L49 Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Good evening all. I have finally got around to pointing a camera at the new Harford Street home layout. At the moment the only section looking anywhere near scenic is the station and it's immediate environs. We will start the tour just east of the station with a shot of 48602 rolling back towards Bow with an empty coal train. The street level building is visible behind the loco, with the down side exit partially obscured by the advert hoarding. The houses to the right above the cutting are some of the first to be built from the 1951 archive shots which we discovered in the LMA. As far as the station area is concerned we now have photos of just about every building which would have adjoined the line. Once the train has cleared, we walk under the main road bridge, and bang off a quick shot looking along the platforms from under the building. The stairways are taken from the drawings for South Bromley, as is the platform building on the left. The platform building on the right is taken from the drawings for Old Ford. The general setting of the station is based on Old Ford, with the buildings recessed into a part brick part grassy cutting. Walking along the island platform (down main no.2 and down relief no.3) we turn to look back at the up side platform building. This is the one taken from Old Ford. The street level building visible in the distance is also taken from Old Ford, which was one of the most compact stations on the NLR. It was designed by the company engineer, Thomas Matthews, copying the style of the appointed architect for many of the bigger stations, Edwin Horne. Now a view of the west end of the island platform buildings. It was finding the complete set of architects drawings for South Bromley in one of the archives that led to this whole layout re-development project. There is only one photo known showing under the canopy at South Bromley, and that is pretty awful, so this is as close a we will ever get! Finally we have walked right to the end of the platforms under White Horse Lane bridge, and looked back towards the station buildings and the box. The bridge across the platforms carries Floreston Street which was swept away in the mid 1950s. The house on the side nearest the camera is one of the new builds, the ones over the road are off the old layout, just to give an impression of depth. They are going to be replaced, probably by Christmas. The signal box is another structure off the old layout, and is taken (as so much of this lot is) from Old Ford, even down to the horrible colour it was painted(!) The building on the island platform just beyond Floreston Street bridge is the old Gents toilet block which used to stand at the north end of Shoreditch NLR station. To see some of the prototype inspiration, take a look at Nick Catford's disused stations website, (links below). http://www.disused-s...ord/index.shtml http://www.disused-s...tch/index.shtml 19 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Looking good Charlie. I'll have a proper look next time I'm round. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted December 14, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 14, 2011 So pleased to see this superbly atmospheric layout getting a further upgrade. Such talented modelling! 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 What he said above but can I just add that the "Virol" advert "kick started" a whole bunch of memories with me from when I had Measles and Whooping Cough at the same time - the cure included both Southend Pier and Virol! Is it still available? Best, Pete. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted December 15, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 15, 2011 And I thought Virol was only targeted at "anaemic girls"! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 No, "Girly boys" also included....... I've found out that the trade name "Virol" is owned by Optrex. Best, Pete. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerces Fobe2 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Harford Street MK iV sounds like a bit like a Ford Cortina, but will there be a Hatford Street MK V? XF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Harford Street MK iV sounds like a bit like a Ford Cortina, but will there be a Hatford Street MK V? XF I think its more Rolls Royce than Cortina. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Hudson Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 If it's not too pretentious, I think you have created an iconic layout. I feel that I have waited on those platforms in the past when I was a boy in Stepney several decades ago. Andrew 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jim Connor Posted January 5, 2012 Popular Post Share Posted January 5, 2012 As Charlie has started a thread on the new home layout. I thought a further selection of photographs might be of interest. The layout is being built using the actual streets through which the line would have run had it been built, and is set in 1952. It is therefore very different from the version currently on the exhibition circuit and will only feature steam traction. The street level building at Harford Street is based on Thomas Matthews' 1867 originl at Old Ford. The prototype station was located on the North London Railway branch between Dalston Junction and Poplar (East India Road). Passenger services over the line were suspended in 1944 and officially withdrawn the following year. The building was demolished in 1967 and no traces of it remain. This view looks north along Harford Street and includes the station on the left. The building in the foreground is Sarah Lipman's linen drapery, modelled as it would have appeared in the early post-war period. It is not known when Mrs Lipman's shop closed, but it seems likely to have been around the time of the Second World War, as the business appears in the 1938 edition of Kelly's Directory, but had gone by 1953. The building beyond the station is the Bancroft Arms, which is still standing, but the block of shops opposite have long-gone. Fortunately they were recorded both front and back by the LCC photographic department in 1953-4 and the photos are now in the London Metropolitan Archive. I know that trams had long since disappeared from Mile End Road by 1952, but I like 'em! The grubby North Thames Gas Board Guy Vixen is constructed from Road Transport Images parts. The rear of the street level building is modelled on Old Ford as it appeared after partial rebuilding following a beam failure under the rear wall in 1929. The stairway is taken from South Bromley (not Bromley South as some people seem to get confused!) A vagrant takes a swig from his bottle of Jake whilst his two friends look on, possibly enviously, in the backyard of Mrs Lipman's old shop. The island platform buildings are again based on South Bromley, and were constructed using the NLR drawings. It was an interesting excersise constructing them and seeing what they actually looked like in 3D as the station was very little photographed and no really good views of it are known. The canopy valance was taken from the same drawings and having been artworked in Illustrator was sent off to be produced in etched brass. Class 3F 0-6-0T No.47432 passes behind the buildings on the island platform on a freight bound for Commercial Road. I know I said the layout was based in 1952 and that these locos had disappeared long before. However, I just couldn't resist having one...and doesn't she look at home!!! Floreston Street looking north showing a house on the left taken from another photo in the LMA. The two houses on the right are only temporary. The Standard Vanguard actually appears on the LMA photo, so it must be right! On the other side of the layout is a section of Underground line based on the former East London Railway. This is the disused St Dunstans station which is based on an amalgam of St Mary's Whitechapel, and Mark Lane. 28 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted January 5, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 5, 2012 NLR magic courtesy of superb modelling of real prototypes. So much atmosphere, even off the tracks. The best getting better! