Visiting Shelfie 2…

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to have help from good friend Paul at the Doncaster exhibition. On Friday evening after setting up we nipped down to his place to visit the 'man cave' (his words) and see his collection of shelf layouts in the flesh...

I was particularly taken with the colouring and sense of place he had achieved in 'Shelfie 2' and that is what you see here - an empty yard yet full of railway interest. The well observed mix of ground textures and colouration work wonderfully and the soft focus of the back scene trees especially help place you in the clearing, having discovered this small coal loading point.

Our own Kerr, Stuart Victory appears - this is Paul's own model and he has weathered and brought it to life with some bunker wasp striping. Glancing through the gaps in the foreground scene really help break up the view, and Paul can operate the whole layout hands free from the left of the front with a hand held controller and hand held point and magnet operating system. I was very keen to see the Dingham system operating in the flesh, and I was very impressed - I will definitely look to incorporate it on my own industrial shunting layout. Lighting is 3 LED diffused panels that form a lid to the layout. Two at 5000k (each end) and one 4000k (centre) give a balanced but slightly cool tone. I've desaturated these photos slightly to give them a little more period atmosphere, but the layout in the flesh is very effectively coloured and lit indeed.

"I love this path through the back of the scene, I feel as if I've stumbled upon something on a walk in the woods" I commented to Paul.

"Oh, that was an accident".

Proof, if ever it was needed, that sometimes the most successful elements of our creations are those where we move beyond an accident and re-work an area to form part of the story. If you see Shelfie2 on the line up at an exhibition I wholeheartedly recommend you try and see it in the flesh. Steve and I were so taken that we're considering including Paul's layout in future Planet Industrials trade stands as a moving advert for our range of locomotives and stock. Look out for more from Paul on our products and his modelling on his blog, and his fledgling YouTube channel. Until next time though, more soon...

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