different routes. On the left a coke hopper from the old Three Aitch kit. I’ve already done one of these and this follows the same pattern of using Bill Bedford W irons.
In the center also a kit but a brass one from Dave Bradwell for the BR 13 ton hopper. A fun if not sometimes tricky kit to build. Dave Bradwell kits
On the right a mackerel ballast hopper converted from a Hornby trout, again with Bill Bedford w irons. I make no claims for the idea behind this as I first saw it on Kier Hardy’s EM 70s website. Click here
March 1st 2018
Good news for wagon builders. You probably know that the Parkside range passed to Peco last year and for those of us working in EM or P4 we were left wondering what would happen to the wheel swap service that they used to offer. Well is seems that Eileens Emporiam has come to our rescue. Following is from their Facebook page;
“Since Peco took over the Parkside range, I became conscious that availability at Finescale shows and in particular with Wheel Swap to EM and 18.83 was going to be an issue. After badgering Peco very heavily they have finally decided to let me have an account (this was alluded to in March RM, but no names mentioned), so I am very pleased to report that Eileens Emporium will be stocking Parkside products.
Orders have now been placed with Peco for the complete range of 4mm kits and parts, all 2mm kits and selected 0 Gauge kits. Also ordered are suitable Gibson Wheels and requests in for relevant Transfers from Modelmaster.
The Parkside kits will be added to the website over the next few days and stock is expected around the middle of next week. The website listings will have options for wheel swap to EM and P4 as well as multi pack pricing for quantities of 4 and 10.
The Parkside range is large so it will take us some time to build up the stock levels up to those that we want to hold, so we strongly recommend pre-ordering for show collections with at least 2 week notice.”
Out and about in March
March sees the first exhibition for one of the now 3 layouts i am involved with. Calcutta Sidings 2 will be at Ally Pally this year. This is Calcutta’s only appearance for 2018 so please stop by for a chat if you are going.
https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/shows/show/the-london-festival-of-railway-modelling/
The upcoming shows page is currently up to date if you want to see what we are up to.
http://box5206.temp.domains/~pfounew2upcoming-shows
Finally I have limited stocks of lineside troughing back in stock. Unfortunately the cost from the etchers has nearly doubled since I last stocked up but if anyone needs any drop me an email. http://box5206.temp.domains/~pfounew2contact_me
Werble
No I’ve not gone completely mad!
Werble is an app for adding animation to photos. Since Brettell Road is supposed to be set in the rain it would be rude not to!
End of the year – end of a sub project
With 2017 drawing to a close I have also (nearly) finished off the road vehicles I will need for Brettell Road. Despite having 5 bridges over the railway I’ve resisted the urge to do any buses to put on them and I also haven’t done any cars either.
Above is the latest and last batch.
Starting with some kits. On the left a resin Ford Thames 400E from Road Transport Images and on the right a white metal ex military Austin 3 ton dropside from MMS. Unfortunately MMS have now closed so this kit is no longer available.
I found this part built Langley models kit on eBay for next to no money. Its a 45cD tractor unit from the very late 30’s and once disassembling the more sketchily assembled bits I decided that it once belonged to one of the business owners. Some sort of engine fire meant it got dumped but with the intention to restore it to its former glory. However it ended up forgotten and is now rotting away. The tarp is from a black latex glove and I attacked the inside of the front mud guard with a burr in a minidrill to depict the rust working its way through. The rear mud guard is hanging on for dear life as well and some parts have now long gone. 
Finally a Leyland Steer from a combination of base toys bits. I find these lorries quite intriguing with their (to my mind) odd wheel arrangement. The base toys Steer has a different cab to this so I swapped it from an ‘8 legger’ box van. If you look at the inset picture you can see that I’ve widened the wheel arches and reprofiled the front windows to get something looking more like the pictures I found of the real vehicles. I could have done more with the chassis but where its going you wont see it. Wheels are from Road transport images.
Return of the rain
Up until now I have been using various gloss varnishes to attempt to make Brettell Road look wet. The results have been somewhat mixed especially on the ground itself. So I’ve given a few AK interactive products a try, still water and wet effect. Here are a few pictures of the results so far (Yes it is dry)
The Still water is a self levelling resin and it’s quite thick. The wet effects is an enamel. What you see in the pictures is a mixture of both products.
