I do understand the simple pleasures of Ready to Plonk stuff (RTP). The idea of opening a box or packet from your model shop and adding to the layout without anything to do. It’s where we all started from I guess. Building New Street RTP had been a rare occurrence on the scenic side and actually comes down to just 2 instances so far where I have used something as supplied without having to modify it or scratchbuild.
On the left the Bachmann traffic bollards and on the right GPO relay boxes from Unit models. In last years new releases from Bachmann I thought there might be another opportunity for some more RTP activities with the announcement of the humble grit box. With no rush on these but knowing I needed some I decided to wait and see but sadly what emerged seems to be a design I havent seen before and certainly not the sort found on the platforms of new Street. (hey there was a chance it might have been, admittedly a slim one!) Bachmann’s commercial skip bins were another potential but the design is too new sadly.
So armed with a few bits of plasticard and some yellow paint and some dimensions from the website of a company that supplies the real thing. I set to work to make my own. The results are below.
Hi Jim
I think we all wish for those bits and bobs that would do for our layouts. Bachmann announced a two road diesel shed, a refuelling pint, fuel tanks, a loco washer and sand hopper. Great I thought for my next layout. The shed was a WR one, the refuelling point maybe ScR, enough said about the tanks, the loco washer wasn’t ER so did bother to find out what they modelled it on and the sand hopper was a LNER type used at diesel depots converted from steam sheds. The best model was the shed, itself a compromise of the two sheds at Ebbw Junction. Anyone building Ebbw Junction has a head start on us scratchbuilders. Sometimes it is best to be a scratchbuilder.
Bachmann recently released some diesel tanks and a little office that’s a spitting image of the one at Buxton, which would have tempted me to buy it had the price not been astronomical! The irony of the situation is that the tank is literally just that, with a wall around the edge. I’d only have bought it for the metal steps and rails.