Not what I'd originally planned for this week, but by pure chance after posting the Alton Towers inspired 009 layout plan last week I found myself heading back into Staffordshire on Saturday for the evening. Deciding to make a day of it I stopped off at Oakamoor and walked towards Alton along the old Churnet Valley Railway trackbed, now converted into a trail.
Having a little look into what was the old station yard at Alton, now an access road for a water treatment works, an old yard office was hiding in the trees behind a wire fence. It bares a striking resemblance to the Ratio OO yard office, particularly the curved window top. This is also a really good demonstration of why when I pick out individual slates on the roofs of my buildings I use a black green and a grey green. Standard grey shades makes them look a little too clean to me.
Unlike the Ratio kit, taking a look round the back shows the chimney piece is built into the corner. Hidden so well by a tree using it as a support that I totally missed it at first! It'd certainly make and interesting and easy modification to the model to make it visually different.
As an added bonus, on the way back I took a small detour through the woods just outside Alton station to a popular local landmark - The Chained Oak. My records tell me I was last here in 2015, just after one of the branches had fallen and taken down a good chunk of the tree with it, and sadly not only does it seem that more of the tree has come down, but that the majority of the chains seem to have gone too...
Some may be wondering why a tree would be in chains, and there are some simple logical reasonings (Preservation: Major Oak in Sherwood Forest for example) But a local ghost story offers up a much more spooky tale for this particular tree. I would recount it myself, but a dramatisation by Tussards (Yes, THAT Tussards) for the theme park ride 'HEX: The Legend of the Towers' does a better job than I ever could. For maximum effect, watch in a pitch black room!
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