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Launceston Branch: Rails Across the Moor


Brinkly
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13 hours ago, Brinkly said:

I'd like to replicate this look with the timber structures on Merrivale

I think it's entirely feasible to suggest that the buildings at Merrivale probably only received one coat of paint in the grouping era and none after that.

 

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16 hours ago, gwrrob said:

Thanks for the heads up on Rail Models Nick. I like the option of the parts from kits being available separately. Not all concerns offer this service.

 

As an aside, if you can offer a drawing of a building, or one in dxf format for Andy -Rail Models - he is very approachable and reasonable for producing a whole or part thereof.

 

I have used him on several occasions ( being local-ish - Plymouth ) and he has been extremely helpful with my requests.

 

G

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17 hours ago, Brinkly said:

 

Hello Mikkel,

 

I thought you were! I saw it the other day, but didn't put two and two together! 

 

A copy of the drawing would be excellent, if you don't mind. The door is lovely and will go in the spares box, but I felt a 'GWR' door would give it a little more character. I also thought having glass top panels would help let a little more light in. I plan to fit a couple of desks and chairs in there from Seven Models to add a little more detail. 

 

Paint wise, the bottom is Precision Stone number 2 (light colour) and the top was SR cream over grey primer. I didn't realise the insides were blue. How interesting, I feel a repaint coming on! Do you know how long distemper blue lasted for and do you know what the bottom panels would have been painted?

 

Kind regards,


Nick.

If it's of any help I do remember about 1977/78 examining the the closed station building at Gara Bridge on the Kingsbridge branch.  At that time it was accessible and I noted that the interior walls had flaking blue distemper - almost a sky blue shade I recall.  The building has since been extensively rebuilt in to a house so I guess all trace of the blue distemper will have been lost.

 

Gerry

 

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Railway architecture and paint schemes are a really subject in their own right. 

 

Gerry, thank you for your written description - that is really helpful. 

 

Mr V, photos are great! Thank you for sharing. The lower wood panel ling certainly looks very dark. I think I might repaint the interior along the lines of worn light blue and dark brown for the wood paneling. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

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Not wishing to confuse matters, but here is the interior view of the new offices at Hockley Goods in 1939.

 

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrhd717.htm

 

I'm thinking that a weighbridge office might have a similar colour scheme, whereas that of passenger's facilities would be under a different and perhaps more expensive/stylish scheme?

 

Edit: Nick, don't mind my ruminations - paint it like you said. Am just exploring the matter a bit :-)

Edited by Mikkel
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Here is the weigh house at Fencote, roofless in 1976. Note that the walls are whitewashed - no plaster. However, it is some 20 odd years since Fencote last saw a train. Fencote was still painted in light & dark stone.

Fencote 16-10-76 -058.jpg

Fencote 16-10-76 -057.jpg

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2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Not wishing to confuse matters, but here is the interior view of the new offices at Hockley Goods in 1939.

 

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrhd717.htm

 

I'm thinking that a weighbridge office might have a similar colour scheme, whereas that of passenger's facilities would be under a different and perhaps more expensive/stylish scheme?

 

Edit: Nick, don't mind my ruminations - paint it like you said. Am just exploring the matter a bit :-)

 

Another cracking photo! I really love this old industrial buildings. What an amazing apartment that would make today.

 

Kind regards,


Nick.

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Just now, Brinkly said:

What an amazing apartment that would make today.

 

And what a layout you could build :D

 

2 hours ago, Tim V said:

Here is the weigh house at Fencote, roofless in 1976.

 

Tim, you've done it again. As Nick says those are extremely useful photos.

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Galen Rowell would say "F8 and be there" - I was lucky enough to get to places and use my camera. Some pictures were OK, a lot were indifferent, but all these years later they are of some use.

 

The Captain and I would go to places - I remember lending him a spare camera for our first trip to the WSR (October 1975) - he didn't have one!

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Most informative postings!:smile_mini2:  Yelverton weathering can also be attributed to the high density of trees, even then.  Just look at it now!  I can attest to this fact as anything under the trees around our garden take on the same look!:fie:

     Brian.

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On 12/08/2020 at 19:02, Mikkel said:

 

PS: @Collett mentioned he was working on some etches for GWR weighbridge windows for his own build. Question is though whether they will necessarily fit this kit. Although the shape was the same, I suspect sizes differed as no two weighbridges seem to have been quite the same when you look closely.

 

I'd better get on with them then! 

So far I have arrived at a set of dimensions for three 6 pane windows at the front and a 9 pane window for the end wall.  Panes are 2.8mm x 3.25mm with 0.33mm (1") Muntins - apparently that's what the timbers between glass panes are called.  The pane size has been arrived at after allowing for all the other elements of the window frames fitting inside the hole in the brickwork where the window sits.  Overall dimensions have been arrived at by a 'brick by brick' reconstruction of the Winchcombe building based on an 8 3/4" x 3" x 4 3/16" brick with 3/8" mortar.   

 

1332388393_EtchDesignSnip.JPG.3b896473a9ec24d5387663265c10dc67.JPG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As these have been designed to go behind layers of plasticard that make up the walls and the outer framing of the windows, then the etches are effectively just the 'muntins' and the holes between them with a suitable border around to protect the fragile 0.33mm slivers of brass and provide areas to be glued to the outer and inner wall layers.  It might be possible to produce a version to fit inside the frames of the Rail Model kit - but they would be rather fragile.  Let's see if my home brew etching can get anywhere near the desired results as shown here first.

