Edinburgh

 Popped into Edinburgh after church yesterday to visit the Edinburgh Model Railway Show.

Passed the site of my primary school, now long gone and replaced with housing , the school was behind the stone wall and had an annex in a big house across the street.

The model railway show was held in Watson’s in a rather splendid building.

I loved this detail of interrupted work or lunchtime.

I am a sucker for water and water wheels on model railways . I always fancied the Faller one with real water.

Nice train and nice countryside, very evocative.

German themed layout with a concert and lorries and cars wizzing by on the roads as if by magic.

More water and lovely boat from the same layout.

Lovely viaduct with second under construction , very interesting.

The steam engine powering the ropes hauling materials for the second viaduct, terrific vignette.

Very small layout but effective with fiddle yards off stage right and left.

Terrific terraced housing with market.

009 society with modules made by members and brought together for the show, a grand idea.

Info regarding the modules.

I found the terrain modelling very interesting and enjoyed a work in progress module very much.

Same can be said of the above.

I ,ike this modules and the way the buildings were made.

What looked like narrow gauge O scale to me but no signage and it was operated by someone who was absorbed running the trains.

Like the pill box detail.

Longish line, looked interesting.

Walking back to the West End I saw one of the best shops signs ever…

Overall an enjoyable visit to the show however no one engaged me in conversation no matter how interested l was and how long l stood watching. An opportunity lost imho.

One conversation l did have was with a hosting club member who l asked a question of. I was directed to another member. This club has part of P D Hancock’s layout and also some of his rolling stock. I was asking when and if they brought it to shows. I was excited to hear it would probably be present at the big Glasgow show in February and maybe at this show next year! A little info here about the collection-

https://elmrc.org.uk/the-p-d-hancock-collection/

https://elmrc.org.uk/dundreich/

https://elmrc.org.uk/p-d-hancock/

Uniforms

 Two new figures were seen waiting for a train yesterday-

A sailor off to sea or returning from the oceans? Note his full kitbag?

A policeman, on duty or off duty , waiting thoughtfully…

One of the mountain goats drops by and quietly ruminates .

Figures were an extremely kind gift from Mark, Man of Tin some time ago. This is their first venture onto the landscape of the PLR. M, Mof T painted these l neglected to say, splendidly bringing out the character of each model. Thanks to him again for them.He added a wire to one leg to help the figures and kitbag remain steady, a cunning plan indeed. Readers be assured these splendid fellows will pop in  and out but will not be subjected to the rigorous faux Cornish winter nor the dark nights.

The great invasion of Craigshire: the invaders !

 I’ve been doing some uniform research into the invaders of Craigshire. I settled upon Norway, then part of the United Kingdoms of Norway and Sweden.

Great variety of uniforms on display in this photo.

Period photo of someone wearing the uniform displayed below.

Great group photo full of uniform details.

I think the Norwegian Army museum sent this and the one below to me years ago.

Illustrations from the time, including some winter equipped soldiers.

These gave me ideas to help me make some Norwegian troops ready to invade Craigshire-

I added a Norwegian flag of the period , l thought it interesting and unique. When my new recruits arrive ( they were meant to arrive yesterday, never turned up and are now scheduled to arrive by the tenth) l will add to the Norwegian forces.

More Craigshire volunteers

I have made up some bases representing small groups of cyclists engaged in scouting activities. They observe , note down salient information and return to their unit or headquarters.

Here we see the command elements of the Craigshire Volunteer Brigade. They are fortunate to have motorised transport. The bellicose figure with drawn sword is the O/C of the brigade. Observant viewers may notice the unique habit of the Volunteer officers of Craigshire - they wear their sword on the left or right as they wish. Regular officers find this to be insufferable in the extreme.

 

On the workbench- The great invasion of Craigshire or Volunteers stand ready !

 One of the classics of railway modelling is by P D Hancock . He is the Grant or Young of the hobby. In his most famous book he created another county in Scotland, Craigshire and used it as a place to create layouts around . Here is one of his maps-

The second map shows how he added land to the map of eastern Scotland in a clever and creative way.

This is the book the maps came from. It is a terrific read and I come back to it again and again. Recently l have been reading these books-

An idea began to form. What if Craigshire had volunteer units and they were engaged in trying to repulse an invader. After all the late 19th century saw Volunteers come to the fore and fears of invasion were rife. I found this in the plastic mountain and I was away gluing and painting-

This handy box of figures provides home service helmeted heads as well as the pith helmets . A look on the internet for volunteer uniform ideas and this is what l produced-

Initially l raised five figure units for  The Portable Wargame with a possibility l might make them 10:man for skirmish games in the future, we will see…

Also l have done some thinking about the identity of the invaders but that is for another day…