Rufford Red Lion Square

[richard i]

Barnum saloon you say! I have a couple and a pair of brakes i need and I am working out how to make them from plastic.

Thank heavens work has a laser cutter.

[James Harrison]

I have Jack's silhouette cutter files, a decent stock of plastic sheet and a week off work. I'm rather looking forward to having a crack at it; if I can get it to work out I might even try drawing up the brake third.

[richard i]

I have Jack's silhouette cutter files, a decent stock of plastic sheet and a week off work. I'm rather looking forward to having a crack at it; if I can get it to work out I might even try drawing up the brake third.

I have drawn up brake third side and ends if you want. They are limited as I have worked out how to draw boxes and lines. Anything more complex is in future learning slots.

[James Harrison]

That's a very kind offer thanks!  I'd like to take you up on it, if I may.

 

Not Jack, by the way (I 'ate you, Autocorrect).... JCL, I meant to say. 

[James Harrison]

 

 

This then is as far as the goods offices have got.  And there they shall remain for the foreseeable future; enthusiasm for this project has somewhat subsided so, at a natural break point, I've decided to leave off and go and do something else; some rolling stock.  When I come back to it I'll be fitting the glazing material and building the interior and then (assuming motivation hasn't been utterly destroyed by that point) I'll look at the roof, whick looks to be another big job entailing fitting valleys and flashing and re-slating. 

[James Harrison]

I've been looking on the internet and I found this...

 

 

This is a drawing of Edwinstowe station on the Lancashire Derbyshire & East Coast Railway.  It's hardly a million miles away from Rufford, it was GC-owned... granted it is a little plain but I think I can do something about that.  What I really find of value here is that by scaling the doorways I can scale the rooms.  Cogs are turning.  Slowly. 

[Compound2632]

Late 1890s so I think fits your scheme, designed by whoever was architect to the LD&ECR - if he was local, no doubt his office could also have done work for the MS&LR.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Compound2632

[James Harrison]

One month, one Barnum carriage and two cattle wagons later....

 

.... We're back on the goods offices!

 

A quick recap on how far I had got with it; starting with a basic building shell in the form of a station building kit from "Your Model Railway Village", I had painted the brickwork and remodelled the doors and windows, fitted a new floor, built a rudimentary staircase and assembled the shell.  At that point enthusiasm somewhat failed me so I moved on to other things for a little while. 

 

 

Over the Easter weekend I had sketched up an internal floorplan so now the process is to turn those sketches into a model.  The internal walls are built up in 1/12" balsa wood.  Here we see the staircase fitted, the chimney breast fitted and the ground floor walls built. 

 

It all looks a little stark and obviously needs wall finishes adding, but the difficulty is in getting a neat result considering how limited access is.  Not that it really matters- there won't be any lighting fitted so once the floors and roof are in you're going to struggle to see anything- but I do want a good level of finish. 

 

 

My idea is to go for paper inserts and overlays for the final finishes.  I can draw these up away from the model and drop and glue them in.  I can draw as much detail as I please without having to worry about building it- things like dado rails and doorframes- paint it up and there we go!  The first bit to be done is the minton tiling to the staff entrance.

 

 

And there it is in place. 

[James Harrison]

Progress is a little slower than I would ideally like but results are looking promising.  I was having problems with accurately measuring the internal wall but recourse to a pair of compasses/ dividers rather than trying to shoehorn a ruler into the model seems to have been a good decision to make. 

 

 

Right, so, what passes for a floorplan (ground floor)- I put the floor finishes down first.  I tried, for these, to use pencil colour but I'm not particularly happy with those results.  Realistically there's no chance of seeing much of anything in this part of the building, so I've kept them, but when I came to the walls I switched to paints. 

 

 

I have started to fit the glazing material, secured in place with glue 'n' glaze. 

 

 

It is surprisingly difficult to get a nice clear shot of the interior, but (hopefully) you can see I've done most of the lower floor to this part now.  Once the final window and wall coverings are in, I'll be fitting a couple of smaller details (a fireplace, clock, some furniture) and then this part at least will be finished and I'll move on to fit the upper floor and look at the single-storey side block. 