 

Cheers

 

Edited by Collett
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On 13/08/2020 at 19:33, Tim V said:

The Captain and I would go to places - I remember lending him a spare camera for our first trip to the WSR (October 1975) - he didn't have one!

Interesting, I don't remember you lending me a camera! I just thought you took all the photos!

 

Well, I did have one at that time, but it was old fashioned Agfa instrument and not very flexible. It used an old 120 roll film and the results were just about passable. Whether it was still functional by that date is anyone's guess.

 

Happy days, though.

 

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19 hours ago, Mikkel said:

That looks good Collett. Thanks for the dimensions, very useful! 

 

Just to clarify - these dimensions have been based on some assumptions, such as brick sizes and thickness of window frames, and these assumptions have been applied to photographs of the Winchcombe building along with some logical 'short cuts' to make a working drawing and, hopefully, a build-able project.

1310813712_WinchcombeFrontElevationoutline.JPG.3cf0cf27eae6ecc2fd9b3c1af27cbe73.JPG

1342_120553_140000000.jpg.103cffc48c890f579c05ff926473228a.jpg

 

For example - building width is taken as 15 bricks + 14 mortar dividers, now I can see there are two columns of bricks, one beneath the 'P' of the 'No Parking' sign and another to the side of the drain pipe where cut stretcher bricks have been used - a full stretcher should span two headers and mortar, so my building width is going to be a little out.  Then again, on the headers row there also appear to be some larger bricks used.  It has been noted that the Winchcombe building seems quite a bit smaller than Leckhampton, which I measure at 52mm against the 45.5mm noted above.

In brief, it seems unlikely that the etches would fit the kits Mikkel and Brinkly are building.  Could I therefore recommend that a Lining Pen is used with enamel paint to draw the glazing bars on to acetate sheet that is then fixed to the outer framing of the window.  Using enamel would give some depth to the lines, and would allow a line thinner than etched brass can easily achieve.  Looking at Tim V's photograph's above I would doubt those glazing bars in the 9 pane window are much more than 1/2" to 5/8" wide, so that's 0.167mm to 0.208mm at 4mm/ft.

 

 

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Greetings,

 

The missing parts from the weighbridge arrived yesterday, so I decided to crack on a little further with the building.

 

With the lovely photographs of Gara Bridge that Tim shared and Mikkel's GWR light blue distemper paintwork, which I wasn't even aware of, I opted to repaint the inside of the weighbridge. The woodwork received a coat of Precision GWR chocolate, simply as I have a small tin of Satin paint which I wanted to start using up and the top was a mix of Humbrol 34 (Matt White) and a dash of 96 (RAF Blue). The dado rail was painted in Matt White, to inject a bit of detail. 

 

IMG_6100.jpg.33b0db3413d18df718dc2fa7d6f0f126.jpg

 

As I said earlier, I wasn't convinced by the laser cut door and opted to fit an etched replacement from a Churchward Models GWR signal box etch, which was liberated from the maturing box! I also decided to experiment with real glass, using a small piece of cover glass. Unfortunately, or fortunately, this has a slight crack in the top right pain, but I think it adds a bit character to the structure. As the door now wasn't flush with the walls, I inserted a couple of slithers of card either side to 'pack' the walls out and make it easier to fit the interior wall overlays. The door has been painted with Precision P21 Light stone and P22 Dark Stone. Just for a bit of fun, I added a notice board and a picture on the walls. I don't know if it is prototypical, but it helps with the ex GWR theme! The poster on the noticeboard is a closure one, so helps date the scene too late 1955!

 

IMG_6098.jpg.22ca8c5392c362dbe190fdc2e86887fc.jpg

 

The kit was left to dry for a day or so, and this afternoon I started painting the exterior. Humbrol No 70 was used as the primary brick colour, with Precision Engineers Blue Brick for the brickwork at the base of the building and above the windows and doors. The bargeboards are yet to be fitted. I also installed a small cast chimney from Dart Castings and some putty to represent the cement work. Once dry, I will paint the mortar courses and dry brush. The window sills were painted with Matt White, but I'm minded to paint these in GWR light stone to match the facia boards. 

 

The next stage will be to fit the roof (which will be detachable) and add some interior fittings from Seven Models; deks, table, couple of chairs and filing cabinet, plus a member of staff from Modelu.

 

I've also invested in some etched GWR signs to fit to the exterior and an etched weighbridge plate from Smiths.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Nick.  

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IMG_6108.jpg.f14cc8436ffe2aaf89bc14152455d546.jpg

 

I soldered up a Seven Models desk, table and filling cabinet. I've left the table out as it was a little too big for the space. I just need to bend a chair up for Arthur Stephens, a Princetown porter, working week and week about at Merrivale. 

 

 

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13 minutes ago, Brinkly said:

IMG_6108.jpg.f14cc8436ffe2aaf89bc14152455d546.jpg

 

I soldered up a Seven Models desk, table and filling cabinet. I've left the table out as it was a little too big for the space. I just need to bend a chair up for Arthur Stephens, a Princetown porter, working week and week about at Merrivale. 

 

 

I pity poor old Arthur on a cold, snowy Winters day!:(

     Brian.

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2 minutes ago, brianusa said:

I pity poor old Arthur on a cold, snowy Winters day!:(

     Brian.

 

He does have a fire; although, that single glazing (with a crack in the top panel) doesn't help! :lol:

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