Rufford Red Lion Square

[James Harrison]

 

 

Well, that was easy!- one hour last night and the model is practically built.  Built, but not painted.  A good start to my Christmas Week Project. 

[Bedders]

http://www.imagesoflincolnshire.co.uk/WWI_Tank_Peoples_Park_Grimsby_1920.html

 

Grimsby's stuffed tank in situ

[James Harrison]

That's a great photo! 

[James Harrison]

 

First coat of paint (Humbrol 117).  I'll be ordering some Fox lettering transfers in the New Year- they're closed until early January so nothing really to be gained ordering them right now.  Two coats of 117 to be followed by various light dustings of rust and mud hues. 

[James Harrison]

 

 

 

After a second coat of Humbrol 117 and some grey on the tracks (which was very awkward becuase the paint really doesn't take to rubber), it is about finished.  So that's another (albeit tiny) piece of Rufford done. 

[Edwardian]

Very neat job.

 

I, too, got tanked over Christmas, but have rather less to show for it.

[James Harrison]

Thanks!  Priorities for this year (next year really) are to crack on with the backlog of locos and rolling stock (see my blog for details) but so far as Red Lion Square is concerned

 

1. Finalise design of the station

2. Consideration of what I want from the goods depot

3. Start drawing up more of the surrounding townscape

 

And- big if- if I manage to move home this year, earmark some space for it to live in. 

[James Harrison]

Back on page 5 of the thread you may recall I shared with you all a sketch map of the environs of Red Lion Square station and mentioned that I was considering adding a tramway. To take that latter point further I've been looking at the Corgi Dick, Kerr tramcars and although they run (barely) on 16.5mm track I believe they are somewhat out of scale.... more like 1/64 than 1/76.  Plus I'm not really enthusiastic about messing about with one of my Corgi models....

 

Well, yesterday I was (as you do) idly casting about on Ebay when I came across the Keilkraft tramcar kits.  They're to 1/72 scale but that's an awful lot closer to 1/76 than 1/64.... so I bought one of the 1920 Birmingham tramcar kits. 

 

Now that I've decided the issue of whether Rufford had a tramway or not, I can get onto the important problems.  A name and a livery....

 

I think "Rufford Corporation Tramways" sounds about right.  And, as I'm one for working in odd little references to obscure little things, I'm going to go for a citron and Dutch madder livery. 

[Compound2632]

Back on page 5 of the thread you may recall I shared with you all a sketch map of the environs of Red Lion Square station and mentioned that I was considering adding a tramway. To take that latter point further I've been looking at the Corgi Dick, Kerr tramcars and although they run (barely) on 16.5mm track I believe they are somewhat out of scale.... more like 1/64 than 1/76.  Plus I'm not really enthusiastic about messing about with one of my Corgi models....

 

Well, yesterday I was (as you do) idly casting about on Ebay when I came across the Keilkraft tramcar kits.  They're to 1/72 scale but that's an awful lot closer to 1/76 than 1/64.... so I bought one of the 1920 Birmingham tramcar kits. 

 

Now that I've decided the issue of whether Rufford had a tramway or not, I can get onto the important problems.  A name and a livery....

 

I think "Rufford Corporation Tramways" sounds about right.  And, as I'm one for working in odd little references to obscure little things, I'm going to go for a citron and Dutch madder livery. 

 

We went to Crich Tramway Museum some years ago - thinking about it, about a dozen. One of the activities for children (we all participated) was to put yourself in the shoes of a tramway manager ordering new cars. After the question of livery, we were asked to think about upholstery - what material should we choose, and "DOES IT HAVE TO BE BROWN?"

[Regularity]

Back on page 5 of the thread you may recall I shared with you all a sketch map of the environs of Red Lion Square station and mentioned that I was considering adding a tramway. To take that latter point further I've been looking at the Corgi Dick, Kerr tramcars and although they run (barely) on 16.5mm track I believe they are somewhat out of scale.... more like 1/64 than 1/76.  Plus I'm not really enthusiastic about messing about with one of my Corgi models....