Dapol GWR Railcar, finished off
I can draw a line under my Dapol GWR railcar project as its now weathered and finished. The new numbers came from Steve at Railtec transfers (click here). Here are some pictures of the end result.
More on bananas, couplings and a short time lineside.
With the motor sorted out I cut away the molded hump (as well as the seats) and added a new floor from 20thou plasticard. The replacement seats were from DC kits (I think). The interior was then sprayed a reddish colour as that’s what pictures seemed to show. I added some curtains (drawn up in photoshop and printed) along with 3 passengers – Brettell road being very sparsely used by the public.
Although I will be keeping the railcar as no14, I removed the numbers in preparation for adding the later off white version at the other end to the way Dapol had them. The numbers came of very easily with a spot of turps substitute on a cotton bud. Be very careful around the lining as that comes off almost as soon as you look at it!
Returning to the coupling conundrum
If you remember I was toying with the idea of using a UV torch for my coupling pole but the one I had gave out a lot of visible light. I’ve upgraded to a much better UV laser torch and since photographing it is quite difficult I did a video instead. I did try adding a filter to block the visible light completely but it made it extremely hard to use.
On the subject of videos, may I invite you to get a comfy chair and a mince-pie and spend a while line side watching a bit of shunting. (this one is all diesel)
The Dapol flying banana – part 2
As mentioned last time I planned to use a Brassmasters 7ft bogie for the none powered end of my GRW railcar. 
The Brassmasters bogie is longer overall than the Dapol one – you can see the adjusted one at the top of the picture. 
Here is the bogie in position with pick ups on the far side. The near side picks up through the bogie itself. If all you want it a p4 railcar then you can stop here. I tested mine at this point and all seemed fine but its worth noting that the pickups are wired the opposite way round at each end. The red wire at this end goes to the opposite rail at the other. A bit odd!
Naturally I didn’t stop there. This is the interior without the body. That huge moulded lump has to go. 
The culprit is this huge motor. No idea why its this big, the thing only has to move itself and you can’t couple it to anything anyway! The Mashima sitting on top is a 1020.
The good news is the motor and its mounts simply unscrew from the underframe. I mounted my 1020 on a bit of 80thou plasticard and on the floor. By moving the motor back from its original position you can mount the flywheel lower too. A bit of 1.5mm ID/ 2mm OD tube meant I could use the original flywheel which contains the universal joint. The drive shaft was cut in half and lengthened with a bit of tube. There’s a small lip in its channel at the motor end that needed to be ground away. While I was hacking the chassis about I cut a hole to allow me to represent the engine. Spares from the Heljan class 128 underframe sprue did the job. 
Next, the interior and finishing.
The Dapol Flying Banana
Dapol have recently released a 4mm scale model of the GWR streamlined railcar. The model depicts one of those ordered in January 1935 to lots 1546 and 1547 meaning it can cover railcars number 8 to 16 (number 17 was ordered at the same time but was a parcels version). Overall first impressions are good. Not being all that familiar with the real thing it looks the same as the pictures in ‘The History of the Great Western A.E.C. Diesel Railcars’ by C.W.Judge. There are a few things that stand out immediately though as room for improvement. The interior isn’t great being a 1 piece moulding with a huge lump in the middle to over the underfloor (well below the window line anyway) motor. With something with such big windows this isn’t ideal. The bogies look very under nourished.
First steps in converting to P4
The model uses a single driven bogie which has split axles, picking up through the bearings. The other end is a more traditional coach type bogie with wipers on the backs of the wheels. You might be able to use the Branchlines class 108 conversion for the power bogie as it looks a similar arrangement but as I didn’t have one I can’t say for sure.
I used standard wheels and drilled the center gear out 2mm to fit. I disconnected the wire from one side and used a little bit of copper clad and phosphor bronze wire to arrange new pick ups.
At the ‘trailing’ end things don’t looks so easy. The bogie is very, very narrow. No doubt a compromise to allow any sort of swing on the full skirted versions on 00 curves. You can see from the picture that a standard 26mm axle is wider that the bogie. You might be able to fit P4 wheels on the original axles as they do just about fit between the sideframes but…
… lets face it the super skinny bogies look more than a little bit naff. The quite low relief details really don’t help either. No doubt another compromise for the skirted models. 
