Warren Branch

[figworthy]

20 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

Despite my brain cell hurting I decided to do at least a little something to wind down

 

I cut the edging stones from the edge of a ratio platform kit top....

 

 

 

....and cut the bottom three courses of stone from the bottom of the platform edging from the same ratio kit

 

 

....and ended up with this.....

 

 

....after some very careful bending and manipulating of the edging stones, not perfect but it’ll have to do because I had to use impact adhesive so it’s stuck solid
 

Ignore the mess on the canal floor, I wiped away a spill of glue and it removed some of the paint with it....oops 

 

 

Looking good.  For various reasons, canal water levels do vary a bit over time, so when you come to paint it, you _might_ want to consider a green "tide" line just above the water level, suggesting that the level is down slightly.

 

Adrian

[Alister_G]

20 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

Despite my brain cell hurting I decided to do at least a little something to wind down

 

 

That's a cracking job mate, all credit to the brain-cell.

 

Al.

[chuffinghell]

13 hours ago, Alister_G said:

 

That's a cracking job mate, all credit to the brain-cell.

 

Al.

 

Thanks Al

 

Yes I worked that single brain-cell hard 

 

[chuffinghell]

13 hours ago, figworthy said:

 

Looking good.  For various reasons, canal water levels do vary a bit over time, so when you come to paint it, you _might_ want to consider a green "tide" line just above the water level, suggesting that the level is down slightly.

 

Adrian

 

Thanks Adrian

 

I'd not thought about that

 

I'm using resin so I don't know where the water line will end up so I may have to guess at the resin thickness

 

[figworthy]

10 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

 

Thanks Adrian

 

I'd not thought about that

 

I'm using resin so I don't know where the water line will end up so I may have to guess at the resin thickness

 

 

Check the picture in :

 

 

which shows the tide mark just above the water.

 

Adrian

 

[chuffinghell]

#holidays are coming, holidays are coming....#
 

 

You guessed it Sarah has got the Christmas decorations out 

[Ponthir28]

Looks quicker than Amazon 

[chuffinghell]

I’ve been messing about

 

I wondered if this would look okay....

 

 

.....but instead of having to do the whole length, cut the edge as random as my OCD will allow and have the rest of the towpath done in sand

 

 

Would this be feasible do you think?

[chuffinghell]

More messing about

 

 

It’s really messing up my straight line OCD 

[MrWolf]

Definitely. The builders would have done everything to protect and maintain the towpath, you don't see an earth only towpath under bridges. You would probably find that around bridges it was a part of the bridge foundation. If you look closely at the towpath on the Lancaster canal below and ignore the tarmac, you can still see the cobblestones under the bridge and this is the same on all the rural sections. Further into the country, the towpath is compressed stone and earth, as it probably always has been.

[jamest]

Hi, 

 

This is really spooky but I have been sussing out a 2 foot extension to my new layout (not on here yet) this very afternoon. 

I was doing a river but I have some scenic width the other side of the bridge (the exact same wills one!) so I decided on a canal so I can do a lock against the back scene. 

I came in to look at the scalescenes site for some dimensions and your thread happened to be the last page I looked at on chrome the other day. 

So there were your efforts for me to look at! 

Looks really good.... And I have some left over ratio platform bits too. So I'll probably nick a lot of your ideas. 

Thanks! 

 

James

[chuffinghell]

8 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Definitely. The builders would have done everything to protect and maintain the towpath, you don't see an earth only towpath under bridges. You would probably find that around bridges it was a part of the bridge foundation. If you look closely at the towpath on the Lancaster canal below and ignore the tarmac, you can still see the cobblestones under the bridge and this is the same on all the rural sections. Further into the country, the towpath is compressed stone and earth, as it probably always has been.

Have I taken my cobblestones too far out?

[teaky]

13 minutes ago, chuffinghell said:

Have I taken my cobblestones too far out?

Probably.  Mr Wolf's photo matches the practice near us.

 

On the bright side: you can have a straight line now.

[MrWolf]

43 minutes ago, chuffinghell said:

Have I taken my cobblestones too far out?

 

I think that's a personal matter entirely between you and your Memsahib... 

Seriously though, I don't think it is all that critical, but I haven't personally seen them extend more than a few feet from the bridge, except in industrial areas or on the approach to a lock.

 

All this talk of canals, I'll be wearing a velveteen jacket and listening to @#£*ing folk music...

 

Must get RRH to play some of her godless jazz / rock n roll music quick! 

[chuffinghell]

I must admit I do like how it looks

 

perhaps the builders got carried away, or maybe there was something industrial there when the canal was first built and it was knocked down to make way for the railway and over time the setts have sunk and got covered in muck?

 

Looking at it I keep coming back to @Alister_G’s suggestion of having steps down the embankment

 

Its tempting....

 

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by chuffinghell

[KNP]

If you put the steps down the bank and perhaps a seat to one side then there would be a reason for the cobbles?

[MrWolf]

That would be a good get out. The picture I posted has a ramp to one side and the surrounding area has been patched up more than once.

 

To paraphrase The (original) Italian Job: "Hang on lads, I've just had a great idea...."

[MrWolf]

If you cut some chunks of thick cardboard this shape ish and lay them against the bank. You should then be able to put a top on it for your rough wooden steps / anti slip bars viz.

 

 

 

Excuse the grotty drawings, but the wolf's paws are covered in crud at present due to being in the middle of some specialised motorcycle swearing. 

[Andrew P]

Sorry Chris, but please can I add my two penneth. I think wet greasy cobbles would be to dangerous for a Horse.

 

Just my thoughts.

[MrWolf]

Add a bit of a handrail on rough posts, a gap in the wall and I think that you have what you wanted when you started.

[Andrew P]

Also, remember the tow paths you see today, were Tarmaced after the demise of the Horse Drawn Barge.

[KNP]

Engineering bricks where often used as well, sometimes with ridges as a form of crude anti-slip version.

[chuffinghell]

25 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

If you cut some chunks of thick cardboard this shape ish and lay them against the bank. You should then be able to put a top on it for your rough wooden steps / anti slip bars viz.

 

 

 

Excuse the grotty drawings, but the wolf's paws are covered in crud at present due to being in the middle of some specialised motorcycle swearing. 

I wanted to avoid steps from the road as the canal towpath wouldn’t have been a public right of way in the thirties 

 

27 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Sorry Chris, but please can I add my two penneth. I think wet greasy cobbles would be to dangerous for a Horse

 

That’s a shame, I thought it looked quite good

 

27 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Also, remember the tow paths you see today, were Tarmaced after the demise of the Horse Drawn Barge

 

There will definitely be no tarmac, I’m going for more of a compacted muddy pathway

[chuffinghell]

49 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Sorry Chris, but please can I add my two penneth. I think wet greasy cobbles would be to dangerous for a Horse.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

I think when granite setts were used for Victorian roads labourers would roughen up the surface with chisels to stop horses from slipping

[MrWolf]

Never seen anti slip bars on towpaths except for in an arc around lock gates to give foot purchase for whoever opened them. The barge is easier for a horse to pull than a cart, which is why a horse can pull 20 tons or more on water. He would be very unlikely to slip.