Allan Downes

I know I'm a little behind the times, but I note with sadness the passing of model-maker extra-ordinaire, Allan Downes, in August (having only just noticed a passing mention now I've renewed my Railway Modeller subscription).

For both my dad and I, he was one of the main reasons to race to grab the copy of Railway Modeller when it turned up in the mid/late 70s. His scenery making talents were flat out unbelievable.

If you want a long read, here's a thread of him and almost equally gifted modeller Iain Robinson having a good-humoured 'model off' in RMWeb, that lasts right up to his passing, and is littered with utterly drool-worthy photos of their handiwork.

Inspiration from YouTube

Been trawling YouTube a bit for inspiration: lovely to see how many folks are getting cameras on to their layouts and documenting the build process.

Two I'm particularly taken by:

Everard Junction: entirely NOT my period (1980s Network South-East) but some beautiful, and detail-obsessed scenic work;
Lakeside: again, not quite my period, but he demonstrates (especially in the village) how every little piece of scenery is placed and thought about and detailed, and tells a story.

A little bit of shopping this week produced some more PO coal wagons on eBay, a metre of flexitrack and a point, both in Peco's new code 75 bullhead, and some spare wheels and couplings for the 'make everything run on fine scale track' project.

Aiming to get a board for Longville built as soon as I get my bit of the workshop back next month.