 

Many Midlands and most East Midlands tramways were laid to 3’6” gauge, so if using 00 track, 1:64 Scale makes a lot of sense.

 

This is not a problem for some of us!

 

Are you going to lay your tramway to 14mm gauge, just to make the point?

[James Harrison]

Many Midlands and most East Midlands tramways were laid to 3’6” gauge, so if using 00 track, 1:64 Scale makes a lot of sense.

 

This is not a problem for some of us!

 

Are you going to lay your tramway to 14mm gauge, just to make the point?

 

I've not decided yet, as it rather depends what gauge the wheels are in the kit.  Being a Birmingham tram it should really be 3' 6" so 14mm would be called for- assuming the kit is accurate.  It's not like I'm planning to build a working tramway system- just a track running past the station- so it would be no more hassle building myself some 14mm track than it would be to use some OO setrack (unless I decide to go down the cruel and unusal punishment route and dictate there should be some switches and crossings to it too). 

[James Harrison]

Progress, also, on another front.

 

In early December I found and shared a drawing of a station in the Transvaal that I felt had the potential to be the basis of at least a part of Red Lion Square.  Now I've just begun to draw it up to scale and even before I start altering it the footprint suggests it will be quite a nice size.  I've drawn up my trackplan using SCARM and using the tape measure tool suggests that the overall width of my station concourse (which I'm taking to be roughly equivalent to the extents of the trackwork) should be of the order of around 420 millimetres or so, say 450.  So when I say that copying the found drawing to scale suggests a footprint of the order 410mm by 110mm.... well you see that even if I were to just copy it and build a model as it is it would, in terms of scale and massing, look right.  Which is encouraging; the extra 40mm or so wanting can quite easily be lost or found or whichever. 

 

The building on its own would maybe look a little stark and I'm coming back to the idea of a long glazed porte cochere along the frontage, rather in the manner of the Midland stations at Leicester and Nottingham or Leicester Central.  A glazed ridge and furrow roof, looking at the station facade through it, would be an interesting thing.  And of course the railway side of the building, that's going to have a canopy along it too, so a porte-cochere would give it a pleasing semblance of symmetry in section. 

[Orion]

Just in case ur not aware

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield_and_District_Light_Railways

 

could easily have got to Rufford

[James Harrison]

Just in case ur not aware

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield_and_District_Light_Railways

 

could easily have got to Rufford

 

Ahh!  Now there's a possibility.  I do have one of those "towns in old photos" type books for Mansfield, in fact it was because there are photos of Mansfield's trams in it that pushed me to consider that maybe Rufford would have a tram system too.  I see the basic livery of red and cream matches (for a given value of) my idea of citron and Dutch madder...

 

There could easily be a direct tram service between Mansfield and Rufford; does anybody know if there were any examples of tramways from neighbouring towns running joint routes?  A Mansfield-Rufford route would nearly double the trackage of the Mansfield & District system and completely alter its nature, but if Rufford instead built to meet the Mansfield at Woodhouse and then that route were operated jointly, hmmm. 

[Orion]

Ahh!  Now there's a possibility.  I do have one of those "towns in old photos" type books for Mansfield, in fact it was because there are photos of Mansfield's trams in it that pushed me to consider that maybe Rufford would have a tram system too.  I see the basic livery of red and cream matches (for a given value of) my idea of citron and Dutch madder...

 

There could easily be a direct tram service between Mansfield and Rufford; does anybody know if there were any examples of tramways from neighbouring towns running joint routes?  A Mansfield-Rufford route would nearly double the trackage of the Mansfield & District system and completely alter its nature, but if Rufford instead built to meet the Mansfield at Woodhouse and then that route were operated jointly, hmmm. 

Notts & Derby trams ran over the Nottingham system into the city. They had a long interurban line thro Eastwood, Heanor to Ripley. Same owners as Mansfield.

[James Harrison]

Notts & Derby trams ran over the Nottingham system into the city. They had a long interurban line thro Eastwood, Heanor to Ripley. Same owners as Mansfield.

