Langford Lane & Marlingford - GWR 1940s Oxfordshire

[The Great Bear]

I've started adding the earthworks and also thought I'd better try getting a back scene to work. I have got some backscenes from ID Backscenes - they mirrored the stock image so that the series of images suited my layout better at no extra cost and very speedy service.

(Edit - correct image attached)
The images need dropping around 4cm to get horizon line right I think and remove some of the foreground, which looks too large. The overhead power line is not great, perhaps not appropriate for a 1940s layout or is it? At least it's not some massive plylon.


Idea is that the road heads for the something that's a gap in the trees and not houses! I'm not convinced either that the style of houses could be 1930s, probably 1950s but look passible I think as long as one doesn't look at the double glazed windows.


An overview of the mess!

For a readily available backscene I think this is likely as good as I am going to get? I did think about taking photos myself of the real location, but it's changed so much since when the layout was set I believe there's no advantgae in doing that.

More experimentation, tweaking needed but looking promising, I think? Any comments/suggestions welcome: this is somethign I'd shyed away from but think better to address now before get too far along with the scenery.

Thanks

Jon

Edited November 13, 2013 by The Great Bear

[The Stationmaster]

Looks good Jon but I think those houses have a distinctly 1950s/early '60s air about them but it would help to see a close-up of them.

[The Great Bear]

Looks good Jon but I think those houses have a distinctly 1950s/early '60s air about them but it would help to see a close-up of them.

 

Thanks, Mike. Close ups:

 

 

 

Suspect too that these ones are post war but Google image search of 1930s UK council houses suggests overall shape with hipped roof not implausible.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=1930s+uk+council+houses&client=firefox-a&hs=6RH&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Y7WEUuGbCIeshQetyIGIBA&ved=0CDQQsAQ&biw=1482&

bih=997

 

 

(Having said that, amazing what else those key words throws up)

 

The further sheets in the series of this backscene do have distinctly older housing stock on them and I'll need at least one more sheet to complete scene behind the up side of the station

[gazmanjack]

Hi Jon,

 

That mess on the layout (post 153) looks all too common..! It always makes me wonder how we can get layouts completed and what happens to all the 'stuff' when we're done...?? 

 

Cheers, Gary.

[The Stationmaster]

Thanks, Mike. Close ups:

 

 

 

Suspect too that these ones are post war but Google image search of 1930s UK council houses suggests overall shape with hipped roof not implausible.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=1930s+uk+council+houses&client=firefox-a&hs=6RH&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Y7WEUuGbCIeshQetyIGIBA&ved=0CDQQsAQ&biw=1482&

bih=997

 

 

(Having said that, amazing what else those key words throws up)

 

The further sheets in the series of this backscene do have distinctly older housing stock on them and I'll need at least one more sheet to complete scene behind the up side of the station

 

Jon, I suspect the big 'spoiler' is the overly obvious white window frames and very clean looking (probably LBC) bricks.  As you say the overall hip-roofed shape is perfectly ok for pre-war buildings (probably housing trust although private dwelling on larger semis.  But I'm not sure how you can tone down that obvious whiteness - any ideas?

[The Great Bear]

Jon, I suspect the big 'spoiler' is the overly obvious white window frames and very clean looking (probably LBC) bricks.  As you say the overall hip-roofed shape is perfectly ok for pre-war buildings (probably housing trust although private dwelling on larger semis.  But I'm not sure how you can tone down that obvious whiteness - any ideas?

Weathering the backscene; maybe use of soft pencil, graphite smeared by brush, finger? I am guessing I should be sealing the backscene print with matt varnish to protect it, will search for that one. Better to do that before experimenting on how to mess it up a bit.

[28XX]

Add more glazing bars to what appear to be Magnet & Southern 1965 - on windows to back date them to '30's.

[Ben Alder]

Weathering the backscene; maybe use of soft pencil, graphite smeared by brush, finger? I am guessing I should be sealing the backscene print with matt varnish to protect it, will search for that one. Better to do that before experimenting on how to mess it up a bit.

Test on  a spare piece before trying anything- the paper is very easily scuffed/ marked, as I have found out- methinks I should have done something about sealing it before I stuck it down. I see they have a self adhesive  version on polypropolene out now- I wonder how more robust this might be. As an aside, I fixed mine with Spray mount, a chancy operation, but the last piece I used was put on a self adhesive mount board, passed through a set of cold laminating rollers, and this has worked well- something I might use again if I need to replace any in years to come.

[The Great Bear]

Hi Jon,

 

That mess on the layout (post 153) looks all too common..! It always makes me wonder how we can get layouts completed and what happens to all the 'stuff' when we're done...?? 

 

Cheers, Gary

 

Yes, the "stuff". That's what the house is for.

