Castle Aching

[Stubby47]

I used to board in Castle Hedingham, whilst working for Lucas Diesel in Sudbury.  Stayed in a 13th century wood-framed farmhouse. (Makes a change for me to actually know where someone is talking about !)

[Donw]

In monochrome photos, whites often appear whiter than they actually are, so it is worth remembering this.

 

I think it was Iain Rice who suggested having a "universal tint": something added to each tin of paint, to harmonise things. I reckon a few drops of a light grey would do that, and also take the unnatural "edge" off the starkness of things. All of which suggests I must make use of my airbrush rather than using car spray paints... (I have used a very thin wash of BR coach grey over black, to tone things down, with good effect, in the past. I shall dig out a photo at some point.)

 

There was an article in one of the magazines (possibly MRN or YMR as it became) in which the author discussed the effect of distance on colour and came up with a universal tint I think it was a greyish sort of beige. However it is not that easy you have the effect of distance, the weathering as in dirt and dust plus the effect of the sun bleaching colours against which you have an eye that thinks it knows the colour. Really you need to have the eye of an artist and then the trains are long gone so you cannot actually see them. I am using the memories of the colours of the fifties to help me guess what things were like around 1904. The only plus is that few are around who can remember those days.

Don

[Edwardian]

In monochrome photos, whites often appear whiter than they actually are, so it is worth remembering this.

 

I think it was Iain Rice who suggested having a "universal tint": something added to each tin of paint, to harmonise things. I reckon a few drops of a light grey would do that, and also take the unnatural "edge" off the starkness of things. All of which suggests I must make use of my airbrush rather than using car spray paints... (I have used a very thin wash of BR coach grey over black, to tone things down, with good effect, in the past. I shall dig out a photo at some point.)

 

Thanks, Simon.

 

When I paint, I use water-based acrylic and never use colours without toning down.  I never use black as black or white as white.  If I want to paint white, it's generally a bone colour that I use.  I might mix white in just for highlights.

 

As it happens, I find that I do have a 'universal tint', though I had not really thought about this before or rationalised this.  I put a bone white in everything.  I use it as white, I mix it with black for my scale black, and I use it to tone-down colours and for lightening for highlights.

 

Most of my acrylic painting is on people, but guttering, down-pipes, doors and the odd painted window and the goods wagons have all been treated in much the same way.

 

The buildings, however, have in the main used photographs of windows printed on white self-adhesive labels.  As such, they are affected by the photograph, are seldom pure white and often include shaded areas etc.  They are, however, pictures of windows wearing modern paint, taken in sunshine or lightened before printing and printed on white.

 

Given this, I perhaps should have considered in each case whether there was a need to tone down with wash of paint.  I'll add this to my 'to-do' list!

[Shadow]

Must respond to the many excellent posts, but just on this point, I think this is an interesting issue, but I am not wholly convinced.

 

My sense, based on what I have seen, not on either research or systematic observation is that:

 

 

• The dark browns tend to be associated more with mid-Victorian
• There were a reasonable amount of black painted windows, but I have a feeling these might have been a bit old fashioned
• White windows and frames, or white windows with black or dark frames, were fairly common.  The use of white seems supported by what others have said regarding lead based paint

It is a subject that would no doubt benefit from further research.  in the meantime:

Just had a look at the same location that the Boscastle image was taken before!

 

High St

 

https://goo.gl/maps/AtevbXAbYHT2

[Nearholmer]

I always used to find a humbrol Matt "dark earth" useful as an "add a touch to everything" colour, and as a general wash. It has that quality of real weathering,which is to look dark on light things, and light on dark things -.sort of colour entropy.

 

K

[The Stationmaster]

I must not be lazy then, and leave the unmuted white of the address labels showing.  Fair point!

 

White lead paint weathers and ages just like any other paint but the initial weathering seems to take place quite quickly giving a slightly powdery surface texture and it loses it stark whiteness fairly quickly as a result.  It is not unusual for it to yellow a bit as it ages as well.