[James Harrison]

This evening I've hit something of a milestone.  The ground floor of the two-storey block is finished, glazed and roofed (ie- the first floor has been cut and fitted). 

The single-storey block has had the floor painted and the inside face of the doors fitted.  Lots still to do- but we're getting there. 

[James Harrison]

With the ground floor finished, I fitted the first floor.  The first floor is a sheet of balsa wood and with it in place perhaps unsurprisingly you couldn't see much of the internal detail... so with that in mind I decided to do just as much detail as would be necessary to suggest an interior.  Truth be told, you could probably get away with bare timber walls.  You only need to avoid the situation of being able to see right through the building....



With the first floor in, I built up the first floor internal walls. You can probably see I used some wood stain to coat the floor, and the single storey block had by this point gained a painted floor.  These internal walls were then painted a dak grey, the windows fitted and glued in, and the roof glued on.  



This is a little while later, with the single storey internal walls built and stained.  After this, the single storey windows went in and the roof to that part was also glued on.  

So where does this leave us now?  

Basically, the building is structurally complete.  Phase 1- repainting the walls- done. Phase 2- building new window and doorframes- done.  Phase 3- internal works- done.  Phase 4- a new roof- I'll be starting that tonight.

[James Harrison]

The roof is coming on quite nicely.  I've got one block basically done (that is- slated.  Not yet painted) and have started the slate on the other block.  It's all starting to come together now.

 

I was at the GCR's model event on Saturday and I picked up the next building project for RLS- some low relief terrace housing from Petite Properties.  I have a vague idea where I might put them; what I want to do when it comes to the non-railway buildings is to suggest that the station faces toward the town centre whilst as you head along the layout you're going more into residential areas.  It sounds horrendously like a mash-up described like that but if you look at the photos Edwardian posted back on page 2 you'll see that you do get situations where houses are sited cheek by jowl with commercial premises.  Then there's my sketched map on page 5 that suggests a street running down the back of the station. 

 

Also of course even today you find instances of being surrounded by houses one moment and in a town or city centre the next.  Lincoln, for instance, if you walk down Carholme Road, it's all terraced housing until you hit a dual carriageway and then the other side?- Brayford Pool and the city centre.  Parks Road, Oxford, is another- if you start off by the Bodleian you go past a few colleges and the University Museum and then you're amongst the houses.  Actually, Holywell Street in the same city is an even better example.  It's all little 17th century houses until it suddenly opens out right in the middle of things in Broad Street.  

 

That last example actually strikes me as a good avenue to pursue for an overall concept for the town planning side of things.  The idea of the residential street up the back of the station opening out into Red Lion Square.  There shouldn't be too huge a culture clash between the two because with the exception of the Watson Fothergill pile (that's still burbling away in the background waiting for me to get around to it) I envisage the rest of the Square as being largely Nottinghamshire market-town vernacular.  

[James Harrison]

 

After an awful lot of work on the roof, I'm starting to see some results.  Each of the rows of slates is one strip of paper suitably cut, and then the next row above overlaps.  You can do maybe one side of one roof per evening, and then you have to let it all dry out.  It took a week to slate it all up, all told, and now the fun bit can begin- the painting and the final detailing. 

 

I've had a go at putting the flashing on- for the valleys I concluded that the flashing should go under the slates- but it hasn't really come out- yet- and in any case the colour isn't quite what I was hoping for. So that needs to be addressed.  Now the slates, I'e started painting them in and again I think the colour is off- this time too dark- but luckily I have quite a few grey and stone colours to experiment with so I'll be lightening that up.  Now, once the slates are done to my satisfaction there is still some work to be done.  I want decorative terracotta or tile ridge pieces, to tie the roof together.  I want to suggest the lead flashing to the chimney stacks.  I want to do something with the chimney pots- these are actually the only part of the model now still in their as-supplied/ as bought condition.  And once all of that is done there are the edge boards to look at, or rather, repaint, and not forgetting the guttering either.

