Little Muddle

[KNP]

Lets have a Monochrome Saturday.

 

Just using the iPhone set on Mono and a minimal bit of editing...

 

Part 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 23 by KNP

[KNP]

Part 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 23 by KNP

[St Enodoc]

14 hours ago, KNP said:

I went into an opticians this morning and stood at the counter for ages!

 

An assistant came out and cleaned his glasses, putting them back on he looked up and realised I was standing there.

 

Sorry, he said, I didn’t see you!

 

I immediately left and went to find another shop where their glasses worked!

She was only the optician's daughter, but she made a spectacle of herself.

[KNP]

Some time a go the local photographer, Ken Dobetter, took some very sombre and almost desolate pictures of the Little Muddle area.

Whist tiding up this morning  I came across these old black & white still pictures...so I have copied them and here they are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 23 by KNP

[KNP]

 

 

 

Edited March 23 by KNP

[KNP]

 

Edited March 23 by KNP

[KNP]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note to oneself - must change the barrels to wood!!

Edited March 23 by KNP

[KNP]

Then one for Encombe Town station

 

 

 

Don't know if Ken took this one or not as it has the feel of different photographer!

Edited March 23 by KNP

[Harlequin]

Eee, that teks me back! Times were 'ard in "t'Muddle" when I were a lad. Many's the time me Mam went t' shops but they had nowt in.

 

(Is that a brass band I can hear playing Dvořák?)

 

[westerner]

Wonderful photoshopping Kevin.

[cliff park]

I hate to do this, but I have a small issue. 'Real ale' was a phrase invented by CAMRA in 1971 to differentiate them from cask ales. Before then there were just beers, ales, stout and mild

[Siberian Snooper]

3 hours ago, cliff park said:

I hate to do this, but I have a small issue. 'Real ale' was a phrase invented by CAMRA in 1971 to differentiate them from cask ales. Before then there were just beers, ales, stout and mild

 

And Grotney's red barrel! Yauch!

 

 

[calvin Streeting]

That last photo is special

[Martin S-C]

On 07/06/2019 at 13:43, The Johnster said:

A criticism; let my state unequivocally that your modelling is quantum better than mine before I arouse the justified ire of your legions of supporters, but; the barrows should be parked parallel to the platform edge, not at right angles to it.   This is because, should the handbrake fail, they need to roll along the platform and not over the edge. 

Hm.

 

Or you can have them both ways as long as the outer ones are placed longitudinally stopping the inner ones from rolling away.

[Bogie]

Ken is very good - he avoids photos with people looking directly at the camera.

 

That way he avoids idiot grins or undertaker like seriousness.  Very clever chap.

[Martin S-C]

I am sorry about this long rambling post but I wanted to get this off my chest. I hope some of it is a little helpful to someone.

It seems churlish and even downright rude to be critical of this superb model but I too think some of the shop signs could use a little toning down. The fonts used look modern as do some of the signage layouts and (if we were to get colour close-ups) possibly some of the colours used, I would hazard a guess.

 

We've had a fair bit of discussion here about pre-WWII retail signage and you really can't do better than get along to Pendon. There, in the village scene, it is actually quite hard to see, in some cases, which are the pubs, the shops, the workshops and the houses. Sometimes you can only tell because of the activity outside - men sat on benches drinking (never women!), people shoeing horses or taking bits off a piece of farm machinery, or two ladies with wicker baskets over their arms chatting. The activity outside informs you of what business is conducted inside. After WWII and especially after rationing and austerity ended and people began to have disposable income as well as to travel more, shop and innkeepers began to find a need to advertise their presence because people from outside the immediate locality passing through became more common. In some instances this was simple practicality because travelers needed to be able to identify a roadside workshop to obtain petrol for their car, or have it repaired, and needed to identify inns and hotels in order to find a stopping place for the night. Remember the 50s and 60s really blossomed as the age of guide and travel books and people relied on a travel book to find places to stop, eat and shop. Without guide books in some cases, some shops were almost invisible.

