Hello everyone.

[kingsway john]

Longtime London Transport bus enthusiast, until the deregulation when I started to interest myself more in the historical side - trams , Underground as well.
Always enjoyed making models; a way to recapture the transport scene from years gone by! I built some 1/76 scale tram layouts featuring Kingsway Subway, and Dog Kennel Hill.
From this I started modelling LT bus garages and in the past few years I've developed my hobby to a small cottage industry designing card models of buildings related to road transport - primarily bus garages but other things as well.
In the last year, this has enabled me to 'give up the day job' (ADI Driving Instructor - car)

[Ian]

Welcome to the forum John, I see you have already posted photos (and good they are too) made comments.

Ian

[G-CPTN]

Welcome, Trapper.

We have seen examples of your excellent work.

Maybe you could tell us how you capture the images that you transfer to the card scenes?

I'm not into models myself (no space) though I do possess a few die-cast 'specials' from my career as a vehicle engineer, however I am impressed by the reality of your dioramas (and your photography of them).

[robertdavey6]

Did you, by any chance, have a model of the trams at Dog Kennel Hill featured in the Railway Modeller (or similar) some years ago?

[kingsway john]

Glad you like the pictures.
I design the buildings using 'Paint' - a very simple image drawing program - others are available but they're too complicated for me! The elavations are drawn up and printed out to make the parts.
But the biggest difficulty is finding the 'raw' information - how many windows were there in the wall- how many entrances to the garage. What was the original signage like?
Like many members, I love to look at old photos , but very often I find I'm moving my head from side to side to look around the bus to see the building behind! (It doesn't work!)
With so many models now available reasonably cheaply, if they can be displayed in the right surroundings then, the memory is stirred - a three dimensional photo springs to life.
So if people who have personal experience of "places of transport importance" can post up some photos. I can't promise any particular models, but the more I see , the wider the range of models I can produce.
I've managed to amass a library of London bus garage pictures , so these will continue (for ever - there were 100 or more!) but my knowledge outside London is pretty poor. I've begun to look at Fire Stations - again from a position of great ignorance! So if anyone has some old photos full of 'atmosphere' - let's see them!

[kingsway john]

Yes - guilty to Dog Kennel Hill and an article on the Kingsway Subway a year or so before.
Railway Modeller produced a wonderful video of Kingsway Subway - easily found on Youtube - just seven minutes though the (excellent) cameraman filmed for hours! A couple of years before that I did an Underground layout (supported with suitable road vehicles of course).

[G6 UXU]

Hello and welcome to the forum John, enjoy and all the best.

[G-CPTN]

The vehicles seem to be particularly accurate renditions of early models. I presume that you buy these ready built?

I see that Oxford Diecast Models make the fire appliances.

I haven't checked the buses.

[kingsway john]

Yes - there are so many great models available straight off the shelf these days . EFE (Exclusive First Editions) do a large range of buses to 1/76 4mm per foot scale including London RTs , Routemasters, RFs and more. Original Omnibus Company (originally Corgi, now under Hornby) do others, and there are other sources as well. The range of 'classic period' cars has exploded in the last few years, and even older (pre 1950 and prewar0 cars are now available to some degree - very useful for when I built the pre 1952 London tram layouts.
Many years ago I built a few model buses from plasticard, but it's very hard work! - these super new models make it so easy, and I can concentrate on the overall scene instead.

[G-CPTN]

I haven't found the 1950s Dennis F12 among the Oxford Diecast models.