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Distilleries - steam era features?


justin1985
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OK - I'll have a rake round my "archives" and see what there is, and if the lighting conditions permit I may even be able to take a colour pic or two of the model.  With current commitments it'll likely be early next week, though.

 

Alasdair

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On 05/03/2019 at 12:49, dunwurken said:

The distilleries must have been very trusting to move casks filled with whisky in open wagons, pilfering must have been rife!   I presume, unlike some of the brewery companies, none of the distilleries used special empty cask wagons - basically high sided, slatted sides and ends, roofless with long wheelbase.  I think Ratio do or did a kit of an NBR cask wagon.

 

I read an article about Aberdeen's railway system that said whisky traffic was not to stop at Kittybrewster (with it's large freight sidings) due to the risk of locals stealing (drinking?) the cargo!

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On 23/08/2019 at 10:20, justin1985 said:

I worked up a design for a malt kiln roof with a Doig style "pagoda" roof last night. I didn't fancy the prospect of making such a complex shape from card, so I've designed it in Fusion 360 to 3D print ...

 

I'm following progress on this as I'm running parallel with my own (4mm) distillery model!

I must admit I went down the "bodge it from card & styrene" route for my own malting's roof. I reckoned it was possible to make it in 2 x pyramids, curving 1mm card onto the bases to get the transition from one-to-the-other.

Just from flicking through various photos it seemed the shape varied from site to site.

My model is based loosely on a highland distilery / maltings (Ardmore) with local architect 'Charles Doig' as designer. Some original drawings by this architect can be found online which is really handy!

This cutaway of his roof design is very interesting .. it's for the 'Kiln Head' and shows the internal construction of the pagoda vent - which is a nice surprise!

charles-doig-pagoda-roof-design.jpg

Edited by brylonscamel
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On 23/08/2019 at 10:20, justin1985 said:

I'm planning to fit slates as paper strips, rather than include them in the design, to try and make it more consistent with other buildings on the layout which will be made more conventionally. 

 

This elevation of another Highland distillery may also be of interest ..

distillery elevation .jpg

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23 minutes ago, brylonscamel said:

 

They are things of beauty!

 

They really are - thank you so much for posting @brylonscamel  I really love the ornate, arts and crafts-y writing on the section drawing as well - just beautiful :)

 

Comparing with these drawings, I think my model is perhaps a little too short and squat, and the top section a bit too big? It might look a bit out of proportion in terms of the layout as a whole if I were to make it taller though. I had to make the bottom section from plasticard as the whole roof was too big for my little Photon 3D printer. BR van next to it for scale in this picture. IMG_20190904_110605.jpg.fb12165a7e21b4309af3f97e7ccc3d17.jpg

 

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3 hours ago, justin1985 said:

 

They really are - thank you so much for posting @brylonscamel  I really love the ornate, arts and crafts-y writing on the section drawing as well - just beautiful :)

 

Comparing with these drawings, I think my model is perhaps a little too short and squat, and the top section a bit too big? It might look a bit out of proportion in terms of the layout as a whole if I were to make it taller though. I had to make the bottom section from plasticard as the whole roof was too big for my little Photon 3D printer. BR van next to it for scale in this picture. 

 

 

@justin1985 - Like you, I really liked the lettering, a sort of Celtic 'round-hand '  - very arts-and-crafts-y

Regarding your question: unless you are slavishly reproducing a specific distillery site, it seems you have flexibility on the proportions of your kiln roof!

I pulled these images together out of curiosity, just to see how much they varied, some topped off with a tall upright chimney, others squat roofs with no visible tower. Some have quite airy, light pagodas - others have large heavy looking cupolas.

I guess yours is closer to the Fettercairn roof  than those Charles Doig pagoda designs, which conclude in a near vertical turret?

