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The Hintock Branch-1930's Dorset Joint GWR/SR Workings in OO


john flann

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Maybe even, Port Bredy will be all Southern-it's a thought.

 

Arghh!

 

No, surely it has to be God's Wonderful Railway,

 

Whilst SR had some lovely rolling stock the GWR as shown in Hintock is the bee's knees!  :yes: :yes: :) :)

 

Regards,

 

Dave

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Thanks gentlemen and Rob for your kind comments. Glad it made your day. The M7 is a very graceful loco and better still mine has run perfectly straight out of the box.

 

I too have a fondness for the Radials after seeing them working the Lyme Regis branch (incidentally not far from Hintock) and the restored old lady on the Bluebell. I can probably justify in my mind running one on Port Bredy but, like others will have to wait until the SR liviered one arrives.

 

Maybe even, Port Bredy will be all Southern-it's a thought.

 

Sounds like a plan John. Ex L&SWR outpost perhaps the buildings are still in their pre grouping colours having been overlooked by Waterloo.......

 

Now there's a thought.

 

Rob.

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John -many thanks for the 'special request' photos which are appreciated by many clearly. I think you have convinced me to invest in one of these and I will look at various UK mailorder sites to see what the pound cost comparative is between companies.

 

regards, Andy R

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Kevin, thanks for that. Enjoy the read.

 

I haven't yet seen the article, as presented by Steve Flint, and am looking forward to doing so. He customarily does me proud. He wanted to mark the event. Apparently he has been following my actvities since my earliest articles in MRN. That's the late 1960's.

 

Regards,

 

John.

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Rob, Thanks for that. I'm glad you liked the article. I'll just have to be patient for my copy to arrive. Still anticipation is part of the pleasure.

 

Hintock does photograph well and Steve Flint and his crew are first class at presentation.

 

Thanks  again for your comments and interest.

 

As an aside and whilst posting, yesterday after working on the baseboard for Port Bredy I returned to Hintock Town Quay albeit in midst of it's incompete enhancement. Worked like a dream and comfortable too to sit in the warm at the table on which it rests and to gently shunt. Very relaxing and most enjoyable. Such a small layout is readily accesible; switch on and away one goes into another world.

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I had got this far in an enhancement of Hintock Town Quay but something didn't look "right". I then realized the background, sidings and stock  was dominating the front of the layout and its predominant feature at the RH end-the Quay itself. After all that is where the focus should be.

 

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So I thought again and considered extending the cluster of buildings at the LH end with a further sympathetic but definite structure that fitted in naturally with what there was already.

 

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Running between the new and the old is  this wall that lifts the back scenery to a higher level. Its construction is worthy of scrutiny as its of a sandwich construction including a strip of corrugated. card into which the fence posts could be inserted.

 

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This is where I'm at now.

 

(I see I've got two of a kind but it can be skipped over. I'm not going to venture into trying to remove one of them.)

 

On other matters I have built the baseboard for Port Bredy and shall report in due course but felt it better to finish up Hintock TQ for it is so enjoyable to swith on, shunt and quietly enjoy myself.

 

Also with my son Christopher we have together more or less brought my Hintock website http://www.hintockbranch.com/ up to date with some new posts and blogs. It's only waiting a new Chapter on the origins and building of the initial Hintock Town Quay.

post-3088-0-26428300-1448725750_thumb.jpg

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Evening John, I agree, the GAP looks better, but I feel it needs something behind the wall to give some form of perspective, like faint distant hills that wouldn't detract from the image your portraying at the front.

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Agreed Andy, I have in mind some bushes, scrub and in the foreground some rather nice trees. These will come from my American HO layout Providence River, that will likely to be up for sale in the Spring.

 

I'm not too keen on distant hills. But I will bear your comment in mind.

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John

 

I doubt you would be, given your artistic talent, but just in case: don't be put off by the idea of painting more than sky on a back scene.

 

A few years back, I painted one for my then H0 layout, set in New England, mainly trees, with the odd building peeking out, and at one end ...... distant hills. It wasn't anything like as difficult as I feared, and turned out very well. And, if it hadn't, I would simply have painted sky over it!

 

I'm actually quite looking forward to doing something similar for my current layout.

 

Kevin

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Thanks Kevin, for that vote of confidence. I probably could.

 

But I'm ambivalent about back scenes in general. I rather think they can either impose themselves or be too discreet.

 

The other thing is perspective. An individual (in scale) standing on the quayside and looking inwards would see little above the wall itself if the hills were in any way distant. We (not being scale) look down and have another view altogether and where distant hills could be observed.

 

That's why I'm inclined here to have a thin screen of trees at both the left and right. One can see through and beyond but the eye stops with the tree(s).

 

I'm not there yet and nearer the time I'll think again. And I appreciate the interest and your views. (Pun intended.)