 

My dad painted a new front gate he'd made with white lead well within my memory and it went like that although it didn't yellow.  He also left the tin lying around and it was still about when he died - I hid it in a skip we used for clearing stuff out as it isn't very pleasant stuff and it isn't really much use compared with modern exterior paints.  However my biggest regret is that among his stock of various proper materials there was no creosote as I used to find it unbeatable for treating fence panels but - like white lead paint, it is alas banned from sale nowadays. 

[Shadow]

Looks like the tracks of the WNR are could possibly get re-used in the future.

 

 

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/rail_return_campaigners_make_major_progress_in_holt_1_4516674

[Donw]

Auto-correction by my computer turned "unifying tint" into "universal tint"!

 

The "scale colour" issue is a subtly different but separate issue. A drop of the same paint (bone, pale grey, beige, earth) creates a harmony in the colours used. I think Iain went to art college during his youth, so would be aware of this (as indeed is our Edwardian OP).

 

This is something that those would model in more than one scale come across. If you paint a 2mm model with the same paint as a 7mm one, the colour on the 2mm one looks too intense compared to the 7mm one because your eye is seeing the 2mm one as further away. Dark colours need a bit of lightening if you have the artistic skill.

Don

[corneliuslundie]

It might be worth looking at what the local conservation officer for the area recommends, as that will probably be based on pre-industrial paints. The council may have information on its website. I thought that white did not seem to have been common for window frames etc until I saw your examples. Blues were not very stable, which essentially leaves reds, mostly on the dark side, and greens. If I am not confusing two things, doesn't white lead paint blacken in the presence of sulphur, which is why carriage foofs painted with it went grey so fast? But in a clean air area this might not be an issue. The big change in paints, as far as I can see, came with the development of synthetic pigments around the end of the 19th century. Ironically, modern white paints turn yellow quite quickly, so what goes round comes round.

It is beginning to sound as if you will be having to build a model of Gazelle, which started off as a privately owned locomotive which the owner was allowed to use on the main line, and in East Anglai if I remember correctly.

Jonathan

Edited April 30, 2016 by corneliuslundie

[Edwardian]

It might be worth looking at what the local conservation officer for the area recommends, as that will probably be based on pre-industrial paints. The council may have information on its website. I thought that white did not seem to have been common for window frames etc until I saw your examples. Blues were not very stable, which essentially leaves reds, mostly on the dark side, and greens. If I am not confusing two things, doesn't white lead paint blacken in the presence of sulphur, which is why carriage foofs painted with it went grey so fast? But in a clean air area this might not be an issue. The big change in paints, as far as I can see, came with the development of synthetic pigments around the end of the 19th century. Ironically, modern white paints turn yellow quite quickly, so what goes round comes round.

It is beginning to sound as if you will be having to build a model of Gazelle, which started off as a privately owned locomotive which the owner was allowed to use on the main line, and in East Anglai if I remember correctly.

Jonathan

 

Actually, Jonathan, I was thinking of this.

 

R&W Hawthorn 0-4-0T, Works no. 958 of 1856, 'Havilah'

[Northroader]

On the subject of an idiosyncratic country station for your line, may I run this one past you?

[uax6]

How about just a collection of old carriage bodies? Not something that you see modelled everyday...

 

Andy G

[corneliuslundie]

"How about just a collection of old carriage bodies? Not something that you see modelled everyday.."

 

And add a few old van bodies. It begins to sound like lines such as the Mid Suffolk. My son and I nearly modelled an imaginary twig off that once, to a real place called Pixie Green.

Jonathan

[Edwardian]

On the same line as Wateringbury, and to the same design is Aylesford station. But where Wateringbury is built in brick, Aylesford was built in Kentish ragstone. I think it wouldn't look out of place.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Aylesford_Railway_Station_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1740442.jpg

 

And I happen to have a set of drawings of Wateringbury Station, so if you're interested, send me a PM

 

I think we have a winner.

 

I am charmed entirely by SER stations at Aylesford and Wateringbury.  I take note of the fact that Neo-Jacobean stations were also found on GER constituents, notably at Stowmarket, a station I know well.