 

pagoda-roofs.jpg

Edited by brylonscamel
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56 minutes ago, brylonscamel said:

 

@justin1985 - Like you, I really liked the lettering, a sort of Celtic 'round-hand '  - very arts-and-crafts-y

Regarding your question: unless you are slavishly reproducing a specific distillery site, it seems you have flexibility on the proportions of your kiln roof!

I pulled these images together out of curiosity, just to see how much they varied, some topped off with a tall upright chimney, others squat roofs with no visible tower. Some have quite airy, light pagodas - others have large heavy looking cupolas.

I guess yours is closer to the Fettercairn roof  than those Charles Doig pagoda designs, which conclude in a near vertical turret?
 

 

Many thanks - that's really helpful! I'd noticed quite a bit of variation in pictures I'd trawled up online, but seeing them side by side like that really makes it clear!

 

I guess my designed ended up with more of the overall shape of the top left one, with the large pagoda element of the Fettercairn one. I've tried adding a small amount (5mm) of vertical sided tower element to the design (just the top part in the 3D design now):

 

DoigRoof14.png.b3c79ff739581eb57e8daa289ab3c76a.png

 

I'm not 100% sure about the look, but I it does seem that most did have some kind of upright element like this, that was missing from my design. I might print this too, and see how it looks in place. 

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32 minutes ago, justin1985 said:

 

Many thanks - that's really helpful! I'd noticed quite a bit of variation in pictures I'd trawled up online, but seeing them side by side like that really makes it clear!

 

I guess my designed ended up with more of the overall shape of the top left one, with the large pagoda element of the Fettercairn one. I've tried adding a small amount (5mm) of vertical sided tower element to the design (just the top part in the 3D design now):

 

I'm not 100% sure about the look, but I it does seem that most did have some kind of upright element like this, that was missing from my design. I might print this too, and see how it looks in place. 

 

.. it's fascinating to build these sort of things, you end up looking at the original structures more quizzically!

It'll be interesting to see if an upright element gives you the shape you want. Sometimes it comes down to what is pleasing to the eye.

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Brylonscamel and Justin 1985, I agree with you both on the challenges of scratch building. Artistic licence is often necessary to produce the model which sits well within the ‘modelled’ landscape as well as trying to remain true to the essence of the architecture! Great modelling both of you!

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So, I printed two more roof tops, one with 5mm of extra vertical tower section, and another with 7mm. Sounds subtle, but they have quite a different look - and quite different to the original, which had no vertical straight section. 

 

Original posed on top of mockup building, roughly in location:

IMG_20190904_225418.jpg.f66d75450af4437a36a3ce5ce10428c8.jpg

 

5mm tower:

IMG_20190904_225441.jpg.1bfac023e432c6babcf99c4388ed190f.jpg

 

7mm tower:

IMG_20190904_225455.jpg.50e25d00df001da1e432fa5b22fb5ed4.jpg

 

It is definitely a case of what "looks" right ... and I'm pretty torn! The tallest (final) one definitely looks wrong to me. But I can't decide between the original, and the one with the short vertical tower section.

 

Looking again at real ones, it seems like the taller the vertical tower section, the lower the pitch of the main roof. So, as the plasticard lower roof part that I (laboriously) made has a relatively steep pitch, I feel that probably means it would look better with a shorter (or no) straight tower section ...

 

Would love to hear what others think?

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On 03/09/2019 at 17:15, brylonscamel said:

 

This elevation of another Highland distillery may also be of interest ..

distillery elevation .jpg

Can you point me to a higher resolution copy of that image? I printed it out at A3 size, and it is hard to see the details with any clarity.

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47 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Thanks anyway, but it does explain a lot!

 

.. Simon, if you're after good quality photography of the Dailuaine Distillery, this album on Flickr contains a lot of 1960s era colour originals. Most of the photos are on the second and third pages

Edited by brylonscamel
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I’ve had a rummage round my archives with rather limited success, but here to be going on with are a scan of a couple of my dad’s original drawings - they’re both drawn to the scale of 1 inch to 40 feet – and an early pic of the model itself as a work-in-progress.  I’d have to say that the model is very much “of its time”, being built using traditional cardboard and building-paper methods.  The actual model kiln roof structure measures 5.5” square over gutters, 3.5” high to the bottom of the kiln vent, and 5.75” to the top of the pagoda roof: the vertical section just below the vent is 1.125” square.

