Blakey Rigg, NER

[ScottW]

Thanks for the update, the layout is coming on and looking superb. Loving the Long Boiler Goods.

 

Your progress is putting my own efforts to shame and made me realise I must really pull my finger out.

 

Keep up the good work,

 

scott

[Rosedale]

It has been a while since I gave an update on progress, but much progress has been made, I just haven't written about it! In fact the layout itself is now largely complete apart from finishing the ballasting, doing some gardens for the cottages and a bit more foliage. Then, I have 3 months to finish and build more stock before its debut at the Leeds Show at the end of October. Quite a tall order with my time also being spent on lots of other things like running, cycling, holidays and DIY. 

 

I have now finished the fascia and lighting and the backscene. All have taken longer than planned, mainly because I have been experimenting with different (to me) approaches.

 

The fascia is actually made from a UPVC shelf instead of timber. This has saved weight, but was the devil to paint, needing a lot of primer, red oxide from a Halfords spray can, intended for plastic bumpers etc. It has then been painted in Dulux "African Adventure 2", the nearest approximation I could get to the rusty red you see leaching out of the soil in parts of Rosedale because of the high ironstone content still up there. Then I have got some custom graphics made to show the layout name and scale.  I'm really pleased with the final effect.

 

I decided to give the new fangled LED lighting a go and am a convert. It uses very little power, gives off hardly any heat and the 2 strips of cool white I have used gives a good hue to the layout. It could do with another strip of warm white, but given that the roof is open as it were, I need to take exhibition hall lighting into account and will see what it looks like at Leeds before I add another strip. The lighting strips all point downwards and this has minimised, but not eliminated shadows. Again, this is something I am going to 'park' for now.

 

The backscene has given me a lot of grief. My plan was to follow Gordon Gravett, Paul Marshall Potter etc and have a single drape around the layout in some sort of Ricean Cameo approach. But, and I think this a big but, I like and use 3 link couplings and having an all embracing backscene would mean operating from the front (no problem), but constantly obstructing the viewers. I have spent a long time at the Manchester and York shows looking at Geoff Kent's brilliant Red Lion Crossing where operation is at the front with 3 links. But viewer obstruction didn't seem a problem because of the length of the layout, whereas Blakey is only 8' long. For all these reasons I decided to have a lower backscene to facilitate rear operation and the shaking hand of god wrestling the 3 links. 

 

I then thought that I could still go for a single backscene cut from roller blind material that would avoid an unsightly gap in the sky. A template was made and fitted from decorators lining paper before the pricey vinyl was cut. I made and fitted and aluminium frame and then cut and added the vinyl backscene attaching it to the frame with Velcro. It looked great and and I was mightily pleased with myself. But, oh dear, I found that fitting and taking the backscene down was an almighty pain and it was difficult to avoid creasing it. I could also predict smudges from my sweaty dirty hands, putting up and taking down a layout being a sweaty, grimy business.  So back to the drawing board....

 

I did momentarily consider hardboard or ply, but then decided to split the vinyl backscene in 2 and have it semi-permanently fitted to the aluminium frame. To hide the join in the sky, I have made the split behind one of the cottages. It isn't perfect, but it isn't too bad. 

 

Finally regarding backscenes, I am not totally convinced they are even necessary. I can think of quite a few superb layouts where they either don't exist, or are minimal - East Lynn, Dewsbury Great Northern and Tarring Neville and Laramie (where, sacre bleau, the layouts are viewed brilliantly in the round) spring to mind. The human eye is so fixated on the excellent modelling that the lack of a backscene on these layouts is not apparent.

 

I have loved doing the scenery. The hills are a chicken wire frame covered in modroc then painted brown. Then I have applied 2mm patchy static grass to start off the peaty moorland look. This has then been covered in various summer shades of grass in both 2mm and 4mm lengths to build up the rufty, tufty texture I have observed in Rosedale. I have added in some streams and paths to give a bit of relief  - I should stress that I have not sought to faithfully model the Blakey landscape as it is. 

 

I have attached some photographs to show progress. More to follow, but in the meantime I must paint my Y7, build another loco ( a class 59) and some more wagons. Much to do, but all enjoyable. 