[James Harrison]

 

 

 

Just a little bit of a difference.  I started off with painting all the slates with Humbrol 167, but that looked too dark.  So I went back over it with Humbrol 40, which brought it all out too light... now I could have gone on with various hues and shades of grey but I decided the problem was twofold; not only getting the shade right, but the depth of the colour too.  Also the fact that slate of course is a natural material with variations in tone and colour.  So I changed my approach.  I drybrushed some khaki/ brown over it, which toned down the pale grey and introduced some pleasant variation in the colour.  But that still wasn't quite enough for me, so I went back over it again with a drybrushed coat of dark green. 

 

I think I'm about happy with the slates now, so onto the next part of the job, which is the terracotta ridging.  Oh, yes, the valleys to the roof.  They don't work at all.  I'll be working those up to a slate colour shortly.

[James Harrison]

I think it's about finished, chaps and chapesses. 

 

 

 

Finished, of course, until it's set up in place on RLS.  I'm already planning a third wing to it, which would be goods vehicle entrance into the yard, gatehouse and stable block.  But that, as they say, is another project for another time. 

[Annie]

What a transformation!  From a very average plastic model kit to a really nicely detailed model building.

 

I've just read the whole thread from beginning to end and was much fascinated by the research you've done James and the creation of a very possible town along with an entirely plausible history to go with it.  Over recent months I've been developing an interest in the GCR, - especially in the post WW1 period, - so your thread certainly made for interesting reading.

[James Harrison]

Thank you!  I'm literally just getting started, there's a lot to come yet (keeping the theme of progress so far, in fits and starts and with somthing of a scattergun approach).  The question is, what to pick up next?  I have two or three fairly long rolling stock projects ongoing (clerestories, Barnums and a rake of cattle vans), then again some locos I'd like to repaint, and then again something else entirely.  Too many projects and not enough time.

[James Harrison]

I keep coming back to the goods offices and idly doodling the extensions.  I'm quite firmly of the opinion that at the very least I'm going to need to add a gateway and gatehouse, and a stable block.  I also think that maybe an outside toilet block would be a good addition- but then this last, maybe it would better be as part of a stevedore's bothy?  Jury's still out on that. 

 

Coming back to the other elements, the stable block isn't so much 'easy' as I have some reference photographs to use.  There used to be one at Loughborough Central which was documented on camera before demolition, the photographs were put on a facebook page I'm a member of several months back so I know I can look at them for reference.  It looks like it will be quite an interesting model, similar to the office block there are slate roofs at different heights to contend with and some nice louvred ventilation stacks or rooflights to model.  The gatehouse, I don't have much of a handle on it at the moment, I envisage possibly a lean-to type structure appended to the stable block.  I have an idea of big wrought-iron gates, and I think I'll be placing this new block alongside the two-storey range- the reason for this being that the staff entrance to the offices I can then place inside the gates, thus splitting up the public/ private access and egress from the offices.  You're not going to want private staff offices, safes, species rooms etc opening onto a corridor that goes through a doorway directly onto a public street without any security in between, after all. 

 

Then around the goods yard generally you'd have a high brick wall, I envisage the offices and stables actually forming a part of that.  I plan a sort of courtyard between the offices and the stables, which would be walled off from the trackside with another gate through it (this would mean consignees could arrive to collect their goods and wait in the courtyard until shunting is completed before driving into the goods yard proper to collect their loads. 

 

That then leaves the goods shed and warehousing itself....

 

And if that weren't enough, I was idly browsing tonight and I found this. 

 

 

I've gone around the houses somewhat with the station already but I can definitely see potential with Douglas railway station, at the moment my thoughts are tending toward a design using the general plan and room sizes from Edwinstowe (see further up) but with elevations derived from Douglas (those Dutch gables are really appealing) and design details inspired by Leicester Central. 

[James Harrison]

I think I might have cracked it with the goods yard. 

 

 

I'm just a little concerned that the goods shed and warehouse might overpower the rest of the goods yard; I might mitigate that by building them to a one storey or storey and a half height.  Of course, the goods shed might not even need to be that big at all; it's not like I'm modelling a huge inner-city yard after all. 

[James Harrison]

By Jove I think I've got it. 

 

 

This is the plan of Edwinstowe station, I've moved some of the rooms around but crucially the room sizes are unchanged, which was my main issue with knowing how large rooms needed to be.  What I then did was to make the plan a little more interesting by pulling some of the facade out proud of the principal building line, which articulates some of the different areas.  This is quite a Victorian thing to do; if you ever look at a Victorian country house and wonder why it has such an interesting and varied roof line, it is exactly the same principle.  Except that it's been applied to the elevations rather than the plan.  

