George Hudson

Usual slow progress I am afraid due to site development (see photo) and going back to square one on the roof girders. Having sprayed them up black and fitting them in situ, I decided that they did not have the elegance of the original spans so I am trying to think of a solution. I think it's likely that I will cut them from plastic card and have them completely non weight bearing which will require a very stiff roof. The search begins for materials. ANDREW

Short update-ette, Here are a couple of poor mobile phone shots of the development of the roof. The girder pattern is adapted from the original plans of the station which I have from an architectural digest. The whole thing is made from 3mm foam board having decided first that this would be easy to work with and secondly that the strongest solution would be to fashion the structures out of one piece of material rather than sticking several bits of girder together on a jig. When I have 5 I will finish off with perpendicular pieces to give a proper girder cross section and paint. Andrew

I developed a slightly Heath Robinson trestle system to cope with the unevenness of the loft floor and have re assembled this in the office. With the fourth board which holds the partly built station buildings, I have six metres plus room for exit curves. This is 1.5m less than original but still respectable.

Sort of blog entry rather than update: Keeping the main board at home in spare room, I am now migrating the rest of Aldersgate to my office in the next street (I work for myself and mostly alone in a too-big office). It means I will have to lose about 1.5 metres from the full length but the attic is just too narrow and will be no fun to work in. I am confusing the good burgers of Düsseldorf who probably can’t work out why the mad Englishman is walking to the office with a couple of boards or homemade trestles each morning. The idea is that I can start laying track at the station throat etc and when I bored of this switch back to scenery on the main board. Now have to convince Mrs GH that at least some (real) work will be done at office. Here is the virgin site which is barricaded off from the work area by IKEA shelving. Andrew

...as Mae West might have said, "That's what temptation's for" Enjoying the thread very much. Andrew

I never thought I would be fascinated by the production of concrete blocks but the bridge and cutting scene is a marvellously understated gem. Keep it up; posting this layout is a form of public service! Andrew

Thanks there are some excellent images there!

Just posting a mini update. Things do not look wildly different partly because I have been busy with the “devilish details†and partly because the spare room has been occupied by Xmas guests. I am just about to start the first (simplest) of the two roof sections. I have some basic idea but expect that it will be developed with the inevitable compromises as we progress. In the meantime some shots using my daughter’s new birthday camera. Regards Andrew PS still hoping someone will get in touch with the Liverpool Street photos from the 60s which I was offered.

Its a delight and a top quality combination of artistry and engineering skills. Best regards Andrew ps you might be interested in my Aldersgate project: any input most welcome!

I can't offer and specialist knowledge or tips about the area, only my admiration for the feel of the layout so far. The generous proportions of the platforms give it real authenticity. There are so many good layouts on the forum but this will be certainly one that will keep my interest, for the next 4 years! Andrew

Thanks for the feedback guys. This is rather puzzling; when I looked at the site from the office, one member had written offiering me some original photos which he had taken from the 60s/70s. Now that I am home, this message seems to have disappeared. Did I dream this or perhaps there was a glich in the server?

I can’t believe how much time I spent this weekend lining arches with brick paper. It does look better and had to be done before the sides of the station are fixed into place. In the past too hasty assembly has meant finishing off by working at odd angles and into unreachable places; rather like putting a ship in a bottle. I started to think that a second ticket office at platform level could be good but also realise that those bubbles in the brick paper have to be sorted out and the inner arches “which probably no one will see†(quote from Mrs GH) also need to be finished first. A shot behind the scenes for the curious to show just how Heath Robinson my “methods†are.

For those interested in my small project, I thought I would post a few shots. I feel a bit of a fraud since there doesn’t look like much progress and that’s because there isn’t but the details are building up. I have started a simple booking office following the one which was situated one of the mainline platforms at Liverpool Street but at Aldersgate I have located it on the upper walkway as a feature. Andrew

Just a short update. As you can see I have opted for mixing architectural styles and have incorporated a facade which is a nod to the back of the Great Eastern Hotel (see earlier in thread). That expanse of brick over the doors and windows will contain a large board or stone lettering with “Greater Eastern Hotel†or something similar. I have painted the downstairs doors green in what I believe is the remnants of an LNER colour scheme and have assumed that the hotel doors are painted GER blue for nostalgic reasons! The whole back wall is in six separate pieces and I will not finally glue it all together to keep access easy as I add further details. That’s all for now. Andrew