The powered end has plug on sideframes, like a Heljan diesel so these can be easily spaced out to something approaching the real thing. The difference is quite marked to my eye for as good as no effort.
This is the driven side after its been re-spaced – the additional drive details go some way to mask the low relief nature of the basic sideframe.
I await a Brassmasters 7 ft bogie to redo the trailing end with new pickups which should kill both of the problematic birds with the same piece of small aggregate!
EDIT – Tony on the scalefour society forum has tried the Branchlines class 108 conversion and reports they don’t fit.
Weathering track – some thoughts
One topic that seems to come up fairly regularly on forums and Facebook groups is weathering track. I thought I’d do a mini article on my thoughts and how I approach this subject. As always other methods apply.
The prototype
As with any modelling activity you need to look at the real thing if you want to copy it. You don’t necessarily need to understand it and the advice model what you see, not what you think you know applies. If you are modelling a real place then the jobs pretty much done for you but it pays to look at references as close as you can to the timescale you are modelling. 
Even when track is brand new it actually isn’t. this was taken a few days after they relayed the eastern end of new street. Note the use of wooden sleepers, not all brand new track uses concrete or steel sleepers. The rails are very rusty and there’s already evidence of the trains using it. The visible colours of he pandrol clips wont last long. 
Some plain flat bottomed track that to any modeller would be considered clean. things to note are the welds where it was joined, the rail colour has spread to the sleepers in places and some of the ballast is on top of the sleepers. I’ve found when it come to track being really neat isn’t always he best thing. Its subtle but look at how the 2 rails are not the same colour. The inside face seems dustier than the outside. 
The weather changes things – the rails look very dark because they are wet. The wetness seems to mask some of the subtleties seen in the previous picture. 
Around points things have to move and as such they are greased. Note how the grease from the rod passing under the rail has manages to creep onto the web of the rail above it? The rail dust is visible around the baseplates and the third rail is a completely different colour to the running rails. 
I include this picture because it illustrates an important point. 2 tracks can be side by side and look different. There are many reasons for this. The tracks might be different ages. The trains might be doing something different depending on the direction they are going. If they are braking then there will be more brake dust. The trains themselves might be different too, loaded freight trains that carry loose material do tend to drop things and push dust along with them. If your line had a heavy use of a particular type of train then the material itself can affect the look of the track and distort its colouring. Also track weathering is directional. As the trains move along they tend to push any dust or debris along with them. As we run on the left in the UK the left hand line will tend to look the dirtier of the two when looking away from you. You can see this effect here and it pays to weather your track in the direction the trains are moving for best effect.
Modelling it.
If I am using wooden sleepers then I tend to lay the track first then give it a base coat of a mucky brown colour. I use JLTRT track colour but I’m not sure if you can still get it. Halfords do a decent matt brown in their range of camouflage spray paints which is good as well. You don’t need to be too precious as it is just the base colour. I then paint the rail sides with either Humbrol matt leather (look for tins with the union flagon the side, the others are weird and too green) or Revell 84 before ballasting. You can get a little tool for paining rails that consists of a little roller fed from a reservoir. To be honest I tried it ans didn’t get on with it. A nice flat brush seems much easier. Do all this before the ballasting. 
Flat bottom track on New Street. It was pretty new in 1987 and the rails had a distinctly different colour to the bullhead stuff. As its bi directional i sprayed the track from both directions. Firstly with a light coat of Revell 84 and then a mix of gun-metal and black. Note the grease around the fishplates done with the same colour and a simple card mask to prevent overspray. 
Sidings outside New Street signal box, It pays to have all the scenery immediately next to the track in place before the weathering. Overspray onto these elements is something that would happen in real life. Note much more gunmetal/black colour where the loco’s stand. 
Make sure that you repaint the checkrails once you’ve cleaned the rail tops A black sharpie is good for keeping them dirty or you can chemically blacken them as well. 
Close up of the end of a double slip. 
Older sidings on Brettell road. I used my finger to ‘smudge in some powder paint to the ballast to give the less cared for look. Some static grass gives an impression that the yard is losing the battle with nature. While in some cases weeds can creep into sleepers or even force their way through them it pays not to have your greenery on top of them.
Its all pretty simple stuff really but as I said at the start, observation is the key.