Frankland: N gauge Southern Railway

[Southernboy]

Frankland Update No. 3

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone, here is the news.

 

 

 

 

Frankland has finally made the move from the old RMW to the new.

(Original thread here)

 

 

Firstly a quick reminder of where we were:

Frankland exists in the inter-war years when clean, white, art-deco architecture heralds a brave new world and aspirational young things buy into the mock-tudor suburbs from which they travel to work by the Southern Railway's expanding network of newly electrified suburban lines.

 

Here is the original plan. It has not changed much ...

 

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My last post was in September 2009 - so some catching up to do.

 

Part of the reason for my lack of updates was the publication of these two books, which were top of my 2009 Christmas list.

 

 

I've always had a fascination with this subject matter - but had little knowledge of it. So I've been reading the books over and over again ...

I now feel better informed and more confident about what I'm doing

 

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Next a precis of work in recent months.

 

Last time I posted the layout was looking something like this ...

 

 

It was starting to feel a bit soulless - so I decided to mock up a few buildings.

I mounted scale drawings of original buildings onto foam board.

The drawings are largely based on pictures in the London Transport Photographic Archive and/or from Google searches (etc).

 

To-date I have:

 

A parade of shops

 

Victorian houses with extended shop-fronts

 

Art Deco flats

 

A cinema (The Astoria in Brixton, with jade tiles on the upper face)

 

A Northern Line tube station

 

It now feels like the layout has some life to it (pictures below with a Photoshop sky).

 

 

At some future point the buildings will be properly reproduced, and plenty of trees and grass will be added to create a picture postcard 'leafy suburb'.

 

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Stock:

 

To test the water my first tentative venture into modifying stock was a basic repaint of a Dapol van

 

Here's the original ...

 

 

I repainted it and added decals.

 

And had a go at highlighting additional details.

 

I was quite pleased with the result.

 

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When I was a child I used to pass by a shop in Wimbledon which sold postcards of old forms of electrical transport. They fascinated me.

 

 

I decided to build one ... so with this in mind, when in York in the Spring I took some pictures. Here are two of them ...

 

This is a later 3-SUB than the one in the postcard (which had panels) - but it's a good guide to the general look and feel of the units.

I also have some Mike King drawings.

The key characteristic I wanted to capture was the 'torpedo' or 'bullet' front to the units

 

Anyway - I bought these off eBay for £15.00

 

and did some sketches

 

I filled some windows as appropriate, and used sections of self-adhesive labels from which I cut out areas to leave a 'panelled' effect.

 

 

Plasticard was used to create running boards, cab fronts and the the domed roof at each end.

 

Likewise Plasticard was used to modify the bogies.

 

Here's the (nearly) finished unit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are inaccuracies - but for me the exercise was about whether I could even make a unit in the first place - so 'essence of' was acceptable to me. There are still a few things to do, such as coupling chains and additional cab-front cables, but it's 95% finished.

 

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Finally: Signalling

 

When I started the layout I intended to simply have a few 2-aspect signals, switched by point movements, as a token gesture to that side of things.

 

Since then I've been persuaded otherwise.

Additionally I found a website (see link below) with signalling plans for the SR conversion to colour light signalling around the London termini in the 1920s and 30s, from which I learned quite a lot. This gave me inspiration and more confidence, and with some help I came up with this plan ...

 

 

It will be some while in the future before I install signalling. But when I do I'm particularly looking forward to making some cluster signals You can see an example of cluster signals at the bottom of this page. They're quite distinctive and should be an interesting detail helping to place my layout in a very definite time and place.

 

 

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And that is the end of the news.

 

 

 

 

Comments most welcome,

 

 

Mark

[artizen]

Yes - I remember this one!

 

Looking good now - keep it up. The buildings and the street scenes particularly set the scene nicely already. Your efforts with rolling stock are looking good to me as well (I am also of the school that it's better to have a go than to constantly dither about rivets). Good to see this one on the forum again.

[pete_mcfarlane]

I like the LSWR electric. The early 3rd rail suburban units are rarely modelled but there's an almost endless variety of different types.

[JackBlack]

Looks nice. That trackplan looks really neat.

[Southernboy]

Thanks for comments gents,

 

"The early 3rd rail suburban units are rarely modelled but there's an almost endless variety of different types."

 

That's true. And if you extend the scope to LBSCR overhead units the choice becomes even more interesting. My plans for a future layout include both third rail and overhead lines running alongside.

[L49]

I think I remember seeing this layout on another forum. It's a brilliant trackplan, and scenically I think it works really well. I have been considering converting a set of farish 57 ft suburbans for myself, either into an LMS Siemens set (see Harford Street exhibition thread for the 4mm version of the same job), or into Metropolitan MW stock. They would convert very neatly into the later Crystal Palace sets for the overhead too.

 

I'm liking the use of lesney E1s in the main road.

 

What power unit did you use for the EMU?

