Jump to content
 

Peterborough North


great northern
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Premium

Apologies for the off topic posting, I'm sorry to throw a dampener on this but it is a bit of folklore it seems, it was on facebook last week and has been appearing on various internet forums since 2012 at least - try this story from https://www.reddit.com/r/thatHappened/comments/1kmfek/a_true_story_of_the_royal_air_forces_bravery_and/

 

 

 

Seem familiar, this one has been around since 2008.

 

There is also a very similar exchange supposedly between a US naval vessel and another party which seems, in one version, to be a lighthouse.

 

Anyway, let's get back to railways and drop these little diversions.

 

I like the new Spitals bridge, but I'm thrown a little as the Midland arches have been altered since 1958/9 and the real thing looks different now.

 

_MG_8700_zpsax1v4vva.jpg

 

Apologies for the off topic posting, I'm sorry to throw a dampener on this but it is a bit of folklore it seems, it was on facebook last week and has been appearing on various internet forums since 2012 at least - try this story from https://www.reddit.com/r/thatHappened/comments/1kmfek/a_true_story_of_the_royal_air_forces_bravery_and/

 

 

 

Seem familiar, this one has been around since 2008.

 

There is also a very similar exchange supposedly between a US naval vessel and another party which seems, in one version, to be a lighthouse.

 

Anyway, let's get back to railways and drop these little diversions.

 

I like the new Spitals bridge, but I'm thrown a little as the Midland arches have been altered since 1958/9 and the real thing looks different now.

 

_MG_8700_zpsax1v4vva.jpg

Rebuilt for electrification clearance I'd say. In any event, my Spital Bridge was designed for the model. Peter and I discussed things at some length, but in the end we decided that it had to look like a real bridge, rather than the real thing. I hope that doesn't sound too cryptic. What it comes down to is simply this. The real thing, once the dog's leg curve had been negotiated, ran dead straight under the bridge, and indeed for a fair distance thereafter. The model has a sharp curve under it, without which there could be no layout. If I'd asked Peter to build something exactly like the real thing, the abuttments would have been straight, and would have been wrong both in appearance and in engineering terms, so he built a bridge as it would have been for the site on which it was to go.

 

Therefore, as so much of PN, it is wrong in strict prototype terms, but we hope it looks right as it stands on the model. I now have a single span girder at that end, and that is the important thing for me. I shall post some views from Platform 2 in due course, and those will make all this quite obvious, but had it been done "right" it would have looked all wrong.

 

Would you like a picture of a train? I found one left over from Friday.

post-98-0-03659300-1462210474_thumb.jpg

 

What's more, I've found at least a partial solution to the problem I was on about earlier, and it only partly involves :senile:

  • Like 17
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Well, I love the new Spital bridge. I thought yesterday when you said about an exciting new development, that it would be the new Spital bridge. I could not think of anything else.

It certainly looks right to me. Therefore the 'changes' made to it have clearly worked as intended.

It just leaves the Crescent bridge to be replaced.

 

With warmest regards,

 

Rob.

Edited by Market65
Link to post
Share on other sites

Interesting to see the photo of the real Spital Bridge. It is a difficult location to get a clear view of from any direction.

 

I certainly agree that it adds greatly to the character of that end of the layout.

Edited by rockershovel
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

It really is such an improvement that all of those tasks have combined to bring on that area of the layout. Now it is even more imperative that the layout gets preserved for future generations.

 

With warmest regards,

 

Rob.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

He'll be busy all right, but I'm sure he could fit you in. Shall I ask him?

Oh, that sounds hopeful. Not just yet please as I need to get the thing working first and that is taking a long time. It would be good to know if he might be interested as there are a couple of things I'd be pleased to have done by him.

Thanks G.