[Rosedale]

[Worsdell forever]

Needs more sheep...!

 

Looking good. 

[Barry O]

at some point, cricket permitting it may be opportune to walk up the road and have a "play" if I may?

 

Great work!

 

baz

[Rosedale]

18 hours ago, Worsdell forever said:

Needs more sheep...!

 

Looking good. 

There were more sheep but the farmer said some of them have wandered across the valley to The Depots! 

[Rosedale]

The layout itself is largely complete - I just need to do a bit more scenic work, including more grass and heather, plus some vegetable gardens for the cottages. I am therefore, now getting back to building more stock, starting with this early NER brakevan. I got the drawing from the Ian Sadler book about NER Brakevans.

The photo shows it before painting alongside my scratchbuilt V1 Brakevan. It will be painted in a highly worn and weathered early NER livery. I'm assuming it is being hired by the Farndale Iron Company to help move their wagons to Blakey Junction and then down the incline to Teeside.

Construction is from plasticard with etched SSMRS w-irons and scratchbuilt brakegear. I have put SSMRS 3'6" Maunsell wheels on it as the original vans ran as part of passenger trains to provide braking and luggage space. 

Then it is back to loco construction - a Class 59 or small wheeled Long Boiler Goods, probably no 1129 for which I have the plates.

[Rosedale]

The footboards are missing in the photo as they will be added from thin ply after painting. I also hope to add a suitable brakeman, a hardy soul for Rosedale - I was up there with my Dad and Brother on Thursday 15th August and it was blowing a gale. But we needed some fresh air after a few pints and another gargantuan meal in the Lion Inn!

[TheSignalEngineer]

I was up at The Lion a couple of weeks ago and it was warm enough to sit outside. On my previous visit I got blown off my mountain bike and had to have nine stitches in my face.

Edited August 18, 2019 by TheSignalEngineer

[Rosedale]

On 18/08/2019 at 21:57, TheSignalEngineer said:

I was up at The Lion a couple of weeks ago and it was warm enough to sit outside. On my previous visit I got blown off my mountain bike and had to have nine stitches in my face.

The weather can sometimes turn up there in an instant, 4 seasons in one day etc. It must have been incredibly hard living up there on the tops and I am full of admiration for the railwaymen, their wives and children, plus the miners and their families. No central heating, no double glazing or cavity wall insulation. And long hours. I'm glad to hear that your accident hasn't put you off going there though!

[TheSignalEngineer]

We go up to that area quite a lot as the riding is good. We have a regular place where we stay in Pickering a couple of times a year which gives us the chance to have a rest days on the NYMR and bus to Scarborough or Whitby.

[Rosedale]

I'm not a great blogger so posts are in fits and starts.  I took a few pictures before coming away on holiday and these are added in. The early NER Brakevan is now finished and painted apart from some lettering and weathering which I'm planning to do alongside a few other wagons. The scenery is virtually complete now and my friend Graeme added a few more bits of texture to increase the 'tussocky' verdant feel that Rosedale has in the summer; I'm really pleased with it, thanks Mate! And I'm well under way with 3 Salt Wagons which will be used to convey the output of the Farndale Potash Mines (which have not been written about in any of the area histories for some reason). These wagons are from laser cut card kits produced by Dave Provan of the S Scale Society and lovely they are too, or will be when I've finished adding the etched ironwork. And finally, on the loco front, I'm building another engine (an NER Class 59) and am awaiting with some excitement for the return of the NER Long Boiler Goods from the painter. It's all go and needs to all be done for the Leeds Show at the end of October. Phew!

 

[Rosedale]

[Regularity]

Nice to see such lovely progress.

One thing I meant to ask about, was how effective are you find the lighting (circled)?

 

[Keith J]

Slightly off topic but the Lion Inn is indeed a great pub. It's also a favourite hangout for a fantastic rock band called Mostly Autumn so much so that the cover picture on one of their early albums is taken inside the Lion Inn. The album also contains a track called Blakey Ridge which was inspired by the area. Could be good to have this playing in the background whilst working on the layout!

