Nant Y Mynydd

[Ruston]

After going over some other ideas for a OO layout I think this is the one.

 

Last night I was looking through my book collection for ideas and one book I looked at was Visions Of Steam - The Four Seasons Of Steam In Industrial South Wales, by Peter Cavailer and Geoff Silcock. If you haven't got the book it's a picture book of really atmospheric monochrome photos that doesn't even have proper captions and doesn't just do the usual three quarter views of locomotives. It includes "arty" scenes and people and buildings. So then I looked through the Irwell Press book Industrial Railways In Colour - South Wales 2 and decided that this layout will be the first I have ever built not to be set in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

 

It's all fictional but I'm going to try and incorporate things in the books that have inspired me.

 

Total length of baseboards = 7ft. 6in. Width 9 in.

 

The line topmost will be from the colliery and is descending left to right. The right hand end will have a retaining wall with terraced houses and a chapel above it and on the track level there will be an engine shed. The lower line goes off to a landsale yard and the GWR.

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2017 by Ruston

[Neil]

Visions of Steam is a beautiful book and if your model captures some of the atmosphere (and I'm sure it will) then it will be stunning too.

[Ruston]

One of the three baseboards.

They are very well made and cost me £25. I couldn't make them myself for less, so they're worth the money.

 

Seeing how strong they are and how difficult it would be to cut depth into the front edge for the stream I am going to stick an extension onto the front, below track level. This means I will only have to cut into the boards where the stream goes under the tracks and it will free up space on the board itself.

 

The stars of the show.

Dodo is so far untouched but the blue one has had the biscuit company name removed.

 

Thinking about buildings...

 

I'm no expert on the divisions of Christianity  but I'd like to know whether chapels in South Wales are Weslyan or Baptist Personally I think the Baptist one looks better.

Edited December 23, 2022 by Ruston

[Neil]

Here in Aberllefenni, Christianity came in Methodist or independent formats. Funding for Chapels usually came from the congregation and I understand that having raised a sum of money the congregation would buy a standard design from a pattern book which as well as having plans to work to would specify materials and quantities. It explains why many chapels appear to have doppelgängers. The chapel we live in has a twin near Drwys y Nant.

[hespertalbahn]

...

but the blue one has had the biscuit company name removed.

...

 

How did you do that, please ?

 

That you in advance for your answer.

I am looking forward to follow this thread.

 

Best wishes

Dirk

[5050]

If you're not doing Yorkshire then Wales is the best alternative you could pick.

 

So speaks a Welsh Yorkshireman.  Or is it a Yorkshire Welshman?  After all this time up here I can't decide.

 

Tha knows, isn't it.

[Ruston]

How did you do that, please ?

 

That you in advance for your answer.

I am looking forward to follow this thread.

 

Best wishes

Dirk

I rubbed it with a cotton bud soaked in white spirit and with the end of a cocktail stick where the lettering was next to the rivets.

[Fat Controller]

 

 

 

Thinking about buildings...

 

I'm no expert on the dvisions of Christianity  but I'd like to know whether chapels in South Wales are Weslyan or Baptist Personally I think the Baptist one looks better.

 

The Protestant community in South Wales had many different sub-divisions- the rule seemed to be two people could be a congregation, when a third arrived, there would probably be a schism. The larger congregations would have had stone-built chapels, plain on the outside, but often with very elaborate interiors. Smaller ones would often have 'tin tabernacles', with much more ascetic interiors. Sometimes the building would be funded by the congregation; on other occasions, it might be a wealthy individual who bankrolled it, usually to encourage Temperance. There were apparently a pair of wealthy brothers amongst my ancestors, one of whom paid for the construction of most of the chapels in Morriston (his brother funded most of the pubs)

[Respite]

I am liking the look of this new layout.

[Ruston]

I made a start on extending the width of the baseboards today and bought some thin plywood for the backscene and ends.

 

I also made a start weathering the locomotives.