 

So far I haven’t found an original version of the kiln roof drawing, but as you can see from the model pic the kiln roof shape is very similar to the ones in the top right and bottom left pictured in Brylonscamel’s post of 4th Sept.  So it does look as though you have some leeway with the kiln roof shape: with the vast resources of the internet, there’s so much more information now available to modellers than there was back in the sixties, and the Longmorn and Tamdhu drawings posted above are rather better than those I have.  Sorry about the quality of the drawing scans: the elevation is from my dad's original pencil drawing, and the plan seems to be a Xerox-type copy as I haven't yet located the original - if it still exists. 

 

Hope this is of some interest, but probably not of much help !  Somewhere I’m sure I have some better B&W photos of the completed distillery model and I may try to post one or two to complete the picture, just as soon as I can find them….

 

Alasdair

Distillery Dwg.jpg

Distillery pic 1.jpg

Distillery Plan.jpg

Edited by AJCT
Scan quality -or lack of it !
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Here are a couple of B&W pics of my dad’s model, taken by the late Henry Julian, who ran the “Homecrafts” model shop in Edinburgh’s Gillespie Crescent – any RMWebbers remember that ?  Dad’s model was built on a separate piece of board so it could be worked on away from the main layout: as you can see, the malt barn was turned at right angles from that in the original plan and elevation, due to space constraints.  As I said earlier, the model is very much of its time - some of the buildings were adapted from Superquick and Bilteezi card kits, the water tank is obviously Airfix, and the “lum” is actually solid oak turned on a lathe by my uncle and covered with brick paper.  The pug “Kilmorie” is the Airfix L&Y one – no 00 Barclays (kit or RTR) available back in the mid-1960s….

 

A comparison of my dad’s plan (see yesterday’s post) with the relevant NLS map view –

 

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=56.6247&lon=-3.8501&layers=168&right=BingHyb

 

would indeed confirm that it was based on Aberfeldy.  The pic of Aberfeldy taken in 2011 does show the similarities, even though some buildings have obviously been modernised in recent times - I have other Aberfeldy pics from 2011 if anyone’s really interested.  Anent rail connection (which is where we came in…), the OS plan appears to show 2 sidings and a release crossover, allowing working by branch goods trains in either direction.  The model just has a short siding at the back rather than one along the front, which doesn’t really justify a pug !  Anyway, I think that’s just about all I can contribute to this – hope it’s of interest.

 

Alasdair

 

Distillery_Pic_2.jpg

Distillery Pic 3.jpg

P_1145 - Aberfeldy 2011.JPG

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41 minutes ago, AJCT said:

 Anyway, I think that’s just about all I can contribute to this – hope it’s of interest ..

 

 

 

 

That's very interesting and a lovely bit of trad modelling - very neat, everything feels connected and there are some nice touches of detail like the glazed roof structures and ventilators. 

I'm curious to know what the 'lum' is - I assume it's the boiler chimney?

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5 hours ago, brylonscamel said:


I'm curious to know what the 'lum' is - I assume it's the boiler chimney?

 

"Lum" is the Scots word for chimney, as in the trad Scots greeting - "lang may yer lum reek" - literally meaning 'long may your chimney smoke', this is the best way to wish someone a long and healthy life - frequently used for wedding cards or (in past times) telegrams....

 

Slainte !

 

Alasdair

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A wedding wish:

 

May the best you've ever seen be the worst you'll ever see 

May the moos ne'er leave yer girnal was a teardrop in its e'e

May yer lum keep blithely reekin' til you're auld enough tae dee

An' may ye aye be just as happy as I wish ye now tae be. 

 

Translations on receipt of distillary products! 

 

Jim 

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