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Tweedale - Industrial Inspiration


awoodford

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One of the better things on the Internet, I reckon, is Google Maps Street View. I'm a great fan. While there are those who like to walk off their Sunday lunch with a nice stroll along the prom or through the park, you're more likely to find me sneaking around some of the world's more seedy neighbourhoods in the company of Google's little yellow fellow. It was on one such trip, to Ostrava in the industrial heart of Czechia, that I came across the inspiration for Tweedale's new industrial scene...

 

Tweedale26-1.jpg.98a5ba3d080c0ad2b7b108b57e4195f8.jpg
Image capture from Google Street View. URL... https://goo.gl/maps/Uq4KzsXk1Ap

 

The site is some species of iron works where thanks to Google you can just wander around among the abandoned blast furnaces and other weird and wonderful structures. Its weedy and rusty and oozing with an atmosphere of past glories. Well worth a visit if you are into that kind of thing. Just follow the link above and roam. 

 

The features that appealed to me in the image, and which I hope to incorporate in the model, were the zig-zag conveyers, the chimney with its 'crow's nest lookout', and the claw-like piping on the side of the building. I've no idea what it all does but I like what I see.

 

By the way, the current street views here date back to 2009. More recent photos show the place being developed as a technology museum and, in my opinion, fast losing a lot of its character in the process. A number of buildings have since been demolished, including some of those in the view above. The weedy track beds are being replaced by neatly manicured lawns with picnic tables, and a torpedo wagon lurking in a shed in the street views has now been placed on a plinth outside.

 

Getting on to the model, the image below shows the area to be developed. 


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There's a fork of track with a capacity of 3 wagons per siding, a track configuration I'm rather partial to. The trees in the background, spilling over from the Tweemoor Yard scene next door, are not really compatible with the grim industrial setting I have in mind, so I've decided to block them out by inserting a new sky backscene in front.  


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Admittedly it reduces the area available for scenery quite considerably, but it should at least help speed up the construction time. I've mocked it up here with a brooding grey sky. I've seen this done to great effect on some exhibition models, but it seems pretty radical and I'm not sure yet whether I have the confidence to actually go with it myself. I'll leave it for a while to see if it grows on me. Some building mock-ups have been added below, to test how to fit things around the tracks. The stash of frozen pizza boxes is a godsend here.


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I'm just shuffling shapes around at the moment, trying to find an aesthetically pleasing arrangement, before worrying about the textures and details. Although the prototype was concerned with iron, the model will be less specific to allow for a diversity of traffic. It might end up as a vague kind of processing plant with a meaningless name, like the 'Central By-Product Distillation Works' that used to exist in Middlesbrough.


The road across the tracks is something else I'm not sure about yet. I quite like the way it leads you into the scene, but it would reduce the siding capacities if I want to keep the roadway clear between shunting movements. On the other hand, by introducing some petty rules for the train crew to follow when dealing with the crossing, it might add a bit extra to the operational challenge. 

 

Plenty to think about. We'll see how it evolves.
Cheers, Alan
 

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