Castle Aching

[mullie]

I live surrounded by Portland stone and no two buildings are the same, perhaps this is the case with many older stone type buildings and is down to the way stone was quarried. Car stone seems to be similar

 

Portland stone is now mined using machines so the blocks are much more uniform.

 

I suppose if you look hard enough there is probably a prototype for almost everything.

[Donw]

The practice of building with Brickwork quoins and around the windows and doors is typically used where the stone is either difficult to shape or not durable enough for quoins. Thus you find it with flint infills which would be a difficult material from which to make a decent quoin. It is also used for the hard oolitic limestone found on the wenlock edge which is difficult to shape (unlike the bath limestone). Although some carstone seemed to have been worked to make suitable blocks the smaller rubble carstone is I assume much less suitable for quoins.

I have the advantage that we have done building work on homes with differing stones, also different slates and tiles it helpsd you to understand how the nature of the material determines the style. 

Don

[wagonman]

The practice of building with Brickwork quoins and around the windows and doors is typically used where the stone is either difficult to shape or not durable enough for quoins. Thus you find it with flint infills which would be a difficult material from which to make a decent quoin. It is also used for the hard oolitic limestone found on the wenlock edge which is difficult to shape (unlike the bath limestone). Although some carstone seemed to have been worked to make suitable blocks the smaller rubble carstone is I assume much less suitable for quoins.

I have the advantage that we have done building work on homes with differing stones, also different slates and tiles it helpsd you to understand how the nature of the material determines the style. 

Don

 

 

In case of misunderstanding, I should add that Bath Stone is also an Oolitic limestone...

[mullie]

In case of misunderstanding, I should add that Bath Stone is also an Oolitic limestone...

But can it be tuned like Portland stone? There is a fantastic lithopone on the island once played by Evelyn Glennie. I've also done some great recording projects with student based on stone.

[runs as required]

But can it be tuned like Portland stone? There is a fantastic lithopone on the island once played by Evelyn Glennie. I've also done some great recording projects with student based on stone.

I think you are trying your best to drag poor old Edwardian 'off topic' yet again.  

It's my job to wreck his thread while he's away Soliciting down in the Smoke.

 

The Portland stone tuned by your students looks to be related to the Skiddaw Rock Band here.

dh

[Edwardian]

I have managed to persuade my printer to work. Hurrah [insert smiley] !  It turns out that the "error state" was not due to the low ink, though it grumbles constantly about that, but some other issue.  I downloaded the printer driver again and now can print, but not wireless (so I have to move a lot of furniture each time, which is not popular with the Mem). 

 

Anyway, this is good news, because, providing the ink holds out, I can have a bash at the buildings R-A-R David has prepared, and those that I have derived from Shadow's excellent photographs, so work on the post office, a shop and house , the post office, and the Distant Ostrich  may soon be possible.

 

In the meantime, as I have been a bit starved for time, all I have managed is a couple of hours trying to get the Wateringbury Station plans (courtesy of T&A Jan) to scale and testing how it might look with my home made carstone sheets.

 

Now it may fairly be said that the carstone could be darker and could be browner, but like a lot of stone, its appearance is affected greatly by the light, so I am assuming that we view the building in bright sunlight and I also consider the need to lightened colours at smaller scales; if I did it much darker, I doubt you'd see much texture at all.

 

[uax6]

That is pure artistry....

 

I think if you just knocked the lighter parts down one shade you would have it...

 

Andy G

[Nearholmer]

Looking very good indeed so far.

 

BTW, I happened to be looking at a church tower in Leighton Buzzard yesterday, made from the hardest of the local sandstones, which are almost the some colour as some carr, and in bright sunlight the effect is beautiful. Big areas of the colour seem to look dull in poor light and with rain on them though, so I think Wateringbury Station, which has a stack of quoins and other details to lift it, will balance well.

 

K

[runs as required]

Very pleased about the printer gremlins being exorcised. Why can't you simply move the printer or computer nearer for printing?

 

That is pure artistry....

 

I think if you just knocked the lighter parts down one shade you would have it...

Ah! I'm not so sure.

Personally I'd print the file as is and then decide, before notching down darker.