 

So pulling some of the rooms out just makes it a more interesting structure generally.  It's the sort of architectural statement you might expect from a railway company seeking to grandly announce their presence and inflate their importance, rather than simply provide the bare minimum accommodation for the bare minimum outlay.

 

I've likewise had a crack at the elevation.  It follows, at a respectful distance, Douglas- again, just adding those gables takes what's actually quite a simple structure and gives it artistic pretensions.  It's also helpful of course that Douglas station is in the Arts and Crafts/ Edwardian Baroque sort of style that I've had in mind pretty much from the outset. 

 

Now I'm sure I'll be tweaking this at least a little.  I could, for instance, add in a few other functions- a station store room comes to mind- but as it is it fits my 420mm approx. station frontage quite nicely.  Do I want to add in a tower?  I don't think it would quite fit nicely, somehow.  Have a think about it....

[James Harrison]

I've, erm, I've..... I've....

 

I've talked myself into another project.  I don't know how I managed it (well, actually.... I do). 

 

I keep my locos and rolling stock on my blog but as I'm holding them partly responsible I guess I should share where it all started. 

 

 

The loco came to me via Ebay and I rebuilt it a few years ago.  The carriages are a newer acquistion, being Hornby clerestories fitted with new roofs.  Two of them came from the Severn Valley Railway a few months ago, then I found a few more in my roundtoit projects pile and now I find myself with a rake of three with a fourth building. Well, one friend of mine said he couldn't wait to see them matched up with a loco so hence the picture above. 

 

To whet the appetite I prefaced that photo with this...

 

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And then said "You'll have to imagine the scenery" for my own 4mm version. 

 

Said friend of mine, "You need a photo plank"  (Well, yes, I'll grant you that), "you could have a GCR island platform".  To which I replied that the island style of station are only appropriate for the London Extension and that my line somewhat predates it... "one of the MSLR pavilion style stations would be more appropriate".  "Oh, you mean like the one Metcalfe make?" 

 

I won't repeat what I said. 

 

So now somehow I find myself with a Metcalfe kit on its way to me and I've got to find a few feet of room and some track to build this photo plank.  Friend has helpfully suggested it might be a plug-in unit to RLS.  Well.... truth be told.... RLS was (in my mind) only ever Phase 1 of the layout.  A passing station, if it ever got that far, I was intending to be Phase 4.  Phases  2 and 3, if you want to know what they are- be patient!  Very, very patient. 

 

Yes, Phase 4.... Oh well, if it occupies me and stops me building rolling stock (which I've practically run out of room for right now) that's a good thing.... isn't it? 

 

By my unconsidered estimated reckoning, I'll need to find about 4' x 1' for it to live in. 

[James Harrison]

I've been running it through for 45 minutes and I think already it's coalescing into a firm concept.  I think what I have in mind is, a simple passing station.  Double track, crossover, no sidings or loops or anything like that.  I've got an old card kit for a GCR pattern overbridge kicking around looking for a use, so I think I'll put that at one end.  Then the station of course, I'm debating whether such a place would merit a signal box or not.  On the one hand I think with only a few signals and two switches to control, a ground frame would suffice.  On the other hand I remember on the Nottingham- Lincoln and Lincoln- Sheffield lines how many signal boxes there were, even until very recently (and all they ever seemed to control was a few signals and some level crossings).  There was of course that article in RM just last month for GCR-ising a Wills signal box....

[James Harrison]

Right, break out the OS map. Find Rufford. Run south west... Pittance Park? No, too close to Rufford. Cremorne Wood? Possibly. Oh look, it's on a nice smooth arc from Rufford through Clipstone, Mansfield Woodhouse and Shirebrook. How does "Cremorne for Pittance" sound? Has a ring to it if you ask me.

Edited August 12, 2018 by James Harrison

[Annie]

Wow! - what a lovely GCR 9K.  Very much a favorite locomotive of mine.

[James Harrison]

Thanks! She's one of my favourites too (though an original Director or a Jersey Lily take some beating).