Toto, we're not in Metcalfeshire any more!

[hayfield]

13 hours ago, MrWolf said:

It is difficult to maintain consistency with anything creative as we learn and grow and as products and materials change. I've found that over the last three years. I don't know how a project such as Pendon manage after seventy years.

 

 

Its not only changing model makers buy modelling materials and processes/methods etc

 

However they (Pendon) were demonstrating at Scalefourm this year. They were using the same building methods that they were using 50 years ago. Plywood box, with eggcrate lattice work and cardboard buildings which drop into building footprint holes. The method is exactly the same as I saw when I first visited Pendon 50 years ago, as are the standards.

 

No doubt materials have changed slightly over time, and perhaps some of the newer processes are included.

 

From my understanding the Dartmoor scene was built to EM 18mm standards, the Vale is built to 18.2 gauge

[ianathompson]

11 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Perhaps someone with closer connections to Pendon could confirm, but I imagine that they make a lot of reference to Roye England's notes on construction, which IIRC were serialised in the Model Railway Constructor back in the early eighties.

 

These were also reproduced as a book.

 

Back to the Scottish buildings.

As someone with a soft spot for the GNoSR (and a closet Deveronvale fan to boot!) they are fantastic and really capture the area.

I did reproduce the rose tinted stone effect for my N gauge layout, based on the GNoSR reaching Inverness, but I have now forgotten quite how I did it!

 

Ian T

 

[MrWolf]

Had I the space to do it justice as well as the time and funds I have always fancied building a GNoSR or HR branch line, because I like the the rolling stock and mostly because the landscape and vernacular architecture would be a fantastic challenge to get right.

[brylonscamel]

On 19/10/2023 at 12:39, MrWolf said:

 .. mostly because the landscape and vernacular architecture would be a fantastic challenge to get right

 

a challenge I'm currently wrestling with!

 

I've basically scattered Dad's layout with bits of GNoSR and Caledonian railway architecture, plus some Aberdeenshire vernacular. I held to a promise that my revamp kept the baseboards and roundy-roundy trackwork that Dad had established.

 

Each scene on the layout has some pretty accurate reproductions of buildings but tied together in the manner of a TV drama. I live in a city which hosted all the locations for 'Casualty'. A fun part of watching any episode was to work out where you were as they jumped from scene to scene on roads that had no connection in reality!

 

 

[46444]

On 16/10/2023 at 19:08, brylonscamel said:

 

The paintwork has hopefully conjured up the flavour of the stone and the appearance of the buildings that were inspiration for the model.

 

 

I love the pinkish colour of some Aberdeenshire granite. This is typical of the area (Aboyne) and may have been sourced from quarries at Kemnay.

 

The Glantanar name is true to the area, if not the actual hotel. The Glentanar estate is a huge chunk of land at Abyne.

For us, it has a personal connection as Dad worked at the Glentanar Bar in Aberdeen as a youth. It proved quite an experience for a man educated privately at Robert Gordon's School.

His education behind the bar introduced a few choice phrases to his vocabulary! The side door to the bar fixes the connection nicely.

 

The 'wee shopy' at the end was my idea and Dad asked that we name the shop after a relative who ran a small store in Aberdeen. Dad was always amused at the original sign, which was laid out oddly and read "General H. McIntyre Merchant". We suspect that locals would have called him "General McIntryre" as a joke!

 

 

When I was up in Aboyne a month ago having cycled from Ballater, the Huntly Hotel was being either refurbished or repurposed.

 

Very nicely done and certainly captures the look of the real building.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark 

[brylonscamel]

There is quite a lot of 'Aboyne' included in the station and harbourside scenes.  Not least, the station building itself!

 

I have just resurrected the harbour branch, the access to which, passes in front of the main building.

 

The ballasting, retaining wall and groundwork should conceal the clunky Peco Code 100 trackwork - another legacy from Dad's original layout

 

 

 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by brylonscamel

[46444]

57 minutes ago, brylonscamel said:

There is quite a lot of 'Aboyne' included in the station and harbourside scenes.  Not least, the station building itself!

 

I have just resurrected the harbour branch, the access to which, passes in front of the main building.

 

The ballasting, retaining wall and groundwork should conceal the clunky Peco Code 100 trackwork - another legacy from Dad's original layout

 

 

 

Wonderful modelling.

 

Now home of the Spider on a Bicycle Cafe. Well worth a visit...

 

 

[46444]

Cambus o'May Station always looks fascinating in between Aboyne and Ballater. 

 

 

[brylonscamel]

1 hour ago, 46444 said:

Cambus o'May Station always looks fascinating in between Aboyne and Ballater. 

Oh that's a very romantic spot for a model railway.