The general maxim (derived from architectural model presentations) is that colour is not 'scaleable'.

i.e. a shade card selected as indistinguishable from the full size  paintwork/brick/stone sample will nevertheless appear much more dark/saturated when printed out  at a smaller scale.

 

So I'd opt for lighter as a trial print - and it may well save you another dollop of printing ink and expensive paper.

 

dh

[Donw]

I presume you are going to put a coat of varnish or some other sealant over the print. This may darken it a little if not enough add a little something to the varnish to tone it down. A dash of the mid shade would darken the lighter bits and lift the darker ones. I would check first though as you could lose all variation.

It does look very good and for someone like me who doesn't have the advantage of having the same stone locally it quite looks the part.

Don

[Edwardian]

Thank you all for the constructive feedback.

 

I may well re-arrange the relative positions of pooter and printer!

 

The trial looked better in the flesh than in my photographs, taken in dull light, which does nothing for the focus..  The only way to really tell is to build a bit of the station and photograph in decent natural light, which is, I find, surprisingly rare in a North Country Spring!

 

So, yes, the texture sheets will get a couple of coats of artist's matt spray.  This makes it only fractionally darker.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out first time.  This is probably down to luck, but also partly down to having my "eye-in" when it comes to lightening photographs and dialling colours up or down, which I have had to do where using photographs taken on dull days.  

 

What is interesting (to me, anyway!) is this:

 

Photograph on the left featured my first texture sheet (the one with repeating patterns and the faces).  The one on the right was a texture sheet made using R-A-R David's scaled photograph (Post 628).  I used his original one, not the more accurate browner one because the browner version seemed to me to have lost some definition.

 

Mine used a picture taken on a dull day, so I lightened, and enhanced the yellows slightly, trying always to maximise the definition, which is so easily lost with the small slips at this scale.  I scaled by eye.

 

What interests me is the colour match between my dull picture made artificially sunny and David's original taken in good light, and the scale looks a match too.  I think David's is better, as he had a better bit of wall without the variations that cause my patterns, but I anticipate using both sheets during the construction of the station.

[Donw]

Incidentally the idea of toning things down with a dash in the varnish came from a well known modeller Martin Brent he used to add a dash of body colour to the varnish for locos and coaches this would tone down the lining without affecting the body colour. The principal can be used elsewhere.

Don

[runs as required]

The trial looked better in the flesh than in my photographs, taken in dull light, which does nothing for the focus..  The only way to really tell is to build a bit of the station and photograph in decent natural light, which is, I find, surprisingly rare in a North Country Spring!

 

So, yes, the texture sheets will get a couple of coats of artist's matt spray.  This makes it only fractionally darker.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out first time.  This is probably down to luck, but also partly down to having my "eye-in" when it comes to lightening photographs and dialling colours up or down, which I have had to do where using photographs taken on dull days.  

 

What is interesting (to me, anyway!) is this:

 

Photograph on the left featured my first texture sheet (the one with repeating patterns and the faces).  The one on the right was a texture sheet made using R-A-R David's scaled photograph (Post 628).  I used his original one, not the more accurate browner one because the browner version seemed to me to have lost some definition.

 

Mine used a picture taken on a dull day, so I lightened, and enhanced the yellows slightly, trying always to maximise the definition, which is so easily lost with the small slips at this scale.  I scaled by eye.

 

What interests me is the colour match between my dull picture made artificially sunny and David's original taken in good light, and the scale looks a match too.  I think David's is better, as he had a better bit of wall without the variations that cause my patterns, but I anticipate using both sheets during the construction of the station.

I think you are absolutely right about that muddy version - it totally lacked chiaroscuro my mate Caravaggio says.

dh

[Andy Kirkham]

I think you are absolutely right about that muddy version - it totally lacked chiaroscuro my mate Caravaggio says.

dh

But give me still, to stir imagination

The chiaroscuro of the railway station,

 

W.H.Auden - Letter to Lord Byron

[Edwardian]

Today I managed to print out a building that R-A-R David had very kindly prepared for me.  I did not have the necessary photographs to create the building in Word, and could not have obtained suitable views of the elevations due to the position of the building. So, this building was only possible thanks to the jiggery-pokery of Photoshop, for which I am extremely grateful to David.