 

In addition to the post 40s social changes, prior to WWII in a small community everyone knew everyone else and John the Grocer or Bill the Innkeeper didn't need to advertise their presence because everyone knew John and Bill, and their parents, their grandparents and their children and they knew what they sold and where their shop was. Travelers were not so common and if a stranger did arrive in town it was easy to ask a pedestrian where a baker, butcher or hotel was because everyone knew. Retail outlets were within communities and catered for those communities. Passing traffic was a bonus and wasn't needed to maintain the business because profit wasn't its purpose, unlike today. It was someone's life and they'd do it until their children took over the shop and if the situation became financially difficult, it was often a region-wide problem and people helped each other out. A lot of exchange didn't involve money, remember. We have totally lost this community knowledge today and sometimes its even hard to find a pedestrian to ask because everyone is in a car, even when popping down to the shop.

 

What this random spewing of nostalgia is meant to convey is that shops pre-WWII should really have almost no signage at all, and retail outlets like barbers simply didn't exist in some smaller communities because people either cut their own hair, or their wife cut their husbands and kids hair, or someone skilled in hair-cutting would come round to your house and cut it, in exchange for some bartered goods like a few slices of bacon or a dozen eggs, that kind of thing.

 

Sorry for what has become a kind of social history mini-rant. I'll go back to my armchair and cup of cocoa now.

[KNP]

Not a problem at all, Martin.

I have, and always will be open to constructive comments that point me in the right direction. 

 

This building was one of the very first I built, nearly 10 years ago now, for the then unnamed Little Muddle and used a lot of the Scalescenes items as printed.

At the time it served it's purpose but as Little Muddle evolved and things refined themselves into the layout as it now this building is beginning to look out of place.

The brick paper has faded because I used compatible printer cartridges and they don't appear as colour fast and stable as the manufacturers ones so I feel a change is needed to update in a retro way this model.

Plus - I have used metal kegs in the pub yard so it definitely has to change!!

 

Though I agree to most of what you posted I do have old photographs of shops/pubs sporting, in came cases, covered in signs but then in rural areas this would not be the case as you have pointed out.

 

The back gardens for the latest row of cottages has this very morning recommenced so once they are finished then perhaps you have identified my next project!!!

 

Enjoy your cup of cocoa.....

 

 

[Martin S-C]

I did litter my mini-rant with several "generallys", "oftens" and "in some cases". You will always find exceptions to what was customary practice but they will be exceptions and I think its better of we model what was the norm, rather than the exception.

I see that from its backscene Little Muddle is suggested as quite a large town and the larger the community, the less socially close knit parts would be. Therefore more signage would appear, especially if there were actual shopping and business districts. Pendon Parva depicts a small village and my comments really apply to these smaller settlements.

[BWsTrains]

On 07/06/2019 at 23:43, KNP said:

Just a picture to calm things down.

 

 

Not a platform trolley, or cat come to that, in sight!

Kevin,

 

I'm no way an expert on this topic but those handrails on the Autocoach door look wrong being fitted outside the door-frame. The photo below shows handles attached to the sides of the door recess. I think it looks similar to yours in other respects . Presumably the mounting holes in the door surface are a Hornby compromise to get handrail positioning broadly correct i.e. aligned inside the door frame.

 

see also final photo in this post

 

 

Colin

 

  

Edited June 11, 2019 by BWsTrains
fix formating and add link

[Mick Bonwick]

Handrail, shop sign or trolley, the modelling is certainly good enough to entertain and impress me. Keep 'em coming, Kevin.

[KNP]

1 hour ago, Martin S-C said:

I did litter my mini-rant with several "generallys", "oftens" and "in some cases". You will always find exceptions to what was customary practice but they will be exceptions and I think its better of we model what was the norm, rather than the exception.