 

It also caught my eye as it has a lovely sweeping curve alongside the river Dee

[brylonscamel]

You could also incorporate:

 

The elegant footbridge

 

The cut-off cottage - a ferry inn that famously lost it's corner when the railway cut its route through the valley

 

The local sawmill, tucked away in the woodland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[brylonscamel]

There's abeen a bit of a rethink on the quayside at Braeside harbour. The newly built hotel - based on the Huntly Arms - has always been dragged from it's inland setting to provide some architectural interest on the harbourside. This meant some head-scratching and re-plonking of buidings.

 

The fish dock has moved to allow the goods shed and the hotel to take up residence amongst the harbour tramway.

 

Thre's a risk that I am keen to avoid - a congested scene amongst some fairly open scenic areas - but it does appeal to me and has a bustle that  you can find on a small working harbour.

 

[AJCT]

On 16/10/2023 at 19:08, brylonscamel said:

 

The paintwork has hopefully conjured up the flavour of the stone and the appearance of the buildings that were inspiration for the model.

 

 

I love the pinkish colour of some Aberdeenshire granite. This is typical of the area (Aboyne) and may have been sourced from quarries at Kemnay.

 

The Glantanar name is true to the area, if not the actual hotel. The Glentanar estate is a huge chunk of land at Abyne.

For us, it has a personal connection as Dad worked at the Glentanar Bar in Aberdeen as a youth. It proved quite an experience for a man educated privately at Robert Gordon's School.

His education behind the bar introduced a few choice phrases to his vocabulary! The side door to the bar fixes the connection nicely.

 

The 'wee shopy' at the end was my idea and Dad asked that we name the shop after a relative who ran a small store in Aberdeen. Dad was always amused at the original sign, which was laid out oddly and read "General H. McIntyre Merchant". We suspect that locals would have called him "General McIntryre" as a joke!

 

My late mum grew up in North Shields in the 1920s/30s and used to tell of a shop there which had the same issue, which suggests that this style of layout was not uncommon back then: it was "M.Robertson - Fancy Goods" but laid out as on your model, so they were known as "Fancy M.Robertson..."

 

Great modelling.

 

Alasdair

[brylonscamel]

17 hours ago, AJCT said:

My late mum grew up in North Shields in the 1920s/30s and used to tell of a shop there which had the same issue, which suggests that this style of layout was not uncommon back then: it was "M.Robertson - Fancy Goods" but laid out as on your model, so they were known as "Fancy M.Robertson..."

That's marvellous and sounds like a common layout for shop signs of the time.

Edited November 15, 2023 by brylonscamel

[brylonscamel]

THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE

I took a 12 day break at Christmas to see Dad, do festive things and crack on with making good on my promise to revamp his layout.

The phone was largely off, social apps stopped and forums neglected!

 

 

 

Edited January 4 by brylonscamel

[brylonscamel]

This thread started 4 years ago in the summer of 2019, after persuading my father to completely refresh our joint layout, 'Braeside'.

"Let's make it more 'Scottish" I said. "More obviously tied to Aberdeenshire and less crowded. I'll scratch-build everything and replace Metcalfe buildings with accurate local structures."
"How about a whisky distillery, a granite station with turrets like the one at Aboyne, a coaling stage based on a real Caledonian example at Ferryhill?"

 

It was supposed to take me a year to complete.

• Life threw balls at us, mostly curved ones. The pandemic tipped the world on it's head and mum died in the middle of it all.
• The project was far bigger than I realised and my skills were constantly tested.
• Everything took longer to make than I thought. A month could vanish, just researching a building.
• I worried about how long it would take and the risk of letting Dad down.
• Dad remained patient and supportive.
• Every Christmas holiday was an opportunity to make a small leap forward.
• Even when Coronavirus wrecked travel plans, I made things from home.

 

Christmas 2023 has seen us pass an important milestone.

The layout eclipses the old Metcalfey version, with it's muddle of kit buildings, clumsy scenery and grumpy trackwork.
PS I even overheard Dad talking to his sister on the phone, saying that he was no longer worried that he'd never live to see the completed layout!

Edited January 4 by brylonscamel

[brylonscamel]

Here's a photo as reminder of where I was at in the summer of 2019 ..

All the buildings were ripped off the baseboards, large sections of track removed or replaced.  

 

[brylonscamel]

The same photo of the baseboards,annotated to indicate the site of each new scene.

 

[brylonscamel]

HARBOUR - starting with the quayside, these photos show how each section looks after the '12 days of Christmas' challenge!

 

 

Edited January 4 by brylonscamel

[brylonscamel]

STATION BUILDINGS 

 

[brylonscamel]

STATION GARAGE & LEVEL CROSSING

 

Edited January 4 by brylonscamel

[brylonscamel]

FARM

 

Edited January 4 by brylonscamel

[brylonscamel]

DISTILLERY

Edited January 4 by brylonscamel

[brylonscamel]

SIGNAL BOX

[John Besley]

Just found your topic... stunning stuff, keep up the good work

[brylonscamel]

ENGINE SHED & COAL STAGE