Kings Cross Suburban

[Guest]

No, no, it's definitely "Kings Cross Suburban".

 

Although...

 

No, really...

[Guest]

Whose daft idea was it to try and create the timber platforms from individually sanded, painted and weathered strips of styrene? I think it was mine and I'm an idiot. It is taking an unbelievably long time. I guess when it's finished, I'll know if it was worth it. I've done about two thirds of one platform. I still have the platform that climbs up from Hotel Curve tunnel to do. I thought I'd better take a few pictures in case anyone thought I'd got bored and given up...

 

[5BarVT]

However, it also looks unbelievably good. I don’t think you would get as good a finish any other way.

Paul.

[sb67]

That looks stunning Pete, well done.

Steve.

[Rich Papper]

Absolutely brilliant, well done. And flatter and better looking than any wooden floor I've ever laid!

 

Rich

[russ p]

Fantastic Pete, you has some patience mate!

[Mike Storey]

It looks totally convincing, and extraordinary skill there. What made you do it that way, instead of say, narrow lollipop sticks or similar?

[Guest]

What made you do it that way, instead of say, narrow lollipop sticks or similar?

 

About 18 months ago while browsing online (as you do), I discovered an Evergreen styrene stockist that was clearing out the 100 piece bulk bags of strip styrene. Normally you get around 8 strips for a fiver which is stupidly expensive but they were asking £12.99 for the bulk bag. Not having any idea what I'd do with them, I bought them 'cos I like a bargain!

Over on the prototype Kings Cross Suburban thread, we managed to work out that the plank width was about 9" and by happy coincidence, I'd bought the 3.2mm wide strips. Being just 1mm thick, they bend quite happily around the slight curve of the platform. I reckon by the time I'm done, I'll have used about 800 little planks which really hasn't cost much (except time).

What I've done is to take a single 14" strip, hold it at one end and make a few rough passes with 80 grit sandpaper along its length. The "grain" is then too deep and irregular, so another few passes with 240 grit emery paper softens it all up. It's cut into various lengths with a guillotine and batch-painted about 40 pieces at a time.

If I'm honest, it looks a little too perfect, so I'm tempted to done down the colours a little. At the moment, I think it looks like one of those posh hardwood floors in an Ideal Home magazine. Colour photos of the original are few and far between, but I can imagine it weathering down to a driftwood grey over time, rather than different shades of brown. If I have any strips left over, I'll create a test piece and try some pale weathering powders on it before doing the whole thing in case I ruin it.

 

I'll try and get some more done this week but next Tuesday I'm braving the chaos of Stansted Airport for a week of sun (hopefully), sea (definitely) and San Miguel (other beers are available).

Edited May 15, 2018 by Pete 75C

[jamie92208]

That's a very interesting explanation Pete. The graining method is good.  I'm interested in your colours as you mention the colour of weathered wood as driftwood grey. Do you know if anyone produces a paint in that colour or do you have to mix one.  I find it a very hard colour to reproduce.

 

I hope you enjoy your holiday.

 

Jamie

[Guest]

I'm interested in your colours as you mention the colour of weathered wood as driftwood grey. Do you know if anyone produces a paint in that colour or do you have to mix one.  I find it a very hard colour to reproduce.

 

The thought had occurred to me to use a grey primer spray and then tone it down a little with white weathering powders. I think that would give the "driftwood" effect. I don't know of any off the shelf paints - that was all I could think of. Problem is, although there aren't many colour photos around showing the planked surface, this one...

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/geeceesfotts/30920323873/

 

...shows that there is definitely some wood tones there, and that it's not all a uniform grey colour. I'm not going to get too hung up on this, but I think it will need a wash of something to blend everything in as it's all looking rather "new".

Edited May 15, 2018 by Pete 75C

[caradoc]

That does look good and will repay the huge effort you have put into this great project.

[chris p bacon]

If I'm honest, it looks a little too perfect, so I'm tempted to done down the colours a little. 

 

 

 

aaah, but if you were to model the pre-grouping era of the GN then it would look like new.

 

 

Just saying. . . 

[uax6]

But would they fade to driftwood grey? I would guess that they would have been pressure creosoted in much the same way as sleepers, and then having had best part of 70 years of dirty boots walk up and down them, plus probably re-treatment at some point, they would probably be still quite dark...

 

Andy G

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

If my memory hasn't failed me, I think you'll find the platform was a lightish grey towards the front of the platform (were everyone walked) and a darker grey were nobody walked, because the back half of the platform was littered with broken 'BRUTES',trolleys, packing case's, sack barrows. station seats (broken) and any thing else that you can think of, Oh and old grey lockers and desks.

 

manna

[Guest]

...aaah, but if you were to model the pre-grouping era of the GN then it would look like new.

 

Just saying. . . 

 

I know what you're up to... you just want me to run one of those funny GNR steam things. No chance.

 

 

By the way, why is it purple???