P

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

No disparagy was meant, it just looks perfect on the model, I was just trying to visualise what time and modernisation had done to the real thing. I wish they had left the old station buildings alone (after all most of the heart of 'old' Peterborough has been torn out in the 60's and 70's, I never knew it) but with the need for a high speed railway that wasn't possible.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

No disparagy was meant, it just looks perfect on the model, I was just trying to visualise what time and modernisation had done to the real thing. I wish they had left the old station buildings alone (after all most of the heart of 'old' Peterborough has been torn out in the 60's and 70's, I never knew it) but with the need for a high speed railway that wasn't possible.

That's OK Richard, no offence taken! As regards the old station buildings, there was apparently no choice. The main buildings on the Up side were found to have a nasty infestation of death watch beetle, and had to be demolished pretty quickly before they came down of their own accord. Otherwise I believe they would have been renovated and kept. They would be 160 years old by now though.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I did find time to take one more photo yesterday, in between trying to sort out the lighting problem.

post-98-0-32886600-1462270123_thumb.jpg

A Stanier 2.6.4T arrives with an early evening Leicester- East slow. By this time of day these trains were actually allowed to stop at North, rather than passing by on the Midland lines, line occupancy having reduced. When I've finished my cup of tea I shall go and take some more.

  • Like 17
Link to post
Share on other sites

I had another visit from Peter Leyland yesterday, he having completed the latest part of the project in very short order. And here it is.

 

attachicon.gifsomersault.jpg

So on this shot, I didn't try. In addition to part of the new Spital Bridge this close up shows that the two buffer stops have been bedded in properly, and the stockade fencing of the District Engineer's compound has been extended to the bridge abuttment. It also shows the last somersault signal to survive at PN.

 

Ooh - a loverly somersault! Great stuff.

 

And looks like Peter's done a grand job there making good this corner of the layout; the layout becomes its own backscene, which is how it should be...

Link to post
Share on other sites

I did find time to take one more photo yesterday, in between trying to sort out the lighting problem.

attachicon.gif42573.jpg

A Stanier 2.6.4T arrives with an early evening Leicester- East slow. By this time of day these trains were actually allowed to stop at North, rather than passing by on the Midland lines, line occupancy having reduced. When I've finished my cup of tea I shall go and take some more.

Absolutely love the bridge Gilbert, the depth of field it creates is transformational.  I agree that its a shame that the "backscene" you pinned to the shelves front (?) casts a shadow behind the bridge, as this diminishes the effect of distance...as the eye expects to see a "fading off" of tone as distance increases.  Could you not just afix the backscene to the back wall, so that light falls on the area behind the bridge?  That would do it and increase the sense of depth?  Anyway, just a thought. Keep up the splendiferous modelling. Regards, Matt

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Absolutely love the bridge Gilbert, the depth of field it creates is transformational.  I agree that its a shame that the "backscene" you pinned to the shelves front (?) casts a shadow behind the bridge, as this diminishes the effect of distance...as the eye expects to see a "fading off" of tone as distance increases.  Could you not just afix the backscene to the back wall, so that light falls on the area behind the bridge?  That would do it and increase the sense of depth?  Anyway, just a thought. Keep up the splendiferous modelling. Regards, Matt

The problem with that Matt would be that the backscene board would then be under the overhang of the bookcases, and the shadow of those ****** things would immediately turn the white card grey. That is the worst background colour I can have. The backscene board as it stands is almost directly behind the bridge, so well forward of the wall, and gives a lovely white background to all those lattice posts, which is something I've been trying to get for ages.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

The problem with that Matt would be that the backscene board would then be under the overhang of the bookcases, and the shadow of those ****** things would immediately turn the white card grey. That is the worst background colour I can have. The backscene board as it stands is almost directly behind the bridge, so well forward of the wall, and gives a lovely white background to all those lattice posts, which is something I've been trying to get for ages.

Could you not use a small light under the bookshelves along with the white card. That should keep the whiteness whilst achieving a greater deoth of field behind the bridge.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Another lovely day out, in a beautiful setting. Whatever else may be said about golf, it does give access to some places that one would not otherwise see. One or two more images to end the day follow.

post-98-0-01328300-1462398775_thumb.jpg

A B12 looks just as nice from this angle.

post-98-0-10049900-1462398832_thumb.jpg

and in black and white too.

post-98-0-30624700-1462398886_thumb.jpg

While from the North the Queen of Scots appears under Spital Bridge, 60120 Kittiwake of Copley Hill in charge. The bridge frames this nicely, I think.

