Copenhagen Fields

[CF MRC]

After a major international collaborative project between Brisbane, Croydon and St Albans, the Nick Mitchell urinals are now installed!

 

Quite a work of art.  Thanks Kevin & Justin. WCs to follow...
 

Tim

[richard i]

That takes the p***. How good are they.

richard 

[Geordie Exile]

So *that's* where the expression "thumbnail picture" comes from...

[Kylestrome]

12 hours ago, CF MRC said:

WCs to follow...

 

That should be "alimentary, my dear Watson ..." 

 

David

Edited October 30, 2020 by Kylestrome

[CF MRC]

After starting the plumbing job, our versatile builder has turned to some road building. 

The wedge-shaped front road extension piece has been feathered in to the front, finishing close to the building being demolished. It’s gentle curve acts as a pleasant counter to the curved goods warehouses - not intentional, but nice when that sort of thing happens.  Pip can’t work out what all the fuss is about...

The road surface: gutters, pavements and camber,  was carved into the block of wood and then the surfacing styrene sheet cobbles cut to fit and glued in place. This extra space should be good for some vehicle and people placement and it also gives a better lead in to the buildings at this end. At least the tube building now looks to be more integral with the scene. 
 

Tim

[CF MRC]

The plumber came back to sort some pipes out. In fact, not so much pipes as shafts. 

The copper pipe will house the spiral stair shaft, the middle brass shaft will have a working lift (I have a linear actuator for that and full drawings) and the third is blank (it was only ever used for ventilation): this one will also need to go back 6mm. I may also extend the ground fill around the top of the second shaft as the foundations are not that deep under that part of the building.  It’s tempting to paint in the stratigraphic effects in this local area, as we have already opened up the building. 

 

Tim

Edited October 31, 2020 by CF MRC
Getting rid of formatting problem

[grahame]

Tubular bells?

 

They'll need smearing with London clay, perhaps with layers of Roman pottery and skeletons embedded. 

 

It's becoming some impressive and extensive subterranean modelling.

 

 

 

[Caley Jim]

5 hours ago, grahame said:

They'll need smearing with London clay, perhaps with layers of Roman pottery and skeletons embedded. 

You could start a new hobby - archaeological modelling!  

 

Jim

[CF MRC]

Ernest was very hard working employee for the GNP & BR, but did like an early morning session with the newspaper in the York Road toilets, with the sun streaming through the window. Not sure how he’s going to flush the toilet, though, as someone has knicked the down pipe. 

 

Tim
 

Edited November 1, 2020 by CF MRC

[CF MRC]

Wasn’t quite happy with newspaper, so I made a new one. 

There is also now a down pipe. 
Tim

[grahame]

That's a relief. And quite relaxing. Nice.

 

 

[CF MRC]

After a sojourn in the Post Office, Richard W’s ventilation fan has arrived and been fitted. 


This photo, from ‘Hidden London’ (Yale Univ. Press) is almost certainly of the actual fan from the ventilation casing in the very same room at YR. 

The original ventilation systems on the Leslie Green tube buildings turned out to be insufficient.  The extraction would have come up the spiral stair shaft in a massive pipe, the turned 90 degrees to pass through the fan, then out the top into ducting and up then up the ventilation shaft in the corner of the building. This should all be fairly obvious, when the model is complete, as the vent pipe is at the centre of the spiral stairs (photo from Caledonian Road).

In later days, the redundant lift shaft was used for ventilation, with a massive fan at the top and a large cowl on the roof (fortunately, after our period).

The whole of the underground section is starting to look quite busy now - but what a lot of work! It will be interesting to see the reaction of the public when they eventually see it.  
 

Tim

Edited November 2, 2020 by CF MRC
Adding better picture

[RJS1977]

On 08/10/2020 at 22:18, bécasse said:

Having in the past spent a lot of time looking at road surfaces in old postcards and datable photographs in order to establish some sort of chronology, I discovered that granite setts, where they existed, can usually be distinguished over at least part of the road surface. Furthermore the road surface between and 18" either side of tram lines has to be some sort of hard surface, ie setts, hard wood blocks or (very rarely) concrete, this was a legal requirement that dated from horse tram days (when it was fair enough) but continued with electric traction. In this picture there is no clear delineation of the 18" strip so the whole road surface is of the same material, either granite setts (which I would expect to be able to distinguish at least in part) or hard wood blocks. The latter were particularly commonplace on busy routes in the LCC area because they were almost as hard wearing as granite setts but significantly quieter hence my suggestion that that was what we see here. Ironically, hard wood blocks are much easier to model than granite setts as, once they were tarred over (as they were) it was almost impossible to distinguish individual blocks and wear was pretty even. It was by no means unknown for busy junctions (or places where horse drawn vehicles would stand for some time, such as taxicab ranks) to have granite setts while the surrounding linear roads all had wood blocks; very narrow streets also often had granite setts.