 

The dates (1840s-1850s) are a little earlier than anticipated for the WNR, but history is there to be rewritten.

 

I will PM you. 

Edited April 30, 2016 by Edwardian

[Removed a/c]

That is a charming building !! I'll take one as well 

[Northroader]

Local vernacular, eh.? (You can skip the wires)

Edited May 1, 2016 by Northroader

[corneliuslundie]

Yes, I'll go with that one.

Now we know why the railway company was impecunious - no money left after they had put up the stations. There are plenty of examples around this part of the world of large stations for small companies: Llanidloes, Newtown, Welshpool for a start. None of the originating companies had more than a couple of dozen miles or so of route. Nearer Castle Aching both Newmarket stations. I hope 'My Lord' is pleased.

And the building will give the stationmaster real status in the town, as he should have of course.

Now those fourth hand carriages you were enquiring about . . . .

Jonathan

[Edwardian]

That would look good in carstone...

 

I was about to agree, when Northroader illustrated that very fact.

 

I like the pale irregular stone of the Kentish example, and it could be reproduced in what Wagonman has identified as Norfolk clunch (hard chalk). Below are examples from Burnham Overy Town (Shadow's picture of the Caryatid house) cottages at Burnham Overy Lower Mill, and a substantial farmhouse in Hillington, which seems to feature flint, brick and carstone as well, all in the course of a single façade!

 

A charming alternative is the distinctive style of the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway.  Another GER constituent and from the early 1860s, so a little later than the 1840s Suffolk or the 1850s Kentish neo-Jacobean.  Ultimately, however, I rejected this as I did not want to confuse the WNR with the L&HR.  The picture is of Dersingham.

Edited May 1, 2016 by Edwardian

[Edwardian]

Local vernacular, eh.? (You can skip the wires) image.jpegimage.jpeg

 

However, I think Simon and Northroader are correct to choose carstone. You can see from Northroader's example, actually in carstone from the looks of it, that it is the same style as Aylesford and Wateringbury.  The obvious difference is the use of the Dutch-style gables.  Windows and chimneys are all of a piece. A nice example to validate the theory of adapting Aylesford to carstone.

 

Carstone seems the most appropriate material.  It seems to have been the preferred material for the Victorians.  Thinking of the Aylesford design immediately put me in mind of the beautiful old school hard by the former M&GN station in Hillington.  I had intended to model this school, but never managed to get decent photographs of it.  I rely below on a scrappy Google Earth image. 

 

You can see the material used all over that area, but some splendid 1830s neo-Jacobean is the gateway to Hillington Hall.  The Hall itself was demolished in 1946.

 

I note that the school uses red brick quoins, Northroader's station yellow brick and Hillington Hall gateway, stone.  I think brick would have been generally most suitable for a station, but the proximity of the stone castle and the nearby stately home and aristocratic patronage that we are weaving into the story, perhaps argues for the dressed stone of Aylesford with carstone as the infill, taking the place of Kentish ragstone?

Edited May 1, 2016 by Edwardian

[CKPR]

White lead did make good paint and was used (still is if they can get it) by Artists. It does seem to discolour a little and I suspect that Landlords would use darker colour if available because they didn't show there age so much hence they could leave it longer before repainting. Incidentally wasn't it White lead that was used for carriage roofs.

Tradesmen used to mix a lot of their stuff themselves. Glaziers would mix whiting and Linseed oil to make putty. My grandfather said freshly mixed putty was much better.

Don

 

David Jenkinson gives a similar exposition on the old methods of mixing and applying paints in his 1988 book 'British railway carriages of the 20th century' and very interesting it is too.

[runs as required]

Interesting to find that just three years separates Aylesford station 1858 (Caen stone) and Hillington Schoolhouse (carstone) 1855 both listed Grade II and I agree that both are a delight - ideal subjects for our host's modelling skills.

 

A Pedant (heaven help it would be me) could question how the West Norfolk a railway that

 I think must have begun sometime in the 1870s, but seems to have built up stock during the '80s  post #157

 

might inhabit a station who's cottage orne style dates from an earlier more carefree era following the Great Exhibition.