 

 

 

Firstly I put a water-wetted brush in some mig pigment and daubed it all over the body. Then, when it was dry, I cleaned most of it off with a cotton bud to leave it around handrails, rivets etc. where normal cleaning wouldn't get the dirt off. The pigment was  sealed in with an airbrushed layer of matt acrylic varnish and the final stage was an airbrushing of fresh soot on the top of the tank. The wheels and frames are as yet untouched. They will get some attention but I don't want these engines to be filthy - this is the 1920s, not the 1970s.

Edited December 23, 2022 by Ruston

[hespertalbahn]

Dave,

 

thank you for your reply.

Now I know what 'white spirit' in german means, so I now only need the blue Peckett for treatment...

Your weathering looks very authentic, well done !

 

Cheers

Dirk

[Ramblin Rich]

This looks to have good potential.

Can I ask where you got the boards from as the price seems very competitive?

[philip-griffiths]

I'm no expert on the dvisions of Christianity  but I'd like to know whether chapels in South Wales are Weslyan or Baptist Personally I think the Baptist one looks better.

 

 

Hi,  neither of these buildings capture the architecture of Welsh chapels.  A good look through google maps street view will give you an idea of what you need. They could be simple or ornate.  

 

https://goo.gl/maps/PBrnyHu93gu - this is the Baptist Church in Abergavenny.

 

Around the corner from it is the Presbyterian church - https://goo.gl/maps/kduJ2yu55Cw

 

Baptists used to be strong in Abergavenny, in my youth there were two congregations. This is where the second congregation used to meet until they merged - https://goo.gl/maps/TsmBxppE9Lt.

 

Churches could be really simple architecturally - so this is the baptist church in Govilon https://goo.gl/maps/8qumm4WLfT72 - there are some ancestors of mine buried somewhere in that graveyard.  

 

Finally, this is a former baptist chapel in the valleys - Aberbargoed. Bigger than Govilon, but simple architecturally.

 

Hope that this helps.  I would not invest in either of the two models you linked to. Your layout is going to have to say South Wales by just looking at it.  Welsh terraces differ from their northern counterparts (they differed across the coalfield too) this is Pontllanfraith where I grew up - https://goo.gl/maps/zSbMTv5ViDw.    Retaining walls were built using dressed stone - https://goo.gl/maps/gX1yueraSuq, locally quarried so often it is millstone grit, but in places it could be devonian red sandstone.  

 

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

regards

[PaulRhB]

Thanks for the weathering info, very authentic

[Signaller69]

Looks an interesting project, I have a soft spot for colliery lines. The various levels of buildings, railway and stream in your plan already shout "Welsh Valleys" to me so looking forward to seeing the layout take shape!

Martyn.

[Andrew Young]

Looks great, going back in time and moving to South Wales will make it suitably different to your 7mm Modelling.

 

Have one of these Pecketts and they're the only thing in the last decade that's made me consider modelling in 4mm scale again. So far I'm resisting as I could do without the distraction from my 7mm modelling and there's the fear of repetition as there's only so many different permutations of layouts using a blue and a green Peckett that one can do.

 

Shall watch this with interest though.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[5050]

I reckon your weathering is a lot better then mine!  They both look great.

 

Perhaps I should have taken a short drive to Royd Hall before starting.

[HarryP]

What mig colours/pigments do you use for such brilliant effects?

[Ruston]

I reckon your weathering is a lot better then mine!  They both look great.

 

Perhaps I should have taken a short drive to Royd Hall before starting.

If you want me to weather your Bagnall, Paul, give it a repaint and bring it here and I'll do it.

 

What mig colours/pigments do you use for such brilliant effects?

 

The only one I've used on this is soot black. I also use track brown and old rust on heavily-weathered stuff.

 

Can I ask where you got the boards from as the price seems very competitive?

 

 

They were from a friend's abandoned N gauge project.

