Rufford Red Lion Square

[Mikkel]

That looks excellent. GCR horses had it good!  I like the mixed brick and stone effect, always adds a lot of character to a building. 

[Caley Jim]

On 29/10/2020 at 19:32, Mikkel said:

That looks excellent. GCR horses had it good!  I like the mixed brick and stone effect, always adds a lot of character to a building. 

The stable block of the Allanmuir Hotel is of similar construction.  On the right here.

 

 

Jim

Edited April 2, 2022 by Caley Jim
Reload photos

[James Harrison]

On 29/10/2020 at 19:32, Mikkel said:

That looks excellent. GCR horses had it good!  I like the mixed brick and stone effect, always adds a lot of character to a building. 

 

Thanks- I'd best crack on with the rest of the model! 

 

On 29/10/2020 at 19:54, Caley Jim said:

The stable block of the Allanmuir Hotel is of similar construction.  On the right here.

 

 

Jim

 

Very nice- I do like how you've also managed to get the street to disappear off-scene without making it obvious too.

[Caley Jim]

1 minute ago, James Harrison said:

Very nice- I do like how you've also managed to get the street to disappear off-scene without making it obvious too.

Thanks, James.  the plan is that the entrance to the livestock mart will be on the backscene (when I get round to it) behind the warehouse building.

 

Jim

[James Harrison]

 

Just a little bit more done... the front and both side walls have their window openings, lintels and sills. I decided to leave the rear wall a plain expanse of brickwork.  I was hoping this weekend to fit the glazing however my idea to use a paintpen for the bars hit a snag thanks to lockdown.  In any case, each wall has about 5 layers of card to it of which I've currently only fitted three or four, so before it can be properly erected plenty more paperstock needs to be cut. 

[James Harrison]

 

As you can see the walls are up at last.  Now I'm working around the joints with Green Putty and fixing the roof rafters in. 

[Edwardian]

4 minutes ago, James Harrison said:

 

As you can see the walls are up at last.  

 

Now you just need some Mexicans to pay for them.

 

Seriously, jolly well done. Cladding that kit is turning out really well.  Look forward to seeing it finished.

[James Harrison]

 

There's been a bit more progress- mostly with slating the roof.  Slow going, this.  The good news is that the brickwork is pretty much done apart from painting up the cornicing, the slates just need a lot more work to get the colour and patina just so, and then I can move on with the clerestory (no idea quite how I'm going to do that right now) and finishing it off. 

 

To think this was going to be a 'week project' when I started back in October.

[Mikkel]

Amazing how structures can drag on and become more and more involved. At least you're are on the home stretch now. The roofing (and the plate mats!) highlights the size, quite a substantial building.

[Caley Jim]

On 05/12/2020 at 20:31, James Harrison said:

the slates just need a lot more work to get the colour and patina just so,..... 

I find painting slates with artists acrylics (white, black and a little blue) leaves them with a slight sheen. See the effect on the picture I posted above. Of course if they're to be Westmoreland slates, then substitute green for the blue. 

 

Jim

[Edwardian]

On 05/12/2020 at 20:31, James Harrison said:

 

There's been a bit more progress- mostly with slating the roof.  Slow going, this.  The good news is that the brickwork is pretty much done apart from painting up the cornicing, the slates just need a lot more work to get the colour and patina just so, and then I can move on with the clerestory (no idea quite how I'm going to do that right now) and finishing it off. 

 

To think this was going to be a 'week project' when I started back in October.

 

Worth it, though.

 

Someone once told be to rub grated pencil 'lead' onto the slates to create that sheen.

 

[CKPR]

Another approach to painting slates is to use actual slate paint, by which I mean the colour 'Davy's Grey' as this is, or should be, made using finely ground slate powder as a pigment.

Edited December 8, 2020 by CKPR

[James Harrison]

I've achieved something with the slates fairly close to what I had in mind; I started with a base of a mid-grey sort of a colour and then put a very dilute wash of a dark grey over that.  Repeat once or twice and it gave the appearance I wanted.

 

 

Then onto the slats in the clerestory roof.  If building the kit straight off the page, the idea is that the formers for the clerestory have little slots cut into them, and then you drive the slats into those. 

