“WASHBOURNE”

[Andy Hayter]

Celebrating together with 414 a combined 200 year anniversary this year.

 

The Mallets have carried a number of liveries over the years so, without checking my own pictures, I could well believe that she carried green, or red, or brown or..........................

[Northroader]

Well, it's sort of, like, modelling, a nautical Christmas tree...

[Northroader]

Over the Christmas period, in between bouts of wassailing and torpidity, I’ve been trying my hand at coachbuilding. I’ve had one ready to start and one half finished kits for six wheeled coaches lying around for far too long, so I brushed the dust off and been working on the new one. They’re Connoisseur kits by Jim McGeown in etched brass with whitemetal details, and just need some Slaters Mansell wheels to complete. The five compartment third is from SDJR drawings, but TBH, you could get away with painting a different paint job for any number of the old lines, and they could generally be found around on passenger trains up to the thirties. Each line would have their own sizes for lengths and heights, and moulding spacing, and perhaps the greatest thing which could be quibbled over is whether the narrow panel mouldings run into a semicircle or an oblong with rounded corners, but overall you’d need to be terribly picky to turn them away, especially as the etched brass takes all the hard work out.

It went together well, and got to fitting the axleguards, which are a really nice one piece casting. I have to confess I’m always doubtful of six wheelers, as way back I got a K’s OO plastic kit for the distinctive GWR siphon, and having made it, found it could go about two inches on plain straight and level track before falling off. Jim recommends fitting the outer axles solid with the chassis, and tribute to his kit, they went on with the wheel flanges all touching a sheet of glass without any need to adjust, so great! He uses wider curves than me, and says that the middle guards can be used with extra clearances around the axlebearings and more sideplay. I felt a need for more than this, so fitted the middle units as dummies, trimmed the journals off the wheel set, and rigged up some inside bearings, using scrap brass and tube, with some brass rod to act as guides and sprung to stay in contact with the rails with some 22swg phosphor bronze wire.

At this stage I’ve started track testing, beginning with the double slip, up, down, through the curve, down the straight, through the other curve, do si do, set to partners, and so on. You’re looking at a twenty foot rigid wheelbase, so the curves get a good looking at, the middle wheelset with springing rides quite well. Quite a bit of today I’ve been easing one of the curves on the double slip, but it’s looking quite promising, and so now move on to the other points.

Edited December 31, 2017 by Northroader

[Nearholmer]

Impressive stuff!

 

If the approach you've adopted proves troublesome, I can fire you some pictures of the underwear of the 'toy' six-wheelers, the articulation of which is exceedingly simple, but pretty much follows the geometry of the real thing. And, as you've seen, it's remarkably effective.

 

K

[Northroader]

Thanks for the offer, Kevin, I have to admit I’m very envious of the running on Paltry Circus, if I do that, I might as well go to Mr. Ace Trains, and get some coaches from him, and then track, and—. Ah well, put that decision off for tonight, and neck a wee dram. That’s a thought, if you’re a 2mm Modeller in Scotland, do you have to have 2mm drams?? All the best, folks!!

[corneliuslundie]

An alternative is the Cleminson arrangement which is available for 4mm but I am sure could be cobbled up quite easily for other scales. As far as i can tell without extensive testing it seems to work ok on my unfinished Rhymney 6-wheelers.

Jonathan

[St Enodoc]

Thanks for the offer, Kevin, I have to admit I’m very envious of the running on Paltry Circus, if I do that, I might as well go to Mr. Ace Trains, and get some coaches from him, and then track, and—. Ah well, put that decision off for tonight, and neck a wee dram. That’s a thought, if you’re a 2mm Modeller in Scotland, do you have to have 2mm drams?? All the best, folks!!

When I lived in North Britain, the standard measure for spirits was larger than the English/Welsh 1/6 gill, being 1/5 gill. Some enlightened establishments even used 1/4 gill. Whether that's still the case with metric measures I know not.

Edited December 31, 2017 by St Enodoc

[Caley Jim]

At this time of year the measure is two fingers! Whether that is index and middle finger or index and pinky is up to you! I know which I'll be having! :-)

 

A guid New Year tae ye a'

 

Jim

[Northroader]

Facing the demands of modelling in 2018, I’m going on with more coach building, as there’s any number of unfinished jobs lying around. The first of the Connoisseur kits, a five compartment third, has nearly got to the end of soldering, just the roof lights to sort. Then I’ve got the second one out, a luggage composite, which was part done, and it’s now got the axleguards fitted, and sitting foursquare on the outer wheel sets, so progressing nicely.

Looking through some posters earlier today, and I found one I hadn’t seen before. It’s unusual in that it’s a BR poster, but it looks far more like it’s for a preserved line. (Trip to the Bluebell?) Anyway, there’s a nice Washbourney look to it, so I’ve put it on here:

Edited January 8, 2018 by Northroader

[Northroader]

Spare

Edited January 8, 2018 by Northroader

[Nearholmer]

Always useful to keep a spare about oneself.

 

The coaches are coming along very nicely.

 

The poster, I suspect, is a modern pastiche. There is someone about who has a talent for this sort of thing, and when I was at the Bluebell a couple of years ago there was an exhibition of paintings in a luggage van at Horsted Keynes, which included several 'posters', including a couple of high-deco Southern ones, that looked very convincing at first glimpse.

 

Kevin

[Donw]

Always useful to keep a spare about oneself.

 

The coaches are coming along very nicely.