[BernardTPM]

The original LSWR units were shorter than the later SR units (and IIRC were later lengthened on new frames) but the same cab shape was used on the first series of 3-SUB for the Western Section. All later units had a less bowed front. While the old Farish coaches do have a reasonable semblance they are a little tall in the body and the compartments rather too long for typical SR units. If you can get them, the 4-wheel coach bodies have usefully lower windows and can be further reduced in height by taking a little off the wide eaves above the doors. This is particularly useful if you want to fit an eliptical roof as it keeps the overall height down.

Of course a lot of units were rebuilt from older coaches so you can end up with all sorts of roof profiles as well as panelling styles.

[Southernboy]

Hello L49, thanks for your comments.

You may have seen my layout on NRM (linked in my signature).

 

I clocked the set on Harford Street and was curious as to what it was. It certainly shares similarities with the Crystal Palace stock. Good luck with your conversion. I used the motor from a Farish 107 DMU for my unit.

 

The Lesney E1s certainly do the trick, although I'd like to repaint and detail them further, change the adverts etc.

 

 

Hello Bernard,

Yes, original units varied from 49' to 52' overall length, but were later lengthened on new frames. I see what you mean about the difference in window position / width of compartments between the two types of Farish coach (I'm looking at them right now), thanks for that.

 

There's something about the bowed cab fronts which I find pleasing. From my purely personal point of view the cab fronts of later units are less interesting, until we get to the 4-CORs.

 

 

Thanks again,

 

 

Mark

[grahame]

Interesting thread, great layout, and super modelling. I like the art deco style look and atmosphere.

 

Keep up the good work and keep on regularly updating this forum.

 

G.

[Steven B]

Looks like a really interesting project and very different to the 1980/1990s EMU based layout we normally see in N Gauge.

 

The model 3-SUB captures the original rather well given that it's based on the Farish suburban coaches. Great job! What did you use to power it? Looks a bit like the Farish class 108/150 drive.

 

Happy modelling,

 

Steven B.

[Barry Ten]

Top stuff. I looked at this thinking "Southern Railway" as in the American one (stupid, really!) but I'm glad I did; it's really nice and so evocative of the period/location. And that panelled unit is delightful.

[Oldddudders]

Top stuff. I looked at this thinking "Southern Railway" as in the American one (stupid, really!) but I'm glad I did; it's really nice and so evocative of the period/location. And that panelled unit is delightful.

Not stupid at all. ISTR that the US Southern actually came to England to study Herbert Walker's version, in terms of its style and presentation, and cheerfully adopted some of its style values - despite the enormous differences in the nature and scope of operations.

 

Frankland is a most promising model which evokes all the right Southern images for me. That it is being done in N is even more meritorious. First rate.

[smyles1]

I don't usually like N gauge layouts but yours is something else. Good theme well presented. I look forward to seeing more photos as progress continues.

Mike

[Revolution Ben]

Hello Mark,

 

I'd like to echo the thoughts of some others here: apart from the quality of your work, and ambition (esp with the EMU conversion/scratchbuild) what really impresses me with your layout is the overall concept and design, and the way everything combines to create a complete, harmonious and neatly executed vision.

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Dave777]

Yep, I well remember this one - thought it was a bit ambitious myself (all those scratchbuilt buildings ), but great to see I'm being proved wrong. Excellent use of gradual curves to ease the sharp radii.

[Southernboy]

Thanks for your further comments everyone ... they really are much appreciated

 

My work on Frankland combines my design training, my interest in the period as a whole, and my decision a couple of years back to return to railway modelling (from a childhood trainset) as a recreational activity. So for me it all sits together quite naturally and happily.

 

I used the motor from a 108 to power the 3-SUB.

With the 108 set the second coach also has power pickups (but for bi-direction lighting, not for powering the motor). I'm currently adapting these for the trailer car of the 3-SUB so that I have three bogies across two carriages picking up power. I hope this will give me exceptionally reliable running.

 

I may experiment with a different motor with the next unit - we'll see - still 'early days' on a big learning curve for me at the moment.

 

Updates will be more frequent in future.

 

 

Well thanks again for your posts - I must say I do feel encouraged by so much positive feedback

 

Mark

[ColinW]

Like what you have done so far, look forward to seeing more

 

Colin

[Southernboy]

Frankland update No. 4

 

Welcome to everyone tuning in from RMWeb...

 

 

And now here is the news broadcast from Frankland.

 

 

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First is a report from the purchasing department:

 

I won a few eBay bargains. Here are my favourites:

 

A car for £4.30 ...

 

 

 

Obviously it could do with a rub-down and repaint. I think it's a Black Standard Flying Twelve (??) introduced in 1935.

 

For £1.04 this unpainted cart, which I think will eventually sit in a corner of the station yard.

 

 

Most intriguing of all - this item appeared on eBay and the carriage at the bottom immediately caught my eye. This was the eBay picture ...

 

 

I really wanted this to see how it had been constructed (and hopefully learn from what I saw). I won it for £10.05.