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Morning(here!) John,

I like the way you evolve a layout. I wondered if a little 'cameo' of some description at the front of the quay would raise interest. Perhaps a small boat, tied up by the wall at the widest part, with the engine cover removed and a lifting device attempting to remove the power unit for repair for instance? Something to draw the eye right to the foreground. Just a random idea!

Kind regards,

Jock.

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Good Morning, John.

 

The discussion, and your views, on back scenes is quite a timely one in my case. I am working on a little something of which more anon. I have a nicely commercially produced back scene which includes distant views of rolling hills. I purchased it as the views reminded me of Somerset, where the layout is to be set.

However, I am worried that it will over power the layout which is quite narrow. I have therefore decided to go for a plain sky background as I feel this will give a better impression of space.

 

Rob

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I used a photographic back scene on Pott Row until recently. I then replaced it with a plain sky background sprayed using aerosols in grey and white which I much prefer. Can be seen in the photo below and I think this type of back scene is far less distracting than photographs which tend to be too distracting to my mind but like all things it is a personal preference.

 

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Thanks gentlemen for your input; all very pertinent and interesting to discuss. As ever it is a matter of personal taste and how one sees things. My approach is representational, not precise and prefer to leave it it to the viewers inner eye to make of it what they will. For all will see it differently.

 

And, that's one of the charms of this hobby-it's individual.

 

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Jock raised the question of cameo's, here is how I prefer to approach the subject. The quayside in summer sun, the water placid, a ladder for up or down, the boats lying idly to the current with slack lines, above creels and boxes, a wagon waiting loading, nothing else going on in the yard except two fellows standing having a break from shovelling coal, peace and quiet and maybe in the distance and in our imagination, the whistle of one of Rick's loco's.

 

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Then there's the question of backscenes; all my baseboards are narrow thus the backscene needs not to impose itself. I again prefer to hint rather than proscribe. Here the sky is not entirely neutral with some character (as is Martyn's for example) and is seen through the foreground scenery of bushes, shrubs, and trees in less than full leaf. 

 

On the other hand is Rob's quandary, many photographic scenes are just that. Too exact and not influenced by distance, light and atmospheric conditions. (If a natural scene appears sharp it's usually betokens rain.) And I would be wary of using such a backscene despite its apparent attraction.

 

(As a BTW,  in this last image is the smudge of smoke to the right. Well, that's what it was, inadvertent. I got some dark gray paint on the sky. I tried to remove it with a damp cloth, No joy, but look how well it appears. I doubt if I could have achieved the same pleasing result deliberately.)

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John

 

Finally got round to reading the article in RM Annual yesterday evening: a good one!

 

I think there is a place for the odd "retrospective" article and an Annual seems just the right place. To be honest, I hadn't quite cottoned-on to the, shall we say, time over which you have acquired experience. Clearly provides you with a very interesting perspective on the hobby.

 

Kevin

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Kevin, thanks for those kind words I haven't yet seen the article myselfy and am glad you enjoyed it. I gave Steve Flint the 1500 words he asked for, and I'm curious as to what stayed in and what came out. My first published artice was  in MRC for January 1967 so it's just shy of 50 years. And. as you remark I've seen a few changes in the hobby.

 

I may use the text from which I got those 1500 words to form a more comprehensive account and including references to all of my previous layouts plus a little more about me. This would be on my Hintock website, it needs a bit of pulling together but will, I think, be worth doing. Not least for my own satisfaction.

 

Black Rat: to answer your inquiry that back scene with which I am very pleased I hand painted on 1/8th birch plywood, primed and with an ordinary household largish brush and paints, more or less in one go. So the colours meld together with no hard  lines between them. The clouds have a yellowish tinge.

 

I paint them in the summer and outside where I can glance up and see how the real world appeals. I don't necessarily get it right first time and if I don't, I paint over whilst still wet and this has the affect of  adding texture to the clouds. I don't change the brush itself, this with its mixture of paints also melds the colours.

 

I can't be precise. It's very much a hit and miss exercise and needs be performed quickly.

 

If one in a spare moment one closely examines clouds, they are fluid and changing rapidly-it's that essence that requires capturing by a somewhat bold approach.

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Rob and Kevin,

 

My copy of the RM Annual, 2016 arrived yesterday and I happily enjoyed looking through it. I'm now responding to your kind comments.

 

The pictures do look terrific and are presented in a very effective way. The story too of my 50 odd years in the hobby came over quite well. My title for the article was "From Dunnock Edge to Hintock Redux-a model railway journey" but the Editor thought otherwise and exercised his prerogative as he did elsewhere. Steve Flint did me proud also with with an eight page spread.

 

I'm well content and I hope so will others be when they get the opportunity to see the Annual. There is lot more else is in it than my own story and, of how I got to the Hintock you see on here.

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