Bacup - Mills in the hills

[Jason T]

Hopefully it's about right now Andy; if anything, it looks slightly darker in natural light.

 

Anyway, I couldn't help myself and took some photos - sorry if everyone is bored of these by now and maybe I should have popped them into the Scenery, Structures and Transport forum, but it's too late now for these ones.

 

The stone colour on the coping stones and chimney is a bit too orange but it's a first coat to get rid of the white and whatever happens, it'll be covered in brown / black anyway at some point. Please also remember that this is just the first coat of grey on the roofs.

 

Better light in the kitchen, or so I thought

 

I didn't even try and hide the lurid green tiles in this one

 

A shot of whereabouts it will be situated on the layout. A corner piece will be added in front of it, linking baseboards 2 and 3, with nothing on it apart from stone setts basically, but it will give the yard a feeling of more room

[Jason T]

Good god, how did I get to six pages? Oh yeah, progress shots every time I do the tiniest thing to the stupid goods shed

 

Edit - I've also been building the final baseboard but rain stopped play. That's just bits of wood screwed and glued to other bits of wood with foam on top though, so until I get some track down (waiting for point motors and switches), it's not really worth taking any shots of.

 

Double edit - yes, the mug on the mug tree says 'Life begins at 40'. Girlfriend bought me it on my 41st birthday, only a year late

Edited April 19, 2012 by Sandside

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I enjoy reading and looking at your posts and pics as I am sure others do. Keep up the great work.

Edited April 19, 2012 by thebritfarmer

[67A]

Cracking stuff, inspirational!

 

Cheers

Mike

[Red Devil]

Regarding the stone colour, I certainly think you're pretty close, as Dave Holt suggested earlier, I think the stone colour in Bacup/ Rossendale wasn't quite as dark as some of the more industrial areas like Bradford etc, even there it seemed to vary from very dark to a fair bit lighter. I possibly have an advantage modelling what I do (Leeds trams) as the photos of the prototypes show the normal non railway infastructure, so colour pics of your general 50s street scene abound in my reference material.

 

I've gone a bit darker on some stone retaining walls I'm working on, these were done in a fairly similar style to what you've done, but a bit more 'black' some of which isn't just soot but a chemical reaction in the stone (wonder if that's why there's so much variation?)

 

 

Hope you don't mind the pic, I really don't think that there is a 'correct' amount of 'blackness' to Lancs/Yorks stone.

 

Keep it all coming, really enjoying the thread.

[Jason T]

I don't mind the pic at all, I have a lot of retaining walls to make so it is very useful. I just need to get my head around the angle of the wall versus the angle of the ground as it rises towards the station as it strikes me that the board I use for the ground will have to increase very slightly in width as it climbs the hill, to compensate for the angle of the wall (if you see what I mean)

[Jason T]

Whilst RMWeb has been down, apart from getting very drunk and purchasing a mountain bike frame that is very similar to one I already have (a Strange Alpine Five for those in the know; one of the prototype Orange Alpine Five frames), I have been getting on with weathering other buildings after the goods shed weathering went well. Still quite a bit to do with both of these, but they are looking something a bit closer to how they should be now.

 

Farholme Tavern and row of houses - only the base brown layer added so far and I am yet to do the front of the houses

 

 

Corner shop - needs the window recesses doing, tidying up and then the green shop front itself will be tackled, once appropriate signs and adverts have been added

 

[Andy C]

Whilst RMWeb has been down, apart from getting very drunk and purchasing a mountain bike frame that is very similar to one I already have (a Strange Alpine Five for those in the know; one of the prototype Orange Alpine Five frames),

Hah I must tell my youngest that - its his (28th) Birthday today and hes been dropping hints about an Orange Five Black Gold. Being the kind generous father I am (and short of the 3 grand for it) I sent him the link to the Orange website!And speaking of black, the weathering looks right to me. Ive been going through my photo library - I once had thoughts of building Waterfoot goods - looking for photos I can scan for you, as soon as I find them (it was a good 10 years ago when I had these thoughts!) I will stick them up.

[Jason T]

Cheers Andy, that would be fantastic. Anyway, just in case anyone was curious, I thought I would pop up a photo of my new frame, which cost me 350 quid second hand and is one of about 10 in existence (they were prototypes, hence being badged as Strange rather than Orange). I also own an Orange Patriot, which is also a prototype (and no, I'm not selling either before you ask ) as well as various other bikes (Iron Horse Sunday, Santa Cruz Chameleon, 24Seven Cro55er jump bike - frame only at the moment & a Santa Cruz Bullit - also frame only). I shudder to think what I have spent on bikes over the years but to put it into perspective, a few years ago I sold my old DH bike (an Orange 223 - I like Orange) and with the money, I bought a car and a Kawasaki KDX 200 !!!