 

By the 1870s Queen Victoria is now deep in mourning for Prince Albert, but acquired Sandringham House (just over the hill) the year after Albert died 1861 at the request of her son the Prince of Wales - the future Edward VII.

 

Perhaps there is a more complex backstory waiting to be researched that leads to the WNR eventually being forced to compromise with cheapskate street running to a BLT terminal turntable outside its lavishly conceived station building?

  dh

[Shadow]

According to this history site of Hillington

 

http://www.hillington.org/interesting-buildings/

 

The station was used by Royalty on occasions and also that the school house was at one time the ticket office!

Edited May 1, 2016 by Shadow

[corneliuslundie]

The railway may have been completed in the 1870s but when was it started? There are plenty of examples of railways which were started, stalled for lack of money, went bust and were restarted by a new Act of Parliament years later. The prime example is the S&MLR which had three separate existences. The station building at Castle Aching was obviously built during the first flush of enthusiasm, partly as an HQ for the company.

And I hope that our esteemed promoter is going to use his legal skills to provide us with a suitably worded Act of Parliament complete with agreement with the local Lord etc etc.

Could this line have been built under the first light railway legislation? I can't remember the date, but I know that it didn't really reduce costs or standards very much, and that in fact few lines were actually built because of it.

Such a back history could also justify some rolling stock older than the company, ie bought be its predecessor and inherited. It would of course have had very little use and be in excellent condition.

 

Are'nt we awful, Edwardian, taking over your railway and redesigning it for you!.

Jonathan

[runs as required]

The railway may have been completed in the 1870s but when was it started? There are plenty of examples of railways which were started, stalled for lack of money, went bust and were restarted by a new Act of Parliament years later. The prime example is the S&MLR which had three separate existences. The station building at Castle Aching was obviously built during the first flush of enthusiasm, partly as an HQ for the company.

And I hope that our esteemed promoter is going to use his legal skills to provide us with a suitably worded Act of Parliament complete with agreement with the local Lord etc etc.

Could this line have been built under the first light railway legislation? I can't remember the date, but I know that it didn't really reduce costs or standards very much, and that in fact few lines were actually built because of it.

Such a back history could also justify some rolling stock older than the company, ie bought be its predecessor and inherited.

That's obviously what happened.

James Ed has aready suggested that the West Norfolk was always being pipped to the post about its ambitions, in this case perhaps it simply fell back on inheriting its contractor's p.w. alignment and stock, accepting C Aching as a provisional terminus - which ossified into permanence.

 

Aren't we awful, Edwardian, taking over your railway and redesigning it for you!.

A more positive take on this is that we merely act as 'minders' spinning plausable arguments to protect his back while J.E. continues to indulge his whims.

[Edwardian]

Alright, then. I can finally visualise the complete station, which I could not before.  The Aylesford/Wateringbury design in carstone works for me. That was the key.  Thank you T&A; I await the plans with eager anticipation. We know these stations to date from the 1850s, and R-A-R David has helpfully confirmed the date of the stylistically similar Hillington school.  Seeing the idea realised at Downham Market clinches it.  Shadow, you raise the intriguing and incongruous possibility of Royal, as well as aristocratic passengers.

 

It seems entirely feasible that a railway company in west Norfolk might have produced such a structure.  All I have to do is start the story of the railway 20 years earlier, either as a railway running since the late '50s or by Jonathan's cunning method, which has its charm; a narrative twist that may add a note of verisimilitude to the history of the line.

 

In the meantime, while history has been evolving in others' hands, my hands have been sticky with glue, paint and DIY filler in order to finish the medieval gateway at the entrance to Bailey Street.  I think the impetus to getting on with this bit, finally, came, if I'm honest, from Kevin's fish tank ornament post.  I really like the folly castle and can see that working as a piece of model railway scenery without too much work.  What I have done, then, is essentially to create a fish tank ornament, though, perhaps unwisely, in cardboard.