Bacup - Mills in the hills

[Ben Alder]

Just picked this thread up via Leith Baltic St.- a real gem, this, and yet another"how did this pass me by"- model railwaying at its best, and you are well along the way of creating another classic layout- I can see the Colin Gifford type images being a hallmark of Bacup.

[Jason T]

Thank you for the kind comments folks, it really spurs me on. About to start laying the track to and in the fiddle yard so will soon be able to actually operate the layout properly. Only worry is that playing trains may delay progress.

[Jason T]

Not much progress over the weekend as I've been busy riding bikes and walking but this evening, I've had a first attempt at weathering the buildings. There is nothing new in this method but it's a first for me and although it is going to take quite a while to get teh colours, etc., correct, below is my first attempt.

 

I started with the platform for the goods shed which for obvious reasons, needs to be painted and weathered before the building can be stuck together and progressed. It strikes me that the stonework in the shed wouldn't be anywhere near as blackened and weatherworn as the exterior, except maybe close to the doorways where the elements, etc., would have more of an effect. Additionally, the platform to; would that be filthy or cleaned by being walked upon, etc?

 

Anyway, onto the method and some progress shots

 

The tools: A cloth, a paint stirrer and a well past it's best pot of Railmatch Sleeper Grime

 

Using the paint stirrer, retrieve the gummy crap from the bottom of the pot and spread thinly on the cloth. Then, with your finger, wipe / dab the cloth gently on the embossed stone, which should leave the stones looking grotty and the mortar relatively untouched

 

Five minutes pf dabbing and wiping on the platform leaves it looking like this. I reckon it's going to need a few more goes.

 

Progress with one end of the shed. Once again, a long way to go but hopefully I'm on the right tracks here (pardon the pun)

[Jason T]

Weathering continues apace, although there is still a lot to do. This is the first layer of muck, with the window recesses, etc., needing to be done (couldn't dab at them with the cloth) and I've just realised that I have neglected to paint the base layer of stone onto the office building (the end view of the building is actually where the office will be located, hence it not being fully dirtied up).

 

Once this coating has dried, I'll apply a second and then have a go with the black, although will try and show some restraint. Hopefully, the weathering is bringing it to life.

 

 

 

[Worsdell forever]

Just Googled Bacup and had a look at some buildings in the town and I think you've got the colouring just about right, yes, it might benefit from drybrushing a little black onto some of the stones as this is very characteristic of this type of stone.

[Dave Holt]

Just Googled Bacup and had a look at some buildings in the town and I think you've got the colouring just about right, yes, it might benefit from drybrushing a little black onto some of the stones as this is very characteristic of this type of stone.

 

Don't forget, stone buildings today are much lighter in colour than than in the heyday of steam (washed clean by years of nice clean acid rain!). Before the clean air act and the demise of the textile industry, buildings in the industrial north west were almost black with just a hint of millstone grit showing through here and there. Check some period photos rather than how the stone-work looks now.

 

Dave.

[Jason T]

That's part of the problem really, as there are not too many colour photos of the buildings as they were in the late 50's / early 60's and I have read conflicting reports on just how grubby they were, with some saying they were basically black and others saying they weren't as grubby as you may think. They will be going a lot dirtier than they are now though; this is pretty much the first 'coat' of weathering and was more of a (successful) test of method than anything else. Tetley Mills, New Hey and Dewsbury (Midland) are what I am looking at for inspiration, even though I am aware that I should be looking at the real thing.

 

I know it's a different stone and as such weathers differently, but down one of the narrow back streets in Oxford (under the Bridge of Sighs, past the alleyway to the Turf Tavern and round the corner) there is a building which has never had a cleanup operation and is positively filthy. The girlfriend is stumped as to why I pay this building more interest than the myriad of beautifully cleaned and restored buildings in the city, and why I always want to walk back from town past it.

