Life in a Northern Town

[Re6/6]

Same here Neil. CK gave me his mag, me being a cheapskate!

[Neil]

The Yorkshireman in me approves of this. Happy Christmas chaps.

[Captain Kernow]

And a very Happy Christmas likewise from us at Kernow Towers!

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by Captain Kernow

[john new]

And Happy Christmas too from YMRS and the SLS. That branch line needs a brake van special! 

[Neil]

On 24/12/2021 at 10:37, john new said:

..... That branch line needs a brake van special! 

 

Funny you should say that, look what was on the workbench earlier this week.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by Neil

[Neil]

Now that the forum is back up and running and appears to be stable I thought it about time I started repopulating my posts with images that have been lost during the transfer. There's a lot to do but I'll nibble away whenever I have some spare time at the PC. It looks like images over a year old will gradually reappear so I've started at the most recent post and will work my way backwards. It's quite simple to do just by editing the posts with the missing pix; handily the blank images are named which makes working out what's what a whole deal simpler than it might have been. I'd urge all to try even if you only go back a page or so it'll make a whole lot more sense of the threads. Finally here's what I believe to be a fresh black and while image from Northern Town.

 

 

 

[john new]

21 hours ago, Neil said:

Now that the forum is back up and running and appears to be stable I thought it about time I started repopulating my posts with images that have been lost during the transfer. There's a lot to do but I'll nibble away whenever I have some spare time at the PC. It looks like images over a year old will gradually reappear so I've started at the most recent post and will work my way backwards. It's quite simple to do just by editing the posts with the missing pix; handily the blank images are named which makes working out what's what a whole deal simpler than it might have been. I'd urge all to try even if you only go back a page or so it'll make a whole lot more sense of the threads. Finally here's what I believe to be a fresh black and while image from Northern Town.

 

 

 

Sadly not visible Neil.

 

Edit: they are now.

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by john new

[Neil]

It looks like the reloaded photos have reappeared. If I get the chance I'll sort out some more later on.

[Guest Jack Benson]

Neil,

 

Sorry to trouble you, is the vehicle btm rht, in the brake van selection, a continental item? I am no expert on BR and NE stuff, hence my query.

 

StaySafe

[Neil]

No trouble at all, it's an Italian guards/baggage van hacked from a Piko German? model. Directly above it is a Jouef SNCF guards van.

[Neil]

Over winter, the garage where Northern Town lives is an unappealing place to linger; the result has been that it became a bit of a dumping ground. However this weekend I've got stuck in to the mother of all tidy ups. I've dusted, brushed and hoovered too. Now while there are no new layout developments to mention I thought I'd take a couple of photos of a couple of Hornby horrors that I've spent a few months re-working over the colder parts of the year. The carriages are new too being hacked from Tomy Thomas toys on altered GWR toad chassis. No proper trains were hurt in the making of this lot.

 

 

 

 

[Ben B]

2 hours ago, Neil said:

Over winter, the garage where Northern Town lives is an unappealing place to linger; the result has been that it became a bit of a dumping ground. However this weekend I've got stuck in to the mother of all tidy ups. I've dusted, brushed and hoovered too. Now while there are no new layout developments to mention I thought I'd take a couple of photos of a couple of Hornby horrors that I've spent a few months re-working over the colder parts of the year. The carriages are new too being hacked from Tomy Thomas toys on altered GWR toad chassis. No proper trains were hurt in the making of this lot.

 

 

 

 

 

I remember being impressed when you hacked and slashed some of those Tomy Thomas carriages back in 009 many years ago (ngrm online?), they look just as good as the basis for 00 light-railway stock too!

[Neil]

Now that the garage is a more pleasant place to be I've managed to link up the bottom loop of the light railway and scrapyard siding with the BR yard.  Here a couple of empties for the scrapyard have been collected by the light railway's Peckett.

 

 

After arriving at the bottom loop, they're shunted onto the fulls ....