 

Strange Alpine Five:

[Jason T]

Oh, and to get back on topic, I have continued apace with the weathering of various buildings, although to date none of them (with the possible exception of the goods shed) are completed, being at different stages in the 'process'.

 

The corner shop now has the window and door recesses painted and a bit of tidying up elsewhere. The recesses were such a pain that I decided to do them on most of the other buildings ahead of the rest of the weathering.

 

The Farholme Tavern row has now had the layer of brown dirt added all over and is just waiting to dry before getting a good coating of 'soot'. And yes, I forgot to move the various bottles and other crap out of the way.

 

 

The back of the Farholme Tavern row. I've gone a lot darker than I did with the goods shed as from the photos I have seen, for some reason the houses seem to be much filthier than the mills and other buildings.

 

 

Talking of mills, the one I started hasn't been forgotten, just left to one side for a while but it too now has it's first coat of muck, the brown coat. With the embossed stone actually being 7mm brick, when I used the dabbing cloth method, the mortar courses stood out far too much so I followed it up with dry brushing and hopefully the result is that the courses look a lot narrower. I STILL need to attach the roof

 

[Arthur]

Ive been going through my photo library - I once had thoughts of building Waterfoot goods - looking for photos I can scan for you, as soon as I find them (it was a good 10 years ago when I had these thoughts!) I will stick them up.

 

Yes please! In the early 80's I worked for Road Express (part of TNT) based in Waterfoot goods. A magnificent building it was, inevitably, I never took any photographs.....

[Andy C]

Before I attempt to dig out my archive of the Rossendale Valley line, heres one for the Orange owners club, of which Im a proud member - It a "cheap" hah!! Gringo hardtail, perfect for the tracks round here!

 

 

Currently propped up alomgside New Heys fiddleyard in the garage.

[Jason T]

I had the predecessor to the Gringo, way back before I had to leave Cumbria and move South - did thousands of miles on it (both on and off road) and loved it to bits; I was gutted when it got nicked. Anyway, last mountain bike post for a while (I promise) and I'll continue with Bacup-related posts when I have something to put up (just continuing with weathering at the moment), but here is a video that my mate took on our recent trip to Spain. Towards the end, you may even spot me climbing out of the hole that I fell in, mentioned a couple of pages back. For the main part that features yours truly though, I'm wearing a white T Shirt:

 

http://vimeo.com/40328771

[Physicsman]

Hi Sandside,

 

I've enjoyed watching this project grow, and the goods shed is excellent. It must have taken ages to build all the houses - roughly how long have you spent on each? I know the process is repetitive once you have a prototype.

 

I also had to laugh at the first pic from your 14.34 post today. The view along the street is impressive, but it looks like the Martians are invading with the Woodland Scenics spray standing out in the background! Poor old Bacup. And no, I've not been drinking!

 

Will continue to follow progress.

 

Jeff

[Jason T]

It usually takes me 2 - 3 weeks to build the houses although that doesn't include weathering them, which is taking about a day per row. It does take me less time now than when I built the first as I have all the dimensions, etc., written down; the longest parts of the build are windows (including nets & curtains), doors and cutting the slates. Goods shed was about the same. Longest was the station at four months, but that was a fair bit more complex.

[Physicsman]

It usually takes me 2 - 3 weeks to build the houses although that doesn't include weathering them, which is taking about a day per row. It does take me less time now than when I built the first as I have all the dimensions, etc., written down; the longest parts of the build are windows (including nets & curtains), doors and cutting the slates. Goods shed was about the same. Longest was the station at four months, but that was a fair bit more complex.

 

Thanks very much for the info. The layout I'm about to build doesn't incorporate an urban area, but I think I will have a go at a Goods shed. Looks like fun!

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Jason T]

Weathering of buildings continues apace; still lots to do but I feel like I am getting somewhere and actually moving towards completion. I've also been experimenting with guttering, the result of which is that my fingers are covered with Super Glue and I swore a lot but I think I have found the easiest solution.

 

Anyway, as can be seen, some buildings are further along than others - some are almost there, some have their first coat of black and some have just been daubed with brown.

 

 

 

 

[Jason T]

Not sure if anyone will find this interesting or useful, but as I am just starting to build the final row of houses for the front of the layout, I thought I'd put up a couple of shots of how I mark out the dimensions, etc., before cutting. One of the advantages of building row after row of almost identical houses is that the dimensions remain pretty constant although with these ones, they climb a hill and do not start from ground level (as it were). As such, I have used Excel and very basic formulas to calculate the differences in heights between each house (and the doors, windows, etc., of each). Only part of the spreadsheet is shown here, obviously.

