Jump to content
 
  • entries
    33
  • comments
    177
  • views
    58,151

Basilica Fields


Buckjumper

1,232 views

I have an external blog - a journal, if you will - in which I have been recording the research and construction of a long-term modelling project in ScaleSeven which will cover the Metropolitan Railway’s Inner Circle Extension, the Extended Widened Lines, and the East London Railway Extension as well as the Great Eastern lines out of Liverpool Street. Such a large area could not possibly be replicated in it’s entirety, so it is proposed to concentrate on the underground lines just east of the junction with the Metropolitan between Bishopsgate (Liverpool Street) and Aldgate beginning at Artillery Lane, and also the Great Eastern main line to Basilica Fields, skipping the huge Bishopsgate and Spitalfields goods and coal depots, and picking things up again just east of Bethnal Green Junction.

 

I’m working to a plan which is timed as a thirty-year long project (yes, quite mad), so it is planned to build six self-contained segments, each 15 – 20 feet long, with the capability of being joined to its neighbour to make a continuous scene, and each taking five years to complete. Considerable thought and planning has gone into the presentation to ensure a seamless transition between segments, and this process will be discussed further in detail.

 

I say thirty years, but that's just the construction side - I've been researching for the best part of a decade (and am only just scratching the surface in many areas). For me the interesting part is the road, not the destination. Good job really...

 

Basilica Fields is set in two time frames – 1890 to 1900, and 1900 to 1906, though these limits are feather-edged with no defined cut-off. The reason for these broad dates is simple; with the workings of more than half a dozen railway companies to consider, there is simply not enough of the historical record left intact to produce an accurate representation based on a window of half a decade, let alone a single year.

 

When considering basic, but essential information such as locomotive allocations, carriage numbers and formations, etc, even these for the larger participating companies whose historical record is often well documented, accurate data for London’s suburban services has proven difficult to assemble in a meaningful fashion. I believe this is due to three reasons, viz; an incomplete surviving historical record, misinformation perpetuated in print, and lack of interest by historians due to a corresponding lack of glamour in its day-to-day operations. I have been documenting my researches, and those of others upon whom I’ve leaned (sometimes quite hard), in order to attempt to redress the imbalance. I will, of course, be very pleased, if not utterly ecstatic to hear from anyone who is able to correct my errors (plenty, no doubt!), especially if they are able to quote from primary sources.

 

It is therefore inevitable that in the presentation of this project, some engines, stock, and other items will be anachronistic, so instead I will attempt to convey the spirit and practice of the times based upon the evidence available.

 

Sometimes entries categorised 'Basilica Fields' on this blog will comprise of a meaty teaser trailer with a link to the full entry on my external blog. There are legitimate reasons for this decision which have nothing to do with generating traffic to it.

  • Like 6

8 Comments


Recommended Comments

  • RMweb Gold

Great to see Basilica Fields being introduced like this on here. It's a project that deserves all the attention in the world. Your emphasis on bringing to light more (correct) data on the suburban services is a worthwhile effort in itself, I think.

 

I like your term "feather-edged" timeframes :-) But one thing I struggle with myself is how to apply it in practice. I suppose there are two approaches: One is to simply accept that one or two items of stock are slightly out of period on the layout. Another is to maintain a principle that all stock visible on the layout at any one time is of the same period - even if that period is a little outside the normal timeframe.

 

The latter approach is the most rigorous I suppose, but the first one can be veeery tempting :-)

Link to comment

An interesting project you have here and one that I shall follow with interest. I've also just found your blog on the internet, which definitely is worth linking to on here. Such attention to detail will no doubt serve you well during construction.

 

Definitely one to follow!

 

Chris

Link to comment
  • RMweb Gold

Your project is a sort of senior-scale equivalent of Jim Smith-Wright's New Street, although his compromises are fewer, as I'm not aware he has "skipped bits" to make the design, but he shares your view that the doing is the pleasure, not the finished result. A 30-year project is quite some undertaking, but if the road is the joy, rather than the arrival, so be it. The prototype certainly has lots of interest, is very busy, will keep you equally tied-up, too! I hope it goes well, even though I will be pushing them up before you near completion......