 

I certainly wouldn't think of suggesting a change to CF now but it might be worth noting for the future in case any of the model road surfaces should get damaged and need replacement.

 

Incidentally, because the LCC had to wait for a lease to be given up, many of the tramways in north London, including those on Caledonian Road, were converted to electric traction quite late - say 1907/8 - so the postcard could date well into the Edwardian era. However I still think that there is something about it that suggests the turn of the century with Victoria still on the throne.

 

 

There is still one short stretch of wooden blocks in London - on Checker Street, near Old Street. 

 

 

[CF MRC]

More plumbing now fitted, the cistern and feed pipes for the urinals.

Pans & cisterns for the ladies.

The interior detailing is probably now complete, excepting installing lights in the lift lobby and stairwell. 

I suspect that this may be the first time someone has made a visible interior for a 2mm scale building; quite a silly thing to do, really. I blame it all on that Mitchell fellow...

 

Tim
 

[Sithlord75]

I dunno that it was all the Mitchell fellows fault.  I think there was a bit of a cheer squad! 

[Nick Mitchell]

I'll happily take my share of the blame for such a superlative creation... I stand in awe of those who responded to my goading and have taken things to such an extreme level.

 

Looking at the pictures of the plumbing - are the pipes solid, or are they micro bore tube?

It is making me think of a Sindy dolls house my sister had as a child in the 80s. It had a kitchen unit with a tap that ran and a washing machine that "worked". There was a little battery driven pump inside it.

I know it is completely infeasible, but wouldn't it be amazing to see the urinals flush...

[Sithlord75]

38 minutes ago, Nick Mitchell said:

I'll happily take my share of the blame for such a superlative creation... I stand in awe of those who responded to my goading and have taken things to such an extreme level.

 

Looking at the pictures of the plumbing - are the pipes solid, or are they micro bore tube?

It is making me think of a Sindy dolls house my sister had as a child in the 80s. It had a kitchen unit with a tap that ran and a washing machine that "worked". There was a little battery driven pump inside it.

I know it is completely infeasible, but wouldn't it be amazing to see the urinals flush...

I did put a drain in.  Not sure a) how it printed or b) if it got plumbed in!

[Donw]

Excellent work. There would be a problem making them flush in that scale size water is not currently available full size water will not behave right the surface tension would create droplets far too big. A 2mm  waterfall would not look realistic with real water.

However a sound recoding of urinals flushing would be a real possibility and create the illusion they were flushing. 

 

Don

[Nigelcliffe]

8 hours ago, Nick Mitchell said:

I'll happily take my share of the blame for such a superlative creation... ........

 

I know it is completely infeasible, but wouldn't it be amazing to see the urinals flush...

 

The sound of the clunking tank, woosh of water, etc.. would be simple with a little sound card and a timer loop.   Just needs a recording of the noises.   Could go "modern" with it, and use an IR detector to spot the person looking at it, and then flush it :-)

 

 

 

 

 

[t-b-g]

19 minutes ago, Nigelcliffe said:

 

The sound of the clunking tank, woosh of water, etc.. would be simple with a little sound card and a timer loop.   Just needs a recording of the noises.   Could go "modern" with it, and use an IR detector to spot the person looking at it, and then flush it :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have had such noises on a layout! On Narrow Road, just as a joke, a recordable sound module was held near the loo when it was flushed and it was then built into a water tower on the layout. When a loco pulled up alongside the water tower, we could simply push a button to activate the sound. We did think about a proximity switch but decided that it might end up getting annoying so preferred to have control over it.

 

The sound module was the sort used in greetings cards and could be bought ready to use for next to nothing.

[RJS1977]

Just as long as it isn't accompanied by any other sounds that might be heard in the vicinity!

[3rd Rail Exile]

4 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

Just as long as it isn't accompanied by any other sounds that might be heard in the vicinity!

[bbishop]

11 hours ago, Donw said:

Excellent work. There would be a problem making them flush in that scale size water is not currently available full size water will not behave right the surface tension would create droplets far too big. A 2mm  waterfall would not look realistic with real water.

However a sound recoding of urinals flushing would be a real possibility and create the illusion they were flushing. 

 

Don

 

..... and a puddle of Perspex under the layout?     Bill

[Caley Jim]

3 hours ago, bbishop said:

 

..... and a puddle of Perspex under the layout?     Bill

Yellow Perspex???

 

Jim

[roythebus]

There used to be a toilet at Top Shed which according to tales from those who worked there at the time was a series of semi-open-fronted wooden benches with holes cut in for the "seating arrangement". The outlet was a simple U shaped pipe which of course had to run sightly downhill for drainage purposes. 

 

Sometimes the stall nearest the outlet would get blocked...this provided an opportunity for the practical jokers to get hold of some cotton waste soaked in oil, set fire to and floated off down the pipe to unfortunate occupant of the downhill trap.