  • Like 19
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

More golf today. Creaky old gits, whoops I mean Notts Captains, Golf Society. That isn't till this afternoon though, so I'm having a nice relaxing morning, and pondering things, which I will later give a good looking at. For now though, some more pictures.

post-98-0-67508900-1462439260_thumb.jpg

B12 at rest.

post-98-0-13504700-1462439310_thumb.jpg

and Kittiwake getting a bit closer.

I'm happier seeing the Pullman cars on the bend now, as it reflects the layout correctly, even if it is wrong for the prototype. I don't think we can have a bus on the bridge though, it doesn't look wide enough. Richard E will know.

  • Like 15
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

 

I don't think we can have a bus on the bridge though, it doesn't look wide enough. Richard E will know.

 

The road is a normal two lane suburban road but doesn't support a bus route nowadays. It has pavements either side, I wouldn't like, in it's current format, to try and get two busses past each other anyway. It leads into an area of older housing, a small group of shops and a former pub. The access on to the bridge from the District Engineers side of the line has altered when Bourges Boulevard was built in the 1960's. Buses may well have used it at one time but I think it unlikely.

 

A nice touch that wouldn't be out of place would be a van or possibly lorry, cars cannot be seen from track or platform level due to the quite high parapets on the bridge (true of all of the bridges in the vicinity of the station).

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

The road is a normal two lane suburban road but doesn't support a bus route nowadays. It has pavements either side, I wouldn't like, in it's current format, to try and get two busses past each other anyway. It leads into an area of older housing, a small group of shops and a former pub. The access on to the bridge from the District Engineers side of the line has altered when Bourges Boulevard was built in the 1960's. Buses may well have used it at one time but I think it unlikely.

 

A nice touch that wouldn't be out of place would be a van or possibly lorry, cars cannot be seen from track or platform level due to the quite high parapets on the bridge (true of all of the bridges in the vicinity of the station).

Thanks Richard. Peter and I had concluded that there was only just room for two vehicles to pass each other. This would not apply though if one of them was a b****** great thing driven by one of our local ladies, who seem to like straddling the centre white line. There is actually a coal merchant's lorry on the bridge now, but it can hardly be seen.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Fourth hole today. Sudden grinding noise, gearbox on trolley gone, so had to push the thing the rest of the way. I am now a trifle fatigued. Beautiful day again though. Tonight's images follow.

post-98-0-65508000-1462483645_thumb.jpg

First we have the Queen of Scots getting a bit closer.

post-98-0-47311800-1462483725_thumb.jpg

and then a helicopter shot of the new bridge. That one looked a bit peculiar though, so I did a heavy crop.

post-98-0-14756300-1462483818_thumb.jpg

And now I'm going to bed, as I have Mike Wild of Hornby magazine coming for a photoshoot tomorrow.

 

 

  • Like 19
Link to post
Share on other sites

The road is a normal two lane suburban road but doesn't support a bus route nowadays. It has pavements either side, I wouldn't like, in it's current format, to try and get two busses past each other anyway. It leads into an area of older housing, a small group of shops and a former pub. The access on to the bridge from the District Engineers side of the line has altered when Bourges Boulevard was built in the 1960's. Buses may well have used it at one time but I think it unlikely.

 

A nice touch that wouldn't be out of place would be a van or possibly lorry, cars cannot be seen from track or platform level due to the quite high parapets on the bridge (true of all of the bridges in the vicinity of the station).

I must admit, I drive past it regularly and couldn't recall where it actually went. I have it in mind that it was the way to Baker Perkins (I played for Westwood 2nds and 3rds in the days at the old field, behind the Halcyon pub, but I might be wrong about that) My good wife informs me that there IS a through route to Thorpe Wood, but no one in their right mind would take it.. Edited by rockershovel
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...