 

The biggest problem I have faced so far is getting the base (clean) colour correct as even though it was always the intention to weather everything, I wanted to weather something that was the correct colour rather than the base Slaters colour (which isn't actually too different to what I finished up with). I have to confess that the closest I have been to Bacup is Todmorden and that was to go biking and not look at old mills

Edited April 16, 2012 by Sandside

[Dave Holt]

There's a few B&W photos of Bacup in the Irwell Press book, An illustrated History of Rochdale's Railways. Although you obviously can't tell the actual colour from these, it gives an idea of how dark or light the buildings were. In fact, the degree of blackening seems to vary quite a bit between buildings and, with Bacup being more on the fringe of the textile belt, they generally don't look as black as stone did in Oldham, where I grew up. There, stone (and brick) really was almost jet black in the mid to late 1950's.

 

Dave.

[Worsdell forever]

Some of the photos show that some buildings are still quite grubby. I think if they were done too black, even if this was correct, the models wouldn't look right.

 

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01451/The-Crown-Inn-Grea_1451670c.jpg

 

http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/46/24/462435_56f52b32.jpg

[Jason T]

A book I've thumbed through many a time, as well as watching the scenes of Bacup on the B&R Video Volume 98 L&Y memories although the latter isn't much help as it shows the terraced houses which backed onto the station looking like they are made of coal and the mill next door being a much cleaner shade of brown, not far off what the goods shed currently looks like. If it weren't for copyright laws, I'd take a screenshot and pop it up.

[Jason T]

I tend to agree with you Paul; even if they were jet black in real life, it may look odd in 4mm/1ft. I'll experiment further and ask for opinions on what looks right, remembering to cart the buildings out into the garden and natural light first, of course.

[Worsdell forever]

Probably best to add a little black then add more, easier than trying to remove it...

 

Edit, your stone is easy, ours round here sometimes takes on a green hue...

Edited April 16, 2012 by Worsdell forever

[Jason T]

The "Cloth, finger and grotty crap from the bottom of old paintpot" method is actually pretty good at depositing only a bit at a time, but I'll give it a test on some spare stonework first, just in case.

 

I might just trademark that weathering method name; it's quite catchy

[Jason T]

Edit, your stone is easy, ours round here sometimes takes on a green hue...

 

Before I embarked on Bacup, I was going to have a bash at Sandside (hence the user name). One of the reasons I chickened out was the stone - limestone - comes in a multitude of hues and there is no uniformity to the stonework on a number of the buildings. For instance, this lime kiln would have been needed to be built in low-relief - can you imagine having to scribe that stonework?

 

http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk/view_picture.asp?id=7354

[Steve Hewitt]

Some of the photos show that some buildings are still quite grubby.

 

http://i.telegraph.c...ea_1451670c.jpg

 

 

The colours in this picture, particulary the houses, are very nostalgic!

I was brought up in Rawtenstall, travelled by train from there to Waterfoot each day to attend Bacup & Rawtenstall G.S.

(Still is a grammer today).

L&Y Push Pulls until the first diesel units came in the later 50's.

What a view sitting right on the driver's shoulder.

 

If you're doing terraced houses, don't forget to "donkey stone" your front steps.

Most such houses had a "coal cellar" into which the sacks of coal were tipped, 1 cwt. at a time.

The pavement access to the coal shute was covered by an iron casting, about one foot square, itself retained by a chain.

Could make a nice cameo if you're into that sort of thing.

 

Steve.

[Worsdell forever]

The colours look quite exotic to me! this is the colour of stone around us - one of my 'local' reference photos. Not been able to recreate these colours as well as I would like though.

 

[Jason T]

Thanks Steve, that kind of information is really helpful in setting the scene later on as well as interesting - I'd never heard of a donkey stone but have now 'googled' it.

 

Paul, I love the stonework on that building; the herringbone effect is fantastic - an absolute swine to reproduce in model form though, I bet.

[Jason T]

Ok, so I've applied (cloth and dry-brushing) a layer of 'Weathered Black' to one end of the shed to see how it would look. I didn't go overboard and personally, I reckon that this is about the right level. I took some photos in the garden (it stopped raining for a short time) to get some shots in natural light and the un-blackened one really does look a bit too light brown in my opinion.