[Rosedale]

On 05/09/2019 at 12:25, Regularity said:

Nice to see such lovely progress.

One thing I meant to ask about, was how effective are you find the lighting (circled)?

Ah, all high tech LED pelmet stuff now and a backscene to hide my workbench! 

On 05/09/2019 at 12:25, Regularity said:

 

 

[Rosedale]

On 05/09/2019 at 12:52, Keith J said:

Slightly off topic but the Lion Inn is indeed a great pub. It's also a favourite hangout for a fantastic rock band called Mostly Autumn so much so that the cover picture on one of their early albums is taken inside the Lion Inn. The album also contains a track called Blakey Ridge which was inspired by the area. Could be good to have this playing in the background whilst working on the layout!

Sounds interesting Keith! How do I get hold of a copy - not that I'll be playing it at shows though!! John Taylor did suggest I needed a tape of sheep and grouse though.............

[Keith J]

12 hours ago, Rosedale said:

Sounds interesting Keith! How do I get hold of a copy - not that I'll be playing it at shows though!! John Taylor did suggest I needed a tape of sheep and grouse though.............

It's normally available via their website - http://www.mostly-autumn.com/mostlyautumnrecords/3/index3.html  you need to scroll down to the bottom and it's called The Spirit of Autumn Past, you may recognise the picture of the fireplace at the Lion Inn on the cover. Unfortunately it's showing as temporarily out of stock at the moment so you may have to stick to sheep and grouse sounds for the time being.

[Rosedale]

Just in case people haven't seen it, the December 2021 Railway Modeller has a feature on my layout with great photos from Andrew Morris, plus pleasingly, additional notes about the Rosedale Branch and S Scale. I'm really delighted with how RM have presented it and have had a lot of nice comments from S Scale Model Railway Society members and our President, Trevor Nunn, plus other modelling friends. 

 

I hope that the article might raise awareness of the Rosedale Branch which is such a fascinating line set in an awesomely beautiful landscape. I again walked the whole line in the summer with a friend (we were forced to slake our thirst in the Lion Inn afterwards!) and I don't think I will ever tire of doing so. The colours, the changing views, contemplating the harsh lives of the railwaymen, miners and their families and contrasting this with the natural beauty is a constant for me. As is a decent pint afterwards - why am I always driving?!

 

I hope also that the article might also raise interest in modelling the pre-group scene in general and scratch-building in particular. And maybe get more modellers to give S Scale a go?

 

Finally, there were plans for the North Yorkshire Parks authority to hold a Rosedale Ironstone mining themed exhibition at their Danby centre that were scuppered by Covid. Hopefully they'll think about this again?

 

[Rosedale]

The next exhibitions for Blakey Rigg are:

 

19th/20th March - Alexandra Palace, London

 

1st/2nd October, Gauge 1 Model Railway Association 75th Birthday Show - Bicester.

 

In addition, the layout has been invited to the Norman and Pontefract plus Uckfield shows in 2023.

 

There is still some work to be done. I'm in the process of renewing the backscene, and am building a rake of SI metal bodied hopper wagons, having had a lot of help from fellow SSMRS members with the actual hopper body and the buffers (both 3D designed and printed by Jim Guthrie and Aidan Love) plus ironwork etched in brass by Dave Provan. They are fascinating wagons and such a feature of the line - see the first wagon attached.   

[gr.king]

If anybody is still monitoring this topic, what has happened about the layout's invitation to the 2023 Normanton and Pontefract show, as mentioned above please? The list of confirmed layouts for that show, now shown in the entry on this website, contains no reference to Blakey Rigg.

[gr.king]

Reply now received by PM, thanks.

[MarcD]

It was great to see the layout in the flesh this weekend, the EMGS Summer show Wakefield. It's given me food for thought and really tempted me by S scale.

Marc

[Rosedale]

Thanks Marc, it was good to talk and I'm glad you liked the layout and scale. 

 

As you saw, S has a lot going for it, bigger than 4mm to make it easier to scratchbuild, but without the space penalty of 7mm. We have the same track systems as other scales and all sorts of other bits and pieces. And with 3D printing the sky's the limit!