 

It is a fairly important piece in terms of tying the composition together and it took me three attempts to get it the right size. 

 

Though they looked fine on screen, I found that the textures were a little too dark when printed for the muted palette of Castle Aching.  I lightened the images, dialled down the green and brown of the woodwork, and cut and pasted to form the component parts of the 'kit' for printing. The sheets were printed on "vivid", which works best on my machine.  This seemed a good opportunity to illustrate what passes for the 'Edwardian Method' of Norfolk cottage building!

 

Below is a picture of the artwork before and after I lightened it. Also are shown the component parts for cutting out and mounting on card.  The windows are printed on self-adhesive label for mounting on clear plastic. 

 

I have assembled the sides of the building and put it in its place.  The coaches represent the approximate intended location of the single line as it runs into the station. I must apologise for the landlord's rather emphatic wallpaper.

[Shadow]

Possibly heading back up that way in the next couple of days. Any specific buildings you want photo's off? :-)

[Donw]

That really does look like a proper place, not a collection of buildings plonked down by a modeller but somewhere you seem to feel you must have passed through at some time.

Don

[runs as required]

Thank you James Edw. for giving us a mock-up of how Castle Aching will be 'Rising' in relation to the West Norfolk. Do I forsee the station building somewhere to the right? The brick/slate roof/bay window late Victorian house boasts materials brought in by rail.

 

I truly am full of admiration for how you persevere with Word as a program to deliver your subtle representation of a Norfolk village over a century ago.

Only a lateral thinking lawyer could coax his everyday mundane tool of the trade to deliver such extreme subjective renderings.

(and I lalso enjoy the way the landlord's wallpaper and crockery cabinet emphasises the delicacy of the emerging settlement.)

 

Can't wait to see some track under those four wheelers.

Bravo!

dh

[Nearholmer]

Very good indeed!

 

Have you looked at the "Saltdean" thread?

 

Kevin

[Edwardian]

Possibly heading back up that way in the next couple of days. Any specific buildings you want photo's off? :-)

 

Shadow, that is again most generous and I have sent you a PM.  Now that the printer is in remission, I will be able to prepare the Ostrich and some buildings that were new to me from your excellent photographs.

 

That really does look like a proper place, not a collection of buildings plonked down by a modeller but somewhere you seem to feel you must have passed through at some time.

Don

 

That is very kind.  Thank you.  Whether anyone will pass through via the railway .....

 

Thank you James Edw. for giving us a mock-up of how Castle Aching will be 'Rising' in relation to the West Norfolk. Do I forsee the station building somewhere to the right? The brick/slate roof/bay window late Victorian house boasts materials brought in by rail.

 

I truly am full of admiration for how you persevere with Word as a program to deliver your subtle representation of a Norfolk village over a century ago.

Only a lateral thinking lawyer could coax his everyday mundane tool of the trade to deliver such extreme subjective renderings.

(and I lalso enjoy the way the landlord's wallpaper and crockery cabinet emphasises the delicacy of the emerging settlement.)

 

Can't wait to see some track under those four wheelers.

Bravo!

dh

 

Thank you, David.  Yes, you are quite correct.  The rare instances of Welsh Slate (aka Scalescenes' slate) is due to the advent of the railway in Castle Aching.

 

I suppose that if the railway entered from the left, the station would be as you imagine, and something reminiscent of Gammon End.  The strong mental picture that led to the layout envisages the railway entering from the right and then curving round in front of Bailey Street and the mound and terminating in a station on the right. 

 

The inspiration for the station comes from a 'mash-up' of ideas from Rothbury (NBR), Alston (NER), the Isle of Wight-inspired designs for the Isle of Eldernell & Mereport, Lewes (LBSC) before the rebuild, and, the last piece of the jigsaw, the architecture of Aylesford and Wateringbury on the Medway line (SER). 