 

I would be interested to know your thoughts

 

The brown only one

 

The blackened one

[Oldddudders]

Deffo the blackened one - it simply looks more aged. Your earlier photos show stone that looks lovely - but too new. These two recent shots are both much better, but I'd go with the blackened version. That said, I'm a Southerner, so may be misinformed! All the stone around me tends to be rendered - some of it with hideous cement-mixes which can't breathe, so neither does the building!

[Jason T]

Thanks Ian; I've tried to leave a modicum of brown showing through rather than just being black and hope that looks about right. What surprises me is that the mortar never really seems to have weathered in any of the shots I've seen, although it does mean that the buildings have that lovely look where each stone can be seen individually rather than a mass of grime.

 

Whenever I go to Spain (quite often as the girlfriend is Spanish), the thing that stands out is that almost every building is rendered but when you get a peek of the brickwork that lies underneath, it's hardly a surprise that they would want to hide it

[Jason T]

The main structure is now pretty much all weathered, with only the hard to get to places and those where the building needs to be together still needing finishing off. Hopefully, tomorrow will see the main structure being glued together and then I can make a start on the roof and the unenviable task of cutting the slates from paper. Anyway, leaned together as per usual, here is how the building now looks in it's grubbier style.

 

 

[Jason T]

There's been quite a lot of progress on the goods shed, the result being that I have blisters on my 'knife' finger through cutting out around 80 rows of slates. However, the outcome is one of those landmark points in any building; the coming together of the four walls and the addition of the roof. Still quite a few jobs to do before it is finished as you will see, but it's now looking like a building rather than a kit (albeit a scratchbuilt one). It was a fantastic feeling to find that all the component parts were the correct measurements; no reason why they shouldn't have been as I measured and then re-measured each about 100 times, but still......

 

For those that are curious, the outstanding jobs are:

• Ridge tiles and lead flashing on the roof, roof to be painted and weathered
  
• Tidy up the end walls (where the ridge levels out) and add coping (??) stones to the top surface. I actually made a bit of a boo-boo here the other week and forgot that the sides sat outside of the end, so I think a bit of milliput may be in order to make sure this looks ok.
  
• Attach the office. Until the rest is finished, I thought it best to leave it detached in case I need to lean the main building on it's end, so to speak, in order to trim, paint, etc.
  
• Finish the chimney - I decided to wait until the roof was on before starting this as it would be easier. Not sure why I thought that although it's a five minute job (in fact, the mounting card formers for it are already done and attached - took 5 minutes)
  
• Trim the edges where the walls meet
  
• Gutters and downpipes. I have a lot of these to do, in fact every building I've made so far is missing them. Need a good way to make the gutters and haven't decided what to do yet.
  
• Touch up painting and weathering
  

The flash has made the building look more orange than it is in reality. If the weather stops being biblical later, I'll try and get the next update shots done outside.

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2012 by Sandside

[devondynosoar118]

I know many people use rod and half round in either plastic or brass for gutters. I have found ratio/wills ones acceptable for most buildings.

[Jason T]

• Ridge tiles and lead flashing on the roof - Done
  
• Roof to be painted and weathered - In Progress
  
• Tidy up the end walls (where the ridge levels out) and add coping (??) stones - Done
  
• Attach the office - Done
  
• Finish the chimney - Done
  
• Trim the edges where the walls meet - Done
  
• Gutters and downpipes - Pending. I've tried the half-round plastic rod method before, with mixed results. I may have a go with brass
  
• Touch up painting and weathering - Pending
  

Getting there, nothing worth taking photos of really though. Coping stones were scribed in Plastikard, in case anyone was wondering.

Edited April 19, 2012 by Sandside

[Andy C]

The blackened one is right Jason, a lot of the building around Bacup got sandblasted over the years which has taken off the patina of soot which was on them up to the early 70s if not beyond. I tend to use a matt blue / black mix, cut with a little brown to get the soot on!

Edited April 19, 2012 by Andy C