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dave.C Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Not many trains on view, but in reality it doesn't need them. Truly amazing Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Cracking shots Jim. See you up the club tonight? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
L49 Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 Not many trains on view, but in reality it doesn't need them. Truly amazing That's the whole point! Those mobile things that whizz around on a circle of track just get in the way of the modelling. 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Connor Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 At long last, I've just finished the huge, but derelict Coliseum Cinema, which used to stand on the south side of Mile End Road, just west of its junction with Harford Street. It wasn't the easiest job and its rear elevation is the most uninspiring thing I've ever modelled but hopefully I'll grow to like it eventually! All being well I'll gets some phots of it up early next week. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
L49 Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 At long last, I've just finished the huge, but derelict Coliseum Cinema, which used to stand on the south side of Mile End Road, just west of its junction with Harford Street. It wasn't the easiest job and its rear elevation is the most uninspiring thing I've ever modelled but hopefully I'll grow to like it eventually! All being well I'll gets some phots of it up early next week. Huzzah!!! Look forward to seeing it in the morning! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 At long last, I've just finished the huge, but derelict Coliseum Cinema, which used to stand on the south side of Mile End Road, just west of its junction with Harford Street. It wasn't the easiest job and its rear elevation is the most uninspiring thing I've ever modelled but hopefully I'll grow to like it eventually! All being well I'll gets some phots of it up early next week. I'll have to come and have a look at this one, Jimmy. On another note, the fence posts are in right along the derelict platform on the Harford Street exhibition layout. I've threaded the barbed wire temporarily but it isn't glued yet. We need to decide how we are going to handle the board joint. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
L49 Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 Carefully! Did you get any piccies? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 (edited) Carefully! Did you get any piccies? I forgot the camera. I bought several reels of different SWG wire today because the wire supplied by Ratio is in short lengths and its too heavy a gauge to thread properly. Once I had stretched to wire out straight and cut it to length, it was a piece of cake threading it through the fence posts. Edited January 6, 2012 by Baby Deltic Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jim Connor Posted January 11, 2012 Popular Post Share Posted January 11, 2012 Just thought I'd add a few more phots as promised. Looking east along Mile End Road with the junction with Harford Street on the left followed by the Bancroft Arms and the new Cinema. View looking across the station area towards the rear of the Coliseum-I said it was uninspiring! Frontage of the Coliseum. We only have a photo of part of this building so some of this has had to be based on pure conjecture, with the lower central section copied from the Queens music hall in Poplar. This is the block at the corner of Mile End Road and Harford Street. Details have been taken from a series of photos of the prototype in the LMA with additional details from Kellys directories 1938/1953 This was the first new building actually constructed for the layout. The huge main block of Trafalgar School, near Rectory Square. The prototype was damaged during WW2, used as an AFS centre, and finally demolished in the late 1950s I thought I should include at least one view of a train to keep the rolling stock brigade happy! Ex NLR Mogul no.58859 in pristine condition, as turned out for working the LCGB Popar and Edgware tour of 1956. Devons Road didn't normally pay this much attention to these locos! She is working a freight over the down loop at Harford Street station. 25 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Incredible modelling! I feel homesick and timesick..... All the best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 My favourite building is still the school, Jim. Having seen it in the flesh, it is awesome. I like the theatre aswell, and I don't think it looks out of place. I know you had your reservations because the decorative bit faces the backscene, but it looks the part. Those derelict shops have come out nice too. Did you use that brick rubble we bought at the Colchester show for the debris inside the shops? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Connor Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 You're right about the rubble. In the past I've tried various means of producing something which looks authentic, and even tried breaking a real brick into small fragments, but the stuff we found at the Colchester Show is the best yet. I think it is intended to be ballast, although if that is so I have no idea of the scale, as the chippings are decidedly large. Still, I can definitely recommend it for anyone who wants to give an impression of broken bricks and, if I remember correctly, it was very reasonably priced. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) . Still, I can definitely recommend it for anyone who wants to give an impression of broken bricks and, if I remember correctly, it was very reasonably priced. Would they be 'Connor's broken bricks'? Edited January 12, 2012 by Baby Deltic Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold mudmagnet Posted January 12, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 12, 2012 Great set of photos and modelling! The view down Mile End Road has changed a bit now! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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