Copenhagen Fields

[CF MRC]

CJ Freezer most certainly does not have a shop named after him - he was always very negative about the layout and wrote sniping letters to the MRC Bulletin. He is, however, immortalised in an advertisement for ‘Freezers Patent Hair Tonic’...
Stewart is commemorated by S Hine the Cobbler. Shops and industries are reserved for people who have actually made a substantial contribution to the layout or the MRC.

 

Tim

Edited September 9, 2020 by CF MRC

[Caley Jim]

In any case, Freezer's  blood was the wrong shade of green!

 

While on the Peco stand at a Glasgow show in the '70's he was invited to come to a layout to see 'an improved Tri-ang Hall'.  What he wasn't told was that the 'improvements' were carried out by two prominent CR modellers and comprised of; throw away the body, throw away the motion and wheels, throw away the tender and around the remaining chassis block build a CR 'greyback' 4-6-0.  Needless to say, he was not impressed and was never seen at a Glasgow show again!

 

Jim

[CF MRC]

Not directly related to CJF, but to Peco, was the time we had the earliest track making jigs and planning stages of CF on display at the IMREX exhibition at Wembley, probably in Easter 1984.  
 

An elderly gentleman and his son came along. The elderly gentleman said that we should use Peco track and build it in N gauge. I said that it wouldn’t be appropriate for the standards we were working to. He insisted that it would work perfectly well and a deal could be made for the track. I politely declined and asked him his name - Sydney Pritchard. I don’t think he was used to be asked his name. Michael didn’t say anything...

 

Tim

Edited September 9, 2020 by CF MRC

[bécasse]

Sydney could be a bit wicked at times. It should be remembered though that Peco was doing a lot to support the finescale end of 4mm modelling long before Streamline came along.

 

And returning to the subject of names for the newsagents, Freddie Cockman was editor of the Bulletin, then monthly, for quite a long period in the late 1960s and early 1970s (and he also wrote the odd railway book) and thus one of unsung heroes among MRC backroom workers.

Edited September 9, 2020 by bécasse

[CF MRC]

Well, today we named the shop.

Without Jim and Richard’s input, with the etched windows and 3D printed mouldings, the model would not be half as far advanced. 

Tim

Edited September 9, 2020 by CF MRC

[queensquare]

1 minute ago, CF MRC said:

Well, today we named the shop.

Without Jim and Richard’s input, with the etched windows and 3D printed mouldings, the model would not be half as far advanced. 
 

Tim

 

Excellent choice. 

 

Jerry

[Kylestrome]

Wilson & Watt has a nice wing to to it ... 

[2mmMark]

38 minutes ago, Kylestrome said:

Wilson & Watt has a nice wing to to it ... 

I wonder if they have any Hungarian customers?

 

[Caley Jim]

We might have a copy of Parliamo Glasgow.

 

 

Jim

[CF MRC]

There was a roof vent for the air ducting on the back corner of the station building. I have always made these solid out of white and black styrene sheet, cut into the components as seen in this image:

These are stacked together and the recessed corners tidied up with a file, once solid. The top edges of the white bits are chamfered so as to look like the angled slats.  Square styrene posts are fixed to each corner. 

After a bit of final fettling with a file the end product is quite sturdy. 

The use of black styrene is not essential, but it does make painting easier.  No one has yet complained that they can’t see through the slats - shouldn’t have said that should I?  It just needs the rest of the ducting and the fan made now...

 

Tim

 

P.S. Modelling can be soooo relaxing. 

 

[Caley Jim]

Well, Tim, we won't tell anyone if you don't!

 

Jim

[bbishop]

Tim, be very careful what you say about the station in someone's hearing.  If he's told it's an Underground station he may use those paws to dig a hole in the garden and bury it for you.  Bill

[CF MRC]

By 1927, York Road tube station was well covered in posters and corporate signage. 

The upright UndergrounD sign is unusual (to me at any rate) and had to be modelled. It was milled from a lump of brass and two 0.3mm and one 0.4mm diameter holes drilled at the back for the props, which were soldered into place.  For added security, there is a 0.9mm brass dowel locating it through the main structure. 

The artwork for the upright signs was drawn up four times oversize and reduced to 2mm scale when printed: in that way draughting errors become less conspicuous. It’s all a bit black at the moment, but some weathering will improve it. 

If it wasn’t already obvious, there is now no doubt that this is a tube station.  Time to get some paint on the roof and some of the walls now. 

Tim

 

Edited September 13, 2020 by CF MRC

[manna]

G'day Folks

 

Fabulous.

 

manna

[CF MRC]

Had a first go at the roof this evening.  I have fitted two chimney stacks where I think they might go and fitted a black strip to the top of the parapet copings.  This prevents the white styrene showing through if a building is going to get handled a bit.

The stacks were made from solid Evergreen strip, clad in our brick styrene as shown: this building technique does not require great accuracy in measuring.

The excess vertical strips were cut off with a scalpel, followed by dressing the corners with a file. 

