News from your model shop - Modelling quarry and cement works

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Railway song of the week

"Locomotive” is a jazz composition by the legendary pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, first recorded in 1957. It was recorded during sessions with Art Blakey and Gigi Gryce. The piece showcases Monk's signature approach to composition: quirky, angular melodies and an offbeat, percussive piano style. "Locomotive” is built around a medium swing groove that evokes the rhythm of a train, hence the title. The tune opens with a bold, brassy introduction before settling into a head that chugs along with Monk’s characteristic dissonances and rhythmic idiosyncrasies.

Discover it by clicking on the picture:

If you are looking for an interesting diorama to fill a space or provide interest on your layout, you could do a lot worse than considering a quarry or cement works. Such sites are a great way to fill large or smaller spaces, add lots of operational interest and won't cost you the Earth either. There are four main reasons why quarries and cement works are great dioramas to model and are so popular with modellers.

Firstly, they allow operational realism in a relatively small space. Most sites will consist of a rock face, these add height to a layout (which is always a good thing), but that height can be near vertical therefore taking up no more than a couple of centimetres footprint should you wish to model it as a low-relief construction.

The next great thing about a quarry is that you can realistically operate very long freight trains along a single track branch line.

Thirdly, you don't need massive sidings or a significant amount of space at the terminus, you can convincingly use a silo or conveyer belt system suspended above the track to fill wagons as they crawl through the scene without the trains looking too large or out of place.

Finally, they are not costly to create as most of the scene consists of a rockface, a huge mound of cement or other aggregate and a weedy landscape, the only buildings of any significance are a site office, works and silo making a quarry a much better for your pocket than modelling a small town or village.

In OO gauge, there are several model buildings designed specifically for a quarry scenario such as Gaugemaster's cement works, Wills' weighbridge or a site office like the one by Knightwing. You won't have any trouble obtaining rolling stock either, most manufacturers offer industrial shunters and freight locomotives as well as wagons galore portraying private companies, the Big Four and British Rail eras in both kit form and ready-to-run versions.

 

 

 

 

Once your scene is broadly complete, there are an infinite amount of details you can add to it, from quarry workers to excavators, industrial fencing to engineering scrap like cable drums, conveyor belts and scatter material to create the soil. You will never be short of props or finer detail!

 

 

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