 

Now that is interesting.  Britain didn't really have much in the way of inter-urban light railways and I was wondering whether any were ever proposed.  Thanks for sharing!- why do I foresee myself going off on a tangent again here?

[Edwardian]

I like Orion's suggestion very much.  I notice this was a standard gauge system.

[Caley Jim]

The Glasgow Corporation system linked up with those in some of the surrounding towns, Paisley. Motherwell and the Monklands system in Airdrie and Coatbridge for example. Latterly you could go from Airdrie top Paisley on the same tram.

 

Between Baillieston and Coatbridge the trams had a dedicated track running alongside the road which was eventually used to make a dual carriageway.

 

Jim

[James Harrison]

The Glasgow Corporation system linked up with those in some of the surrounding towns, Paisley. Motherwell and the Monklands system in Airdrie and Coatbridge for example. Latterly you could go from Airdrie top Paisley on the same tram.

 

Between Baillieston and Coatbridge the trams had a dedicated track running alongside the road which was eventually used to make a dual carriageway.

 

Jim

 

So it's not unheard of for tram system to have met up?  That's good to know, thank you.  (I used to be really into trams but got out of them again back 15 years ago and- could kick myself over it!- got rid of several books I had on them.  They'd be useful now planning a 1910s/ 20s street scene). 

[James Harrison]

It's funny how when you start drawing something parts of the design start to click and crystalise.  This station building for instance.  The original I'm using as a basis is, basically, a large hipped roof bungalow.  Well, I was thinking about it earlier.  Extend the hipped roof out into gables, and add a couple of large dormers to the roof.  Suddenly it starts looking rather like something the GC might have built.  Now, about the other station wing I was considering.... 

[James Harrison]

A tramcar has arrived...

 

It's a fairly basic kit.  There are no seats, no glazing and no full wheels included.... There are four 3/4 circles representing the wheels, but these glue directly to the sides so there are no axles.  So the gauge is still a mystery. 

 

On the plus side this gives me pretty much free reign to detail it all up.  Now, I remember when I was about 5 or 6 on a school trip to the Black Country Living Museum and having a ride on their 3' 6" tramway.  The pervading memory being of the the hard wooden bench seat that ran the length of the tramcar.  I'd also note that the prototype for the kit is also preserved, at Millenium Point (I had a good look at it, and at City of Birmingham, last year when I and some friends visited the Roland Emmett exhibition there- and got to sit in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but that as they say is another story). 

 

So there's not reason why I can't turn the basic kit into a respectable fully detailed model.  I'm itching to get on with it but I have a determined order for model making this year- once the current project (a 1/600 scale RMS Mauretania) is off the bench then priority really has to go to my cakebox challenge entry. 

[James Harrison]

The scatter-gun approach continues...

 

Despite having not yet even started the first building I drew up, and being in the middle of drawing up the station building, I've now started.... the goods offices. 

 

Now, this is going to sound more than a little convoluted. 

 

~~~

 

You may have gathered that last night Channel Five started showing a series about the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.  This prompted a discussion on one of the GCR facebook groups I'm a member of, critiquing that show against one filmed several years ago on the GC.  Now that naturally me off to Youtube, where the whole series is available for viewing (search for "Central Steam"). 

 

(This is where it all starts to go to pieces). 

 

The first episode you see some members of the GCR looking around what is now Lovatt House, which they had then just bought (the programme was made in 2010) and were preparing to restore.  This got me thinking firstly what a splendid building that is, and secondly whether I'd be tempted to build a model of it for the goods offices on RLS.  So I went looking for drawings of it, but came up with nothing.  Lots and lots of photographs, but no drawings.  I would hope that my work so far, such as it is, demonstrates I'm not scared of the drawing board but once, just once, I would like to approach a building without having first to spend hours sketching it up.  Although, there is that resin GCR signal box I have ready and waiting..... twice then.  Yes, twice I'd like to be able just to launch straight into construction.  Anyhow. 

 

It was then that I remembered also that "Your Model Railway Village" magazine from a few years ago.  Now the station kit from that, it doesn't strike me as a particularly realistic station as there are too few doors of any kind but as say a railway office building I think it has potential. 

 

 

So I went and bought issues 2 and 3 of the magazine from Ebay, which should, I hope, give me the majority of the parts for it- walls, roofs, windows and the like- and I'll have a go at hackbashing it into the goods offices.  Of course it won't be the sum total of the goods offices on its own- I have some photographs of the stable block at Loughborough (sadly demolished circa 2009) from which I hope to scratchbuild a model- but as the basis of the complex I'm hopeful. 

[Edwardian]

The scatter-gun approach continues...

 

Despite having not yet even started the first building I drew up, and being in the middle of drawing up the station building, I've now started.... the goods offices. 

 

Now, this is going to sound more than a little convoluted. 

 

