I have used card to model a number of buildings at Barrs Court Station in Hereford. One of these is the signalbox which used to be on the platform there.

The above image comes from the site:

http://chasewaterstuff.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/some-early-lines-railways-around-titley/ it carries the following heading and attribution: 1420 at Titley Junction after a trip up the Presteigne branch in August 1964.  B.J.Ashworth.

Here are some further sites of interest if you want to find out more about railways in Herefordshire:

http://www.photobydjnorton.com

http://www.railbrit.co.uk/location.php?photographer=&loc=Worcester%20and%20Hereford%20Railway&offset=0

http://www.railbrit.co.uk/location.php?loc=Hereford

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/groups/hereford

http://www.miac.org.uk/herefordline.html

http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/SO5140 other grid references may provide other photos.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=photos+of+hereford+railways&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=XP-7Us7PEcarhAepuIDIAQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoATge&biw=1280&bih=916

The internet has been a tremendous boon in undertaking research on Hereford. There are many sites which provide historical details and photographs: facebook pages, blogs, flickr, local government sites, britain from the air, etc.

You can find some of these in my post on Herefordshire’s Railways:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2013/12/25/herefordshire-railways/

In addition, it is worth getting a flavour of the area you intend to model and sites about community life in the area are helpful, particularly when they contain photos and cover the historic period that you are interested in. See, for example:

http://oldherefordpics.blogspot.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Old-Hereford-Pics/42752762059

https://www.facebook.com/OldHerefordRailwayPhotographs

Hereford lies only 15 miles or so from my wife’s parent’s home in Leominster. Over the years I have tried to pick up as many background photos of Hereford as I can. A small selection are reproduced below. Most of my photos have been uploaded onto flickr and can be found by following this link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/91981218@N02/sets/72157639013230415/

In order to get a really good impression of the station at Hereford, I visited a few times and also managed to get others to take some photos for me. The station building is listed and is a significant, unique and easily recognised structure. I enlisted some help in making the building, but more of that another time. I must have upwards of 200 different photos of the station building at Barrs Court!

A number of period photos were of real help. A variety of different photographers have loaded their shots onto flickr – a search for photos on the internet also proved to be quite productive!

I’ve produced a few of the many photos I have, below.

This next set of photos shows progress after a further year. One control panel (for one of the fiddleyards) has been completed and the wiring is also complete. The second control panel, which controls the station area, is being wired up. About 30℅ of the trackwork is in place. The track is predominantly Code 80, as in some places I have had to use 9″ radius curves and points. Points are a mixture of electrofrog and insulfrog. Virtually all points on the layout will be controlled by wire in tube.

This the first in a series of posts about the N Gauge layout which I have been building in the Vicarage loft.

My first task was to create a room in the loft which was properly insulated. The room is about 14 ft long and takes up about 2/5ths of the length of the loft. Once constructed and insulated with a good electrical supply and lighting, I could begin constructing the layout boards. These have been made in sections that will fit back through the  loft access if needed in the future.

The pictures below show the layout boards taking shape.

My interest in full scale railways centres round the railways of Hereford and the county of Herefordshire. The picture above is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford_railway_station and shows a 2-6-0 on pilot duty at Barrs Court Station in Hereford in 1959.

Here are a few links that provide an insight into the railways of Herefordshire from the 1850s to the present day:

http://www.bosci.net/LOWV/LOWV%20history%20railways.htm

http://www.archive-images.co.uk/index.gallery.php?gid=39

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/herefordandworcester/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8683000/8683231.stm

http://www.kingslandlife.com/Pages/Village%20History/Railwayhistory.html

https://www.facebook.com/OldHerefordRailwayPhotographs

http://oldherefordpics.blogspot.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railways_in_Hereford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford_railway_station

https://www.flickr.com/photos/midlandexplorerboy/sets/72157624307645770/

http://htt.herefordshire.gov.uk/605.aspx

http://herefordcityheritage.info/html/railway.html

I have been building an N Gauge model of Hereford Station and MPD in the loft of the vicarage. I hope to share more about this in due course.