[colin penfold]

Purple is the royal colour. Suitable for Kings, cross or otherwise

[Mike Storey]

G'Day Folks

 

If my memory hasn't failed me, I think you'll find the platform was a lightish grey towards the front of the platform (were everyone walked) and a darker grey were nobody walked, because the back half of the platform was littered with broken 'BRUTES',trolleys, packing case's, sack barrows. station seats (broken) and any thing else that you can think of, Oh and old grey lockers and desks.

 

manna

 

That's my recollection too.

[caradoc]

Purple is the royal colour. Suitable for Kings, cross or otherwise

 

And for Royal Wedding special editions !

[Guest]

I'm two thirds of the way down the Hotel Curve platform with the planking. It's all been complicated somewhat by me wanting to add a short flight of steps connecting the two platforms. The planks have to go neatly around the steps due to the incline. Cue much cutting and cursing. Wanting to have a bit of a break from all that, I decided to have a go at reproducing the distinctive (and not commercially available) lamps that could be seen dotted about the place, particularly on Platforms 14/15. As these platforms will have a partial canopy, thankfully I only need two or three.

 

This is the original lamp type...

 

 

...and I couldn't find anything like it. The hoop surrounding the lamp proved a problem. Eventually I found something similar in HO scale by Auhagen but the base was all wrong (round instead of tapered and too plain). How hard could it be to marry the lamp head to a more ornate base? Actually, not very! All I need to do now is experiment to get the colour correct.

 

 

Auhagen lamp on the left. Donor lamp base in the middle, Frankenlamp on the right, sprayed in primer.

 

Edit: I know the lamp head isn't exactly like the original, but it will do for me.

Edited May 17, 2018 by Pete 75C

[colin penfold]

I love the frankenlamp!

 

Here's an archive photo of Pete testing them for the first time

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

I love the frankenlamp!

 

Here's an archive photo of Pete testing them for the first time

 

colin-clive-as-dr-frankenstein-and-dwight-frye-as-his-assistant-fritz-picture-id517324292.jpg

 

It must be an old archive, he's got hair!!!

 

Mike.

Beers on me Pete?

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

... you just want me to run one of those funny GNR steam things...

 Call the layout 'Big Met' instead. They deserve a memorial. Neither BR nor the various diesel traction designers found a better loco for the task, it needed electrification to finally exceed what these made possible on the inner sub for near forty years.

 

All I heard was Hitchin and Stevenage. You can't really go wrong with those...

 A friend longtime in the Met thought the KXsub provided the ultimate variety in an hour. You departed from a sink of filth and iniquity, worthy of the darkest film noir, and after some fumbling about in dark and dirty tunnels suddenly find yourself in a mix of attractive countryside and small towns. Then comes Poland, awash in concrete brutalist architecture, and right next door a traditional market town that feels like Northern France, and following half an hour through pleasant prospects of agriculture arrive at an ancient university city, that's a very salubrious version of the late middle ages.

[Guest]

It must be an old archive, he's got hair!!!

 

Mike.

Beers on me Pete?

 

There are wig shops in Norfolk, Mike. Some of them are so good these days, you can hardly tell.

 

 

San Miguel por favor.

[caradoc]

 Call the layout 'Big Met' instead. They deserve a memorial. Neither BR nor the various diesel traction designers found a better loco for the task, it needed electrification to finally exceed what these made possible on the inner sub for near forty years.

 

 A friend longtime in the Met thought the KXsub provided the ultimate variety in an hour. You departed from a sink of filth and iniquity, worthy of the darkest film noir, and after some fumbling about in dark and dirty tunnels suddenly find yourself in a mix of attractive countryside and small towns. Then comes Poland, awash in concrete brutalist architecture, and right next door a traditional market town that feels like Northern France, and following half an hour through pleasant prospects of agriculture arrive at an ancient university city, that's a very salubrious version of the late middle ages.

 

I didn't know trains from Kings Cross went to Oxford ?!

[Guest]

I didn't know trains from Kings Cross went to Oxford ?!

 

I once arrived at Oxford station to catch a London train and discovered they were filming an episode of Morse on the opposite platform.

I also recall blundering into shot during the filming of an episode of The Bill in Croydon.

I've stayed at the same resort hotel as Bill Oddie in the 70s and remember asking him where the other Goodies were...

I've shared a flight back from Alicante with Nathan Bryon and Tony Maudsley.

 

Sorry, I'm done now.

 

Going back to Kings Cross (but not on the Oxford train), I've picked up a couple of Bachmann Mk1 suburbans in Maroon from a local junk model shop. I've already got some blue ones, but it would be nice to backdate once in a while. The maroon coaches I have are unlined with an "M" prefix, so need renumbered, flushglazed, little people with severed legs added etc etc. I've just realised that the latest releases of these Bachmann coaches are lined. To be correct, would I need to add lining or would unlined maroon suburban stock have been seen at Kings Cross? It's becoming rather obvious that I know naff-all about coaching stock... The photos I've seen online from that era tend to focus on the loco and it's rather difficult to tell.