~~~

 

You may have gathered that last night Channel Five started showing a series about the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.  This prompted a discussion on one of the GCR facebook groups I'm a member of, critiquing that show against one filmed several years ago on the GC.  Now that naturally me off to Youtube, where the whole series is available for viewing (search for "Central Steam"). 

 

(This is where it all starts to go to pieces). 

 

The first episode you see some members of the GCR looking around what is now Lovatt House, which they had then just bought (the programme was made in 2010) and were preparing to restore.  This got me thinking firstly what a splendid building that is, and secondly whether I'd be tempted to build a model of it for the goods offices on RLS.  So I went looking for drawings of it, but came up with nothing.  Lots and lots of photographs, but no drawings.  I would hope that my work so far, such as it is, demonstrates I'm not scared of the drawing board but once, just once, I would like to approach a building without having first to spend hours sketching it up.  Although, there is that resin GCR signal box I have ready and waiting..... twice then.  Yes, twice I'd like to be able just to launch straight into construction.  Anyhow. 

 

It was then that I remembered also that "Your Model Railway Village" magazine from a few years ago.  Now the station kit from that, it doesn't strike me as a particularly realistic station as there are too few doors of any kind but as say a railway office building I think it has potential. 

 

 

So I went and bought issues 2 and 3 of the magazine from Ebay, which should, I hope, give me the majority of the parts for it- walls, roofs, windows and the like- and I'll have a go at hackbashing it into the goods offices.  Of course it won't be the sum total of the goods offices on its own- I have some photographs of the stable block at Loughborough (sadly demolished circa 2009) from which I hope to scratchbuild a model- but as the basis of the complex I'm hopeful. 

 

This will need some work, and may prove a sow's ear.  I cannot remember whether the bond is stretcher, but I do recall that there are issues with the brick arches, so be prepared to fill and scribe to a believable arrangement!

[James Harrison]

This will need some work, and may prove a sow's ear.  I cannot remember whether the bond is stretcher, but I do recall that there are issues with the brick arches, so be prepared to fill and scribe to a believable arrangement!

 

That's more or less what I'm expecting to be honest; I'm planning to use it more as a scratchaid than anything else.  I've no clear idea, yet, what I'm intending the goods offices to look like; I want something that takes design hints from Lovatt House without obviously being Lovatt House.  The lintels and the arches were already on my radar for amendment; when the kit arrives I'll be able to get an idea of just how much I can reuse.  Even if the whole thing needs completely refacing it won't be a total loss. 

[James Harrison]

Well, we had a slight hiccup with the station building; it arrived on Thursday, or rather, half of it did.  The other half is in the post and should be arriving next week.  But at least I've got enough bits to start making a value judgement on whether or not it will be of use. 

 

First opinions?  The brickwork generally looks nicely detailed but will plainly need painting.  I don't know what they thinking with the window and door reveals but the lintels are completely wrong!- now how to put those right?  I do have a few ideas how it might be done.  The roof, same comments as I made about the brickwork really, the moulding looks good enough but could do with painting.  The interior, there isn't one!  I think that might well be where most of my effort goes, beyond having a ground floor there's nothing there.  

 

Not sure about the building being raised up to sit on a platform, or the white brickwork courses to be honest.  I might cut it down a little.  I'll wait and see what the whole building looks like before making a decision on altering the gables, I'm already toying with the idea of putting dormers on the single storey section.