Victorian Secrets

This is different to the other boxes, mainly because it's not one box, it's two! The fronts have been removed and then the boxes butted to each other, forming one large double box. Recently, the box lids have been adapted so that rather than being in an up position at either end, they now fold under the box. A backscene panel has also been added.

'Victorian Secrets' depicts a small Victorian era village surrounded by hills. There is a railway running around above the village, and smaller line that runs at ground level into the hill, in fact very little of the track is visible.

The village has a thatched pub, 'The Olde Inn' as well as a few cottages. It has a small station, and a tower that leads up to a bridge across the hill and up to the top lines station platform.

The large hill has sheep grazing at it's top, and two chimneys give away that there is more below...

Under the hill is the Gemstone Mine, where the miners are busy extracting the precious gems unique to the area! Deep in the mine the gems are loaded onto wagons that are wheeled along a track to the waiting trains.

The Mine had to be built first. Several layers of foam board create the hill, the top not being added at this stage. The mine was then sculptured by carving the foamboard to shape. Various small pieces of slate and stones were added, along with the small piece of track. Several types of craft glitter along with crafting gems were added. The roof of the mine is of course also the top of the hill. Before this was fixed, a string of bright white LEDs was fixed to the underside, and then it was glued in place.

The Mine is visible via a slot cut into the end of the box. The train runs in and out of the mine.

The pub and another small cottage are both thatched. This was achieved using many strands of cross-stich thread, heavily glued with PVA.

The small stream leading to the village pond was created using several layers of yacht varnish. It's been given an overgrown look using various scatters and lichen strands.

The horse and cart coal merchant is a white metal kit painted, the people are mid-Victorian pewter sculptures by a company called 'Andrew C Stadden' (no relation?!).

The track is a mix of Kato with 117mm curves, and Peco straights. Each oval is individually controlled so two contollers are required that join the box via banana plugs and sockets.