The bottom of the stack was given a 1mm thick styrene layer to represent the flashing and the top decorative courses also built out with layers. The edges of the brickwork were notched with the scalpel blade to soften them. Plastikard buildings often look too ‘sharp’ and ‘edgy’. For a more poorly maintained building a slotting file will give a more pronounced mortar course.  The chimney castings complete with flaunchings will be epoxied on at a later stage. 

The roof was initially given a light grey wash applied in a random direction, then a darker grey with the brush in one direction only, followed by the light colour again at 90 degrees, building up texture and depth of colour along the way. Finally, a wash of a brown-grey was run along the gutters, corners and crevices.  When the paint has hardened overnight, I will paint in some dried up puddles and other features and add some further weathering using powders, especially around the vent. 

The building is looking very solid sitting on the layout - I believe a worthwhile improvement on the original concept (I’ll take some comparison photos soon). 
 

Tim

 

Edited September 13, 2020 by CF MRC

[Coal Tank]

Tim 

 Could you possibly tell me why Mr Freezer didn't like the layout 

John 

[Joseph_Pestell]

CJF seemed very sceptical about all finescale railway modelling. Heckmondwyke (P4) was built partly to prove him wrong. If he thought that a mainline P4 layout was not possible, what must he have thought of something as complex as CF in 2mm finescale?

[bécasse]

I chatted fairly frequently with CJF from 1964 until not long before his death and I was one of the builders of the first P4 layout to hit the exhibition circuit (in 1971). At no time did I get the feeling that he was very sceptical about finescale railway modelling let alone all fine scale railway modelling. What I do believe is that CJF thought that it wasn't for the "average modeller" (as the byline on the Railway Modeller front page used to put it), and I am not all sure that he wasn't right then, and would be even more right today with such fine OO and N (and even O) offerings available from the trade.

[CF MRC]

I think CJFs main gripe was that there was too much scenery compared to railway.  He called it (if I recollect correctly) the ‘London Architectural Model Society’ in one letter. He also couldn’t understand why there wasn’t more being done on the railway than the scenery, when we were making loads of buildings and background details: which he never noticed.  
 

To be fair to Cyril, it is only in the last 10 years that the full extent of the railway lands at Belle Isle has become apparent, but Cyril didn’t have that vision. He also commented that it could have been made quicker and be more appropriate as a ‘Club’ layout if it had been done in N gauge. Oh well...
 

Tim

Edited September 14, 2020 by CF MRC

[CF MRC]

As promised, some comparisons between the semi-skimmed and full fat versions of the tube station.

This is the operator’s view. 

And this is a view the public will get. 

The dried up algae containing puddles have been added to the roof. A bit of green always makes a model come to life. 

The pavement area will probably be made from 0.6mm steel plate and attached to the building: this will protect the fine details such as the lamps (yet to be fitted) and allow the paving to be held down with buried magnets for the removable building. 
 

Tim

Edited September 14, 2020 by CF MRC

[-missy-]

It's a real shame all those wonderful buildings aren't illuminated. I am sure the layout would look absolutely stunning if it could be run in the dark.

 

Julia. 

[mike morley]

16 minutes ago, -missy- said:

the layout would look absolutely stunning if it could be run in the dark.

 

Your task, should you choose to accept it . . .

Edited September 14, 2020 by mike morley

[Kylestrome]

19 minutes ago, -missy- said:

I am sure the layout would look absolutely stunning if it could be run in the dark.

 

Expect a PM from Tim any minute now! 

 

David

[CF MRC]

Indeed the layout would be magical if illuminated for night time running.  Trouble is, it adds a huge amount of extra work -36 years for what we have so far?  Some of the buildings have lights in them, but they simply do not show up when on show: dimming the main lights would help, but as some will note CF is ‘like a swan, smooth and elegant on top but paddling like fury underneath to keep going’ so playing with the overall lighting isn’t top of the priority list. 
 

The Cally Tube is lit up and so will be the York Road platforms: but the layout is already at the limits of our logistics.
 

Tim

Edited September 14, 2020 by CF MRC

[bécasse]

12 minutes ago, CF MRC said:

Indeed the layout would be magical if illuminated for night time running.  Trouble is, it adds a huge amount of extra work -36 years for what we have so far?  Some of the buildings have lights in them, but they simply do not show up when on show: dimming the main lights would help, but as some will note CF is ‘like a swan, smooth and elegant on top but paddling like fury underneath to keep going’ so playing with the overall lighting isn’t top of the priority list. 
 

The Cally Tube is lit up and so will be the York Road platforms: but the layout is already at the limits of our logistics.
 

Tim

Quite apart from the logistical difficulties involved in adding lighting, it shouldn't be forgotten that in the inter-war period lighting would have been far more subdued than tends to be the case today. The majority of lighting, in both premises and streets, would have been by gas; indeed many premises would not have had electricity supplies at all. The two tube stations would have stood out as being electrically lit but would still not have been beacons of light, while the lighting in passing trains on the surface would have been so dim that it would have been difficult to see that they were lit.