[The Great Bear]

Still experimenting with the backscene: here it is dropped by a few cm. An improvement I
 

 
 
The bit by the station, some "bushes" will help things I think.

 
Now, this is the bit that really doesn't work with the backscene. There is space betweent the track and the backcene here, the flat bit at the top of the slope. Original idea was to put a farmhouse or somethig there but there isn't enough room but the flat bit doesn't work when looked at from any elevated viewpoint. Ideas to fix this are either I get rid of the cutting here so just have a field leading into the photo (but this then varies from my prototype and getting colour of grass to match backscene) or I bring the board closer to the tack and keep the cutting. I am inclined to do the latter.
 

 
The "stuff" has been cleared enough to get some trains running

 

 
 
 All bits seems to there with my Star but sits a little high at the front (only now noticed, hopefully can be coaxed down?)

 
The backplate detail is exquisite, the phantom crew help one see that

 

Thanks for looking and any thoughts welcome

 

Jon

[28XX]

That 11kV overhead line has got to go (IMHO).

[David C]

My inclination (for what its worth) would be to keep the cutting and stick a hedge along the top interspersed with lots of trees. For the 1950s houses and overhead power lines, you could also cut and paste photos of other buildings onto the backscene to mask what you don't want. You can again use trees as view blockers to break up the edges and hide any odd perspectives.

 

Useful things are trees - and they really add to the scenery. Most layouts (mine included) don't have enough as a visit to almost any countryside reveals.

 

You've potentially got a very nice layout there.

 

David C

[The Great Bear]

That 11kV overhead line has got to go (IMHO).

My inclination (for what its worth) would be to keep the cutting and stick a hedge along the top interspersed with lots of trees. For the 1950s houses and overhead power lines, you could also cut and paste photos of other buildings onto the backscene to mask what you don't want. You can again use trees as view blockers to break up the edges and hide any odd perspectives.

 

Useful things are trees - and they really add to the scenery. Most layouts (mine included) don't have enough as a visit to almost any countryside reveals.

 

You've potentially got a very nice layout there.

 

David C

Thanks, both.

 

The overhead line is a lot more obvious than I'd like. It was suggested elsewhere that there might have been such things in the 1940s but doesn't feel right. Also the houses if one looks close enough you can see satellite dishes.

 

Trees can hide some things, but the cables for the power line are pretty clear.

 

Also I think that the details in the backscene are all a bit too big, maybe by a quarter or so. Also the backscene is very clear the details perhaps detract from what's in front; the colours are bright and clear; reducing saturation and reducing it's clarity I think might help the overall effect.

 

Question is, how? I have access to an A0 colour plotter and have a DSLR and Photoshop & Lightroom. I'm wondering whether I could take picture of what I have then edit and re-print. What I'm not sure about is whether doing this to a purchased product is kosher even if it's for my own use?

 

Any thoughts welcome...

 

Jon

Edited November 20, 2013 by The Great Bear

[The Great Bear]

I've been doing some more experimenting witht the backscene on the lines of the above post, having checked if the supplier objected. This experimentation also gives me an excuse to post gratutitous images of real hunk

 

(Again think need to take off body and re-fix it, looking at this, my doing in fitting the decoder.)

 

 

Possibly I've overdone reducting the colour saturation and the haze effect, but I think it looks promising. Compared with the photos of the Star, the background being more subtle I think puts more focus on what's infront (?) and it better matches the colour of the cheaper option for the grass to the cutting slopes. A side effect is the power line is a lot less prominent - though with a bit of care I should be able to remove it in Photoshop anyway.

 

Any further comments welcome.

 

Cheers

 

Jon

[The Great Bear]

Jon, I suspect the big 'spoiler' is the overly obvious white window frames and very clean looking (probably LBC) bricks.  As you say the overall hip-roofed shape is perfectly ok for pre-war buildings (probably housing trust although private dwelling on larger semis.  But I'm not sure how you can tone down that obvious whiteness - any ideas?

 

Add more glazing bars to what appear to be Magnet & Southern 1965 - on windows to back date them to '30's.

 

 

I'm not very adept at Photoshop but think the result of some playing in Photoshop is a bit less modern?

[The Great Bear]

I've been doing more experimenting with the backscene. To date I've been a "that will do" modeller, but given this is going to be fixed and a pain to change I'm being a bit more cautious.

 

As shown in photos before, I didn't like the flat area at the top of the cutting near the signalbox, didn't think when I placed the backscene board, not big enough to do anything with and from some angles looked weird to me. So I've unscrewed the backscene board and tried two alternatives:

1) Move the board closer so the backscene is where the railway fence will be to make this interface easier (and consistent). This does leave a large area of "wasted" baseboard behind:

 

so then tried

2) Move the backscene into the corner and put something at the top of the cutting:

Did originally think about putting a whole farm there but thought that was unlikely railway line being so close to the farm itself? So perhaps just a barn - in the middle of nowhere. No such thing in this location at the real location, but I'm going to depart in other areas so what the heck.

