Jump to content
 

Ian's entry...The Malt House


Recommended Posts

When we moved to near Berwick in Jan 2011, I was planning to build my 'retirement dream' model railway (my first one) based on Whitby station. Having moved into a house with a real railway bridge in the garden I soon started to get interested in the railways of the area. Researching old OS maps, I became intrigued by the existence of a large building referred to on the map as 'The Malt House', not on the 1902 or 1938 maps, but large and imposing on the 1924 map. Trying to unravel this mystery brought me in touch with the chairman of Simpsons Malt in Tweedmouth, who showed me this picture:

 

post-11846-0-17430100-1333400417_thumb.jpg

 

It's an artist's impression of the maltings built by his grandfather in 1903. It burned down in 1933 in what appears to be a railway-related incident, probably due to the cramped nature of the dock branch.

I became interested in this rather grand looking structure, and managed to get a copy of the architect's plans, and several photos of the building taken in the 1920s:

 

post-11846-0-53502200-1333400624_thumb.png

 

post-11846-0-43967400-1333400655_thumb.jpg

 

post-11846-0-03605200-1333400667_thumb.jpg

 

This building prompted me to change my retirement model railway plans, and my first model railway is now the 'Berwick,Tweed Dock and Spittal Railway', documented in the layout thread. The Malt House has a lot to answer for!!

 

The Malt House will be a significant focal point on the layout, sitting as it does on the riverbank midway between Tweed Dock and Spittal Yard...a centrepiece, in many respects. I've decided to model it as accurately as possible from the plans I have, and it will be a complete scratchbuild in 2mm. To give me some encouragement (not that I need any at the moment) I've decided to enter it in the 2012 Challenge. I'm new to all this stuff, and see it more as a challenge to myself than anything else. Construction techniques will be similar to those used for the goods shed and fishmarket already in place on the layout.

 

I won't be starting it for a week or two, as there are other developments taking place on the layout, and, anyway, I'm on my holidays!! But progress will be documented on here as and when it takes place. I guess by the time it's finished I'll either be good at making windows or residing in a care home smiling vacantly...........

 

Ian

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, some project. It looks huge, what scale are you doing it in?

 

The layout is 2mm FS, and with the original about 170ft x 90ft that scales to about 14 inches long. Just as well.....if I was working in a larger scale, I don't think it would fit in the house........

Link to post
Share on other sites

The layout is 2mm FS, and with the original about 170ft x 90ft that scales to about 14 inches long. Just as well.....if I was working in a larger scale, I don't think it would fit in the house........

I would be a house.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Ian -

A suggestion for the windows... CAD them. They look fairly uniform - draw one, then copy ot as many times as you need. I cannot see the detail too clearly, but at a guess you'd need a minimum of 2 layers - the frame and the glazing bars.

 

The frames can be printed on 150GSM card - it will go through a printer okay. Depending how mad you are the galzing bars can be printed on acetate (use OHP film designed for your type of printer) OR - print them on adhesive paper, cut out he whole window, remove the backing, affix to plastiglaze then cut round the individual panes & pick them off the glazing, leaving the glazing bars... It is actually amazing how thin you can make the glazing bars. I do mine as 'hairline' having represented the 'panes' by using a grey fill in the rectangle and setting the 'pen' to 'white' for the bars. Use a Swann Morton scalpel & dont be sparing with the blades!

 

Regs

 

Ian B

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...