 

In practice what I found was that in trying to cut these slots, the formers get badly beaten up.  Even had I been able to cut the slots without damaging the formers, I then have my doubts that they wouldn't have become deformed when pushing the slats in.  Broadly, I don't think that the ventilation system lends itself to replication in cardboard and paper. 

 

I wracked for my brain for a way around this, and the solution I came up with was to build a simpler version in plastic sheet.  Firstly fit a 'cheek' of styrene sheet either side of each former.  Then place the slats between the formers, rather than one long length that drives right through them.  Then a little sliver of plastic as a spacer, then another slat on top of below. 

 

I've built mine with the slats being horizontal rather than angled- once painted and viewed from the usual viewing distance and angle this won't be noticeable- a further refinement could be to work it up so that the slats are angled.

[James Harrison]

 

 

And with the clerestory roof fitted (though, at the time the photos were taken, not yet slated up). 

[James Harrison]

Finished....

 

 

[brumtb]

Very impressive, well done James.

[richard i]

That has come out very well there.

richard 

[James Harrison]

I'm rather pleased with it (and so I should be after two months working on it!)

 

Next thoughts for the goods yard (I can't start building it properly yet due to issues with one of the railway room walls and needing to have a good clear-out in there) are a weighbridge (based off a paper kit Railway Modeller put out 20 years ago) and a goods shed (scratchbuilt, current thinking is to base that on either the LDEC building at Attercliffe or the wagon workshops at Leicester).

[James Harrison]

Meanwhile... the next little project is a clerestory lavatory brake third.  I did a couple of silhouette files for some clerestory stock a few years ago (and actually built I think four carriages) so this should finish that particular rake off. 

[James Harrison]

Somebody asked, not so very long ago, where my signature came from.  Well. 