Edited January 2, 2017 by Ruston

[Ramblin Rich]

 

 

They were from a friend's abandoned N gauge project.

Ok, didn't realise they were secondhand!

[Fat Controller]

To add to what Philip- Griffith said about the materials used for construction of buildings and structures. In much of the South Wales coalfield, 'Pennant Sandstone' was used for stone-built buildings; unlike the Millstone Grit (which sits below the Lower Coal Measures, and only outcrops around the edges of the coalfield), it occurs between the different strata of the Coal Measures, so that any shaft-sinking work, and much of the exploitation of new faces, would involve removing many tons of it. Rather than just tipping it, it would be used for 'rubble' walling, with only corners and openings in buildings using dressed stone. In some areas, rubble walls might be rendered, in others not; my old primary school, which used stone from the adjacent Castle colliery, was of the unrendered persuasion.

Another material that was found in areas where iron and steel works co-existed with collieries was furnace slag; poured into rough moulds, it would set to form cappings for walls and similar applications. You can see this when heading westward from Swansea High Street, where the line is adjacent to the old Cwmfelin steelworks. 

[Ruston]

I have had the baseboards all bolted together, today. I printed off some Peco turnout templates and after shuffling them around to avoid the cross-bracing under the baseboard tops whilst attempting to maintain enough space for a 5-wagon train I have ditched the three-way at the right hand end. The engine shed will have to go due to this but it was going to be tight anyway. The lower line is now the run-round and the centre is the line to and from the fiddle yard.

 

 

I have also been working out the gradient of the line to the colliery. The steepest I can get within reason and useability is 1 in 15 but I'll probably make it about 1 in 20. I know this is very steep but there were such gradients on some industrial lines and it makes more of a feature on the model. This is of course assuming a Hornby Peckett can push 4 short wheelbase PO wagons up something that steep and control the loaded wagons on the descent.

Edited December 23, 2022 by Ruston

[NHY 581]

Splendid weathering, Dave. Ex-Dodo looks superb.

 

Despite living here all my life I have little or no knowledge of the South Wales collieries. However,no doubt like many her, the arrival of a Peckett at my door has got me thinking. However, I will be looking to Somerset for my location

 

Outside your period but I thought I would post these images taken in South Wales. I hope you don't mind.

 

Rob.

[philip-griffiths]

To add to what Philip- Griffith said about the materials used for construction of buildings and structures. In much of the South Wales coalfield, 'Pennant Sandstone' was used for stone-built buildings; unlike the Millstone Grit (which sits below the Lower Coal Measures, and only outcrops around the edges of the coalfield), it occurs between the different strata of the Coal Measures, so that any shaft-sinking work, and much of the exploitation of new faces, would involve removing many tons of it. Rather than just tipping it, it would be used for 'rubble' walling, with only corners and openings in buildings using dressed stone. In some areas, rubble walls might be rendered, in others not; my old primary school, which used stone from the adjacent Castle colliery, was of the unrendered persuasion.

Another material that was found in areas where iron and steel works co-existed with collieries was furnace slag; poured into rough moulds, it would set to form cappings for walls and similar applications. You can see this when heading westward from Swansea High Street, where the line is adjacent to the old Cwmfelin steelworks. 

 

 

forgot about the Pennant sandstone.  you can tell I come from the edge of the coalfield. :-)

 

I think the main thing is for the architecture and landscape to shout south wales before you see any locomotive or wagon.  Clecklewyke by Ian Everett achieves this for Yorkshire.

 

regards

[philip-griffiths]

Splendid weathering, Dave. Ex-Dodo looks superb.

 

Despite living here all my life I have little or no knowledge of the South Wales collieries. However,no doubt like many her, the arrival of a Peckett at my door has got me thinking. However, I will be looking to Somerset for my location

 

Outside your period but I thought I would post these images taken in South Wales. I hope you don't mind.

 

Rob.

 

 

Is the second photo Hafodyrynys?