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Product Description
This is the Right Wing Wall of the Catesby Tunnel model. Part 2 of 4.
History Catesby Tunnel Portal was built in 1897 for the Great Central Main Line. This portal is of a similar design to those found on the Great Central & Great Western joint line and Great Western Bicester cut off. Additionally, other tunnels on the Great Western Honeybourne line / preserved GWSR (Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway) are similar. This seems to be a prototype built by many contractors during the 1890s and 1900s in Britain.
Layout My partner wanted a model of the tunnel, and some variations, to include in his partly-historic and partly-fictional layout including part of the Great Central main line, featuring Heldom Station. This tunnel mouth was made to add to the scenery of the landscape and realism of the historic route. Made to fit to n-gauge scale locomotives and carriages, all trains fit under the archway perfectly and I’ve had no complaints so far. With slightly oversized bricks to give a realistic texture at this small scale, the portal tunnel fits comfortably into the landscape and would be a nice addition to any appropriate layout, with a headstone indicating its given date of 1897.
Assembly of Parts
The tunnel comes in 4 parts, allowing some flexibility in how angled the wing walls can be splayed to suit personal preference, and the inner tunnel gives some internal depth but may not be necessary, again based on person preference. Some of the tunnels on the Great Central main line were so buried in the hillsides that the wing walls would not have been needed, so you can add or take away as many pieces as you desire.
Printing
To get the model parts printed the brick texture is formed the best in Fine Detail Smooth Plastic. This gives the bricks enough detail in order that they form properly and are not rounded. So to get the best results we have found that printing the entire model in Fine Detail Smooth Plastic to be the best option. The only exception to this is the inner tunnel section. This is because, as the bricks are less visible, we had this printed in Versatile Plastic. It seemed to do a good enough job as this part of the tunnel is less clear to see, but this was to save a bit on cost so this depends on your preference.
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