 

And here it is ...

 

 

Just look at the ultra-fine beading around the cab and along the first-half of the carriage. Likewise, the louvers just behind the cab door are so precise for such a small scale. To me this is exquisite work. Does anyone have any pointers to techniques and materials which may have been used? For instance, the panelling on the side is far finer than any Microstrip I have seen.

 

 

The domed roof over the cab appears to be moulded, although I don't know what material was used - it's a translucent amber colour.

 

 

Either way, although it's unfinished it's a great source of inspiration to me and well worth the money.

 

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The other main purchase (from a retailer, not eBay) was a box of unpainted Preiser people and animals.

 

 

It has all sorts of people, some washing lines, some trunks and sacks, gardening tools, but most importantly for Frankland - the figures are mainly very 'old-school' (hats, suits, longer skirts etc) - and can be painted in period colour clothing. At £21.75 for 120 figures, they work out at 18p each, rather than the £9.00 or more you pay for a box of six painted figures (ie. £1.50+ each). I won't tackle these for a while - I just wanted to get hold of some to see if they'd be right for when the time comes.

 

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Landscaping:

 

I decided to complete the cutting which is front-left of the layout.

 

Here on the left is the base. It's a removable section so I can easily work on this area in the future.

 

 

It's foam-board construction, and was later topped and skimmed with plaster.

 

 

Here it is with a Photoshop sky. The skyline will one day have the backs of houses and trees.

 

 

 

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Buildings:

 

In London's Soho Square is this picturesque gardeners' hut, built in 1890.

 

 

 

I wanted to make a version for Frankland.

 

The first two pictures below show the basic body shell and upper-floor panels being constructed from Platicard and Microstrip.

The upright strip is just a spacer at this point as the outside uprights will be fixed in place last (so the ground floor sides can be detailed and painted more easily).

 

 

 

Next: Main components are in place and roughly painted.

The timbers on the original are rough-hewn, following the popular 'Arts and Crafts' rustic-look of the time. So I've tried replicating this with rough cutting and deep slicing into the beams.

 

 

After a little filling and filing everything went together nicely.

 

 

So here's the finished product.

It's not an exact copy of the original, and I wanted it to look a little less well-kept and tired, but I hope it captures an essence - especially the irregular sides and rough woodwork.

 

 

The roof, building and paved base are made as three separate units to make it easy to go back later and add detailing and more weathering if I want.

 

 

 

And here's where it will sit on the layout.

 

 

This area will eventually be a small wooded park. Trees will obscure much of the hut, you'll just catch tantalising glimpses of it through gaps in the trees.

 

 

 

 

And that is the end of the news.

 

 

 

 

Mark

[-missy-]

Hi Mark

 

This stuff is fantastic! I am seriously impressed with your work, that building is superb and a great bit of modelling with all the odd angles. The painting on it really brings it alive, you come across very creative / artistic, is this connected with your work at all?

 

Missy

[Oldddudders]

Simply visionary in approach. This is already cracking stuff, and promises to set new standards for overall feel - and in N, too. First rate!

[Southernboy]

Thankyou Missy, that's very kind of you

 

My creative/artistic side comes from my family: Both Grandfathers were architectural engineers, and my Father is an artist - in fact as a child my bedroom was also his studio, so I guess it's sort of 'in the blood'.

 

I work as a graphic designer.

 

But I would say that whilst there may be some creative tendency in my family - I've learned as much again from reading model railway forums

 

One thing with the hut: Someone suggested to me recently that in N gauge it's worth 'scaling up' the key features of a model, because otherwise in such a small scale they could be lost, and thereby the essential character or essence of what you're replicating.

 

I thought this was an interesting point so exaggerated the grain in the woodwork. I wonder whether it's this, as much as the paint applied, which brings it to life?

 

 

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Oldddudders:

 

"Simply visionary in approach... "

 

Steady on old chap!

 

That's very flattering - But it's simply an expression of my fascination with the period combined with my (re)-discovery of railway modelling as relaxing hobby.

 

But don't let that stop you (thankyou!)

[Kris]

This is coming on very nicely. That little gardeners hut looks very good. The dome on the roof of the unit looks like some form of resin.

[grahame]

Thanks for the update - it was superb. Really good modelling, interesting insight and fantastic execution. Keep it up - both the modelling and the updates.

 

G.

[Sir Madog]

A fantastic little layout with mind-boggling details and atmosphere.!

 

I am eager to see more.

[MrSimon]

Hello!

 

Loving the gardeners' hut - I never knew what the original in Soho Square was - it looks really good (especially love the mossey side of the roof)

 

For the ultra-fine beading it could be the really fine scalescene plasticard: 0.010" thick strips, I use the 0.020" wide one for window frames etc but this could be the 0.010"?

 

Excellent work as always Mr!

 

Simon

 

PS. Did you see Oxford Diacast are bringing out a London Tram?