I played around with the height of the cutting, reducing it until the barn looked ok in relation to the horizon to me.



I'm not convinced about this yet, but does seem a shame to waste this bit of real estate. Your views welcome, as always.

More on the backscene in a while...

Cheers

Jon
 

[The Great Bear]

Mind you the Victorians didn't flinch at putting their line next to a church just up the line at Hampton Gay

 

Don't think I'll model that though 1) Think a church next to the line is erring toward cliche and 2) Not good omens, rail related and otherwise with that site

[artizen]

The curved backscene looks better to me. It follows the eye as you watch the train around the curve.

 

Looking at the photos, I assume you don't need access to the window at all?

[The Great Bear]

The curved backscene looks better to me. It follows the eye as you watch the train around the curve.

Thanks Ian, interested to hear that view

 

Looking at the photos, I assume you don't need access to the window at all?

No, no access required - I haven't cleaned the ones in the house for 5 years so suppose the shed shouldn't get special treatment

[The Great Bear]

Thanks Ian, interested to hear that view

 

 

A benefit of the the first option would of course be less to do, less distraction from getting on with modelling the railway. The plan, kind of, being start on outside, work in from that.

 

Also think the barn in the background detracts from the setting of the signal box?

Edited November 30, 2013 by The Great Bear

[The Great Bear]

A couple of shots of lastest idea around the station, horizon line dropped a bit.

 

The road going to the backscene I think will end up looking not too bad.

 

The supplied backscene had large run of terraced houses, would have looked ok but on reflection not so fitting for my layout locale, a village not that built up at the time of the layout. So I've edited the backscene in photoshop, a lot of cutting and pasting and use of the clone stamp tool. Needs a bit of finessing but the concept I'm happy with. I've also added the Stationmaster's house. In reality it was the other side of the shelter near the road but that doesn't fit. Seeing as I can get it in here I'd rather have bend reality rather than trying to have it on the backscene or low relief and it look strange from oblique angles. Bit of a way from the road, but why would he need road transport with the railway on his doorstep!

 

This bit's getting there, I think.

 

Jon

 

 

 

 

 

[The Great Bear]

Inspired by Ben Alder's work on The Far North Line I have had a test at adding cosmetic chairs to Peco points as he details http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/75560-cosmetic-alterations-to-peco-code-75-points/

 

Wisely, as it turns out, I picked a point out of the scenic section to try this on.

 

My initial impression of the result was not good, the camera is most unkind (and this was the best bit)

The poor ballasting of this particular point doesn't help the overall effect nor does forgetting to hoover up excess strands of hanging basket liner.

 

A new day and painting the chairs and re-painting the rails has helped a bit, from side on it doesn't look too bad now

 

However end on it shows the problem I had in getting consistency in the location of the cut chairs.

 

More care needed! I found it helped using a thicker superglue so the chairs didn't have a tendency to move too far when being finessed into place. As you can see, however I struggled because the chair would touch the bottom flange of the rail whilst top of it would be some distance from the web of the rail.

 

More practise and experimentation needed on another out of the way point before committing to the time to do this to all 15 or so points on the layout. A lot of patience will be required; a good job to do listening to some tunes.

 

Thanks for the interest

 

Jon

Edited December 2, 2013 by The Great Bear

[Ben Alder]

Mine are a bit rough and ready in places as well, but careful trimming of the chair sorts a lot of it out- make sure and use the inside of the  chair on the outside of the point- the C&L outer one is too tall ....I have added a couple of photos to my original topic showing this.....

[The Great Bear]

Mine are a bit rough and ready in places as well, but careful trimming of the chair sorts a lot of it out- make sure and use the inside of the  chair on the outside of the point- the C&L outer one is too tall ....I have added a couple of photos to my original topic showing this.....

 

Many thanks, thought the way I'd cut the chairs was too easy! It now makes sense with the pics in the other thread. (Thanks for the reminder about the chairs to use, I did remember to do that although from my initial results I'll admit that isn't obvious!) I will try another point to see if I can get the hang of it.

 

Cheers

 

Jon

 

PS - anyone else reading, please look at Ben Alder's fine work to see how this should end up looking before casting judgement!

[The Great Bear]

Doing some modelling of the station area is edging closer: with the help of information provided by Castle I've now got a CAD drawing of the former station building at Heyford, the one for Kidlington is basically the same.

 

I am now finalising a similar drawing for the shelter on the up platform.