I said..... The proportions for the offices etc are ripped from some plans on, I think, Ipswich pubished in the GER Soc Journal. When I find the originals I will give full credit to the authour of the excellent plans. So much for my memory, the plans were of Hertford East in an article by Dave Taylor in the British Railway Journal, Special Great Eastern Edition, published by Wild Swann. Now, if I wasn't doing Aldersgate, I would like to attempt Hertford East; it's a sort of GER answer to Peter Denny's famous Buckingham Great Central. Andrew

Hello all, Just a very quick update to show the direction of the ideas for the back wall. The basic thinking is that this is the back of a Great Eastern Hotel with exits to the street at high level as well as entry to the hotel itself. At platform level there are sundry offices and a large pedestrian/vehicle exit. The high level is about 6-10 feet higher than the original in Liverpool Street but I have done this on purpose to give the whole structure more air. The proportions for the offices etc are ripped from some plans on, I think, Ipswich pubished in the GER Soc Journal. When I find the originals I will give full credit to the authour of the excellent plans. Andrew

Excellent, thanks!

I am making progress with the end wall of the station which is following the design in the second of the pictures above. I will post when I have something reasonable but I just realised that I have no idea what colours the doors and windows of the booking office, waiting rooms etc are painted! Would anyone know what these colours would be in Liverpool Street station around 1955? Andrew

Thanks to everyone for their input and kind comments. Oldud’: your point about comparisons is true of course but in my defence I guess that I am often so impressed with others that I want to share them in case the link has been missed. I’ll get off that track now since otherwise it looks like one is endlessly fishing for compliments. The general feedback has certainly motivated me to push forward and I will probably go offline and try to tackle the devil and hopefully delight in the detail. As a last shot for now the link below to the GERsociety website shows the ultimate Liverpool Street buffers shot from 1922. I just want to add 30 years or so. (I am not sure about copywrite hence the link and not picture) http://www.gersociety.org.uk/ The next main tasks will be A the end wall which could look like one of the two pictures below which I took recently and B the former station managers office on stilts which is just peeking out in the 1922 picture. At the same time I will be adding more detail to the existing walls including some hopefully plausible columns for the coming roof. Regards Andrew

Thanks but I am just an old school brickpaper and cardboard bloke with a few composition ideas! Andrew PS there are a lot of premier league players on this site eg http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/12234-diesels-in-the-duchy-aka-st-blazey-dcc-em/ being just one that leaves me in awe of their modelling skills!

Hi I thought that would do a quick photo update since I have managed to snatch a few hours and make some progress. As you can see the main tracks are down on the first board and look suitably filthy to represent 80 years of steam operation! Apologies also for the quality of the photos. I think the scale is right and the station has a suitable level of grandeur even if it is only on a 50cm wide board. Although I am a fan of brickpapers, the jury is out on the paving stones. They might have to become tarmac in the future. This would fit better with the platform profile since I have opted for no lip which would fit better with a later re modeled platform surface. Andrew

Thanks for the comments chaps; it’s always great to have some feedback. Ian, I am afraid it is mostly cardboard and disposable DIY knives. The upright columns are some bits of Ikea shelf units which were surplus to requirements. I used the angle irons rather than screwing and gluing from beneath the boards (which would have been more elegant) for several reasons: nothing I build is ever perfectly square so this gives me the opportunity to re align them fractionally, and believing in Murphy’s Law, I expect that they will get knocked about when moving the boards and again, this way they can be re set without too many tears. I am going to make it so the sides are always removable for easy access, another painful lesson learned over the years. I was the last person in the world to discover foam board, the electricity building is made from cornflake packets. I guess I am part of the Blue Peter generation (d.o.b 1959!) Markus, it’s 00, not N like Stratham. When is IoS on tour again? http://en.wikipedia....i/George_Hudson Ian, spot on re colour; as I have said before, it currently owes more to the station after its makeover and as you rightly say it will need to be black at the end. This will be a challenge for me but there’s some good advice on RMWeb about weathering brickpapers and I will have to practice. Andrew (expectations management: progress will be slow even snail like compared with many on this site!)

And just to show that I can't stop messing about, here is the front of the electricity building on Bishopsgate which will be part of board 2!!

I thought I would write a quick update particularly for those who took the trouble to give me some input previously. I have made a strategic decision to relocate the layout from the loft which I considered just broad enough for me to operate but on reflection too narrow a space in which to build a layout without a lot of (or more than usual amount) of frustration and swear words. The other decision has been not to wait until track laying on every board is completed before progressing onto scenic areas but to treat the project as a modular layout which means that I can enjoy doing buildings and scenery on a board by board basis: it’s supposed to be fun at the end of the day! With this in mind, I have started on the key board which will be the base for the main station building and will develop this as a diorama to be connected to the full layout in due course. Here are some basic shots to kick off with. Andrew