 

The poster, I suspect, is a modern pastiche. There is someone about who has a talent for this sort of thing, and when I was at the Bluebell a couple of years ago there was an exhibition of paintings in a luggage van at Horsted Keynes, which included several 'posters', including a couple of high-deco Southern ones, that looked very convincing at first glimpse.

 

Kevin

 

Martin (or is it Malcolm) Cousins did some paintings or them. There is/was a thread on here of his 0 gauge garden line. Don't know if the posters were his

 

Don

[St Enodoc]

Martin (or is it Malcolm) Cousins did some paintings or them. There is/was a thread on here of his 0 gauge garden line. Don't know if the posters were his

 

Don

Matthew I think.

 

https://www.railart.co.uk/gallery/cousins.shtml

[Nearholmer]

Yep, just found this https://www.railart.co.uk/gallery/cousins.shtml which mentions the very luggage van in which I saw them.

 

(Sorry, duplicate)

Edited January 9, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Northroader]

Thanks for the links, everyone, it is a style of art which I really enjoy, having it all done in blocks of even colours. It may look a bit like “painting by numbers” but to me it has very strong ties to the old railway poster artists. I think it was done because colour printing was in its infancy, but then there were earlier colour posters done from around 1900 that shaded the colours. My understanding is colour printing had a transformation with using different inks, watercolour based, rather than oil based, in the 1920s, which allowed the primary colours to be overlapped and stay transparent, giving a wider palette. (Jean Berte process)

Edited January 9, 2018 by Northroader

[Northroader]

Sorry, my keyboard went for a walk when I tried to do an accent. Anyway, to continue, the top men for me at that way of doing things were Frank Newbould:

And Norman Wilkinson:

Recently there has been quite a discussion on the Wright Writes thread on layout back scenes. My thinking is that if you view something, your view doesn’t stop at the boundary fence, you keep on up to the skyline and the lower sky. The scene also blocks out what’s behind the model which is a distraction. It also can be used to give the setting, whether it’s in a Welsh mining valley or on the Essex coast. Lastly it can give the layout an attractive look. There’s some thought that the backscene shouldn’t distract from the Railway, and must be as bland as possible, my feeling is it complements the model if it’s colourful, and the two examples here show what’s needed. Anyway, that’s what I’ll be trying for with mine, even if lacking the skill of the folks shown here.

[Caley Jim]

Sorry, my keyboard went for a walk when I tried to do an accent. 

Put 'Character Map' ( in Windows Accessories) onto your taskbar.  Then all you have to do to get any character not on your keyboard is open that, find the character you want, click on it and look in the bottom right corner of the dialogue box.  This will say 'Keystroke Alt+0xxx'.  Note what the 'xxx' is, go to what you're typing, hold down the 'Alt' key and type 0xxx.  For example è is 0232 and ½ is 0189. Seemples Igor!

 

Jim  (sorry to those who already knew this)

[Northroader]

Problem with that, Jim, is I’m on Apple, not Windows. The touch keypad gives all the accents if you hold the letter down, but my pinkies weren’t touching the thing with the right amount of pressure or something such, even touching something else? Thanks for coming along with advice, hope you like at least one of the above posters.

[Nearholmer]

Interesting, Mr Northroader.

 

I've concluded that the backdrop for my layout must be in that style, to match the intended vintage look, and have been trying to get my head round what 'that style' consists of, at a basic/technical level. It looks very simple, but the more you look, the more there is to it.

 

The proprietor of Ace Trains has a mural of a Cornish coastal scene in the style, on a wall in his kitchen, and it was that that set me off on this road.

 

The biggest backscene I've done before was about 15ftx1ft, and in a much more free style, so the thought of covering about 16ft x 3ft, which is what I think I need to get the horizon level right, is rather daunting!

[Northroader]

I’d best start on mine soon and describe what I’m up to. If you put in either of those two guys names, and google “ images” you’ll get plenty of good examples. The third artist hero of mine, who didn’t use the blocked colours technique but was very good on tonal work, was Rowland Hilder.

[Nearholmer]

Aha! Hilder works in the area where I grew up. He captures the winter look of the countryside brilliantly, I always think of the sound of irritated rooks when I see his paintings, but I have two buts: I actually don't much like his style; and, im not sure it relates closely to the others cited.

[Caley Jim]

 .........hope you like at least one of the above posters.

I do indeed!  There was a layout at the Perth Show last year - I can't remember the name of it, but it was of a prototype location - which had a backscene done in that style and it struck me as being very effective, setting the scene, without drawing the eye away from the layout.  I have a notion to do a similar thing for Kirkallanmuir, though I have to admit to being 'artistically challenged'.  In other words my artistic abilities are somewhat less than nil!.   

 

Jim 

Edited January 9, 2018 by Caley Jim

[Edwardian]

I like a painted backscene, and I like the idea of adapting the style to the layout. A great idea to use the poster style for Birlstone.

 

Anyway, the discussion prompted a most enjoyable ramble, and here are some of the highlights:

[Mikkel]

Just been admiring the Connoisseur coach. It's amazing how those designs simply fit naturally into any context.

 

In fact Jim McGeown seems to get many things right. E.g. his instructions for the Polly starter loco kit are among the most pedagogical I have read.

[Northroader]

Just been admiring the Connoisseur coach. It's amazing how those designs simply fit naturally into any context.

 

In fact Jim McGeown seems to get many things right. E.g. his instructions for the Polly starter loco kit are among the most pedagogical I have read.

Let’s have a picture of it, then, please?