Modelling the M&CR's branch lines in EM gauge

[Caley Jim]

On 27/02/2024 at 15:21, CKPR said:

...... Again, excuse the class 25s but I'm not risking one of my M&C engines as a test engine at this stage.

As long as you don't start coughing and sneezing! (Coughs and sneezals spread diseasals)   😁

 

Jim

[CKPR]

These arrived in the post today whilst I was engaged in contructing the scenery on Mealsgate. These are two M&C ticket halves, one an excursion return from Carlisle to Maryport (may be a pleasure trip for shopping or to go to theatre or the races  or perhaps a Sunday school outing to some worthy but utterly dull  event ?), the other a return from Maryport to Dovenby Lodge station on the Derwent Branch. This narrows the ticket holder to either the Ballantine-Dyke family or one of their staff as Dovenby Lodge was a private station for the family of one of the first chairmen of the M&CR.

Edited March 1 by CKPR

[Compound2632]

8 hours ago, CKPR said:

This narrows the ticket holder to either the Ballantine-Dyke family or, more likely, one of their staff as Dovenby Lodge was a private station for the family of one of the first chairmen of the M&CR.

 

Would their staff go first though? Perhaps the butler or housekeeper? Or would they go second? (When was second abolished on the M&C - 1893 or 1912?) And would staff be able to exercise the family privilege of stopping trains at the private station? (I suppose yes, if they were travelling on the family's business?) How many questions can half a ticket raise?

[CKPR]

Good point  given that it's a First class ticket half, which probably does narrow it down to one of the Ballantine-Dykes or perhaps their friends and relations. Just a thought regarding staff, presumably a nanny would travel First class when taking the children out ? Interestingly, the tickets came from a seller in Devon, which doesn't in itself mean much after all this time,  but the majority of surviving M&CR ephemera tends to come from within Cumbria [and yes, little Miss Bossy Boots Badenoch, both Cumbria and we Cumbrians still exist].

 

Edited March 1 by CKPR

[CKPR]

Other rather sad news Cumbrian news - Dave Myers RIP.

Edited March 1 by CKPR

[WFPettigrew]

42 minutes ago, CKPR said:

Dave Myers RIP

 

Indeed, even when knowing he was ill, his passing leaves a big hole.   I first met him to record an interview when they were doing the initial pilot for the Hairy Bikers, and then onwards regularly until he moved away from his native Barrow a few years after he did Strictly.  He was never anything but generous, kind, funny and always with a great anecdote up his sleeve.  In fact, just as he was on the TV.   And the food he cooked for me was always delicious.    I know so many people locally around here who have lost a real friend.   Thinking about Lili and the family, and Si.  RIP Dave. 

[SteamAle]

Only met Dave the once but it was in the Price of Wales, Foxfield, where we enjoyed some excellent Real Ale together. He was more than happy to have a craic with anybody that felt like a chat. He could have had a full glass all night and not have to pay for any refills but he paid his own way. A true local who loved the people and place he was from. I still enjoy watching the repeats of the early programmes he made. Rest Easy Dave.

[CKPR]

As you may have realised, I'm not of the "And now for my favourite part, the scenery" school of railway modelling. I've managed to make it more manageable and much less messy by scaling down the materials and processes. I'm using school supply 'mod roc' [the same box that I used on High Blaithwaite ! ], but I'm cutting it into small 2-3cm wide squares / strips and using a saucer for the water rather the washing up bowl. Similarly, I'm working on small areas at a time with reference to photographs and maps rather than trying to do everything at once. The top coat is still the dreaded polyfilla simply because I had some in the shed but I'm going to try using plaster of paris or even Artex if I can find any. Talking of the latter, I was always impressed by the work of Jack Kine and his artistic (finescale ?!) approach to modelling a landscape.

 

You can see that the platform walls have been redone, this time with Busch self-adhesive embossed walling. This was a delight to use and easy to paint and I might be further investigating the world of jolly expensive but really rather good German HO  scenic materials.

Edited March 8 by CKPR

[CKPR]

Hmmm, looks some of the embankment opposite the station building will have to be cut back a bit and the goods and cattle wharf needs altering. The latter should just be case of extending the first siding and possibly cutting back the other siding and the cattle pen area. I'm going to end up with both goods sheds being truncated but that's inevitable given my attempts to fit an essentially triangular station onto a narrow rectangular base. Thinking about it, Mealsgate had a very unique and unusual track plan dating from the mid-Victorian period that remained essentially the same until closure in 1952.

[CKPR]

Looks better already !

[CKPR]

I've been busy with some more  of the Bausch stonework [ there must be somewhere in Germany that is geologically similar to north west Cumbria ! ] and remade all of the stonework on the goods & cattle wharf. I now just need to remove the original surface of polyfilla and wood ash, which is akin to concrete, and then it's painting everthing with gouache, which I very much enjoy, before refitting everything. 

[CKPR]

Thanks to Phil  @SteamAle for alerting me to a bundle of M&CR material on the bay of E. Here's the record from 120 years ago of the journey of a parcel from Cockermouth to Kirkbride via Brayton that involved the LNWR, the M&CR, the Caledonian and the NBR, all without leaving Cumberland. 

Edited March 21 by CKPR

[CKPR]

Feels likes its starting to come together a bit more now, especially since I started to use DAS for finishing off the landscape - its definitely my new favourite modelling material ! NB I know the sign says 'Allonby'...

Edited March 21 by CKPR

[Caley Jim]

I've used watered down DAS for many years now.  Far less messy and lighter than plaster and you can colour it by adding powder or acrylic paint.  If you want to change or add to it just wet the area you want to blend into and it will soften again.

