Here we show a "low-relief" model of a rail-served dairy.

First of 4 photos of a Dairy built to commision. Click for other three!

indentA "low-relief" model is one built with a front and the front part of the two sides only, the back being plain. It is intended for fitting against a backscene where there is not enough depth for a complete model but there remains a requirement to provide a feature; in this case, a rail-served "industry" to increase the operating potential of a model railway.

indentThe next two photographs show how by placing sufficient detail on the front face of the model to distract the eye from the shallowness of the roof, this can be an effective means of fitting a feature into a space where there is not really room for it.

Close-up of the dairy loading bay

There's more to this than meets the eye - see caption! Oh, and click for next photo...

indentNote how the name-board has been created.   The "Co-operative Wholesale Society" was a creation of the 1930s and models of milk tankers branded CWS are available commercially.  The font and spacing of these letters was standard across the newly-formed company and so only needed a part of the original nameboard.  Some of the lettering of the name of the previous owners of the dairy has however been deliberately added to the space left over, although of course it has to be well-weathered!  (Close inspection reveals them to  have  been   called  "Devon   and   Dorset

Creameries Ltd".)  Therefore with a little imagination we can not only offer a model with visual interest at the front (to distract the eye from the lack of depth), but add a sense of both period and an approximate location while we're at it!
indentBy the careful introduction of this one detail we have established both period and rough location of the model, as well as telling the viewer what this factory produces! A simple enough idea really, given a little thought!

Detail of the Boiler House.

The Boiler House - from the two-halves of a goods shed kit!

indentHere, the addition of a wooden extension to the building suggests larger boilers have been fitted inside the original building thereby giving yet more "history" and substance to the model.  The fact that this structure also provides an artistic change from the brickwork is not coincidence - it is however, the result of needing to find some means of filling the hole in the ends of the goods shed kit which I used as a basis for the building!  It may seem surprising that people obviously capable of making a dairy from scratch should resort to the

use of a kit.  The reason is simple; time spent on what is after all a background model can often be better spent on detailing the foreground where one's efforts are both more easily seen and more effective.  Besides, the average 19th century factory building is so common-place that they all look much the same and as such a model of one rarely receives a second glance.
indentThe use of a kit, or as in this case, several (since the offices and the factory itself are both kits from the same range) simply allow one to spend one's time on the more important details; such as the generous quantities of pidgeon droppings which confirm this as a warm and welcoming building upon which to perch, and the access stairs to the offices which help "bind" the whole site together.   One can just imagine the office junior nipping downstairs to get some fresh "Gold Top" for the boss's morning cuppa !
That's enough of Dairy Products, thank you!

indentThese are the offices.

indentNot the best of pictures but it is the only one I could find of them!  To the right is the "loo" with its vent and between the two, a store.  The "Prototype Models" kits for LNER models have some delightfully Victorian brickwork so they were ideal and we used their station building kit for this part of the model, adding simple stone ball detail to the corners and a set of steps from the Airfix Midland signal box to complete the scene.

indentIn passing we may mention that COUNTRYSIDE MODELS do not normally accept orders for single model buildings - on the other hand, if you ask for something we'd find both unusual and enjoyable, you never know...  (After all, we did recently do a gasworks!)

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