 

~~~

 

Father Christmas - A. A. Milne

Outside in the street the rain fell pitilessly, but inside the Children's Shop all was warmth and brightness. Happy young people of all ages pressed along, and I had no sooner opened the door than I was received into the eager stream of shoppers and hurried away to Fairyland. A slight block at one corner pitched me into an old, white-bearded gentleman who was standing next to me. Instantly my hat was in my hand.

"I beg your pardon," I said with a bow. "I was--Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were real." I straightened him up, looked at his price, and wondered whether I should buy him.

"What do you mean by real?" he said.

I started violently and took my hat off again.

"I am very stupid this morning," I began. "The fact is I mistook you for a toy. A foolish error."

"I AM a toy."

"In that case," I said in some annoyance, "I can't stay here arguing with you. Good-morning." And I took my hat off for the third time.

"Don't go. Stop and buy me. You'll never get what you want if you don't take me with you. I've been in this place for years, and I know exactly where everything is. Besides, as I shall have to give away all your presents for you, it's only fair that--"

An attendant came up and looked at me inquiringly.

"How much is this THING?" I said, and jerked a thumb at it.

"The Father Christmas?"

"Yes. I think I'll have it. I'll take it with me--you needn't wrap it up."

I handed over some money and we pushed on together.

"You heard what I called you?" I said to him. "A thing. So don't go putting yourself forward."

He gazed up innocently from under my arm.

"What shall we get first?" he asked.

"I want the engine-room. The locomotive in the home. The boy's own railroad track."

"That's downstairs. But did you really think of an engine? I mean, isn't it rather large and heavy? Why not get a--"

I smacked his head, and we went downstairs.

It was a delightful room. I was introduced to practically the whole of the Great Western Railway's rolling stock.*

"Engine, three carriages and a guard's van. That's right. Then I shall want some rails, of course.... SHUT up, will you?" I said angrily, when the attendant was out of hearing.

"It's the extra weight," he sighed. "The reindeer don't like it. And these modern chimneys--you've no idea what a squeeze it is. However--"

"Those are very jolly," I said when I had examined the rails. "I shall want about a mile of them. Threepence ha'penny a foot? Then I shan't want nearly a mile."

I got about thirty feet, and then turned to switches and signals and lamps and things. I bought a lot of those. You never know what emergency might not arise on the nursery floor, and if anything happened for want of a switch or two I should never forgive myself.

Just as we were going away I caught sight of the jolliest little clockwork torpedo boat. I stopped irresolute.

"Don't be silly," said the voice under my arm. "You'll never be asked to the house again if you give that."

"Why not?"

"Wait till the children have fallen into the bath once or twice with all their clothes on, and then ask the mother why not."

"I see," I said stiffly, and we went upstairs.

"The next thing we want is bricks."

"Bricks," said Father Christmas uneasily. "Bricks. Yes, there's bricks. Have you ever thought of one of those nice little woolly rabbits--"

"Where do we get bricks?"

"Bricks. You know, I don't think mothers are as fond as all that of BRICKS."

"I got the mother's present yesterday, thanks very much. This is for one of the children."

They showed me bricks and they showed me pictures of what the bricks would build. Palaces, simply palaces. Gone was the Balbus-wall of our youth; gone was the fort with its arrow-holes for the archers. Nothing now but temples and Moorish palaces.

"Jove, I should love that," I said." I mean HE would love that. Do you want much land for a house of that size? I know of a site on the nursery floor, but--well, of course, we could always have an iron building outside in the passage for the billiard table."

We paid and moved off again.

"What are you mumbling about now?" I asked.

"I said you'll only make the boy discontented with his present home if you teach him to build nothing but castles and ruined abbeys and things. And you WILL run to bulk. Half of those bricks would have made a very nice present for anybody."

"Yes, and when royalty comes on a visit, where would you put them? They'd have to pig it in the box-room. If we're going to have a palace, let's have a good one."

"Very well. What do your children hang up? Stockings or pillow-cases?"

We went downstairs again.

"Having provided for the engineer and the architect," I said, "we now have to consider the gentleman in the dairy business. I want a milk-cart."**

"You want a milk-cart! You want a milk-cart! You want a - Why not have a brewer's dray? Why not have something really heavy? The reindeer wouldn't mind. They've been out every day this week, but they'd love it. What about a nice skating-rink? What about - "

I put him head downwards in my pocket and approached an official.

"Do you keep milk-carts?" I said diffidently.

He screwed up his face and thought.

"I could get you one," he said.

"I don't want you to build one specially for me. If they aren't made, I expect it's because mothers don't like them. It was just an idea of mine."

"Oh yes, they're made. I can show a picture of one in our catalogue."

He showed it to me. It was about the size of a perambulator, and contained every kind of can. I simply had to let Father Christmas see.

"Look at that!" I exclaimed in delight.

"Good lord!" he said, and dived into the pocket again.

I held him there tightly and finished my business with the official.

Father Christmas has never spoken since. Sometimes I wonder if he ever spoke at all, for one imagines strange things in the Children's Shop. He stands now on my writing-table, and observes me with the friendly smile which has been so fixed a feature of his since I brought him home.

[Mikkel]

I didn't know that one, thanks for posting it. Odd how he uses "railroad" yet seems to have at least a little knowledge of railways ("rolling stock").

 

 

[James Harrison]

In another of his essays he writes about a dislike of using the same word twice in short succession, which possibly explains it. 

[James Harrison]

Over the Christmas break I managed to clear out some of the railway room, and then I realised just how large a space it is.  Work started on redecorating the top hallway and it's been found that the wall separating hallway and railway room is pretty much life-expired and will need to be renewed.  Then of course came lockdown so that's not going to be rebuilt anytime soon which then in turn means no railway building anytime soon either. 

 

However, when I was looking around the space I was considering how I could make better use of it, it always seems that my layout plans take up about three times as much room as anybody else's for the same want list (or that they find it easier to get a quart into a pint pot). 

 

I started to think do I really need the station, the goods yard and the loco depot all linked by scenery, or could I make it more a series of linked dioramas...

 

 

And came up with this. Yes the station is now reduced to 'just' a Minories, but look how I can also make use of the width of the room to get the goods yard at angle off it.  The mainline is a fisherman's walk- three steps and overboard- but the wall it seemingly runs against then becomes the fiddle yard or cassettes with the townscene built around it (I'm still thinking of something along the lines of Weekday Cross there in terms of levels and whatnot).  And then I can build the loco depot on a separate board above a corner of that and have just one line run down into the fiddle yard. 

 

So I tried to condense one layout and concluded that the best way to do it is to build two!

[richard i]

Could you not curve one track down from the engine shed to the running lines to the station to do loco changes and turning?

richard 

[James Harrison]

That's one idea (I ran out of bits on my free SCARM to investigate it more thoroughly).  It should be possible to get one line from the sheds down to the terminus, I would have thought.