The bucolic silo (N part 22)…

"Adjacent to the station is the goods yard, and my purpose in visiting was to photograph the Blue Circle cement distribution depot there, arranged in advance with the kind permission of the depot manager who seemed mildly bemused at the thought of someone travelling across England in mid-summer, ignoring beaches, banquets and beautiful girls to take photographs of a cement depot..."

The words of Martin Pitt from the first Model Railway Journal compendium open matters today, and it is these words and his subsequent photographs and article that are part of the driving force behind this N scale micro layout that I call Paxton Road. You see I have had the article in my possession for 25 years and have read MRJ regularly although not routinely for that time as well and never, to my knowledge, did a layout based upon it ever surface within the pages of the magazine, despite the closing paragraph from Bob Barlow regarding a 'prize of £25'. So Paxton Road is really an experiment, and with that in mind I've been tackling various challenges with that spirit in mind, the silo had to feature but how to represent it's distinctive profile?

The answer lay in the Ratio catalog, a 4mm scale GWR Conical water tower, turned upside down. It's not perfect, and I dare say my conversion although a satisfactory proof of concept does leave a lot of the finesse to be desired - but that is it, this is a proof of concept. As an idea, it works... success. Yes I could / should have used finer material for the ribs, yes, the conical top isn't the right shape, yes the corrugated material is overscale BUT it has the character of the prototype. I won't go into the ins and outs of it's construction, suffice to say its a mix of materials and ideas from the 'bits left over' box with a set of Ratio N ladders and safety cages which weren't quite long enough! Will I rebuild it? Not for this project, but the bucolic silo, there is mileage left in this idea and I'm sure in time we'll see more about it here or thereabouts.

So there you have it, another chapter on this N scale journey, a short interlude yes, but one that has such character and promise. I am really enjoying this little layout, it's the perfect antidote to my larger projects at present. I'd encourage you all to look at the space you have and whether something N scale might fit and allow you to scratch an itch you've not considered you could accommodate until now? More soon...

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