 

Jim

[CKPR]

I would endorse everything that Jim @Caley Jim says about DAS and it's also very pleasant to use and readily sandable without the nasty dust associated with polyfilla or plaster. I've been happily smoothing away lumps & bumps and making ditches & paths with nothing more than some old sandpaper and I think that there's definitely something more relaxing about working with 'natural' materials such as wood, card, metal and now clay. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of styrene in my model making (but definitely no resin ) and my wagons are all the better for it. That said, I do sometimes wish I'd gone down the old-school Pendon or S scale path and used card & ply from the start of my pre-group modelling in the mid-1980s (Mike Longridge's classic book on building 4mm rolling stock sits on my bookshelf to remind me of the path less chosen).

Edited March 22 by CKPR

[Caley Jim]

To be pedantic, I think DAS is actually a form of very fine papier machè.   It's certainly slightly fibrous, which you can see if you water it down to the consistency of thick yoghurt, which is what I use for coating roadways etc, using a No.6 soft artists brush.

 

Jim

[Annie]

4 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

I think DAS is actually a form of very fine papier machè.

I haven't used it for a while now, but when I was into tabletop miniature wargaming I used DAS for making scenery pieces such as ruined walls and towers & etc.  It's a really useful material and completely safe to use with no fumes or other nastiness to worry about.  I would sometimes mix it with a little PVA to make sure it would stick in place if I was using an underlying support former of some kind.

[ChrisN]

12 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

To be pedantic, I think DAS is actually a form of very fine papier machè.   It's certainly slightly fibrous, which you can see if you water it down to the consistency of thick yoghurt, which is what I use for coating roadways etc, using a No.6 soft artists brush.

 

Jim

 

Sorry to cross post.

 

Jim,

Do you have somewhere where you explain how to do roads with DAS?  I have a road that I need to do, Macadam but no tar, and gardens, and am thinking about ways to do them.

 

Thank you.

[Caley Jim]

2 hours ago, ChrisN said:

Do you have somewhere where you explain how to do roads with DAS?  I have a road that I need to do, Macadam but no tar, and gardens, and am thinking about ways to do them.

I create the surface with card and then simply apply the thinned DAS (which has had black and/or brown powder paint added to it - you can also use acrylics) with a soft brush or palette knife then smooth it as it dries.  Be aware that the mix can look far too black when mixed, but will dramatically lighten when dried.  The coating of both the road and yard surface in this photo was pretty well black when I applied it.  Working in 2mm scale the texture is pretty much OK as laid, but in larger scales you could dust fine sand on the surface for texture.

 

 

You can create ruts using the edge of the palette knife and make dips for puddles which you then 'fill' with some varnish or PVA.

 

The areas of whin setts in the yard were created by dampening the surface and indenting it with a tool made from scrap etch, one sett at a time - a rather laborious job!  The setts were then given a very thin wash of black.

 

I make up the mix(es) in recycled tubs with lids which sandwich fillings come in.  If the mix dries out, simply add some water, stir it about as it softens, and you can continue using it.

 

See my layout thread below for other ways I use this.

 

Jim

[CKPR]

Thank you Jim @Caley Jim that's really helpful - I was planning on using large sheets of thin card to form the forecourt/yard and platform [you can see the platform walls and some internal formers in the photos above] for 'Mealsgate' and will now try using thinned DAS on the card to integrate all of these surfaces with the rest of the scenery.

Edited March 23 by CKPR

[CKPR]

Just posing the branch passenger train in the obviously unfinished station and I'm struck by how all in proportion everything is. Well, at least to my eyes anyway. I am particularly pleased, not to say relieved, that the original guesstimates and compromises from the initial build weren't too far out and fit well with the more recent and hopefully more accurate work. The second photo shows that rebuilding the goods wharf in line with the prototype has certainly paid off as again, it all looks in proportion now.

 

Again, I know that No.26 was really the Derwent branch locomotive and that No. 17, although built for the Bolton Loop, was soon transferred to other duties. Trouble is, my other two M&C locos, No.7 and No. 30,  are both 'big' 0-6-0s and rather unsuitable for 'Mealsgate'.

Edited March 23 by CKPR

[CKPR]

A bit more progress on the scenery. I've found that I can do scenic work on the layout for 10-15 mins here and there - that it's in my study and I work at home two days a week helps in this respect. I've been pleasantly surprised in the way different areas are coming to life and a sense of both place and space is emerging. I'm going to turn the layout around at the weekend and work on the other side.  I haven't got round to moving and remodelling the electrics yet so I'll be able to actually run some trains when I can get to the controls again !

 

Edited April 3 by CKPR

[CKPR]

There was a rumour that one of the 'Yorkshiremen', in this case No.30, had been seen working to Mealsgate and now photographic evidence has come to light...of course, the date of the supposed sighting was 1st April 1922 !

Edited April 1 by CKPR

[CKPR]

As Phil @SteamAle might recall, No.30 runs like a smooth sewing machine on extra strength smooth oil thanks to a heavy  white metal body and a Comet double reduction gearbox with a rigid chassis but a 'free-bogie' tender.

[CKPR]

It took me some time to work out from the maps and photographs that the area immediately to the left of the goods wharf was actually part of the goods yard and not just rough ground - when I realised this, the roadways marked on the map all made sense.  I scraped and sanded back the basic scenery and went to work with DAS, paint [Delux Vintage "Jenny Wren"] and pastel chalks. One result of all of this reworking is that the trackwork and groundwork is slowly acquiring that elusive mucky patina from all the dust [the point motors and switches are safely below the surface].

 

Noo en marra,  eer's Robbo Langley an Bill Gibson, an awl 'Slater' ter hos, at wurk int new yard, unlarding deliverees frum  "Campbell's Model Manufactory" 

Edited April 11 by CKPR