I see that from its backscene Little Muddle is suggested as quite a large town and the larger the community, the less socially close knit parts would be. Therefore more signage would appear, especially if there were actual shopping and business districts. Pendon Parva depicts a small village and my comments really apply to these smaller settlements.

 

I now look at that backscene and wish I had not added so many layers. Should have left it as one row of buildings then trees etc.

You never know, it might all change as the buildings are removable so it's easy to get at....

Another project???

[KNP]

On 11/06/2019 at 13:56, BWsTrains said:

Kevin,

 

I'm no way an expert on this topic but those handrails on the Autocoach door look wrong being fitted outside the door-frame. The photo below shows handles attached to the sides of the door recess. I think it looks similar to yours in other respects . Presumably the mounting holes in the door surface are a Hornby compromise to get handrail positioning broadly correct i.e. aligned inside the door frame.

 

Colin

 

Mine is a sort of compromise

 

This is a rather old Airfix model updated with the Dart Castings autocoach kit.

The steps where made by me from the bits supplied in the kit, if you want to get frustrated and ready to quit this hobby I suggest you have a try at building a pair of these - I jus couldn't get them square.

I can be quite patient but these tried it to the limit until I fabricated an assembly jig which helped no end.

The instructions are filed somewhere very safe!!! but from memory this was how Dart suggested they where fitted - I think.

 

 

 

I will say by the time I had made them, fitting became a sort of  - there that'll do - frame of mind approach.....just to get rid of them and move on.

 

They could not fit where Airfix had put them originally, see holes, as the door would never have opened so this was what I was happy with this option at the time.

 

More important I do believe I will have to remove the GWR and replace it with something more appropriate for my 1935/6 era.

 

 

Edited March 23 by KNP

[Tony Teague]

52 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said:

Handrail, shop sign or trolley, the modelling is certainly good enough to entertain and impress me. Keep 'em coming, Kevin.

 

Quite agree; it's always possible to find room to improve the finest model but there are few layouts where the quality is higher than that of Little Muddle - it remains for me, something to aspire to!

 

Tony

[KNP]

Following on from my comments about the many buildings on the backscene after I did it I felt it made Little Muddle look more like a city, I then remembered I had done a bit of work on this so I have dug out my efforts a while back.

 

Here is the current version

 

 

Here is was my quick effort on Affinity 

 

 

I'm not saying this is possible as the scene is made up of umpteen layers starting at the back but you never know....

 

 

 

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, KNP said:

 

Colin

 

Mine is a sort of compromise

 

This is a rather old Airfix model updated with the Dart Castings autocoach kit.

The steps where made by me from the bits supplied in the kit, if you want to get frustrated and ready to quit this hobby I suggest you have a try at building a pair of these - I jus couldn't get them square.

I can be quite patient but these tried it to the limit until I fabricated an assembly jig which helped no end.

The instructions are filed somewhere very safe!!! but from memory this was how Dart suggested they where fitted - I think.

 

 

I will say by the time I had made them, fitting became a sort of  - there that'll do - frame of mind approach.....just to get rid of them and move on.

 

They could not fit where Airfix had put them originally, see holes, as the door would never have opened so this was what I was happy with this option at the time.

 

More important I do believe I will have to remove the GWR and replace it with something more appropriate for my 1935/6 era.

 

 

As 2 of mine have lost their handrails, and a third, a K’s kit A31, has them in a seriously dodgy position, I’m again not in a position to criticise your effort, Kevin.  It looks quite acceptable to me!  I would comment, however, that these handrails were not fixed in place, but folded out with the footsteps for access from low level platforms.  A lever in the vestibule was operated by the guard to extend the steps, which, with the folding handrails made a proper staircase.  A similar, in fact I believe identical but would not state that to be a fact, arrangement was used on GW inspection saloons. 

 

The steps, with handrails, have to be retracted and locked in place before the train moves, of course, as the coach would be out of loading gauge otherwise.  Sooner or later someone will produce an auto trailer that can deploy it’s steps as a DCC option...