 

Next week I plan to break the present moratorium and splash out £4.50 on some SMP/Marcway templates.  Only then will I plan the track and do so full size (must get some lining paper too).  In the meantime, I have attempted to sketch out my ideas to date in the rather crude sketch below.  It will need revision, but it at least gives a general idea of the relationship between the railway and the embryonic village you have seen. 

 

Very good indeed!

 

Have you looked at the "Saltdean" thread?

 

Kevin

 

Yes, though I have not visited for some weeks.  It is a superb layout in every respect.

[Nearholmer]

Edwardian

 

I like the track plan, because the general form, with turntable at the end, was fashionable for a period, but tended only to get left in-situ on railway backwaters, where no engines bigger that those envisaged at the opening were ever necessary or affordable. There were examples in Ireland and Spain like this, as well as a few in GB.

 

Kevin

[uax6]

I would save your cash on the SMP templates, and just download Templot. I have to say that I find it challenging to build a whole layout (minly because I find the terms used very confusing, and I get very little time to play with this sort of stuff), but you can use it to draw out point templates, and I have used it to build a crossover (my first point making trial).

 

You'll then get proper looking points.... (ok they are based on British Standard points, but there are earlier ones in there, and you can always add interlaced sleepers to make them look even older)

 

Andy G

[Nearholmer]

The other option is to do as the Old Masters (Denny, Ahern etc) did, and simply design your own points, using pencil and paper, by reference to photos and an appreciation of the way things are supposed to work.

 

Ahern actually used point-work rather like old Hornby tinplate in arrangement, and as later used in "Wrenn Universal", to accommodate the wide range of wheel not-standards that were in use at the time, and I've read an article where he says that not one visitor to his layout ever spotted the dodge (I think the same track is in-situ at Pendon, and I certainly never noticed). He gave a very good "recipe" for points in Railway Modeller in about 1957/58, which makes it quite apparent that he had the art of building a smooth-operating layout by adopting a very quick and easy method.

 

Denny seems to have made point-work up as he went along, creating geometry that would be verboten by modern standards.

 

Since the WNR exists in pre-standardisation times, presumably with track as old as the 1860s, you too could pursue the voie libre.

 

K

 

PS: look very closely at the crossing areas of the point-work in these pictures.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Nearholmer

[The Stationmaster]

Shadow, that is again most generous and I have sent you a PM.  Now that the printer is in remission, I will be able to prepare the Ostrich and some buildings that were new to me from your excellent photographs.

 

 

That is very kind.  Thank you.  Whether anyone will pass through via the railway .....

 

 

Thank you, David.  Yes, you are quite correct.  The rare instances of Welsh Slate (aka Scalescenes' slate) is due to the advent of the railway in Castle Aching.

 

I suppose that if the railway entered from the left, the station would be as you imagine, and something reminiscent of Gammon End.  The strong mental picture that led to the layout envisages the railway entering from the right and then curving round in front of Bailey Street and the mound and terminating in a station on the right. 

 

The inspiration for the station comes from a 'mash-up' of ideas from Rothbury (NBR), Alston (NER), the Isle of Wight-inspired designs for the Isle of Eldernell & Mereport, Lewes (LBSC) before the rebuild, and, the last piece of the jigsaw, the architecture of Aylesford and Wateringbury on the Medway line (SER). 

 

Next week I plan to break the present moratorium and splash out £4.50 on some SMP/Marcway templates.  Only then will I plan the track and do so full size (must get some lining paper too).  In the meantime, I have attempted to sketch out my ideas to date in the rather crude sketch below.  It will need revision, but it at least gives a general idea of the relationship between the railway and the embryonic village you have seen. 

 

 

Yes, though I have not visited for some weeks.  It is a superb layout in every respect.

 

I like the layout plan with its very strong 'earlier railway' track layout using the turntable in that way.  There is some sense in the suggestion to make the engine shed road a loop line as it offers teh advatage of using the run round lop for storage of rolling stock overnight or to stand surplus wagon loaded traffic.

 

My only criticism - if i might dare to make one - is that it is very short on siding accommodation although i could understand that goods and mineral traffic might be limited depending on local needs and production.

[Removed a/c]

Those buildings are first rate, very nicely done, can't wait to see it populated. 

 

 

 

Regards 
Scott