 

 

Once I have all the dimensions, I then mark them on the card using a straight edged ruler, set square and a sharp knife. I know a lot of people use a sharp pencil but I find that when I do that, the accuracy is lost slightly and I find the drawn lines slightly off-putting whereas score lightly with a sharp blade and unless you are clumsy when actually cutting out, you're never going to stray from the original measurements. Works for me anyway.

 

 

I won't pester people with each step of this build as I've already built far too many similar rows, the details of which can be found in the below thread.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/40873-buildings-for-bacup/

[iankemp]

That goods shed looks great, you have done a brilliant job of recreating that. The whole layout looks brill.

[bluebottle]

Not sure if anyone will find this interesting or useful, but as I am just starting to build the final row of houses for the front of the layout, I thought I'd put up a couple of shots of how I mark out the dimensions, etc., before cutting. One of the advantages of building row after row of almost identical houses is that the dimensions remain pretty constant although with these ones, they climb a hill and do not start from ground level (as it were). As such, I have used Excel and very basic formulas to calculate the differences in heights between each house (and the doors, windows, etc., of each). Only part of the spreadsheet is shown here, obviously...

...Once I have all the dimensions, I then mark them on the card using a straight edged ruler, set square and a sharp knife. I know a lot of people use a sharp pencil but I find that when I do that, the accuracy is lost slightly and I find the drawn lines slightly off-putting whereas score lightly with a sharp blade and unless you are clumsy when actually cutting out, you're never going to stray from the original measurements. Works for me anyway.

I won't pester people with each step of this build as I've already built far too many similar rows, the details of which can be found in the below thread.

http://www.rmweb.co....ings-for-bacup/

 

More good "Now why didn't I think of that" stuff. For instance, even the 4H pencil I use for marking out isn't as accurate as a decent craft blade, and the light mark of the pencil is hardly any easier to see than the knife cut, anyway. Don't worry about boring people with details - most of us need these details - and in terms of effectiveness your work speaks for itself!

[Jason T]

I know I said I wasn't going to post repeatedly about this next batch of houses but as Jeff (Physicsman) asked about the length of the builds, here is progress after four days. I've put about 2.5 hours per day in so far (I was actually free all day Saturday but chose to fettle / build mountain bikes in the rain instead!) and as can be seen, I've completed walls for the main structure (including interior formers and chimneys) and added the stonework, with the exception of lintels and sills. Second shot shows the window recesses inset, with the help of the trusty Olfa Cutter.

 

Progress has been a lot quicker with this one than the previous houses, mainly due to learning as I go along. For instance, rather than glue the plastikard to the card and then start trimming, I now tack it on, mark out where the windows, etc, will be, remove the plastikard and then use the ruler, set square, craft knife and olfa cutter to cut out the excess and (with the olfa) score the plastikard for the window recesses. The latter on it's own is saving a lot of time as before I had this marvellous, weird knife thing, I would use the cutouts from the windows, cut strips from them and then try and glue these in the recesses, with the end result being that is was difficult to line up the mortar courses, a fair bit of tidying up was required and they were a swine to glue. Same with chimneys - initially I would cut out the four walls and then glue them on separately whereas now they are one scored piece that folds round; simpler and much neater.

 

 

Edit: I also intend to paint all the stonework before adding the windows and glueing the whole thing together this time, as trying to paint the window recesses once they are glazed is a PITA.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2012 by Sandside

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Post away I say, it is all interesting to see and provides a nice follow along.

[Jason T]

Most of the progress I have made over the last couple of days has been with painting and weathering the buildings, including the not-yet-completed row of houses (I reasoned it was easier to paint it first). Quite a bit of finishing and tidying up to do but I'm getting there slowly but surely; I think a couple of the rows are going to need more black.

 

Mostly weathered street, new houses leaned together:

 

 

 

Bit scruffy on the end of this row, I'm not happy with how it's shown up in the photo (hadn't noticed beforehand)

 

New row:

 

The odd house at the station, wearing brown only at the moment:

 

As an 'added bonus', I haven't forgotten about the Skaledale Challenge house and even though it won't be used on the layout, I've been painting it and will get it finished some day:

[Removed a/c]

I can only hope one day to have a street of terraced houses like that !

[Worsdell forever]

I can only hope one day to have a street of terraced houses like that !

 

'I remember this when it was all bare baseboards...'