Link to comment

@Mikkel: My way of dealing with it is the former, though I am trying to ensure that the composition of a given train is historically viable - you just might not have seen that Great Western brake 3rd on the Middle Circle Service at the same time as the LNWR Outer Circle train it's just passed going in the opposite direction through the cut & cover section - there could be a chronological (and/or temporal!) discrepancy of a few months or more. And that Midland shunter in the goods depot was built a year after that Great Eastern horsebox on the viaduct above was renumbered into a different series, and that particular Brighton Terrier on the ELR service had been rusticated two years before that anyway. All the stock is correct for the timeframe, it's just that there will be (because on such a project it's impossible to be otherwise) anachronistic moments. It's almost like each train is in its own universe and we're seeing a collapsed multiverse of movement.

 

OK, that's a bit deep...

 

@Mighty Chris. Thanks, glad you're enjoying it.

 

@ Ian: Jim's New Street is superb, and knowing his build is expected to be 20 years or so means I feel much less out on a limb with this. At one point I did toy with building a strictly prototypical part of the Great Eastern based in the Cable Street coal depot area on the Fenchurch Street line. However, so much of the East End was wept away by both slum clearance in the early 20th Century and later German bombs, and although the photographic record of the East end of the period is comprehensive, there's simply not enough information for me to be able to truthfully say that such a model was built with minimal compromise. Once I began to accept that compromises both large and small were necessary, I moved from the desire to recreate a portion of history to a might-have been based on plausibility and the twisting of both the historical record and the lie of the land for my own wants.

 

I'm probably going to satisfy the desire to model a real location in a narrow window of time by building a small rustic layout as a side project. That could be in any one of four scales 00, S, 7mm or 1:32...

  • Like 2
Link to comment

On the (non-RM) blog, under LBSC locomotives, you mention the Albion Models LBSC D class 0-4-2 kit, but this seems to have disappered off the market. Meteor Models seem to offer a similar range, but would you care to comment upon them? They don't seem to be listed as a potential 'best avoidedl' brand in Buckjumpers blog, but any advice on their suitability for a virgin in the murky waters of 7mm FS/S7 would be much appreciared (that final committment yet to be taken!).

 

As I have just hit the big 60, common sense would dictate that 30 year timescales would be excessively optimistic, but a shorter term goal based on the LBSC/SECR in the Deptford area feels very appealing! Any advice to this rapidy wrinkling grumpy would be much appreciated!

 

An inspiring blog, by the way, and in no small measure the the driving force behind my dipping my pool into the world of 7mm modelling, and joining the Gauge O Guild at the weekend.

 

With best wishes for the future development of Basilica Fields!

 

Kind Regards

 

Ian

 

Ian

Link to comment

Hi Ian,

 

Thanks for your comments about the blog, it's very much appreciated.

 

Something in the Deptford area would be provide you with some very interesting workings (GER M15s on goods trains en route to New Cross too!) - once you start, make sure you keep us updated with progress! With regard to F/S or S7 - that's really got to be a personal choice. Neither is more difficult than the other per se, but S7 could take more time to adapt some kits. If anything, S7 is more demanding of your joinery skills, as baseboard joins need to be so much more accurate than F/S.

 

Albion kits are only available direct from the proprietor, or through Roxey Mouldings at exhibitions. There was an appalling review of the kit in the Guild Gazette last year, one which I know many people who've built the kit simply didn't recognise. However, the reviewer appears to be new to modelling, so perhaps some of the difficulties he faced were due to not being familiar with the medium, and consecutive novice errors compounded his problems.

 

With regard to Meteor kits - these come from various sources, the D1 was, up until a couple of years ago, in the MSC range, though I don't know who originally designed it. I've not built an MSC kit, but I have had an MSC D3 here for painting and lining (built in S7, and by a relative novice at kit building). Based on what I saw of it, I'd suggest that with due care they build up into nice working models, but are enough of a canvas for the builder to improve upon with extra detail parts.

 

I'd also recommend using ABC motor/gearboxes. They don't come cheap, but they are plug & play (though I always break mine in gently) which eliminates the hassle of meshing gears.

 

I'm always more than happy to (try and) answer any questions - so feel free to ask.

 

All the best,

Adrian

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...