 

 

.... the whole lot pulled into the loop where the fulls are left while the empties are pushed into the yard.

 

 

Once done the Peckett drops back onto the fulls and trundles them up the 1 in 25 incline to the BR yard where the pilot will eventually pick them up.

 

[Neil]

The next job, and one I've been putting off for a while, is the backscene. I need to tackle it now while I can still move buildings out of the way and before I tackle any groundworks so that I can lean on the bare baseboards in between the tracks. After a bit of sketching I transferred the ideas to cut down rolls of lining paper and after testing them out for size on the layout started to square them up with a ruler.

 

 

I'm going for simple blocked out shapes at the moment, I need them to be less detailed than the foreground stuff (this is where photographic backscenes fail) to give the idea of recession and distance. Here I've tried them out in place on the layout.

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

Since the last photos were taken I've pressed on with the backscene. I had originally intended to do simple colour blocked shapes for the buildings (limestone, brick, slate etc) and possibly some basic indication of doors and windows. However when I'd drawn out the skyline I thought I'd just block it all in with a smokey grey colour. Yesterday I took to the garage again to play trains, avoid all the purple nonsense on the telly and take some photos. Here they are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[5BarVT]

Like that.  It’s within my artistic skill set (I think).  And effective.

Paul.

[Ramblin Rich]

I do like that; as you say, an impressionistic approach not detracting from the modelled scene.

 

I remember Tony Hart doing something similar on TV many years ago, using successive layers of cutout silhouettes, with greaseproof paper over each layer to give a fading out effect. Using lighter shades of paint for the further away layers would work just as well.

[AY Mod]

Nice job Neil, I like the glimpses of the walls to stamp the location in.

 

The work of artist Maurice Wade is worth a look for inspiration in this style.

 

 

Much of his work features The Potteries in the 50s/60s and is quite dark in style but I love the industrial simplicity to it; no portraiture, no clichés and no pretence.

[Neil]

Many thanks for the kind comments, it's heartening to know that others 'get' what's going on. Thanks too Andy for the recommendation to take a look at Maurice Wade's work; it's very much my cup of tea, like you say a stark and simple beauty in the everyday.

[john new]

Personal view, but I think it is the way to go.

[Ramblin Rich]

I've been trying to remember where I've seen this kind if thing before. Finally came to me that it was @Barry Ten's "Cogirep" challenge layout from 2007 ish. Sadly can't find any images online now.

 

EDIT - found my pictures, see below

Edited June 4, 2022 by Ramblin Rich
see below

[Ramblin Rich]

Not wanting to compete with Neil's version, but I've dug out a few of my pictures from when Cogirep was at the Taunton SWAG meeting in 2010, showing how effective the silhouette backscene can be:

 

 

 

[Neil]

Thanks for the photos of Cogirep Rich. I've seen Al's lovely layout  a couple of times and admired the backscene treatment. It was partly this that led me to abandon my slightly more detailed approach for a simple one tone, colour block outline. I'm pushing it a bit further as for almost all of the length along the longest side of the layout there's no room for structures between track and backscene.

[Re6/6]

14 hours ago, Ramblin Rich said:

I've been trying to remember where I've seen this kind if thing before. Finally came to me that it was @Barry Ten's "Cogirep" challenge layout from 2007 ish. Sadly can't find any images online now.

I remember Al's 'Cogirep' . A fine layout. I was allowed to play with it once at a show!

[Neil]

On 05/06/2022 at 07:59, Re6/6 said:

I remember Al's 'Cogirep' . A fine layout. I was allowed to play with it once at a show!

 

It is indeed a brilliant evocation of an inner city site.

 

I had hoped to spend some more time on the layout itself but On Friday I took my A1 to a friends for a good long run. Unfortunately after a couple of circuits it tied the right hand side valve gear into knots. So yesterday I spent some time taking it apart and reassembling it. It took a while to fettle but I now know what went wrong. Here it is on test on the layout after being put back together.